At 7am we boarded a ferry in Pireaus and left to go to Tinos. We didn’t buy the tickets beforehand, but went straight to the huge ferry and were let on board where we were able to buy a ticket at the information desk. I don’t necessarily recommend this as it is risky if there are no tickets available, but if you are lucky you can go to different islands quite spontaneously. Now I think how it works that if they for example haven’t sold all the tickets for the business class they take in more for economy class than there are places available there, cause in case of an emergency they would still not get over the maximum of passengers allowed. Well, for us that meant we didn’t get a seat and had to sit on our luggage for the duration of the trip. At some point, the sea was pretty rough and you could feel it even on the big ferry. A girl next to us got sick and the smell made me fell nauseous, too. Then the kid across from us who was too old to still be breastfed, but still had just sucked both of his mom’s titties empty decided to puke the milk all over the place. I felt that I would soon join them and get sick too, but somehow managed to stay strong. Nevertheless, this was the worst ferry ride of my life.
We arrived in Tinos not in the best possible mood, since the ferry also had a one hour delay, which made this awful trip longer than necessary. However, when we were greeted by Kostas, the guy we rented an apartment from for the next three days, with his huge smile and warm aura everything was forgotten. He took us to the small apartment which was only 200m walking distance from the beach and he explained to us what possibilities we had to experience the island. After refreshing and relaxing a little bit we first went to the beach to enjoy the sun. That lasted about 40 minutes, because the “meltemi” winds, very typical for the Cyclade islands at that time of the year, were extremely strong and we were covered in sand, which really hurt when it was hitting you. So we decided it would be better to go the beach another time and rather explore Tinos town.
The church there is a famous destination for pilgrims and they will walk up the hill to it on their knees, that’s why there was a carpet laid out on the right side of the street, so the ground would be a little softer for them. After getting tickets for a tour around the island and buying some groceries, we returned to our apartment, cooked a nice dinner and enjoyed the evening on our little terrace where we were joined by three cats which we adopted for the next couple of days.
In the morning Kostas came by to prepare another apartment and brought us bikes we could use to move around the island. We told him we had booked the island tour and he told us he could take us to the tourist office from where the tour bus left. As we were getting close to the office there was suddenly a pelican on the street and Kostas just said calmly: “Oh yeah, by the way, this is Marco. Everybody in Tinos knows him.” We got out of the car and I wanted to snap a picture with this local VIP. Marco had no problem blocking the street and an annoyed woman was honking at him when another woman on a scooter came by and started talking to Marco and asking him to get off the street. He finally did move and then a grandma came by with her little grandson who got really excited and kept yelling Marco’s name. Kostas did not lie, literally everyone who came by seemed to know this pelican. We walked around the local little market and checked out what specialities it had to offer before walking down to the water for a little bit. There an old couple joined us and the woman greeted us with a big toothless smile, introduced herself as Yaya and started undressing to go for a swim. It was quite the picture and I guess their way of staying healthy.
When our tour was about to start we boarded the bus and were joined by Greek, German, French and other tourists. The tour included a bunch of stops and is a really great way to explore the islands. We went to a Coventry, a small ancient village, a pretty fisherman village and a bunch of other stops. It includes stops all over the island and is around 6 hours long. After getting a taxi back to our apartment we again enjoyed the evening out on our terrace with our new pet cats.
The last was designated to be spent on the beach, since the winds have calmed down. It was extremely relaxing and whenever you would get too hot, the water had just the perfect temperature to cool you of. Close to our apartment there were several beach bars and we decided to have a cocktail on the beach for our last night in Tinos. We asked the barkeeper what cocktails he could offer us. He named three and when asked which one he would recommend, he said “mojito”. As it turned out it was the only cocktail that he knew how to prepare, that’s why he thought it was the best. Well, the mojito was not the best, but the ambience was great and we had a wonderful end to our time on the island. The next morning Kostas took us to the tourist office where we bought tickets for the ferry and then dropped us off at the harbour in a café where he even invited us for a coffee. So long story short, if you ever go to Tinos, stay with Kostas, the nicest guy on the island!
weltenbummlerinjoanna 