People!

This morning I went on the same running course as yesterday. I knocked three minutes off my time from having the benefit of knowing the terrain. And no walking or stops. It felt good.

After a small lunch, I returned to the same beach as yesterday. There were a few more people there today. And it also appears as if this is a topless beach.

While that sounds appealing in theory, in reality it’s not. The women that go topless tend to be older and massive. Those that are more attractive tend to be self conscious, prudish or there with their over protective boyfriends/husbands.

I ended up at the same spot as yesterday, about 50 yards from a couple of older women. Before long, an older gent joined them and stripped down to the buck. Okay. I guess this is an anything goes type of place. What the hell. I aced my shorts and sunned my bare bottom.

It was quite the liberating feeling. While I don’t have any intentions of frequenting hedonist joints anytime soon, it felt good to proverbially flip off one of society’s strange customs.

Afraid of burning my bum, I put my shorts back on and took a walk up the beach. Along the way I met an Australian girl named Laura. She was much more talkative than the girl yesterday. She is also backpacking and was surprised how deserted Ios is given the great weather. We parted ways and on my way out I told her to meet me for dinner at a taberna near the top of the hill. She said she’s on a budget and cooking in.

I returned to my hotel, got cleaned up and eventually made my way out to dinner. I had told Laura I’d be there at 6:30 if she changed her mind. When I got there, it was empty. I figured she wasn’t coming so I left to go back to the hotel and pick up my camera, which I forgot to bring with me.

Back at the same restaurant, I sat down and ordered some white wine. Before I had a chance to order my dinner, a group of people showed up at the restaurant. Laura was one of them and she brought friends.

A couple, Rob and Girl1, and a two friends, Henry and Daisy, had just gotten to the island this afternoon and were staying at Laura’s hotel, where they had all just met. I joined them for dinner.

While we were dining, other people started to gradually show up. A woman from Los Angeles and her possible boyfriend from Chile sat nearby while two or three other couples sat outside. Ios has finally started to resemble a travel destination.

Our group was also joined by one of the roaming cats in the area. While this restaurant has a dog to keep the cats away, he was apparently asleep on the job. I found out that this was the same cat that had slashed Daisy’s wrist earlier that day when she went to pet it. She had some lovely gashes. And the cat allegedly had “grande cajones”, which I explained to the guy from Chile in his native tongue.

At that point, a bottle of wine deep, the LA woman began to open up to our group about her business endeavors. She owns three medicinal marijuana stores along Venice Beach and claimed the Chile guy is her landlord. At the end of her meal she handed us all ads and coupons for her store. We were all thoroughly amused.

When she and her date left, our waiter came to our table with a round of shots of a drink they make themselves. Where have I heard this before? He wouldn’t name them or describe them. “Just drink.” So we did.

I was pleasantly surprised as the warm, sweet, cinnamon and nutmeg flavored liquor flowed over my tongue and down my throat. I had another - Laura didn’t want hers since she was feeling ill from the water somewhere she was before. She ended up calling it a night after we left a few minutes later.

The rest of us decided to test our luck and find an open bar in Chora. We walked around for a few minutes and found an open place, becoming the first customers of the night.

I continued to drink wine as the other guys had beers and the girls had fruity drinks of some sort. Another stray cat found its way in, passing in between all our legs several times while we sat in the open air. He eventually went into the bar area, sat down on the floor and looked like he was waiting to order a drink. The bar tender came out to us to sit and chat and the cat followed. At Rob’s urging, the cat jumped up on Rob’s lap and spent the next half hour there, as Rob gently petted his head.

We took off from there and made our way to one more bar. I talked with Daisy for a while about my travels and hers, as I drank a Greek beer called Mythos. We wrapped things up after one beer there. They continued on. I went back to bed.

Tomorrow I leave Ios to go back to Athens. After today, I’ll actually bring some fond memories with me.

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Part of trip: Europe Backpacking

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