A long time ago I saw an article in a magazine advertising Greek islands with the title “1000 reasons to visit Greece”. It was about Greek islands and I was impressed with such a big number that may have been exaggerated, but it was certainly impressive. I have seen a few by now and I was on my way to discover the next one.
Which island to visit from the thousand ones is always a difficult task for me and I was afraid to make wrong decision. Therefore I posted on social media the question asking friends to help me choose one. I narrowed my selection to four islands and still I had a problem to make a decision. Luckily or not, most of the accommodation was already booked so the only available and affordable one was on a beach on Sifnos island! On the beach! Wau! Who doesn’t want that? Checked/booked.
Why to chose Sifnos as your vacation destination?
I had from the very first day a feeling of making the right choice by coming to Sifnos. That happened when I arrived to the beach in village Vathi and I stopped to observe around me and there was no sound, just the sound of the waves. People were on the beach and I think they were also enjoying peacefulness and it looked like no one wanted to ruin this by making any noise. Maybe I convinced myself they were feeling the same as I, but I am sure I had some connection immediately with that place, so I guess they also had. It was similar to the feeling when you find a perfect and comfortable shoe and in the same time you can pay it. That feeling did not change till the end of my vacation. When I am mentioning also that you can pay that shoe is because if someone thinks we need a lot of money to spend on accommodation, i can convince them of the opposite. Staying in Sifnos island does not need to be in some expensive resort or hotel, we found a very nice accommodation (http://sifnosareti.gr/) house on the beach with welcoming hosts who would bring us every day cakes or home made lemonade after our breakfast. When once they “forgot” I was a bit angry, so I was spoiled very easily. It is their fault, right?
Although on the beach it is quiet and relaxed, in taverns in the late afternoon and evening it is very lively. There I noticed a lot of people from France, Germany, Italy, Sweden and Spain. It was international and we were all enjoying the Greek specialties. For years I am eating Greek salad but here the addition of caper and caper leaves was an explosion of taste. Talking about caper, first time now, on Sifnos, on a beach while I was having a shower, I saw a beautiful flower. At first I did not know which one was it but soon I found out it was caper flower. Similar pleasure like with Greek salad, I had after eating chick pea soup called revithada. A day before coming to Sifnos a friend from Athens recommended me to try this soup and I could not wait to return home to tell her my impressions, however, I did it directly from a tavern. Now I have a wish to make that dish at home, but I know it will not be the same.
Another enjoyment I experienced was when I saw the dolphins swimming close to the coast. In that moment I was lying on the beach under the umbrella with a scarf over my head due to the migraine pain that I had. Fortunately I noticed mumbling among people on the beach and I saw them looking at the sea while they were screaming with joy. The appearance of this smiley mammals put a smile on my face and the migraine was gone. We were very cheerful and in that moment, for the second time, I had that connection with people around me, like I had on my first day on the Vathi beach, where we experienced something together. Here we were also happy for a while and thankful that we saw the dolphins but in the same time we were hoping they will appear again. I remembered that my first sentence I wanted to learn in Greek was: “Where are the dolphins? πού είναι τα δελφίνια;”. Now, knowing to say that in Greek I smiled because I saw dolphins in Greece. I could use my knowledge in Greek to ask someone, but I was on the beach with Italian and French people. Now I am thinking, maybe I could teach them to know as well. Staring into the water, we were waiting for their arrival even if we knew it very improbable. Anyway, there was something enjoyable in that expectation moment as well. We considered ourselves to be the luckiest ones on the island that day.
Just being on an island is always a special feeling. For me it is like I am in some kind of experiment in which I am with different nationalities in the same place. We are like special, chosen ones. Also, I caught myself thinking how those people chose the same island as me and that we must be similar in a way of liking similar things. Is that a weird way of thinking?
Most of the people I saw on the beach or in the city were friendly, smiley and they were greeting us. I can not remember having experienced that in any other place. Talking a bit with one guy from Sweden, I heard that Sifnos island for him was a choice that started by accident. He was waiting for a boat but all were full and the only one available was for the island of Sifnos. That was in 2005, since then he is coming to Sifnos every year, staying in the same accommodation. I also met other people who are returning to Sifnos over and over again, so if I come back here I will know people around
Being on a holiday means giving yourself a credit to enjoy in things you would not do regularly in your “normal” life. By that I mean having a beer if you feel like, every night, eating pizza, sleeping till 12 a.m. or something else. In my case, it was to eat an ice-cream every day. If I say to myself it is just while I am on vacation, the taste of ice-cream is even better and I do not feel guilty. It is all in the perception of things. In the village Apollonia, I found a good one, the shop had big amounts of ice-creams, probably the owner knew someone else is coming to them with a similar motto as mine. There is always place in the stomach for an ice cream!
Sifnos, thank you very much for everything! I will be back!