Folegandros touched my soul.
Perhaps because I had just come from the relative circus of Santorini, where the selfie-stick wielding tourist hordes were all mad af.
I first set foot on Folegandros in 2015, after a sailboat chartered by a group of friends sought safe harbor from strong meltemi winds. We rented two cars at the small port town and set off to explore the Cycladic island.
It was mid-October and the high season was over. Most tavernas were closed, as well as shops and hotels. This suited us just fine as long as we could get dinner off the boat. What we got was an empty beach on a clear and warm day, and a quiet, idyllic town in the mountains.
We found one open restaurant for dinner and the food was passable at best. So we had a second dinner at the souvlaki shop. It’s worth mentioning the souvlaki shop because two years later, when we sailed back to Folegandros, it was still there … and we were in the right place.
2015 and 2017 — same crew, same smiles, same full hearts.
With our new friends in Folegandros.
On our second trip, we rode the bus from the harbor to the kastro, the main town. On our way home we met a rowdy group of Finns who urged us to visit the nearby island of Sifnos, which we had never heard of.
So we calibrated our sails for Sifnos, little suspecting the love affair to come. But that’s another story.
So long, Folegandros, and epharisto for the memories.
Additional photos provided by Frankie Drogin & Michael Girman.