I almost burst into tears when I arrived here — out of sheer delight! It is a beautiful, quite and undeveloped island with a few Greek holiday makers (and the French couple with the young child we chatted to on the first day). It feels so much ‚ore relaxed and gentle this way, with just local visitors, and the comparison with the Scottish islands comes to mind again. Arriving here felt quite like arriving st Eigg — a few locals chatting and hanging out at the harbour cafe, in no hurry to do anything other than drink strong Greek coffee and watch and natter.
There’s very little English spoken here so we’te having to brush up on our Greek.
Two wonderful old bakeries in the stunning Chorio (main town on the hill). The first we went to had all old wooden cupboards and a huge bread oven, and the second had the best spinokopita this side of Thessaloniki (we’ve not been to Thessaloniki yet, but there’s supposed to be good cafes there!) and a selction of pastries to oggle at.
We visited a wonderful folk museum in the kastro (old castle) and were treated to a personalised tour in English by the gently enthusiastic elderly curator for 1 euro each.
Now back in Athens and catching the train to Thessaloniki this afternoon. A bit annoyingly we’ve had to pay yet another supplement on a train that was marked in Thomas Cook as supplement free, and still can’t make the reservation on the overnight train! The same very friendly woman told us she only had 3 beds left and she had to sell them (ie not to cheap-skate interailers) but that Romanian railways would have more to sell in Thessaloniki and it would be very easy…
Craig // Aug 1, 2009 at 9:46 am
I remember going regularly to Kimolos in the early 90’s and it was very quiet and traditional. Sometimes the only way to get there was with a small fishing boat that carried miners from neighbouring Milos every evening.
Goof to see that the place hasn’t been spoiled.