Day 44: Ios Mylopotas Relaxation

Monday 1st August 2022

A New Month Begins

As July turns into August, I awoke feeling reflective on my time in Greece so far. I arrived on the 19th of June and I’m due to return to the UK on the 12th of September, meaning I’ve just crossed the halfway mark on my trip. So far, I’ve visited 5 places (4 islands, plus mainland Greece – or 6, if you include Ios where I am now). Although only one island has been totally new (Astypalea), I’d only briefly visited Paros before so it felt very much like a new experience.

A more adventurous person might be inclined to focus more on new islands, but I like to have a mix of new and previously visited places – there is something comforting about revisiting an island you’ve spent time on before, and plus there are always new things to see and do even if you’ve visited several times. As such, my itinerary for Ios is quite light but I am planning to do some exploration while I’m here. Anyway, back to today’s update…

Breakfast

Breakfast was included at my hotel (Deep Blue Rooms), but, unusually, they didn’t start serving until 9 am which seemed quite late. I suspect it’s because they get a lot of younger guests who like to stay up late and therefore don’t want an early breakfast. I had woken up before 8 despite not setting any alarm, so while I waited for the food service to begin I sat in my room and worked on my blog notes and some YouTube content.

By the time 9 am came around, I was quite hungry so I headed straight down to reception to find out how the food service worked – unsurprisingly, I was the first one to arrive! I was expecting a buffet, but it turned out to be made to order: I was offered a choice of tea or coffee, orange juice, eggs, omelette, bread, ham, cheese, melon and cake. It was all very tasty and they even offered a free refill on the coffee, so within a few minutes I was nicely full and caffeinated ready for the day ahead!

Swim, Work… Lunch

As it was a weekday, I needed to allow time for work but I didn’t have a busy schedule so my first priority was hitting the beach for a swim and a bit of sunbathing. I got my towel, goggles, suntan lotion and bottle of water, then headed across the road straight onto the wide sandy beach at Mylopotas. The part of the beach immediately opposite Deep Blue was empty sand with no sunbeds, which was fine for me as I didn’t want to pay for them or spend money at a beachfront cafe to get free use of their beds.

I laid my towel out close to the shore, secured it against the breeze with a few small rocks and headed straight for the water. The sea is pretty clear but does get deep quite quickly compared to other beaches – despite being a very good swimmer, I don’t love being out of my depth but I was determined to swim out to some yellow buoys that I could see in the distance. I got most of the way without stopping, but as I got closer I was a bit nervous about being out so far – stupid really considering I’ve been a competitive swimmer all my life, but there you go. However, I was determined to make it to the buoys so I kept going and forced myself to touch the buoy to prove I’d reached it without cheating. I did turn straight back and swim quite fast until I was within a more comfortable distance of the shore, though!!

Back on dry land and feeling a sense of achievement from my swim, I dried off, lotioned up and relaxed on the sand for a while, soaking up the wonderful sun. The beach was still fairly quiet so it was very relaxing.

Eventually, I got up and returned to my hotel room, had a quick shower to get the sand off me and then worked on my laptop for an hour or so. By this point it was lunchtime and I was pretty hungry, so I set out again this time in search of food. I headed north along the beach road with the idea of returning to Cantina del Mar, where I’d enjoyed several breakfasts and a couple of evening meals during my trip last year. It was very busy, but I managed to get one of the last free tables and sat down to browse the menu.

It was a bit more expensive than I would usually pay for lunch, but the BBQ chicken baguette was huge and delicious. It had a few chillis that I avoided at first but decided to eat a few and hoped they weren’t too hot – the large Mythos beer helped to wash it all down.

More Work, Gym and Dinner

So today isn’t a particularly exciting one for the blog, but anyway I’m including it for completeness. After lunch, I went back to the hotel to work for another hour or two, then walked down to Far Out Village to sunbathe by the pool. Just before 5, I popped back to the room to change into my gym gear before heading back past Far Out Village to do another workout.

The gym session was good, and unlike yesterday I planned ahead and brought my sandals and a fresh towel with me so that I could go back to the pool at Far Out Village after the workout to have a refreshing dip and soak up the last of the late afternoon sun.

After another shower back in my room, I chilled out for a while and then headed out for dinner. I wanted to try somewhere different but after walking north and deciding that Salt was too posh (and expensive) and Nostos looked very quiet, I found myself back at Karma Beach Bar where I’d eaten only yesterday. I did consider going to Cantina del Mar instead, but as I’d had lunch there it seemed even less adventurous!

On the plus side, I had a great meal: this time choosing pasta – spinach and ricotta ravioli with mushrooms – instead of a pizza, with wine. There was no more football to watch, so I just read my Kindle until it was time to head back to the hotel to bed.