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Closed for the Season
Entry 7 of 120 | show all | print this entry |
The tangerines are ripe on the Island of Kos. Good thing there are no tourists there so the islanders have the time to go and pick them.
Kos is very much like Bodrum in being a great summer destination. A winter destination it is not, however. This was emphasized by a number of facts: My tout was willing to give me a 60% discount on the price of my accomodation. 4 out of 5 shop owners agree that it is not worth opening their shops. Even the McDonald's local franchise got in on getting out. I got out too, because I arrived on a Monday, all the archaeological sites were closed, so my options were either to loaf around in my room or go hike in the country side. It was raining heavily but thanks to my magnificent raingear I endured.
Out into the Kos countryside I hiked, and after a bite of Baklava for energy and after witnessing a meeting of long lost third cousins (not mine but an english speaking strangers'*) I was among the cedar trees and up a winding road and onto a mountain path soon barren of trees but plentiful in goats. A few kilometers outside of the city the air is amazingly fresh (despite the goats) and the beauty even when the sky is overcast is stunning. The trade-off about Greece at this time of year is that, unlike the summer when all is brown and dried out, in the winter the plants are very green. But its wet and not warm. On the way back I observed that the cedars here have large cones - and they are deliciously scented when dropped upon a heater (a pillaged one again) and are left to dry out.
Later I would get a ferry ticket. It took some effort, as the first agents were reluctant to sell me a ticket because the weather was forcast to be so bad that the ferries would be cancelled. The Greek Ministry of Boats gets to decide when ferries sail. One agent explained to me that seven years ago a ferry sank in rough winds. It was tragic and killed 80 people. It also really embarrassed the government of Greece who now decide from time to time to order port police to prohibit ships from sailing. There are certain guidelines set to help the ministry decide whether or not to let ships sail: Beyond a wind rating of eight all departures are cancelled. A nine was forecast but the agent who finally sold me a ticket felt that the weather would be better than the forecast prophesied.
This fellow is also runs stmtours dot gr, an interesting site with information on the history of Kos. Because the ferry for Rhodes left at 8.20 am Tuesday Morning (meaning that I wouldn't see inside the Kos Castle), he consoled me by saying that there was little to see inside the castle (there is nothing inside), and in fact the exterior walls are more interesting. I only hope he was right but these walls really show the crusader's get-it-done attitude: They used everything stony to build them. This included columns from hellenic and Roman buildings, bits of grave stellae which still had carvings on them, bits of marble pillar bases that still had laurels and carved bulls' heads (clearly visible after all of these years since those symbols went out of style). The crusaders rarely bothered to carve anything to fit. They would take the rubble they had, mix in mortar and if two pieces really didn't fit together, they would take bits of bricks and make them fit. They built their walls really wide and the loopholes are made for cannons in their era of the dawn of gunpowder. It doesn't look entirely like a medieval castle in its style but it completely is in its manner of construction.
* and now for the obligatory asterix: One of these cousins I met on the boat to Kos. The other owned the restaurant next to the Baklava place. He told me a story I have heard more than a few times from English speaking Greeks: They work 18 hours a day to serve the tourists, in the summer, and they have little to do but tend to orchards in the winter. He and the others told me they resented the long summer hours because it meant that they could never enjoy their own beaches and their own climate. Yet they do it in the summer time because it pays the bills for the whole year: sad perhaps that tourists don't come year round for them, but I would not not not recommend visiting Southern Turkey, Kos or Rhodes in the winter if you want to sit on a warm beach. It's cold enough for me to always be wearing my winter jacket. It's good to see ruins but as I will write next time, it is really tough to catch boats.
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| 7. | Closed for the Season - Kos, Greece Jan 23, 2006 |
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