"You no get hashish in Turkey!" were Nicholas' caring, parting words before he gave us each a hug and left us at the ferry dock. Leaving Patmos was painful. We mourned slowly for a week. We woke up with heavy hearts and then lugged heavier backpacks - again. It had been so long since we had done that.
Boats and airplanes are wonderful for pulling you out of the paradigm you've become used to. Surrounded by nothing but water, air or both, you are removed from the world and for a brief period you get a different vantage. I have had many peaceful, clear and positive moments of reflection on airplanes over the years - particularly over the Pacific. United 875/876 and I were good friends in our day.
The Kalymnos is an old ferry that runs loops between most of the islands of the Dodecanese. It pulled us out of our blues and took us over aquamarine passages through islands big and small. The fresh air as we sailed across the Aegean brought some energy and excitement back and it became clear that while leaving Patmos is never a good thing, going to new places is not a bad one. After all, it's what we're here to do.
"I never knew it would feel so natural," Emily said as we discussed sailing through the Mediterranean - one of the things we wanted most for this part of the trip. "It's so easy and so natural!"
We stopped at small islands with tiny, tiny villages who must depend on the ferries for their very subsistence. The Kalymnos is their supply line. And then, slowly Samos began to emerge before us - wide and long. "It's as big as California!" Emily exclaimed. "Maybe Catalina," I said. "No, all of California - it's huge!"
That's when Nicholas' words from previous conversations all made sense. "Rhodos is like England! Kos is like England!" Nicholas had told us many times explaining how overbuilt he thinks some of the neighboring islands are. After a month on Patmos, we were seeing the world more through his eyes. What seemed silly before, suddenly made sense. That's the value of spending time somewhere. That's the magic, right there.
Samos is at least three times as big as Patmos - if not bigger - in physical size. It's only a little smaller than Rhodes. We're staying in Vathy or Samos Town which as our taxi driver yesterday proudly explained, "Samos Town is our capital! It has 8,700 people!"
"We're in England!" I said to Emily.
When we got off the boat, the town seemed not terribly bigger than Skala in Patmos. It was pretty, wrapped around a cove and had restaurants, bars, cafes and shops lining the main road along the water. But instead of the traditional white village look, this town had the multi-colored pastels of Old Town Hania, Crete.
As we walked along with our big, heavy bags for the hotel that was supposed to be in the center of town, we loved the sleepy feel of this pretty village with smooth-stone paved streets that looked a lot like Rhodes. We had hit what seemed to us a synthesis of Rhodes, Crete and Patmos. It seemed promising.
Only we couldn't find out hotel and no one seemed to know where it was. Our bags were heavy and we were losing patience. Finally, we decided to go the taxi stand down the block and see if we could just be taken to our hotel even if it was just nearby. But it wasn't. It turned out the ferry dropped us in Pythagoria - a town on the other side of the island dedicated to one of Samos' favorite sons, Pythagorus.
Some towns make cars, others beer, some movies, a few for art....this one made triangles. And so our very nice taxi-driver took us out of our Bermuda Triangle using a 90 degree right turn at the stop sign.
How Pythagoras ever figured out triangles and squares on an island with such curvy roads through such beautiful greenery, I'll never know. But the 20 minute ride from Pythagoria to Samos Town was beautiful and showed us a very different looking Greek island than from the one on which we had just spent a month. Wooded and green with a large interior, it was easy to see why Samos is known for wine - its climate and water supply clearly make it ideal.
We learned from our taxi driver that Samos has a movie theater. England! We passed several supermarkets and a home improvement store. England! And when we arrived in Samos Town and the main street was a divided four lane road lined with, among other things, numerous banks...we knew we were in England.
In fact, Samos Town does look a little like England. There's a European architecture style, cobblestone side streets and a main town square which do give a more urban feel - if you can go that far - than where we've been. Samos Town curves around the water in a manner very much like Hania and the pastel colors of the buildings remind me a little of Cannes. Most importantly, the town square has free public wireless Internet as do most of the cafes and our hotel - so we're in business.
If you're going to leave Patmos and find yourself dumped into England, this is a decent England.
Sitting at a cafe yesterday afternoon trying to finish my work so we could just go enjoy the town, I looked around at the nice town and beautiful cove and hills it rests in and thought that under any other circumstance, I would have found Samos fantastic. But after Patmos, it feels more touristy, more generic and less authentic. If we had come to Samos right after Rhodes or especially after Crete, we would have loved Samos completely. It really is the synthesis of Rhodes and Crete in a very good way.
But now, it all seems like England....
So, we have deemed this England Transition Camp. We believe that anyone leaving Patmos needs a transition to titrate back up to urban life. With Los Angeles for Emily, Cannes for me, Istanbul for both of us and Kathmandu beyond that - we have a lot of urban time ahead. A bustling metropolis of 8,700 (just under four times Patmos' permanent population) is probably a good place to start adjusting.
Last night we discovered some great restaurants and music bars on the water, just beyond the main part of town. So, we enjoyed Samos sweet wine with dinner, overlooking the cove with water splashing up along the rocks below. Again, it's a decent England.
Boats and airplanes are wonderful for pulling you out of the paradigm you've become used to. Surrounded by nothing but water, air or both, you are removed from the world and for a brief period you get a different vantage. I have had many peaceful, clear and positive moments of reflection on airplanes over the years - particularly over the Pacific. United 875/876 and I were good friends in our day.
The Kalymnos is an old ferry that runs loops between most of the islands of the Dodecanese. It pulled us out of our blues and took us over aquamarine passages through islands big and small. The fresh air as we sailed across the Aegean brought some energy and excitement back and it became clear that while leaving Patmos is never a good thing, going to new places is not a bad one. After all, it's what we're here to do.
"I never knew it would feel so natural," Emily said as we discussed sailing through the Mediterranean - one of the things we wanted most for this part of the trip. "It's so easy and so natural!"
We stopped at small islands with tiny, tiny villages who must depend on the ferries for their very subsistence. The Kalymnos is their supply line. And then, slowly Samos began to emerge before us - wide and long. "It's as big as California!" Emily exclaimed. "Maybe Catalina," I said. "No, all of California - it's huge!"
That's when Nicholas' words from previous conversations all made sense. "Rhodos is like England! Kos is like England!" Nicholas had told us many times explaining how overbuilt he thinks some of the neighboring islands are. After a month on Patmos, we were seeing the world more through his eyes. What seemed silly before, suddenly made sense. That's the value of spending time somewhere. That's the magic, right there.
Samos is at least three times as big as Patmos - if not bigger - in physical size. It's only a little smaller than Rhodes. We're staying in Vathy or Samos Town which as our taxi driver yesterday proudly explained, "Samos Town is our capital! It has 8,700 people!"
"We're in England!" I said to Emily.
When we got off the boat, the town seemed not terribly bigger than Skala in Patmos. It was pretty, wrapped around a cove and had restaurants, bars, cafes and shops lining the main road along the water. But instead of the traditional white village look, this town had the multi-colored pastels of Old Town Hania, Crete.
As we walked along with our big, heavy bags for the hotel that was supposed to be in the center of town, we loved the sleepy feel of this pretty village with smooth-stone paved streets that looked a lot like Rhodes. We had hit what seemed to us a synthesis of Rhodes, Crete and Patmos. It seemed promising.
Only we couldn't find out hotel and no one seemed to know where it was. Our bags were heavy and we were losing patience. Finally, we decided to go the taxi stand down the block and see if we could just be taken to our hotel even if it was just nearby. But it wasn't. It turned out the ferry dropped us in Pythagoria - a town on the other side of the island dedicated to one of Samos' favorite sons, Pythagorus.
Some towns make cars, others beer, some movies, a few for art....this one made triangles. And so our very nice taxi-driver took us out of our Bermuda Triangle using a 90 degree right turn at the stop sign.
How Pythagoras ever figured out triangles and squares on an island with such curvy roads through such beautiful greenery, I'll never know. But the 20 minute ride from Pythagoria to Samos Town was beautiful and showed us a very different looking Greek island than from the one on which we had just spent a month. Wooded and green with a large interior, it was easy to see why Samos is known for wine - its climate and water supply clearly make it ideal.
We learned from our taxi driver that Samos has a movie theater. England! We passed several supermarkets and a home improvement store. England! And when we arrived in Samos Town and the main street was a divided four lane road lined with, among other things, numerous banks...we knew we were in England.
In fact, Samos Town does look a little like England. There's a European architecture style, cobblestone side streets and a main town square which do give a more urban feel - if you can go that far - than where we've been. Samos Town curves around the water in a manner very much like Hania and the pastel colors of the buildings remind me a little of Cannes. Most importantly, the town square has free public wireless Internet as do most of the cafes and our hotel - so we're in business.
If you're going to leave Patmos and find yourself dumped into England, this is a decent England.
Sitting at a cafe yesterday afternoon trying to finish my work so we could just go enjoy the town, I looked around at the nice town and beautiful cove and hills it rests in and thought that under any other circumstance, I would have found Samos fantastic. But after Patmos, it feels more touristy, more generic and less authentic. If we had come to Samos right after Rhodes or especially after Crete, we would have loved Samos completely. It really is the synthesis of Rhodes and Crete in a very good way.
But now, it all seems like England....
So, we have deemed this England Transition Camp. We believe that anyone leaving Patmos needs a transition to titrate back up to urban life. With Los Angeles for Emily, Cannes for me, Istanbul for both of us and Kathmandu beyond that - we have a lot of urban time ahead. A bustling metropolis of 8,700 (just under four times Patmos' permanent population) is probably a good place to start adjusting.
Last night we discovered some great restaurants and music bars on the water, just beyond the main part of town. So, we enjoyed Samos sweet wine with dinner, overlooking the cove with water splashing up along the rocks below. Again, it's a decent England.
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