An Endless Summer is delighted to announce the winners of the inaugural, and highly coveted ‘The Tzatziki Awards‘.
These awards were carefully judged over two weeks to benefit those that follow on their own ‘do-before-you-feel-old’ Greek Island sojourn.
After committing these gongs to your mind, forget them, throw away your watch, guide book, phone, and itinerary…then immerse yourself in the beauty of the Greek Islands that, like me, will unexpectedly steal your heart and change you forever…for the better.
Lady and gentleman (don’t want to overstate my readership) without dipping into the history anymore…I give you The Tzatziki Awards:
* Best meal: In Paros, stewed goat in a full-bodied red wine, served with an even better red wine
* Best song: A guy in Paros singing in Greek about his lost goat…um…next award please
* Best use of feta: By a chef in a little beach village in Paros where the feta was the size of a main plate and the Greek salad was the size of a small cup
* Best misrepresentation of a landmark: The quarry in Naxos, almost the biggest item on the map and yet I have gone over speed humps with more impact, and finding it was harder than ordering a Greek salad without feta
* Best tourist moment: In Santorini watching hundreds tourists photograph the amazing sunset with their camera flashes going off #sunsetsdontneedflash
* Best diving: Me into the water in Naxos as a stray tennis ball was flying towards me from two huge Germans playing beach killer tennis on the water line, ducking these games is a national past time
* Best beaches: Milos, there are 80 of them and each one deserved a swim
* Best women: Mykonos, it is the only sight worth seeing on the island and each one deserved a drink. It was an expensive night
* Best contradiction: Santorini. It is full of tourists, very hot black beaches, everything is expensive…yet you cannot ignore the romance of the volcanic island
* Best surprise: How many dishes the Greeks can justify adding chips or crisps to
* Best way to destroy a good product: Using the GoPro camera (a small camera without a screen or viewfinder, designed for high action photos that you look at later) on a long stick to take your romantic photo at dinner…I termed this ‘GoAmateur’
* Best on show: Milos – go before everyone realises how it is the best in Greece…not long now with my readership figures
I would like to say these awards will be a usual occurrence but as they say round here “there is no usual in Greece.”
Be careful as there is one ‘usual’…you may not have the Greek Islands high on your list, but once here you will never want to leave…I have found another home here.
Photos of each Island are below for the super keen.
Milos: With over 75 beaches it is by far the best Island I went to, a good combination of everything and can be easily driven around in a day…not too many tourists but not too quiet
Naxos: Voted highly by everyone, which means it is of course crowded and only relaxing before 10am…all in all I would miss this Island
Paros: Relaxing and largely untouched, toured the island with two girls from Melbourne who were great fun…great place to relax between party islands
Mykonos: The Party Island
Santorini: Too many tourists, too expensive, too much…but worth every moment. It is a must visit for all the wrong reasons…but as most are honeymooners or the like it just works
Great reading at 2am whilst I feed the little guy! Made me laugh..with your Jeremyisms. Best song – bahaha.. Years ago I travelled the Greek islands – and visited 12 islands over a course of 6 weeks. My fav was Paxos and Anti Paxos in the Ionian Sea – like Milos (which I didn’t visit) I’m sure (to me) it was the most authentic and least affected by tourism – definitely no cruise ships and no Brits! The harder the island to get to (no airport) the better. Keeping enjoying x