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!!