Saturday--January 29--Bodrum to Kos, Greece

Saturday--January 29--Bodrum to Kos, Greece

When I wake up I look out the window and see it’s stopped raining.  Wow, that was an amazing storm.  I think there was thunder and lightening for at least 5 hours.

I feel much better.  I’m on a ferry boat to KOS, Greece, on the water moving westward.

Turkish tea cup

Tea & cigarettes that’s what I’ll remember about Turkey.  Mostly, the people are kind and helpful. Not always having a hand out to be paid for service.  What a nice change.  Going to KOS don’t know what to expect but only staying one night.

I’m sorry the weather was so bad in Bodrum it looks like a lovely spot.  

Bodrum from the ferry

I saw many fancy cars--mercedes, bmw’s.  The man from Istankoy told me many rich people live in Bodrum.  People with 5 - 10 million he said.  I’m not sure if he meant Turkish Lira or US Dollars, but either way it’s enough.

The breakfast this morning was the best so far.  Although I had the same bread and cheese I’ve had for the past 10 days while in Turkey.  Although I also had a few tomatoes and cucumbers.  Surprisingly I’m not sick of either yet.

I was anxious to get to the harbor.  At 8:30 I asked for a taxi but they said they could take me for 10 TL.  Fine.

I got to the “cruise” harbor and checked to be sure there was a ferry going to KOS.  Yes, I found the right place and the company that had the boat.  The man behind the desk said he tried to call me to pick me up but my cell phone wasn’t working.  Who knows what phone number he had for me.  Oh well I changed hotels anyway.

I talk to the woman, Seda who is in the office and ask her about the different choices of Greek islands to go to at this time of year. She says Rhodes is the only place in winter to stay or the mainland.  

The ferry ride from Bodrum to KOS was only an hour’s journey.  On the boat with me were one very nicely dressed couple (certainly one of the “rich” of Bodrum), 2 Greek men coming to KOS to open an internet cafe, one young girl (maybe 20), one woman Seda the owner of the boat company and some other workers.  The two men from Greece live on the mainland of Greece but said it was easier to drive to Bodrum instead of taking a ferry to KOS.  All in all they were only saving 2-3 hours and had lots of hassle with taking computers and a car on the ferry and across the border.

Leaving Bodrum, that's the Castle

I sat by myself on the boat reading my kindle.  The boat ride was fairly smooth given how bad the weather had been the night before.

Leaving Bodrum

When I arrived in KOS, I needed to go through customs.  It’s kind of a hokie customs place, and we needed to wait until someone got there.  However, the customs agent asked me all kinds of questions to the point where I think he’s going to ask me to open my suitcase.  Really.  I might have expected this at an airport or some size but here.  

The young girl who spoke excellent English told me she lived on KOS and directed me to the hotel.  She gave me her phone number in case I needed help while I was on the island.  Funny, she didn’t give me good direction and I went two blocks too far.  Fortunately it’s a small island and I was not far off.  Everyone speaks English here.

When I arrived, the lobby looked very nice, clean, relatively modern.  A far cry from the first hotel in Bodrum.  O.k. Ayca this one isn’t too bad.  The man at the desk said the room wasn’t ready so I should go to the bar.  

That’s where I met Johanne from Canada.  I had seen her at the dock going through customs holding a big motorcycle helmet and wearing a jacket with a BMW patch and a keychain with a Canadian flag.

Johanne

We started talking and I discovered that she was traveling alone and on her motorcycle.  We talked about our experiences in Turkey and she had a completely different opinion of the Turkish people.  She didn’t find them friendly or helpful.  However, she had been in some smaller areas that I had been.

She said she needed to go to the ferry office to check on her passage to Pireus and I wanted to check the ferry time to Rhodes.  I had paid for the ferry (remember at 6:00 a.m.) and was hoping there was another one later in the day.  Well I knew I was making a mistake by paying Ayca for the ferry ticket from KOS to Rhodes but sometimes you have to cut your loses and deal with it later.  Some mistakes are bigger than others.  In the scheme of things 45 euros was not going to change my life.

Johanne and I decided to go to the ferry office together.  First, they told us our rooms were ready so we took our bags to our perspective rooms.  When I got to the room it was on the side of the building not facing the harbor.  I could see there were other rooms facing the harbor because their doors were open and I knew this was low season.  I walked down to the reception to ask to change rooms but was told there were no more available in the front.

Later I found out from Johanne that she paid less money than I did and got a better room.  She told me she always negotiates and always requests a room away from the elevator.  Where was my room here, next to the elevator.  Oh well only one night.

KOS is a very small island but has a castle.  The hotel is in a great location right on the harbor.  Mostly what there is here are lots of travel offices.  Ferry travel is quite essential in the Greek Islands.

First, we went to the Blue Star ferry office.  Johanna had to use them because she needs a place for her motocycle too.  She was trying to get to Pireus, the port for Athens becuase she is riding to the other side of Greece and then to Venice.

When Johanne had completed her ticket, I aked if there was a 2nd ferry tomorrow besides the 6 a.m.  The answer, I was not surprised, was NO.

We walked next door to Seda's company and they confirmed there would be a 4:20 catamaran to Rhodes tomorrow for 30 euro.

Not only was I not going to get up at 4:30 a.m. but if I had I wouldn’t have been able to see anything on KOS.  It is very unlikely that I would ever come back here so I chose to stay.

It was around 3:00 p.m. and I was fairly hungry.  I asked Johanna if she wanted to get something to eat.  She agreed.

Seda had suggested a restaurant called “Caravelle” but when we walked where she said it was suppose to be, it wasn’t open.  Because of the off season, not alot is open.  We finally found an open restaurant.  We’d walked back to the main street after not finding Caravelle and a man told us it was closed.  We asked him to recommend something that was opened.  He directed us back where we were and told us for sure this other restaurant was open.  

inside the restaurant great old jukebox

We walked back over the the street and yes indeed did find an open restaurant.  We discovered we hadn’t gone far enough the first time.  It had looked so deserted the first time that when we walked over here we were surprised something was open.

What a great find.

the owner, or the man who was running the place had a real sense of humor.

We asked if they had a menu and he said he was the menu.  We asked if they had fish and he said no we only have (and named 4 kinds of inedible meats).  He said there was calamari and ocotpus.  I wasn’t interested in having that and asked if there was just fish.  He said I needed to go with him to choose the fish I wanted.  I went to the kitchen with him and he showed me a container of fish.  There was snapper and something else that looked like Sea Bass.  I asked which was the best and he said the Sea Bass looking one.  He threw it on the scale and it was about 300 grams.

1st he brought us toast and olive tapenade--yummy.

then we asked for Greek salad.  Also delicious.

Then Johanne's plate of mixed fish came--Wow--it had 5 different kinds of fish and she nearly ate it all.  My fish came with the head and all.  I asked if he could take the head and debone the fish.  He came back with the same head and bones but he had opened it up.  

It really is  such a pleasant surprise to meet another woman traveler.  She is a real inspiration to me.  Not only that she has been riding a motorcycle across Europe, and Turkey but she had planned to go to Syria, Jordan and Egypt.  Due to the bad weather on the roads she would need to take to get to Syria she had to rearrange her journey, let alone the trouble in Egypt.  That’s why we met.

The town square

After our meal we decided to explore the town.  It was Saturday early evening and you could have shot a cannon through the town.  

entrance to the castle

We barely saw another person and most everything was closed.  We were able to see everything without any people in the way.  Ha ha.  The castle was closed but I saw that the hours said it would be open Sunday. 

someones grave

We talked about coming back in the morning and also going to see the main tourist attraction of Kos, is Asklepion the first hospital used by Hippocrates.  There really isn’t much else to do on Kos in the winter. 

We walked through some ruins and tried to find the Archeological museum but that was closed too.

The sunset over the water was magnificent and we walked back to the hotel.  

I said I was going to get my computer and bring it downstairs because the only wireless access was in the lobby.  I came downstairs and had trouble connecting to the internet but Adam helped me and finally I was able to use it.  This is the first time I’ve had trouble with the internet.  I’m not sure if it’s my computer and/or Greece.  

I worked for a while and then was tired so went upstairs to my room, tomorrow is another day.