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We had checked in online and were surprised that we could get seats 4A & B on the flight. We also arrived at the airport very early and completed the baggage drop equally early, so it was no surprise that our bags came out onto the carousel at Kos (International Airport) last. Well, Marg’s bag did, but Geoff’s did not seem to come through until Marg spotted it on a trolley that two men were using in their collection of bags for some group of folk who had already left the airport on their bus. (Marg saves the day again). A quick authoritative approach from Geoff rescued the bag and we were on our way.
The taxi ride only reinforced the earlier observation that road signs (read double lines) are purely for decoration in any part of Greece. When we asked to go to the Poseidon Hotel – he immediately said –“so you know Manoli, he’s in Australia now”. Everyone knows everyone here. As it turns out it is Manoli’s brother that we were going to see. They were waiting for us and Toula, the wife drove us to this little house that we are staying in here. The lady across
the road had made the beds and turned on the electricity etc. and we just flopped into bed.
The house was basically a one roomed building built as part of the Italian barracks when they invaded and had control of Kos. Sometime after the end of the war, these barrack rooms were given to people from Kos who had lost their own houses. The walls are nearly 1/2 metre thick. The current owners gutted the room and because of the exceptionally high ceilings were able to install a mezzanine floor which has the bedroom and a couch, toilet and hand basin up there. It is open to the downstairs area, but as it is only us here that doesn’t matter. Downstairs is a new kitchen (with every implement you could wish for), a bathroom and laundry with washing machine and drier (which we made good use of the first day, having saved up all our worn clothes from the past 5 days) table and chairs, an armchair and a couch. Outside is a little courtyard with a huge charcoal bbq (could roast a lamb on a spit on it) table and chairs and an umbrella. So you see, even though
we are doing it tough, we have all we need.
The Poseidon Hotel couple are cousins of Jason (who lent us the house) and they have been most generous to us. We can take the computer down there and he had given us his Wi-Fi number at no charge. They have also insisted that we can’t pay for drinks. Yesterday they organised for us to hire a car at a very reduced price – half price I think and he made sure that we got a good car. More about driving on the wrong side of the road, in a country that has a very relaxed attitude to road rules.
Although we have all the facilities we need to cook at home, we have been very indulgent and eaten out at a number of the restaurants in the town of Kos. There is a huge number to choose from and given that the high season is still a month away, there is never a problem getting a table. We are actually becoming quite adept at escaping the tentacles of the staff that stand on the street and tell you how theirs is the best place in town. Telling them we
only speak English only works occasionally. We have tended to seek out the ones that appear to do the local food, and with that we have gone with the local wines – specifically a rose’ (being a compromise between red and white) that is made on Kos and is quite good. We have not been disappointed with any of the seafood dishes, and even the seafood spaghetti is great.
Obviously, in a place like Kos there are a lot of the things to see and do are at different points around the island and the only way to reach them reasonably is by car. So I agreed against my better judgement that we would hire the car as described above. It wasn’t long before I realised that it would have been better fun staying put and having my testicles slow roasted while red hot skewers were driven through my ears! After 45 years of driving (which I normally enjoy) on the left hand side of the road, there was quite a bit of adjustment to make, especially to my spacial awareness of the width of the vehicle to my right. By the end of the day, Marg was able to
take a few breaths between shouting at me to move to the left. Just to make things interesting, the only maps available are of the tourist/graphical representation type and it is very difficult to judge just how far it is between places or turn-offs. On top of that, direction signs are always placed at the far side of the intersection where you wanted to turn!!! That makes it a bit difficult even at the heady speed of 40 kph. And on many occasions we were forced to go for plan B – whatever that was. Turning around to try another approach? Out of the f*@#ing question!!
Marg did get to go for a swim after we had lunch at a little town called Mastahari (I think she thought it might be her last chance ever), and she was quite adamant that the water was warmer that in Melbourne. I did not bother with that as I was barely coping with the driving without being uncomfortable from residual salt under my clothes. However, at the very end of the day, she did talk me into getting into the water at Therma where thermal waters bubble out of the rocks right on
the sea-shore. The air was full of sulphur, and the water was very hot near the source, but we found that we could sit in the water on the sea side of the pool that had been created to retard the flow from going straight into the sea. It had been a hot day and combined with the effects of the thermal water here many locals that had taken on the appearance of the lobsters in the restaurants. Hiring the car, scary though it was, enabled us to travel from one end of the island to another. There are some beautiful beaches at the western end of the island and on our way home we went up a little mountain road to a town called Zia. From here you can see much of Kos island and over to some of the villages in Turkey. It is supposed to be quite beautiful at night with the twinkling lights, but Geoff wasn’t in for the very windy road Sat night.
Kos is quite green compared to the surrounding islands and has underground water available so the light rainfall does not affect it too much. Most of the trees are gums or some
sort of pine tree.
The next day we hired bicycles and rode along the coast for a couple of kms looking for a beach to swim at. There are plenty of beaches but most of them near the harbour are covered in large stones and make getting into the water very very difficult. We found a place with a bit of shade and thought we’d give it a try. I don’t know if all of you are aware, but Geoff is a bit of a collector – wherever we go he looks for things to buy as a souvenir of that place. At this beach he went a bit far! As he was taking off his sandal he found a used condom stuck to it! Later we discovered that he had also sat in some chewing gum and it was transferred from his bathers to the bike seat. We did collect a small pebble from the beach to bring home and opted to leave the other items behind. The island around the harbour is very flat and just the thing for bike riding.
Monday 30th. This morning we had a “3 island tour” on the itinerary, and our nagging colds
were not going to stop us. The day turned out really well with the first port of call being a nearby island called Pserimos. It is quite a barren island, but it does support about 45 families that live around their little harbour. It has a good beach approx. 200 mts long and 2 tavernas that spill down onto the sand so you can enjoy your swim and have a beer as you get out of the water. That’s living. There were 2 or 3 other stalls on the concourse from the jetty selling shell ornaments and other decorative things made from sea products. Lunch was provided on the boat before travelling further on to the island of Kalymnos. This island is renowned for its sea sponge industry and has a population of 11,000 if you believe the captain or 17,000 if you listen to the guide! As the captain lives here, I think I know who to believe. We were taken to a sponge shop (just the two of us) and felt obliged to buy an exceptionally expensive sponge which we probably won’t be able to take back into Oz. Marg later saw the same thing packaged up in
a chemist with a pumice stone for half the price. We wandered the island through little alleyways and cobbled lanes which were very picturesque. On the way back we stopped and anchored off a little uninhabited island and had a swim in the most amazing turquoise water for half an hour. We had snorkels and there wasn’t a fish to be seen. They did have some fish farms just off Kalymnos and we also saw a few dolphins who cruise that area in the hope of getting a feed.
We alighted the boat (after another arduous day at the office), went home and had a shower and got dressed to go to “party night” (bbq and karaoke and dancing )at the Poseidon hotel. It was an entertaining night and there were some guests who had beautiful voices and Ange (the owner) was a good mc and sang and danced a lot. Geoff got up with all the men and did the men’s gig which was Bohemian Rhapsody which used to be Marg’s favourite – now she not so sure. Under massive duress, Marg got up and joined in the Greek dance.
On Wednesday we took a boat over to Turkey
to a town called Bodrum. You must go through customs and pay port tax, but a visa is not necessary for a short stay. A couple of hundred other people decided to do the same and we were stuck in a queue for more than half an hour before we reached the boat. When we arrived there was a woman holding a sign for our boat advising that there was a free tour of the city. We decided to do it. As it turned out we were the only ones on the tour and it was a personal guided tour, first in a small 6 seater bus (new and very comfortable) and later to return to the city in a private car supplied by the jewellery factory. It was part historical education and part money making tour. We visited a hill just outside the town with old windmills from the time the Greeks had invaded (they did a lot of to-ing and fro-ing, one century Greece owned the area and another century the Turks owned it. The view was great overlooking two harbours. There were some camels up there and Marg got talking in broken English to three guys with
the animals and one of them had worked in Sydney for ten years. They said that it was great money (don’t know what he had done but it would have been manual labour) in Oz compared to Turkey. Our guide told us that many people were paid 6 Turkish lire per hour (3 Euro) and that was enough to keep you. We saw some other sights and then came THE VISIT to the JEWELLERY factory. We had not been intending to buy anything, or so the story goes and Marg does not buy jewellery usually. The place was very impressive, guards at the doors, huge underground rooms full of the most beautiful jewellery. We saw some artisans (mainly from Armenia) working and were told that they get their diamonds from De Beers in South Africa and have them laser cut in Amsterdam. The rubies were from Burma, sapphires from Ceylon etc. and” which one do you like dear lady?” Geoff was gobsmacked when Marg started trying on rings. We were escorted to a large room with sofas and oil paintings and ancient tea making equipment with the loot on velvet covered trays, served wine, orange juice, whatever we wanted and
negotiations began. Geoff was busy having heart attacks, but Marg only had to mention the $25,000 kit car and he was forced to admit he was getting out of things lightly. I have some trinkets to show you ladies when we get home.
Our guide then took us to a nice restaurant on the seashore (owned by a good friend of course) and we had lunch with her. She then took us to the little alleyways which were full of shops and Geoff had his spend up -another pair of shorts and a T shirt – Tommy Hilfiger no less – (knock off of course). By the time we got back to Kos, walked back to our house, made some dinner we were rooted to say the least.
Today is our last day as we leave at a very horrible hour in the morning tomorrow. We have to be at the airport about 4.45 which means getting up about an hour before, as it is a half hour trip to the airport. We are ringing the taxi driver who collected us from the airport as he spoke excellent English and furthermore the car was a Mercedes! Next instalment from Paris.
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Ian Ridley
non-member comment
Enjoying your journey
Hi Geoff & Marg, enjoying reading all the news re your trip. You seem to have seen part of the true Greece and not the real tourist type experience most people would get when going to Greece. Please keep in touch especially as you are now starting on our trip next year. While in Paris any tips would be gratefully appreciated re down to earth restaurants, travel tips etc. I would appreciate the same info for Prague. Geoff no doubt you havn't lost your touch for sniffing out good eating and drinking, ( just remember Coles/Myer are not paying our expenses) Anyway enjoy the rest of the tour , Regards, Ian & Karen.