Leg 36 Samos to Syros, Greece touring the Dodecanese islands
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Lovely to revisit my backpack tour from 25 years ago. It looks like it’s a bit overcrowded with tourism nowadays. Fun to recognize all the places I’ve been to.
9-27 Samos LGSM 4:42 AM
9-27 Leros LGLE 4:57 AM
9-27 Kalymnos LGKY 5:07 AM
9-27 Ippokratis LGKO 5:16 AM
9-27 Diagoras LGRP 5:43 AM The valley of butterflies
9-27 Karpathos LGKP 6:28 AM
9-27 Kasos LGKS 6:35 AM
9-27 Sitia LGST 6:53 AM
9-27 Kasteli AB LGTL 7:19 AM
9-27 Tympaki LG54 7:36 AM
9-27 Maleme Air Base LGGE 8:09 AM
9-27 Maleme Air Base LGGE 9:09 AM
9-27 Ioannis Daskalogiannis LGSA 9:21 AM
9-27 Nikos Kazantzakis LGIR 9:49 AM
9-27 Santorini LGSR 10:26 AM
9-27 Astypalaia LGPL 10:51 AM
9-27 Naxos LGNX 11:17 AM
9-27 Paros LGPA 11:28 AM
9-27 Milos LGML 11:49 AM
9-27 Syros LGSO 12:22 PM Seagulls
Flight time 6:40 18 stops
First up Kalymnos, a big rock sticking out of the sea like most of the islands.
On to Kos, boat spotted
Once you have seen one, you have seem them all 
I haven’t seen any other type of boat yet.
Rodos
The valley of butterflies is here. I never got this far backpacking and I imagined it to be bigger
It seems it’s a pretty small valley, how do they all get there!
Achata beach on Karpathos. Beaches are hard to find along these rock islands.
Thrypti Dimou Lerapetras, Crete
Spathi mountain, also on Crete. Crete has some very high mountains.
The top of the mountain in real life
Mount Pakhnes, further to the West
Heraklion, largest city on Crete
It’s known for the palace of Knossos, the largest Bronze Age archaeological site on Crete and has been called Europe’s oldest city.
On to Santorini, I’ve been here. Beautiful place, mosquitos were awful
Walking up and down that zig zag road to the harbor early morning was great. (to get away from the mosquitos)
Yeah it looks like ■■■■ in FS2020
The island is basically an old volcano and you can still visit the smoking center part. Sad to read it’s over crowded with tourism nowadays. This is just ridiculous
I need to find my old photo album. Those pictures with empty streets on Santorini might be worth something today! Dine in a not even half full restaurant with epic views, no reservation needed. I miss the Greek food most haha.
Astipalea, bland rock
Naxos. We rented bikes here for some amazing cycling, all empty roads, great views.
The Apollo temple is on that outcrop bottom left
I have that picture somewhere.
Antiparos with Paros behind it
It looks like there are a lot buildings on the island nowadays. On Paros I got cured from the notion that it would be cool to sleep under the stars on the beach. The stars were great, getting sand blasted all night and waking up with a sleeping back full of sand… What was I thinking.
Paros had the most amazing fresh baked feta bread. It was from a local bakery somewhere hidden in the village. It wasn’t easy to find as no one spoke English, universal ‘sign language’ to the rescue. It made a big impression, that feta bread and gyros pitas are the first things that come to mind when I think of Greece.
We traveled from island to island on these ferries, free passage with interrail pass, which was only about $100 back then under 26, unlimited travel for a month.
Shame they aren’t in the game.
Milos, the island with the most amazing beaches
We rented bicycles here as well to visit (then) remote beaches
We swam here! It’s that cove in the picture above. Nobody else around
Looking in the opposite direction, that long curved beach is amazing
Again we were pretty much alone there, taking pictures of our stretching shadows on the terrain
Sifnos on the right
Final stop today, Siros
Tomorrow back to the main land, before heading over to Italy. Another thing I won’t do again, sleep on the deck of a night ferry. No sand, but you wake up soaking wet!