One of our favourite islands last year was Nisyros. It was here that we realised the secret to meeting locals and getting into Greek life was to go to the cafes and just hang out drinking coffee. Nisyros was on our way to other islands so we decided to visit again. To get to Nisyros from Karpathos, we had to go via Halki. The ferries didn't connect so we had to spend another night in Halki. How sad - not!
We couldn't get any of our usual rooms so, for the first time, we stayed on the other side of the harbour. We took advantage of the location and swam to a cave at the far end of the bay, something we've never done before. It took ages but we got there!
That night we caught up with Carol and Graeme, an English couple, plus Kiki and Andreas. We had another great night at the Black Sea restaurant.
The next day we were off to Nisyros! I'm not going to go into great detail about the island here as I wrote about it last year. It's famous for having a dormant volcano with a spectacular crater but we love it for the people. It really is a special place. If you'd like to know more, see our previous post HERE.
We were very excited to see all the great people that we met here last time. There was Maria at the cafe and Spiros, the half Italian, half Greek who adores Nisyros.
A cat had died, leaving three kittens. Someone else owned them but they spent their days at Maria's cafe, playing and looking gorgeous. Ali and Marta look so cute here but all three are nearly adults and none are desexed. Nisyros is overrun with cats.
Mandraki is the main town in Nisyros and is where we stayed. It was quieter when we were here last year as it was later in the year. This year we really noticed the noise of motorbikes and particularly the little delivery vans that roar up and down the narrow lane beside Maria's cafe. After a while we called it "Nisyros music"!
On our first night we had to eat at Irini's restaurant to see Irini. She recognised us immediately and showered us with hugs and kisses!
We didn't see as much of our apartment owners, Betty and Giannis, this time but when we did see them we always seemed to get food! We saw Betty twice at a bar (where she drinks tea with friends) and each time she had some delicious home-baked treat with her that she shared. One day we were eating lunch at a cafe that Giannis frequents and he brought us over some tiny mussels that we assume had come straight from the sea!
Mandraki is a very pretty town.
One great thing about Mandraki is that it faces west and the sunsets are amazing. The restaurants and bars along the sea wall were wonderful places to go for a sunset drink.
After a few days the wind really picked up and we couldn't sit against the sea wall as waves were crashing over it!
On one wild, windy night we caught up with an Australian couple that we met last year. We ate behind plastic screens on the sea wall and the crashing waves found their way under the walls and splashed around our feet. Occasionally waves splashed right up onto the plastic screens. It looked like someone was throwing buckets of soapy water at us. The Aussies have now been renovating a house for 6 or 7 years and they still can't live in it. Ouch!
There were plenty of walks and rides to do from Mandraki. Like last year, I climbed to the amazing old fort on top of the nearby hill. I still find it incredible how they could build walls like this 2,000 years ago.
Not far away is a monastery and an old castle. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn't find a track to the castle. The best I did was get to the base of the walls. I love how there are old shaped stones from the nearby fort in random places. It must have been so hard to get them to the fort in the first place. How this one came to be half way down this hill is a mystery to me!
Even more surprising is that I was snorkelling at the beach below this hill another time and I saw at least three rocks underwater that looked suspiciously rectangular and in the same dimensions as the ancient ones at the fort. The fort must be maybe 1km in distance away and 150 metres above the sea where I saw them!
This 'beach' is a favourite of people from Nisyros even though it's covered in round rocks and has pallets for sunbeds!
One day we hired a motorbike to get around. The rental guy was a friend so, not only did he not need to see any licenses (we don't have motorbike licenses but can both ride one) but he asked if we wanted helmets and, before we had a chance to answer he said, "No, you don't want those"! So helmetless and unlicenced, we headed off.
We went for a bit of a ride which was fine. I had a swim at a beach that was so shallow that I could stand up the whole time. We then ate dinner at our favourite waterside restaurant in the next town. The ride back in the early evening twilight was wonderful.
Twice we hired an e-bike and I joined John on his long rides around the island. We had been to all the sights last year but we re-visited our favourites:
Nikia is a beautiful hilltop village with whitewashed or stone buildings with colourful door and windows, some renovated and some filled with the beauty of age.
Next was Emborios, another gorgeous village. We had to leave our bikes at the entrance to the village as there were too many steps to take bikes in.
Both Emborio and Nikia and built high on the volcano rim. The view over the volcano valley from this cafe in Emborio was stunning!
We finished the ride with another meal at Pali. This is the harbour where the yachts anchor. We were wonderfully entertained by a yacht with obvious beginners on it. They tried to moor at the jetty with a strong cross-wind. They nearly crashed into a nearby yacht twice. And by 'nearby' I mean about 40 metres away! The nearby yacht eventually took matters into their own hands and pulled out of the port and left them to it! It took five attempts but they made it. Soon afterwards, another yacht came in and reversed back into a space about one-fifth the size of the other yacht's space and did it in one go.
Another day we rode through the caldera. The colours of the rocks here are amazing.
We didn't walk into the crater this time but we peered into it from the rim.
One of the rewards for riding up so many steep hills was that the long downhill ride back towards home was such fun! We tore down the roads, leaning into corners, with stunning sea-views accompanying us most of the way. I could do that every day! (Except I got such a sore bum!)
This island really is spectacular. I'm not giving these amazing sights full credit here because I also don't want to repeat myself from our previous post.
When it was time to leave there were many sad goodbyes. Spiros walked to the port with us to see us off. Whenever he's with us, his friend keeps dropping in to see if he's ready to go for a walk or do something with him, yet he never joins us. Just before we left, his friend magically appeared again to go for a walk with Spiros as soon as we left!
Stay good.
Heather and John
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