Unfortunately, there was not a lot to see in Faros, so we didn't stay there very long. I managed to take a few pictures around the town before we headed out to find more exciting landscapes.
The empty beach
On the opposite side of the beach, we found a walking trail and decided to find out where it would take us. We were hoping to get our hiking done early in the day, so we didn't waste any time.
Trail from Faros
As we continued along, we found this sign to help us find our way to our next stop, Chrisopiggi* (this is spelled several different ways, as are most things in Greece).
Us, with Faros in the background
The walk to Chrisopiggi was very short and quite easy. And, when we got to Chrisopiggi, we saw the view of this adorable church.
I love the tiny bridge to the church
We headed out to the rocks on which the church sits to relax and enjoy the ocean around us. It was a gorgeous spot, surrounded by beautiful blue water. Like most other places we visited in Sifnos, we felt like we had the place to ourselves.
Once we got our fill of the church, we headed out to our final destination of the day, Platy Yialos. Unfortunately, there was no helpful sign pointing the way this time. We headed up the stairs you see in the picture on the left below. Oh my word, the stairs. They were never ending. We came to a spot, which you can see below, where the stairs continued in one direction, and a road went the other direction. We didn't know what to do, as Brian demonstrated so well.
Long story short, we ended up going both ways. First, up the stairs. Then back down the stairs and onto the road. Then, as we continued on the road, we found that it meets up a road off the stairs we had just taken. It was annoying. Luckily, we eventually found Platy Yialos.
We really worked up an appetite going through all those stairs, so we had lunch of salad, stuffed peppers, and yogurt with honey (seriously love that stuff).
Platy Yialos is a Blue Flag Beach, which according to my good friend Wikipedia, means it meets very stringent standards for water quality, safety, and environmental standards. In 2012, Greece was awarded nine Blue Flags out of it's almost four hundred beaches.
We really appreciated that the beach offered free umbrellas, beach chairs, and public facilities (very hard to find in Greece!).
We were also very surprised to find out that Platy Yialos was topless friendly. Even though I opted to keep my top on while we were there, some others were more than happy to enjoy the freedom.
Brian's mom requested we take a 'feet by the ocean picture', so we made sure to do just that. This is also a recreation of a picture we took during our first trip together to Puerto Rico.
The beach was lovely, but we had to pack up our stuff and go back eventually. Next to the bus stop was this abandoned house, just waiting for someone to come along and finish it so that they can live happily by the sea.
We packed it up and headed back to our hotel. While we were there, we heard what sounded like gunshots coming from the street near our hotel. Then, a while later, we heard yelling. The yelling then turned to singing as a group of nicely dressed people paraded past on the street. We found out that the parade was a actually a wedding and all of those in attendance were celebrating while walking toward the church.
We decided to have dinner across the way from the church the wedding was being held. We started by sharing some falafel. Brian had mousakka while I had chicken for our main course. We were given some cookies for dessert, and I loved that they were served in a traditional Sifnian brown pottery bowl.
Have you ever witnessed a wedding while vacationing?
That beach looks heavenly!
ReplyDeleteYour pictures look like they came from a magazine, honestly. This is all so fantastic.
ReplyDelete