Syros - Exploring Poseidonia and Finikas On Our Morning Walk + A Very Memorable Dinner

Usually on the first day in a new location we like to do a morning walk to explore the local area and get our bearings. Today was no exception. 

We stuck to the more minor roads and tracks as we walked to Poseidonia village. It was immediately obvious that this place was very different to Naxos and Santorini. It was typically Greek Island feeling like Naxos but felt wealthy like Santorini. The houses were big here and the area has a lot of well set out olive groves that looked cared for. You'll see photos below of a few places we came across that are massive old homes some of which look like they would hold multiple apartments but we are pretty sure they are just single homes.

The back roads made for slightly challenging navigation. A road clearly showing on Google maps would appear more like a driveway but once you walked further it would bypass the house and was in fact a road. Then there were roads that simply did not exist and instead there were alleyways or dirt tracks. But each time we managed to find our way to the next area on the map.

We came across one place that looked like a castle or museum that was not inhabited and was fully fenced off but it was still in good order. We could find nothing on the map to tell us about it. Photo below.

Nearby there was another large property that was also very fancy but this one had signs saying that it had been taken over by the state and with the help of the European Union had been fully restored. The signs indicated it was some sort of emergency shelter but that didn't make much sense to us. Perhaps the translation was a bit off.

There was a bakery in the town and a small mini-market where we stopped to grab a bottle of water but not much else. Eventually we climbed to the highest point trying to find a tower we had seen from a distance. We assumed it was at ABC. Of course we found the church at the top of the hill but no sign of the tower. We kept looking.

As we walked off and looked back we spotted the tower. It turned out it was a bell tower at the very back of the church and not part of the main structure. The church up close was so big it obscured the tower. We tried but could not get the right angle for a decent photo of the pretty tower. 

We had seen Poseidonia now and exited the residential part of the village onto the main road that we arrived on yesterday. Not far along on the way towards our apartment we reached Voulgari Beach and the bus stop. We continued on the main road to Finikas in search of the bakery there. It was around the corner from the supermarket and we must have passed it but not seen it from the bus. A loaf of bread acquired for lunch plus two more bottles of water from the supermarket and we walked back to the apartment. A 6.4km morning walk which was good.

It was time for a swim in the pool, along with a coffee and a reading session.

A late lunch soon followed and we retired indoors out of the heat for a couple of hours.

At 4pm we headed down to the beach for a swim. It was warm and the water was clear and nice but we have been spoiled by Agios Prokopios. All beaches will now be compared to that and may well be found wanting. This one has a mixture of sandy and pebbley sections but is simply not as beautiful as Prokopios. It was a short swim and then a dip in the pool back at the apartment.

At dinner time we walked to the bakery thinking we would just purchase something there to eat as the supermarket didn't have anything to cook. We had seen a nice looking pizza at the bakery earlier in the day. 

But first we stopped at a bar/restaurant along the beach front for a cold beer. A large one for me and a normal sized one for Sarah. Perfect! 👍 The place had a great view to the sea and the many yachts parked up in the Bay. We agreed to disagree on the merits of one day sailing around the islands in the Mediterranean.

Unsurprisingly the bakery although still open had sold out off most things. We did stop at the supermarket for extra crackers and muesli for breakfast tomorrow. We thought we could just have crackers and cheese tonight. 

However, on the way back along the sea front we passed a small cafe/restaurant that advertises breakfasts, but also kebabs and burgers. It looked just like our kind of establishment. A one man band type place, authentic, very basic, and hopefully good value. 🤞 There was absolutely  nobody sitting at any of the five small tables. The Greek man that obviously runs the place was very happy to see some potential victims - I mean customers. 😂

He asked where we were from and seemed to know where New Zealand was. He even said that he sees a few New Zealanders every season. He knew the owner of the apartments where we are staying and he started telling us a lot about Syros and Greece. Some of which we could understand. A really nice guy.

We took a seat and decided to keep things simple by ordering a chicken souvlaki dish. There was some confusion about how many we were ordering even though there were just two of us. Eventually we worked out he was asking how many skewers of chicken. We had one each, along with tomato, red onion, potatoes (chips), freshly made pita bread and taziki sauce with olives in it. There were eventually two different pitas, an Arabic one and a Greek one. Initially there was only one and then another turned up. He admitted he burnt the first Greek one so had to make us a new one. 😂 It was accompanied with two local cola's. 

It was simple and very tasty. It perfectly suited our surroundings. While we were eating two more people turned up. A young couple who were celebrating the man's 30th birthday. We got chatting to them about travel plans. They were on holiday from Denmark.

For us (Sarah says me not her 😁) it was getting late - almost 8:30pm. We said goodnight and headed home after promising we would pop in for a coffee another day before we leave. We walked back in the dark turning on the cell phone light whenever a car approached just in case they didn't see us. 

A very memorable way to end our day. 👍