Day 6: Last Day on Sifnos and Travelling Home

Friday 23rd June 2023

Soaking up some last-day sun

Today was going to be a long day. Our return flight from Athens lands at 22:55, so we won’t be back in Norfolk until the early hours of Saturday morning. Still, we had a few more hours on Sifnos and were determined to squeeze every bit of joy out of it.

We ate at the hotel, as we’d done every morning, and I got my beach gear ready for a few hours of sunbathing. I thought Ed might try and squeeze in a final walk, as he’s more into hiking than me and likes to explore as much as possible whenever he’s in Greece. However, he seemed content to join me at the beach, so we walked along the sand and returned to our usual spot at To Kohyli. It was early, and the sunbeds were empty, but the sky was clear, and it promised another hot day.

After warming up a bit on the sun lounger, I went for a short swim, then let Ed talk me into an early beer – I would be driving once we landed back in the UK, but that wasn’t for more than 12 hours yet, and there’s nothing quite like a cold beer on a hot day in Greece!

Ferry to Piraeus and Returning to Athens

Our ferry was due to depart at 12:15, so we returned to the hotel at 11am to shower and finish packing our belongings, most of which I’d already stuffed back into my case the night before. By 11:30, we were heading back past our earlier beach spot and toward the port. I used MarineTraffic to check on the ferry’s progress. I calculated it would be a bit late arriving, most likely reaching Sifnos closer to 12:30. Armed with this information, we decided there was time for one last Sifnos beer, which we savoured under the shade at Cafe Stavros.

Shortly after midday, we joined the growing crowd at the port and stood chatting while waiting for the boat to appear on the horizon. As predicted, it came into view just before half past, and by 12:35, we were on board with our luggage heading back out to sea.

The crossing back to Piraeus was uneventful, albeit slightly more turbulent than our arrival. I felt okay, though, but relieved when we docked and disembarked. In contrast to our rushed arrival to Piraeus five days earlier, we had plenty of time to return to Athens as it was only just past 3pm, and our flight didn’t take off until 9:05pm. Although the port was in its usual crowded chaos, we were happy to amble north towards the metro station.

We had contemplated stopping in the centre of Athens to eat and do a bit of sightseeing, but as we’d both seen it before and we didn’t want to get too hot and sweaty for the rest of the journey, we chose to stay on the train through to the airport.

Flight Delays and The Final Journey Home

The downside of our decision to avoid stopping in Athens was reaching the airport very early. We entered the terminal shortly before 5pm, a total of four hours ahead of our departure time. On the plus side, it was cool inside the building and not particularly busy. With no bags to check, we headed straight through security and into the departure lounge, then found seats to get comfortable on while we waited.

Unfortunately, our wait was extended when I received a notification on my easyJet app that our flight was delayed for an hour. Although short delays aren’t uncommon, I was nervous that it might get pushed back even further – or even cancelled – so I kept checking the app for updates and using FlightRadar to see if I could track the outbound plane we would be returning on.

To cut a long story short, the plane eventually arrived about 90 minutes behind schedule, so we took off closer to 11pm local time, but I was mostly relieved that it hadn’t been worse. We landed at Gatwick at 1:15am and were back in the car heading towards Norfolk by 2am. As it was just after the summer solstice, the sunrise was at its earliest, and by the time we reached Norwich, it was mostly daylight, which only made the journey home feel longer. I made it home a little before 5am. I was glad to be back but shattered from the travels, so I went straight to bed to get some overdue sleep!