We were down at our favorite cafe at 7:00 for more one more good coffee, then over to the Meander Travel office to pick up our ferry tickets to Samos.
Through passport control and onto the ship, where we somehow snagged the two front seats on the ship; windows in front and beside us, and lots of legroom.
And so we set off from Asia on a one and a half hour trip to Europe.
When I bought the tickets, they were for Kusadasi to Vathi port. I was able to reserve and pay for them online through Meander Travel. But the actual tickets are to Pythagorion Port, which is further from our departure port of Karlovasi. But at least I could reserve and pay on line.
We’ll have about five or six hours to figure out how to cross the island. I am hoping it is easy and we will have some time to look around Pythagorion.
The port town is named after old Pythagoras himself, who is from Samos. This is the oldest port in the Mediterranean.
A really stiff breeze was blowing as we docked, keeping it cool while we waited to go through passport control.
It was easy in an I can tell you that we looked at each other, the blue and white Greek flag snapping above us, and breathed a big sigh.
It feels like coming home.
Getting into Europe I mean.
Suddenly things are easy and familiar.
We walked along the harbor, past the seaside cafes looking for the bus station.
Up the main street we found the “station” just a bus stop really, the one bus to and from here goes to the main town of Samos. We missed the last one out by ten minutes, the next one is at 13:00 so we did what we do best:
We pulled up into the bar across the street, the one with the cute blue painted chairs and simple tables, and ordered a beer (Very very cold Mythos. Did I mention it was very cold?) and excellent crisp white wine. And we passed the time people watching.
As predictable as the sun coming up we got chips and peanuts, and eventually ordered two more glasses of wine. And so the time passed pleasantly for a mere €10.
God it is good to be home.
The bus came in about on time and a guy jumped off yelling “Samos!” So there was no confusion at all. We dropped in our luggage, climbed on and they collected the fare as we headed out. Less than €5.
We took the bus to Samos, crossing the center of the island then dropping in onto a pretty white house - red roofed town curved along a beautiful cove. There we got an unexpected surprise. I figured we’d take the next public bus to Karlovasi, instead there was a special bus to take us right to the boat to Mykonos (at the port).
Our old bus guy pointed us to the man yelling “Karlovasi” and sure enough, the bus said Mykonos on it.
I had our ferry tickets in advance. I used this excellent website to find and make the connections.
Easy connection and we ended up at the port with an hour to spare.
Karlovasi seems spread out for a port town, no close cafes to sit in, or waterfront businesses. There is a series of little cove beaches just to the east of the port. At least there are a few benches in the shade to sit on.
The big Hellenistic Ferry showed up and we watched huge trucks spill out of its guts, cars and motorcycles start in as we walked up the gang plank into the beast.
We found two seats by a table in the corner, stashed our packs there and settled in to read. This ship goes through to Athens, making three stops on the way. We’ll get off on Mykonos.
It was a crack up, as the ship heeled around to port? To starboard? Anyway as it pulled away from the dock and turned, it kind of tilted waaaayyyyy over and cleared the water bottles, books and assorted other stuff off all the tables.
We pulled into the Mykonos port at 20:15 where someone from the guesthouse picked us up. We just caught the last sliver of the sun as it sizzled into the sea.
It was late enough that we decided to just eat dinner up the hill at our place, which turned out to be a great choice. The house wine is delicious and full bodied, inexpensive and comes by the liter.
I had a shrimp with feta cheese in tomato sauce in a clay pot and was that delicious. Gail had mousakka in a clay pot, with slices of beef instead of ground meat.
I ate a plate of spaghetti carbonara and the bread was crusty outside, soft inside.
In the end they comped us a drink. I don’t know name of it, but it was not icky like ouzo, more like a kind of sweet lime.
I finished by chewing on a thick Greek coffee.
We sat out by the pool a while looking at the lights of the town below, until we decided to turn in just before midnight.