Samos Island

This morning, I got my stuff together to walk to the port to catch my ferry over to the first of the Greek Isles, Samos. While waiting to leave, I met a fellow traveler who was going the same direction, so we walked together with the owner down to the port. When he left us, I found that Ali was Turkish living in Canada, and we began talking about all sorts of stuff. The boat ride over was nice and our conversations kept fluttering between various topics, and before I knew it, we had formed a great bond.

When we were arriving at port, we decided to stay together and rent a car to explore the island together. This proved to be the best decision ever. We got a quick bite to eat which was ok, and looked at a few places before committing to which tiny car we’d get. We really liked the Greek mentality. I was thinking we needed to take pictures of the car for the damage that existed, or go through marking a sheet. Instead, they said when you’re done, just leave the car somewhere at the port, and leave the keys in it. We laughed at the lax management of this, but then really thought, well we are on an island, where could they take the car?

We then drove to find the place I’d booked. Booking online can leave you very surprised, and I was shocked at what I’d booked. When we got closer to Pythagoria, we pulled to the port and parked and found the hotel completely in the best location, on the main strip of restaurants facing the harbor. It was gorgeous, and exactly what I was looking for. Our room was simple, and Ali decided we could save money by sharing since we’d got on so well so far. After checking in, we explored the nearby castle ruins, and walked to the beach and had a swim in the chilly but refreshing water. We enjoyed the afternoon in the sun, and then went back for a nap before heading out for a nice walk and getting dinner at a place recommended by a friend of his.

The next day, we did more exploring of the island, taking us all around. We first drove to a little town called Mile, which specialized in making the Pythagora cup, a cup made of pottery with a pole in the middle of it. The idea of this cup is to stop greed and maintain equality, as there’s a line at the top of the cup that you should not fill it past. Anything below the line, you can drink from the cup, but anything that is above the line, you lose everything and the entire contents of the cup drain from a hole in the bottom of the cup. It’s a pretty cool gadget :)

After walking around this little village, we continued on to this mountain with a tiny Greek church. We took our tiny little car off roading, and it was quite an adventure, one that I thought might leave us stranded!

We then went up towards the north to Karlovassi and stopped for lunch and explored the town there. We then continued on to Kokkari to enjoy the beach more. This side was a lot rougher than the south side, and while it was nice to see, the waves were so strong that I didn’t even try to get in!

We then made our full circle back at Pythagora and had our dinner and called it a night.

The next day, I made my plan to head over to Mykonos to meet up with some friends made on the Turkish cruise, and Ali’s ship back to Kusadasi left in the late afternoon, so we headed up to my port to go to the beach and enjoy the afternoon at the water before I needed to be dropped off at my port and Ali continue back to drop the car off at his port. It was a beautiful beach again, and was nice and relaxing.