Greek Island Adventure

Four of us, all Americans, planned a trip to the Greek island of Chios for several days we did not have to work. We called a taxi cab to Space Camp and took it the Uçkuyular bus station for a bus to Çeşme. We arrived just in time to board a bus leaving to Çeşme. We arrived in Çeşme and walked down towards harborabor. The road to the harbor was a rough brick and stone street lined with a gauntlet of tourist stores. Shop keepers shouted strange English slang and "Turklish" expressions to get us into their shops. We ate, bought our ferryboat tickets from ErTurk travel, then looked around the city.

A sultan had a castle there and it was interesting. We exchanged our money, with some problems. I exchanged new Turkish Lira to Euros, but Sarah and Darren changed US dollars to Euros. Darren had no problem, but Sarah did. The lady changing her money took far too long and I was concerned Sarah was getting screwed. She got done and sat down saying she got too many Euros. Oh well, we all left and caught the ferry to Chios. The ride was only about 45 minutes long to the island. The ride was a little bit wet from the wahittingting the bow of the boat. We had to retreat from the bow area seating to a more covered area to the rear of the boat. The ferry arrived at the Chios harbor and we went headed for customs.

We went to the customs for non-Euro peoples. We got into line, when several people started pushing past us with no regard for anyone else. At first we thought maybe it was an emergency, then realized it was some stupid tour group. We quickly started to block the intruders from cutting in line. They started yelling and pushing more. A few more got by finallynaly we were close to the customs window. We had some of the crazy tour group still at bay behind us. One women got creative and held her stomach and yelled "Bebe, Bebe" as she pushed by us. She was a little thick in the stomach, but a fake. The Greek guard saw this and actually told her to wait. She shoved her passport into the window anyways. We pushed and fought our way to the window and got our passports stamped. We walked towards the city and stopped at the first travel agent to find out where we should go for rooms. The owner of the travel agency was there and told us about a great apartment on the beach about 5 km's away. His wife picked us up and showed us the place. They told us that for 4 of us it was 50 Euros a night. That was 12.50 each, which was good. The travel agents owned the place. We took the apartment, complete with kitchen and a shower with no walls. We ate at a restaurant on the beach that night. We had some meatballs on macaroni.

The next day we were to explore the island by scooters. Each couple got a scooter bike to ride. I had experience on motorcycles most of my life and once owned a scooter like we rode, however, the other couple had none. I took the other driver, Darren, out and showed him how to drive the scooter. I drove while he rode. I described the brakes, leaning into turns, and how the passenger should lean with the driver, and anything else I could think of. Now it was his turn to try it. He was unsure and a little wobbly on the corners, but I thought he'd get it. He drove until we decided he could do it on his own.

We went to get gas...and bad things happened on the turn into the petrol station. Somehow, the other couple fell into the turn and crashed. The female passenger was hurt and in pain. No visible blood. They were going slow when they fell, but she had a deep bruise on her leg below her knee that prevented her from walking. We waited for a while, to find out how she felt. She was tough. After some ice and rest, she said we should go on with the plans to see the island. She was brave to say the least. I'm sure that Sarah was somewhat apprehensive after seeing this, but she didn't say much. Off we went into the island.

We traveled inland and finally stopped at a Byzantine monastery called Church of Panayia Krina (Our Lady). [pictures should be posted soon] It was a 13th century, small stone structure complete with great arches and domed ceilings. We could only see it from the outside. We left the church and headed to Armolia for lunch. The first place we tried had Amstel beer glass covering the floor. Someone had broken hundreds of bottles on the floor and a woman was sweeping it up as she waved us to leave. We ate something called a Mafioso, which was spaghetti with tomato sauce and seafood, including mussels. We headed south again to the town of Emporios to find the black pebble beach called Mavros Gyalos. As we drove down a hill, a little silver car pulled out in front of us and almost made me hit a fence. I had the bike as close to the fence as I could have been without hitting it. I had the rear brake on hard and the front brake on firmly. I needed to slow but not loose control in the gravel. I told Sarah, "Hang on to me!" So that our weight was centered well, and she responded, "I AM!" We straightened up and were ok. We pulled over and the older Greek couple said some stuff we couldn't understand. We exhaled. Our partners behind us caught up and we moved on to Emporios.

The black pebble beach Mavros Gyalos, was beautiful. We spent an hour there and went to Pyrgi. Pyrgi was beautiful. The streets are less than one car wide in the main part. We parked and walked into the center and looked around. They have a neat way they paint the building there with shapes cut out. [see pics] We left Pyrgi and headed north to go home. We went a different route to get home. We took a steep mountain road into a scrub pine forest. There were bee hives all over. A sign said, "Warning: Forest fires." The decent was fast and had many switchbacks. Darren lost control of his scooter again, but no injuries. His female passenger looked at him with a "death stare" and I wished there was another way for them to get home. We pushed on and finally made it home. The next day we relaxed on the beach, swam, and got sun burned. I bought a corona size cigar and smoked it on the beach the next evening. We ate great food and the hospitality was great. The last night in Chios, Sarah and I sipped CAIR champagne on the beach. Nice end, but why does it have to?