Apollonia in Sifnos

In the evenings we would take the bus and to go Apollonia, the Hora, the capital of the island. In order to get to Apollonia from Camares you have to drive up and down two mountains, so the bus ride was quite adventurous as well as being spectacular. Apollonia itself is spread over three hills and is joined with Artemonas, another town which is also built over hills.

The streets are very narrow

so as to protect from the dazzling sun,

all the houses are white and are whitewashed regularly.

You are always walking uphill or downhill

going up steps or coming down steps

and if you look through the alleyways between the houses you can see all the way down the mountain and onto the sea.

The main street, called Cyclades Place, is full of bars, restaurants and traditional coffee shops

as well as some very nice shops. This is a jewellery shop, one of my favourites, and even though when I took this picture it was after 8:30 in the evening, it was still closed. The shops, bars and  restaurants stay open until 4:00 in the morning, so some are quite late in opening.

The sweets, pastries, jams and bonbons in this place are utterly delicious and we brought some back with us.

Sunsets are beautiful in Apollonia, whether you look at them directly, or indirectly, as in the reflections of the bougainvillea on the wall in this photo

One evening we went to eat at this restaurant, called Elia kai Kapari, Olive and Caper, because we wanted to enjoy the fantastic view. Unfortunately, it was extremely windy

so instead we sat at the inner terrace. We were later joined by the three people who were brave enough to sit on the outer terrace as seen in the previous photograph. They'd evidently decided they might blow away...

this place used to be an olive oil factory

and you can still see the presses. It looked cosy inside

but we were happy on the terrace

which was beautifully lit.