Golden Sand Hotel Chios

... my requested trip from turkish Cesme directly to italian Ancona (2,5 days) was suspended for unknown reason. So there was the other option to use a 3-stop-strategy to get to Italy.<br><br>First stop of my ferry journey was the little hop from turkish Cesme to Chios. And that means HELLO GREECE, HELLO EUROPE!!! Ok, it also means hello high prices...<br><br>

... fresh fruit and veg which was all served at breakfast. The room was nice and bright with 3 single beds and an en-suite. The downside to the room was the lack of any sound proofing which meant that the group of people in the chill-out area could be heard into the early hours and the high winds, which Alacati is famous for, howling through the night.<br><br>In town, we found a ...

... came from and were offered by the current tenant to come inside but my mom declined the offer. Off to the coast where we had an amazing and very filling lunch of which I truly enjoyed and then thought how sad it would be to go back home without knowing how to cook traditional foods from Greece that are so very yummy...I bought a cook book which will most likely collect dust in my kitchen as I cant cook...I leave that up to Shawn! We went through ...

Trying to get stuff from my Mac to an internet cafe PC! First try froze the sclerotic PC. Actually, I'll have to go back and convert the text to .pdf to transfer, I guess. Or, go on to a hotel or pension where my Mac does interface with the wireless modem, as in the present case it does not. Stay tuned.

... told us it was the tender to a huge behemoth of a boat anchored in the bay - unbelievable but true. Unfortunately, on leaving he lifted our anchor and we had to rapidly recover it and re-anchor, before breakfast - *******! This left Rob feeling insecure about leaving the boat so Gina had to drive the 90km to pick up Tim and the 90km back. Mithimna, you will recall, is a conservation village. Built on a hill, it sits under a large castle with the old ...

... little communites that I think define Greece in folk's minds. That night, Melanie and I had one of the best meals of our lives at Taverna Hotzas. Salad, entrees (eggplant and chicken/mushrooms), fresh bread, dessert, and a carafe of wine for $30 in a setting similar to House of Tricks. On our second day, we headed back to the beach at ...

... by the Turks one warm spring afternoon in 1822. On the Orthodox Good Friday, in fact. Many of the skulls clearly show the impact of the axe and sword. The monk enters and speaks a few words to the couple. The woman crosses herself and they all withdraw. We take a quick look around the grounds and head back to the parking area where we notice that there are two police cars and a motorcycle cop -- the smartly-dressed couple's motorcade. After they all pull away ...

... and by 3.30 we're back on the road heading north toward the mastic village of Olimpi. Like Pirgi and Mesta (our next stop), it dates from the 14th century. Surrounded by tall uneven stone walls, it's a maze of streets just barely wide enough for a tiny KIA to pass through without gouging creases in its doors. Of course by the time we make this observation, we are well into the center of the village where it is impossible to turn around. Backing out doesn't seem to be as much ...

... might further profit from another. It's an ugly little port of mainly characterless concrete buildings hunched along the crescent of the harbor. What little charm it once might have had has been buried in cracked concrete and seaside kitsch. The crumbling medieval fortress still stands, it's walls in many places serving as wall and foundation of sad little nondescript houses in the former Turkish and Jewish sector. But it ...

... went through customs, found some cabs and asked them to take us to the "city square" of the town of Kalamoti where the couple from whom we rented the houses told us to meet them. We thought it was kind of strange when the cab drivers questioned our destination like three times, but just wrote if off to a pronunciation issue. So after about a 25 minute cab ride we arrive in the "city square" of this town. I wish I took pictures of ...