Folegandros, Greece

Folegandros is definitely one of the backwater islands of the Cyclades. It's a tiny island, perhaps three or four miles long - a skinny thing with one road running down the middle of it.

As I mentioned earlier, the ferry system only stopped there twice a week, the island isn't even mentioned in Let's Go (and gets just a page in Frommer's and the Lonely Planet) and that was just fine with us.


	We were looking for a place to lay in the sun on the beach for a while, and that was about it. Folegandros was perfect for that

Our luck held with hotel rooms here, also. We got off the boat feeling a bit cash-strapped. Many of the places we'd stayed in or ate at did not accept credit cards (or gave you far better pricing with cash) so we hadn't been able to follow the usual travelling Rule of Cash Conservation. We knew it was likely that we'd have to deal with everything in Folegandros in cash -unlikely there'd be an ATM on the island, and therefore figured we'd find the cheapest room money could buy and settle in there.

Reading the guide book on the way there, we'd read about the Anemomilos Apartments. Frommer's says "the best and most traditional looking...all simply elegant... most with sensational views" and adds that the rooms are $100/night -the most expensive accommodations available on Folegandros.

Not for us, we thought - we're looking more for $20/night, and "simply elegant with sensational views" is not on the agenda. When we saw their hotel shuttle at the ferry terminal (the only one from a hotel) we thought "hmm... how about if we take advantage of this to get into town, take the ride and then ditch them and go find a cheap place..."

Once there, the owner (and bus driver) insisted on showing us what they had available - the finest room in the place, on the corner on top of a cliff with a 180 degree view of the north side of the island. A beautiful suite with it's own little kitchen. Todd was imagining himself relaxing on the balcony with a bottle of Retsina and some more wonderful Kalamata olives even before the price came out. $50/night was still well beyond what we'd planned, but - after all - it WAS our honeymoon.... Sold!



		Anemomilos Apartments




		Inside the room, Anemomilos


	View from the balcony

Once you're on Folegandros, I can't say there's much to do but relax. The town is a rather small place, no night life to speak of. We had some great dinners at a restaurant across the street from the hotel (try their apple cake), but the best dinners we made ourselves in the room - shopping at the local produce market (the proprietor spent some time in New York in the Greek Navy and is most happy to tell you about it).




	Folegandros' one road


			Karavostassi, Folegandros



		Traffic jam...


	We rented a scooter and took the one road through the island (shared with herds of sheep and donkeys) in search of secluded beaches. Most of them required that you stop the scooter and use your feet for the last half mile or so to get there, and rarely were there more than a few other people on the beach with us.

Our favorite was Katergos Beach, pictured above. It was a bit of a hike under the hot sun to get there, but the empty white sand and warm clear water were worth it. We spent the day there, laying in the sun and cooling off in the water when it got too hot. The water is almost as clear there as it is at the Barrier Reef, it would be a wonderful place to dive.

That's about all that happened on Folegandros, here's a sampling of some other pictures from the around the island.

And then it was time to start going home....

The last ferry out of Folegandros that would start the chain to get us to Athens in time left at 3am, and the hotel was nice enough to arrange for transportation. When we woke up and hauled our bags from the room, we met up with....everyone else in the hotel. Apparently that was it for the season, everyone (including the owner) was leaving!

We caught the ferry from Folegandros to Santorini, spent a few hours there and then on to Naxos. We spent the entire day in Naxos, waiting for the ferry to Pireaus to leave at 9pm that night. Here are a few pictures from our day in Naxos




		Apollo's Gate, Naxos.






			Naxos Town.

And that wraps up our travelogue. We'd tell you what an ordeal the last day was - sleeping on the ferry deck in the cold rain, trying to get a cab from Piraeus to the airport and finding none available, sleeping on the floor of various airports en route to Seattle, the arriving in the wee hours of the morning only to get up and go to work the next day, but we don't' want to scare you!

Greece was a wonderful place to visit, we'll be back again, but there's certainly no place like home!

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