A true path follows no plan…

Bye bye Tilos!

This beautiful Island has been my home for 5days and 5 nights. I have been quite lazy really, spending most of my days walking around the small seafront town and along the promenade, lying and sleeping on the beach and taking a dip in the crystal clear waters.

The most energetic I have been was on Sunday where I found myself accidentally completing a 5km hike, in flip flops, and then yesterday I ventured out to the other side of the island on the local bus. The hike to Lethra Beach was stunning. It was up and down tracks, most with pretty impressive drops to the side, and beautiful, turquoise waters and coves which were, unfortunately, at the very bottom of the steep hillsides.

I have probably overcome my fear of heights thanks to two sections on the walk where I had to choose to continue and “Harden up Princess” (as we say in Australia!)or admit defeat and turn around. I can be pretty determined when I want to be so it was literally onwards and upwards!

The bus journey on the island, in parts, was similar to the hike. The driver had to get frighteningly close to the edge of the roads at some points, where the side seemed to just drop off! You don’t pay when you get on the bus, you pay when you exit and like many people on the Greek Islands the driver just did it all in his own pace. If the bus is late, it is late. If a queue of people are trying to pay and get off the bus, then so be it, just wait!

My first stop was Eristos. According to the bloke from the book who guides you roughly around these parts, it is one of Tilos’ best beaches. Well, sorry, I disagree. It was a disappointment to be honest. The water is clean enough but is very shallow because of a rocky reef, the “sand” was mucky rather than pinkish – grey and there’s nothing particularly stunning about the area. Maybe I got it on a bad day!

The waters along the town beach here in Livadhia are much nicer, although the beach here is pebblier – I made one of the best investments I probably could for his trip on Friday, I bought a pair of rubber water shoes at the local shop! Most of the beaches I have come across have pebbles and rocky waters so these shoes have been great for just walking in and out without hurting my feet or losing my balance on the slippy sea floor and exiting the water in not a very glamorous fashion!!

I left Eristos beach on the next bus up to Megalo Horio town, wandered aimlessly around the lanes and up and down steep little stairways and alleys, snapping away at the beautiful colours of some of the most ordinary day to day items – windows, doorways, garden paths, railings.

Every house here is painted with different colours around the frames of windows and doors. The shutters and the actual doors can be painted in various shades, usually blue, sometimes green, sometimes a yellow tone. Everything looks so pretty yet simple. There’s also a few old, forgotten, dilapidated houses which you could imagine renovating and making in to something special for an escape, holiday home!

After hopping on and off the bus I wandered down to my official favourite bar on the island, the Mikro Bar with rooftop terrace.

It is one of the most relaxing, chilled out bars I have been in to just sit and watch the world go by.

I bumped in two couples who I’ve chatted to previously. Both have been together 40ish years. Both seem genuinely happy, laughing and telling stories and making a good life together. One couple own studios here on the island. They gave up on the UK way of living 15 years ago. They met when they were 13 and have been together ever since, and still laugh together like teenagers. I hope one day I’ll have something special like that with someone. It was so nice to listen to their stories and see how genuinely happy they still are together and how they are having fun and holidays and adventures together later on in life.

I have been surprised by the way I am enjoying my own company on this trip. I usually don’t like it for too long and am definitely a “people person”, but part of this trip is to have the time out to think about where I’m going and what I’d like to do in the future and it’s helping being alone to do it!

So, thankyou Tilos for giving me the time out, and now the confidence to carry on with my island hopping adventure. Next stop Kalymnos!