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We went to Kos for a week in April to get some sunshine and explore a piece of the Mediterranean. We stayed in a beautiful hotel in Kos Town. Our room overlooked the Aegean Sea and across the water we could see Turkey.
When we got there we wandered around town and found a beachside restaurant called Papa's Beach Resort. We were served by a man named Apostilis and I swear he is related to Rocky Balboa. He was very entertaining to listen to and we even got him a little fired up when talking about Cyprus and the Greek vs Turk conflict in history there.
This is where we had our first Greek Salad of the trip.
The language barrier was a bit more of a struggle here then in France as in France we could at least try a bit. We stopped at a grocery store and I asked if I could use the bathroom. She didn't understand. I acted it out for her and she took me to the toilet paper aisle. 😊
We were there before tourist season which very much worked to our advantage with some minor drawbacks like buses not running as
often. Also, we went into the tourist office to get some information and recommendations and a quote from the girl working there, "I don't know, I wish I could tell you what I would recommend." Shouldn't you know as it is your job we thought? Luckily we are industrious and can figure things out for ourselves.
The whole island is full of stray cats and dogs. They all seem to get along for the most part. Colin and I had a lesson is sexual education as we watched some cats doing their business. It is really heartbreaking actually as the male clamps his jaw onto the females neck while she cries out and tries to get away... and Colin now has strong feelings against domestic abuse towards female cats.
The island is covered in Roman and Medieval ruins and you can walk and climb all over them. The island had an earthquake in the 30's (I believe it was) and they were able to use it as an excuse to uncover even more ruins.
We saw the structure of a temple dedicated to Aphrodite and the myth goes that if you look at a picture of the temple
you may catch a glimpse of the Goddess of Love and Harmony. (Check out my pictures to have a try!) 😊
We had gyros everyday just about! They were so delicious and simple really. Pita, lettuce, tomato, onion, meat, taziki. And strangly, sometimes french fries.
We rented scooters for two days and that was soooo much fun. We road along the coast on these high up cliffs on one side and mountains covered in goats on the other side. As it is spring, there were so many baby goats and they were so cute. We passed a bus stop where some goats were patiently waiting. We tried to tell them that the bus service wasn't running but they must speak Greek too because they didn't seem to understand.
We visited some hot springs. That was pretty cool, or should I say hot. Sitting by the ocean, with our feet dipped into boiling hot water, we were pretty relaxed.
We road up a mountain to a town called Zia. The island peaks at a mountain that runs along the center. There are so many cliffs and when you look down you feel like you might drive right off the
edge. Apparently during tourist season there are crazy tourists zipping all over the place so I'm sure that someone has actually driven off the edge before. Don't worry, its a small island, they wouldn't tumble too far.
We road past a salt lake where flamingos stop while migrating. I think I saw some but they were too far away to be sure. We had lunch on the beach; greek salad, gyros and coke in glass bottles.
That night we were sun burnt and exhausted. We bought some Ouzo to sample. It is the famous Greek liquor, it tastes simular to sambuca. I had one sip and moved on to wine, which is also very well done is Greece.
We set out on our second day of scootering around. We took an amazing mountainy trail to get to Kardamena, a town on the other side of the island. Colin and I have great luck with directions. I wouldn't say that we are good at directions because half to time we 'think' we know where we are and usually I say go left and he says go right. But in the end we always find our way and it seems so easy.
We met a girl from Britain in Kardamena. Apparently it is a popular destination for partying Brits to spend the summer. She told us about the place called Plaka Forest so we headed there next. It was full of peacocks. They were up in trees, or on the ground and some displayed their feathers. It was so strange because we couldn't figure out if they were wild or if it was a kind of peacock nature reserve. Even stranger was the number of stray cats that lived in the forest with the peacocks.
One peacock would call out and then they would each respond as if taking attendance.
We went to a beach which had beautiful white sand and inviting blue water. We were the only ones on the beach for a mile! It was fantasic! I went for a swim 😊
We found a place close to our hotel that was owned by a Australian Greek who moved back to Greece with his whole family. We met the whole gang; mama, brother, wives from Thailand. We also dined on Mama's famous mousaka which was delicious. He had the strangest accent that moved between Greek and Australian.
It
was a great trip with lots of relaxation, sunshine, adventure and great food.
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