We arrived in Athens on Monday at midday and stayed the night near the port, ready to jump on a ferry first thing on Tuesday morning. Our ferry landed on Amorgos at the port of Katapola at midday, giving us time to walk around our first town of white walls with blue highlights before our bus left for Aegiale at 4pm. It was everything we hoped for, including being very quiet. We’d chosen this island for being typical of the area while not being a major tourist destination.

When we got to our hotel, we were met by a girl who barely spoke English. She showed us a suite with two rooms, a double bed in each, and a balcony overlooking the water. After a session of sign language and pointing at bookings on phones, we realised that in fact, this was our room for the next two nights. A young man in a bar gave us directions around the tiny town, and we ended up going back there for dinner. With all the tourists already gone, it was to be the last night they served food, but Constantine gave us tips for what to see on the island and posed for a photo with Sandra.

Sandra had asked her colleagues what they would like her to bring back from Greece for them. Four of them immediately stated that they wanted a Greek boy. We decided that photos were the best we could do, and Constantine was a good sport.

Our first stop was the Moni Panagias Chozoviotissas monastery. While not as high up as Tiger’s Nest in Bhutan, the monastery, like any structure built on the side of a cliff, was impressive. We were allowed to walk around inside, and drank a honeyed wine in a small room at the top, looking out at the azure of the Mediterranean Sea.

Next stop was a walk down to Anna Beach where, apparently, Luc Besson filmed Le Grand Bleu. The tiny beach was already crowded with a few groups, including a number of women sunbaking topless. We splashed around in the water for an hour or so, then left just as three young men arrived and stripped off entirely. Apparently lots of the remote beaches in the Greek Islands are free for naturists.

With the bus still an hour away, we walked up to Chora, the capital and lost ourselves in the narrow streets of endless white, eventually sitting down for a waffle in a gorgeous plaza under an olive tree. We were so comfortable that we missed the last bus, and with very little traffic on the island, we had to catch one of the four taxis on the island.

As much as we loved Amorgos, we decided to book a ferry to Santorini Friday morning, which would give us time for a look around Naxos on the way.