Yiannis and his wife Stavroula are excellent hosts - exceedingly warm, thoughtful, and happy to have guests. They are very gentle and kind. They keep very long and busy hours during the summer high season but will always stop to say hello when passing by and they always make time for any questions you have. Yiannis dropped me off at his favourite restaurant with a view and picked me up after a few hours - timed with the arrival of new guests he was picking up from the port - which gave me time to hike and amble around that part of the countryside for an hour or so.

I had a beautiful time relaxing in Kini, hiking over to Delphini beach, going to Ermoupolis to wander through the streets to look at abandoned buildings, and getting a glimpse of more fishing villages in the south (there's a 4pm bus from Kini to Ermoupolis that goes to all the villages). If I had had more time I would have perfected a routine between swimming, hiking, and writing on the terrace when the sun is low.

I didn't try all the restaurants but there was enough range to keep me curious and fed without breaking the bank: there's a cheap place for gyros/souvlaki when you're just slumming it for lunch on the beach (they also seem to have the best wifi), next door is the Blue Harmony Hotel which seems to have a bit more of a 'food scene' going on - try it for contemporary Greek cuisine (i.e. you know, with some fancy plating, interesting sauces, things like sea bream carpaccio, different kind of bread, etc), and then there's Sunset, the restaurant with the canopy made up of outstretched tree branches -- it feels elegant but in a low-key way to me. Like eating at someone's home who has good taste in food and surroundings.

For a snack/minimal lunch at Sunset, I would order yogurt with honey and nuts. The honey tastes of wildflowers, very aromatic. When my friends ate there on their last night, I asked for saganaki flambé (a bit of ceremony since they had seen this), which the server couldn't do, but he came back with a special contraption he'd devised to offer flambé for dessert at the end.

I'll definitely be back to Syros and to stay with Yiannis and Stavroula. They had asked if I wanted to stay one more night; almost wish I had!