Chios

Sad goodbyes to Molyvos and Litsa, our ‘Sea Melody’ Pension owner, one and half hour bus ride and three hours on the ferry and we arrived in the port and hub of Chios, Chios Town. 9pm and it was mayhem! We headed for the other end of the Port but were struggling to find accommodation! A German couple approached us and lead us to their accommodation up one of the side streets – evidently they had been through the same accommodation situation.

11pm and we joined the mass of Greeks seated at the waterfront Tavernas and enjoyed a great fish dinner!   The Taverna was situated so close to the water that when the gigantic 'Chios Nissos' ferry arrived it felt like it was going to join us for dinner!



We travelled the 26km by bus to Emborios (thanks Chas and Di), a small fishing village in a sandy Bay with two blacked pebbled beaches situated nearby.   Our place is the yellow building behind the jetty! 

This area, the Southern region, is famous for mastic, a kind of gum extracted from the trees and now used for medicinal purposes; the area is also known for the unique patterns on the houses and buildings achieved by mixing the black volcanic sand with cement and painting in white lime over the top then scraping off parts of the lime to form a grey pattern.
 
We thought it was a lot quieter here for this time of year until we hiked to nearby Komi, a beach town which was crowed with Greeks, mind you it was Sunday!

No scooters here, so we hired a car (30 Euros with no additional mileage fees) and off we went exploring in our little yellow Hyundai!!  Spectacular rugged West Coast with rocky coves and sandy bays dotted with 'look out point' turrets; rugged boulder landscape in the North, towns of grey stone perched on the cliffs like something out of a Peter Jackson movie, fishing villages and the Mastic villages in the South. 


Thank goodness our car was small enough to fit through some of the incredibly narrow village streets - phew!  We also went back to Chios Town and found the famous 'windmills'. 

After 12 hours of exploring we were pleased to get back to our little village.  Chios is an interesting Island with lots to see!!! 

We climbed one of the highest points surrounding Emborios - spectacular views!!
 

Extra shots of Molyvos

Lesvos

We are now on the beautiful Island of Lesvos after completing a 13 hour ferry ride.  We managed to secure some horizontal room and were able to sleep which was good. Our travel companion was a 67 year old German who kept us entertained with his stories of windsurfing around Spain, France ,Morocco, Greece and Turkey.  He travels in his hand made camper, an amazing man, fit, heathy and a free spirit, an inspiration as to the lifestyle you can have at any age.

We arrived at the attractive port of Mytilini at 8am and our first thoughts were of coffee!  We found a cafe overlooking the fortress and planned our next move.  Mytilini seemed an interesting place so we decided to find accomodation and have an explore. Finding accomodation proved quite difficult at this early hour but we happened to find a man who had a friend in Molyvos (one of the towns on our list), who would meet us off the bus and take us to a pension.  One and a half hours later we were established in our beautiful room overlooking the small port. We are only 10m from the water and to our left up a large hill is an 14th century Byzantine-Genoese Castle which is floodlit at night;  to our right is the small working fishing port with it's Tavernas. We are smack bang in the middle overlooking it all.  The sights, smells and sounds of scooters, boats, people, cats, dogs and food.  It's amazing!





We hired a 50cc scooter to explore the western side of the island. First stop was the nearby town of Petra with it's nice beach and well hidden tourist shops.  A good place to stroll around in the evenings.


Through a mountain range of olive groves and small villages to the seaside fishing village of Sigri with its castle, beautiful beach and sleepy village. We had a look around and wondered if we had time to move on to Skala Eresou, only a 45 min trip on a good dirt road (so the book said)!  Off we went, only to find a gravel track through the mountains that took over an hour and a half to navigate with the constant worry of falling off, breakdown or puncture!  Man the stress of holidays!!!  Glad to say the 50cc didn't let us down and we were very happy to get to an asphalt road again.



 Skala Eresou is the must see town for many who come to Lesvos. It has a nice 2k long beach, half of which has a board walk with restaurants and cafes, the other half is devoted to water sports and the usual pay sun loungers and sun umbrellas (8 Euros).  But it is the spirit of the Ancient Poet Sappho, born here and who devoted her work to women that brings many Lesbians here. We found the place  mainstream but apparently it gets wild here in September during the Women Together festival. 

It's a relaxed, arty place with a good vibe and a good beach, well worth the visit (I'm sounding like a travel writer).



The rest of our days have been spent hiking, swimming, enjoying the food and the people and Chas's favourite, the sunsets!

So onward in a few more days to Chios after a days look around Mytilini.  Waving goodbye for the meantime.

 16^th June

Sadly said goodbye to Alonnisos and took a 7 hour ferry to the last of the Sporades Group, Skyros. We arrived at the small port late and took a bus up to the Hora 10k away. No one to meet us off the bus and it took us about an hour and a half to find a place to stay. Prices here , a little more than the other islands, probably as it is home to many Athenians.
The Hora is a group of white
washed homes, clinging to a cliff top, with a church and fortress on the top. The fortress was closed as it was suffering earthquake damage.
 Skyros is famous for it’s little ponies which are slowly dying out, it’s traditional homes and also as the home of the poet Rupert Brooke, " If I should die think only this of me: That there’s some corner of a foreign field that is forever England".  He has a statue in his honour which caused some controversy when erected in the 1930’s.
 Spent the day exploring the town and surrounding beaches but Skyros failed to live up to the quaintness and charm of the other three islands. We had fun though, due to the amazing kindness and generosity of the locals.  No one locks up their homes, motorbikes or cars here and we even saw two cases of beer left outside the supermarket overnight! How long would they last in NZ!  Everyone asks you for coffee, ouzo or desert  and one guy at the travel agency gave us his car for half a day to go exploring. How amazing!
So after two nights, off again with a 5 hour bus and ferry trip back to Athens, missing the riots by one day, and now on an overnight 12 hour ferry to Lesvos. Hope we can sleep!!

08th June  Alonnisos

Twenty minutes by Quick Cat (18 Euros) and we arrived at Alonnisos’s laid back little Port of Patitiri with two rocky cliffs surrounding a beach bay, fronted by tavernas and cafes and the continual “comings and goings” of fishing boats, yachts and ferries ! 

It all just gets better and better,  a smaller version of the other Islands but with a huge Marine Park which was set up in 1992 primarily to protect the Mediterranean Monk Seal, sadly only 400 remain – not much chance of seeing one!  Great pine forests and tracks, olive groves and a mixture of sandy and pebbled beaches.

On our way to look for rooms we were intercepted by Nikos who took us to Hotel Haravgi above the town – we secured a self contained studio for 25 Euros with great views over looking the Port.

We’ve been here 4 nights now and what fun!  We hiked the 4kms to the old Hora perched on the hill above  the Port – a mixture of old and new after an earthquake in 1965.  We explored the nearby beaches and stripped off and swam in the rocky coves!  Great having our goggles!  The water here is incredibly clear being a marine park.


 We rented a 125cc scooter from Road Runner Scooters after Helen  (the owner) advised it was much more practical than a 50cc bike!  No licience problems here!   We explored the island  (about 20k long)  swimming and hiking some tracks along the way!  We discovered a cute little fishing village called Steni Vala 10 kms from Patitiri - wonderful!.. And more  tiny fishing villages and stunning beaches.

We loved  Steni Vala so much we  decided to move and stay 4 nights here – arrived yesterday with scooter!  (Helen even gave us a lift here with our bags as we’d hired our bikes from her for a week). Staying in rooms called Drosostalia Seaview Rooms with kitchen, a huge balcony overlooking the tiny port and beach, only 20 Euros.  Making the most of all this luxury as it will become more difficult to find and more expensive as the month moves on and demand increases.  (Only mentioning costs in this blog to give those interested an idea of budget).


Returning from a walk last evening , we found we had lost the room keys,  not a problem for the owner (who also Owns Fanari Taverna) who plied us with free ouzo until another set was found.  Think we might loose them again tonight haha!