The Travelling Gypsy: Syros Island

At the beginning of the month, A and I had to travel to Syros to get him an extension on his 3 month tourist visa. Syros is the capital of the Cyclades (our island group) and serves as sort of the "city hall" for the islands. Its also where my father was born, because his dad was assigned here as a police officer for a few years. We were meant to only stay one night, but after arriving we were so impressed with the town that we ~~may have purposely~~ missed our return ferry the next day. Syros was beautiful with marble streets, so many different architectural styles, a huge harbor, and very friendly locals.

We spent 2 nights in the town of Ermoupolis (the port city and capital). Everyone says that the islanders don't want a lot of tourism on their island, and we were so glad by this because it meant that everything was very cheap. We stayed at a small hotel right on the water in the middle of the city and only paid 35 euros a night (this is probably what it costs to CAMP in Santorini in August!).

The town square was lovely and even offered free wifi {A was pleased}. It was bordered by cafes and ice cream shops and reminded me of the large piazzas in Italy. It was filled with people at all hours of the day; even at midnight you see small children running around.

We loved the people we met on the island. Everyone was friendly and whenever we opened our map we were asked if we were lost and needed help finding anything. We also noticed that there are many international people living on the island and even chatted in Spanish with a group of locals from Peru, Colombia, and Ecuador - would've never imagined that happening on such a small, Greek island!

And the food. Oh, the food! Every night the streets were filled with tables and chairs and nearly everyone ate outdoors. We took advantage of all the fish and seafood on the menus and definitely ate to our hearts content.

Fun fact - as with all Greek islands, there are many, many churches. In Greece you'll see icons of Saints in supermarkets, government offices, police stations, etc., but whats different about this island is that it is home to the biggest Catholic population in all of Greece. There are about 9,000 Roman Catholics, which is nearly half the island's total population!

On our second day we took a taxi (only 4 euros) up to the town of Ano Syros, which overlooks the port city and has a medieval style to it with narrow, windy streets. We walked around, peeked into the tiny artisan shops, and made it all the way back down to the water on foot.

We loved Syros because it had the hustle and bustle of a small city (there was even traffic, which we haven't experienced since May) yet it was a traditional, laid back island (with 4 hour siestas) all at the same time. I truly hope to visit again, as long as we don't spend 9 hours on a boat to get there again! :)