Milos, Greece [Post #15, Day 180]

Today is my 14th and final full day on Milos island before I head back to Athens tomorrow. I have been volunteering as part of my third Worldpackers position, hosted by Vasileios and his family, who run an apartment and boat rental company here on the island. I have been helping clean the apartments after guest checkouts, cleaning and maintaining the boats, and other maintenance and construction projects. It has been interesting and fun, and every day has been different. I have been living in a guesthouse with two other volunteers, Maria from Madrid, Spain and María José from Colombia, it has been great to spend time with them, and to get to know Vasileios and his family. Vasileois’ mother Drosula has cooked the most amazing Greek food for us, including fresh fish caught by her and her husband Spyros, they love to fish. One of my favorite things she has made for us was a dessert called galaktoboureko which is a traditional Greek custard pie, baked in layers of phyllo dough and topped with sweet syrup. I also loved gemista (peppers and eggplant stuffed with rice and meat and baked) and Drosula’s spanakopita which she made specially for me because I said it was one of my favorite Greek foods. I also tried karpouzopita (watermelon pie) from the local bakery which was very tasty, and koulouri, a snack bread shaped into a ring and coated in sesame seeds. I also love gyros! I’ve been eating about one every other day, and of course I’ve been making plenty of Greek salad, dipping fresh crusty bread in the leftover dressing is delicious.

Firopotamos Beach on Milos island where I helped Vasileios with his rental apartments (they are in the group of units seen in the far distance across the water).

The view from the bedroom window of one of the rental apartments.

I have been learning some Greek phrases, and getting more familiar with reading words written in Greek letters. I have seen letters of the Greek alphabet before because they are used as symbols in mathematics, but it’s cool to see now how they are used in regular written language. I love hearing people speaking in Greek and I think it’s very cool that it’s one of the oldest recorded living languages (although not as old as the Aboriginal languages spoken in Australia!).

Before coming to Greece I was in Egypt which was the final stop on my Africa travel itinerary. While flying into Cairo I was amazed at how everything in view below looked tan, brown, and sandy, the landscape, the building rooftops, everything, truly the desert! I spent a few (hot!) days in Cairo, one day visiting the pyramids in Dahshur, Saqqara, and Giza which were massive and amazing to see, then crossed the Sinai Peninsula (first passing through a tunnel underneath the Suez Canal) to spend 10 days in Dahab where I learned to scuba dive in the Red Sea. From the moment I arrived in Dahab I really loved it – it’s a beautiful place with a nice layout (one continuos footpath all along the waterfront with restaurants, shops, and hotels), a relaxed atmosphere, delicious food, and friendly people. Learning to scuba dive was an incredible experience, and my instructor Diaa was awesome, I felt safe and comfortable under his expert guidance. I completed the Professional Association of Diving Instructors (PADI) Open Water and Advanced Open Water Diver courses which certifies me to dive to a maximum depth of 30 meters (about 98 feet). In addition to the skills training required to complete the courses, I did 10 dives over the course of five days which were all unique and interesting. We explored different underwater formations like The Canyon and the Blue Hole with an entry called the Bells which is a narrow vertical column of hollow rock so named because the sound of metal scuba tanks hitting against the rock walls sounds like chiming bells as you descend down. We also did a night dive which was very cool. The Red Sea has beautiful clear water with an abundance of corals, vibrantly colored fish, and other marine life; it’s a whole different world underwater. I thought of it as an underwater safari, having just recently experienced the on land version in Tanzania! The experience of scuba diving was a totally new thing for my body and mind. The PADI courses started with a physics lesson about buoyancy and gas compression and expansion which was right up my alley (a key rule of scuba diving is to never hold your breath when ascending during a dive because the air in your lungs expands as you rise which could cause lung overexpansion and serious injury). Taking the first breath through the regulator underwater was a memorable experience. I liked the skill training which involved taking my mask off underwater while continuing to breathe through the regulator, this was an interesting thing for my brain to figure out at first. I almost tried pulling air in through my nose which obviously wouldn’t have been air at all, but after this initial intention, something like instinct, or perhaps sensing the greater resistance of trying to breathe in water, caused my brain to stop that action and switch back to breathing through my mouth. The next step was to put the mask back in place on my face and clear the water from it; to clear the water you tilt your head back so you are facing upwards and blow air forcefully out through your nose while pressing on the top of the mask to pin it to your forehead creating a kind of hinge, it’s like magic how it clears the water out and your vision is restored!

Also while in Dahab (and on my dad’s birthday in fact) I received my PhD completion letter. So after 4 years, 11 months, and 1 day (from 22 July 2019 to 23 June 2024) my PhD is officially complete! It is the longest-duration single project I have worked on in my career so far. My thesis is available online here – a lot of effort went into it but I can’t promise it will be the most exciting thing you’ve ever read!

As I wrap up my stay in Greece, the first country of the European leg of my travels, I’m preparing to make my way north into Albania next, first stopping in Kalampaka to see the nearby Meteora (“suspended in air”) monasteries. A big part of my travel experience in Europe is the opportunity to explore my roots, which is very meaningful to me. I am really looking forward to meeting family from my Oma’s side in Germany for the first time. I also plan to visit my Oma’s home village of Klodebach (now named Kłodobok) as well as my Opa’s home city of Kraków in Poland. I also hope to get the chance to explore some of the places in Switzerland where my mom’s side of the family originates from, I have the excellent research and documented travels from my first cousin once removed Linda to guide me in this endeavor!

Monastery of the Holy Trinity at Meteora (I’m adding this in after originally writing this post, the Meteora monasteries were incredible!).