Milos Island

While hanging out in Milos and waiting for some strong weather to pass, we hired a car for the day and toured the island.

Our first stop was the photogenic little fishing village of Klima. Although the Venus de Milo statue was discovered near here, it is actually the brightly coloured fishermen’s houses that draw the tourists. The famous boat houses, known as syrmata, are traditional two-storey homes carved into the rocks and sitting right on the water’s edge. The ground floor would be used for boat storage during the winter, and the first floor for living.

The big wooden doors, windows trims, stairs and balconies of these homes are all painted in a cacophony of bright colours. The colour of the house would match that of the boat belonging to the same fisherman, because he would use any leftover paint from the boat to paint his house as well! With less than 20 permanent residents now in the village, most of the boat houses have been renovated into trendy guest houses. What an authentic place to while away a Greek summer!

We continued our tour and admired the views from the high vantage point of the island’s capital, Plaka. We passed the white lunar landscape of Sarakiniko Beach. And we stopped to check out the pockmarked volcanic rocks and crystalline waters of the Papafragas Caves.

And before spending the afternoon relaxing on Provatas Beach, we lunched in the gorgeous village of Pollonia. When your six year old comments and says, “Mum, why do you need to take pictures when we live in one?”, you know you’ve come to the right place!