Samos

As we left Turkey on the proudly Greek ship we stood on starboard side near the bow looking over into the water and watching small rocky islands slowly pass by. I can see so many of the myths written by Homer taking place in this area. Finally we could barely see the coast of Turkey as the top of the docked cruise ship was no longer visible, but each new upcoming piece of land brought anticipation for arriving in Greece. The sun was beginning to set on the approaching waters and a snapped a few nice photos of the sun posed with the Greek flag and a rusty tourist ship. It was dusk by the time we reached the port at Samos. We pulled into harbor and first thing went to the dock station to get out tickets for the island and to find out about renting motorbikes to explore the island. They told us of a place down the street and sold us the 15 Euro tickets to get to Athens on Hellenic Seaways. We then walked up the street eastward to our hostel, after almost being killed a few times by motorbikes. The hotel, Pythagoras Hotel, 12 Kallistratou St, Vathi, Samos Island, was similar to ours in Turkey except much less cramped and had its own ‘homemade’ restaurant. The lady in the restaurant greeted us with a very thick greek accent and told us that she was in charge of the hotel also and got our keys. After waiting with our luggage in the lobby, we were able to go up to the second floor and our door was the first one at the top of the stairway, the girls were up even one more level. After throwing our stuff in the room we joked around a bit and all three had to relieve themselves of the food we got on that last continent. For once the girls were waiting for us to come down so we threw our shoes at them down below from our room. Bathrooms were strangly open. We were clamoring for food and, avoiding the hotel owner and her restaurant we went exploring to find some. We went out onto the dark street where mopeds by and we walked back down towards the ocean. We went into a small Greek restaurant which sold Greek gyros which were made of lamb, beef, or pork. It was just like the slabs of meat which we saw in Turkey which were rotating on a spit and were carved off with a knife but, this time, the meet was simply placed in what could be described as a thick tortilla and covered with tomatoes, olives, a Greek sauce, and of course much grease. I only ordered one because I thought it looked filling but I ended up needing another one. We sat and chatted about what we would do the next day and about the beauty of the island even though it was dark out. Then I also had my first Greek beer, which right now I am forgetting the name of but it will come to me later. After we finished eating we decided it would be a good idea to find the motorbikes rental office so that we could be the first ones there. When we got there we found that it was closed but we continued on looking for another one and found many. It wasn’t much longer will we decide to go back and sleep because we have a long day ahead of us. So that’s what we did. I slept very well that night we will go relatively early ate something though I forget what it was. We went out and explored trying to find a place to rent motorbikes. But after about two hours and no luck because we didn’t have an international drivers license, we give up. We decided to look for a bus to take us to a different part of the island. We found that the office, but because we didn’t have John Paul. We could not order the next bus. So we missed it. Everyone was frustrated, everyone decided to split up and go their own way to take a breather. We would all meet back at the bench which we departed from. I began walking up the street, which led towards the less tourist filled areas of the city. This was a good chance for me to be alone and I walked up and down the street observing Greeks. I walked by a very fascinating shop in which was sold all sorts of Greek desserts and they were all expenses except for the cream filled Spyros. So that’s what I bought. I sat outside the store on the curb eating my Spyros and watching the busyness of the city on a common Greek day. After that I got up and decided to go to the market, which nearby there was a church. I went in and heard the celestial sound of midday chants in the Greek orthodox form. The church was magnificent but there were very few people in that place. It was about time for me to get back to meet the rest of everyone else. So that’s what I did. We waited for everyone else, and everyone was much cooler with their tempers, and we got on the next bus which took us to the beach, a place called Pythagorio.

This was perhaps the most beautiful part of 10 day. The bus ride to the beach took about 20 minutes and on the ride a sat with a friendly Greek man whom I began trying to converse with about the my ancient greek studies over this past summer. It didn’t get me very far, but I showed him the ancient greek bible and he could understand it. He asked me about basic things about America that it seems everyone around the world knows us for: Brad Pitt, George bush and the statue of Liberty. We got off the bus at the stop which was surprisingly in a fairly urban area, and you could look out towards the sea over a few houses. The whole place was on a relatively low grade incline until you got further inland from the city, which point the steepness accelerated until the peak of the island. After getting off the bus I was immediately looking for good places to eat in this urban are of Pythagorio but we decided it would be best to stake out a place on the beach first. We walked down the road eastward and in passing all the signs and Greek lettering strangely I felt so at home and my mind wandered through the many many hours of studying through the summer and I felt like I was being transported into the stories of old and walking the same land which Odysseus walk—which I probably was! We approached the beach and turned off to the left into a parking lot and down over onto the beach. The greek beach was definitely not the same as the type we expect in America, there was very little sand and large shells. We laid out the available lawn chairs and I was immediately ready to get in the water and so was everyone else except for Donnelly who wanted a tan. So we all hopped in and swam around elatedly. Then X happened. Then Brendan and I continued hanging out while John Paul and Ali had the idea of going over to the sharp rocks, but I was busy. I caught up with them and we climbed the jagged rocks, which was actually kind of dangerous because they were slippery and there were many beneath the water which we could not see. We reached the best highpoint in the middle of the water and enjoyed the wonderful epic view. Donnelly somehow got an awesome shot of this with the camera, one of the best all semester. We swam back to our spots and by this time I just laid down and fell asleep on the even though it was kind of cold. About an hour later, I woke up and drank a Pyros beer that I had brought and relaxed:

R- rated, guys only story time: I went in the water again and then the Gyro from the night before hit me all at once. All at once. When I got back on the land, I wanted to sprint but I walked until I was out of sight, then I sprinted, I sprinted with all my might to get out of sight of anyone, I didn’t have time to find a bathroom, I went straight to the field of ancient ruins which I saw on my way in. There were foundations of buildings which were easily thousands of years old just laying in the open. I found a foundation, which was kind of a ditch, got down and the largest explosion of my life. Anyways. Then after about a half hour I thought I was done so I decided to explore more of the field eastward. I stopped at small broken down buildings all of which were between 4000 and 200 years old. Inside of one, it hit me again, another explosion in the corner. This kept happening and that’s when I decdied that was the last time I would eat a gyro. I realized I would forever remember the time I took a crap on some thousand year old ancient ruins.

At that last place I saw a sign which said, first in greek, then in English, “no trespassing, unfinished archeological site”. I decided hmmm, I love archeology, its my major practically, you’re only in Greece once too see ancient greek things. So I leaped the fence and made a little documentary with my camera of the site and exploration of it. Wow, so interesting. I could identify many of the structures, they were roman ruins because there was a bathhouse. Then I got out of there with not a little nervousness of being seen by greek police or even other beachgoers. But I got out and slowly made my way back to our camp. When I got there, Brendan met me to find something to eat, the others had already left, but he had kept sleeping. He didn’t care where we went so I suggested we go back into the town and look for something near the bus stop. After walking down, we found some places but they all seemed to expensive, so we decided to simply explore east, the other way. We passed a little greek school that had high gates all around it with children playing with a ball in the large yard surrounding it. Those lucky kids had a school on the beach! We kept going and I kept looking at the beautiful mountains off to the right with Greek Orthodox monasteries at the top every mile or so. I really regret not climbing and exploring or entering one.

This was the one trait difference I had with JP and Brendan, they were fairly reserved and seemed to be afraid of appearing as ‘immature’ or not cultured I could sense. I had the mindset of ‘we are only here once’ and the other guys’ ten day trip to Sherwood forest and the Marathon in Italy which I almost joined them for if it weren’t for the rare opportunity in Turkey, displayed that quite well. But nevertheless, the places I went might be worth the sacrifice of adventure I could have had with the like minded guys- they balance out.

Either way, we reached two boats that looked like they had been sitting there from the twenties and I took a picture and we decided to head back and walk along the beach. We got back and along the way stopped at ‘Diana’s’ and got some food. And ice cream. On our way back to the beach spot there were several girls who sensed it was not necessary for them to wear a top. We took note of the cultural difference and headed on by back to our spot. There were Kate and John Paul and Ali still relaxing. We layed there for another fourty five minutes soaking up the sun and then we decided it was time to go on the next bus. I regret not going to check out the castle which was next to the beach. I came lagging behind while the others were sitting at the bus stop, we got on the bus and took the long bus ride back through the mountains to the main city. Once dropped off we headed back to the hotel and got ready to go out to get dinner. ___________ Then we went continued walking up the strip on the island watching the sunset. We took some pictures of us at the sunset and hung out by the water considering the great place in which we were. We were sitting on the edge of the concrete barrier which was the tide controller and joked around and talked. Then we continued walking away from our hostel down the strip as the sun was setting even more. It was finally dark and we were on a children’s playground and for some reason thought that it was fascinating. I think we played on it for about an hour and a half like little kids. The kids they came by to plan were quite confused. I did some gymnastics and we all stand on the merry-go-round. After this we decided it was probably getting time to head back since we were leaving that night. We had a couple more hours and as usual me, Kate, and Brendan wanted to go get a drink somewhere a while John Paul and Allie wanted to go back to the hostel for a while or do something else, actually maybe they wanted to go check to see if our tickets were still valid or something for the ferry. So getting back to the main plaza, we split our different ways and I went to look for a place to get drinks week. We found one sat down and I realized that I didn’t want any alcohol at the time so I ordered ice cream while the other two ordered expensive martini drinks. Kate was very entertaining as usual but sometimes I became frustrated with her excessive speaking and glamour which is associated with Hollywood, but the thing that made her different was that she was not a pretender she was quite open and had no problem with being a city girl. After this we went back to the area where we thought John Paul and Allie would be and they were watching some of the World Cup for soccer. After watching with them for a little bit John Paul Brendan and I decided it would be a fun idea to go inside the five-star hotel and go up and down the elevator and check it out. We walked in the lobby and stuck out like sore thumbs but once the elevators anyways and completed our mission, stupid mission. By this time I’ll indicate were telling us, yelling at us, as well as the loud horn… that the ferry boat had arrived we all made sure that we had our tickets and approach the peer.

I was very impressed with the amount of water that the boats engines was moving-there is no way to describe how it looked as we stood by and watched. This wasn’t any regular sized boat it was at least five or six stories tall-and you can imagine the size of engines that would be needed to move about like that. They were pointed right at our direction and the water was almost coming up over the pier.

We were finally, we were allowed to enter you in a seemed very much like cruise ship the way staff welcomed us. The seats were padded and there were flatscreen TVs and just a generally very nice polished atmosphere as well as three levels as we would find out. As we were still boring ship we were being directed the whole time by the crew as to which direction we should go we kept going up and up every level until finally we were directed towards the top, realizing that we had, as any student should, purchased the cheapest fare-€15, as opposed to the €35 which we had spent the other day to go from Turkey to Samos, which was about 1/10 the distance as that of our upcoming trip to Athens from Samos. On the top level it was not nearly as nice as well. There were no beds no chairs no padding just a metal floor and we were on the outside of the shift except for a few small vestibules which prevented us from being covered by the rain. There were big whites bed looking structures, but we soon realized that they were just the cases to hold a life vests. I threw my backpack on it anyways and decided I would sleep there we all laid out our stuff in amazement that we could be treated in such an inhumane manner — we are Americans dammit, we want comfort! After a while we explored the ship for a long time but realized there was nothing that exciting. The wind began to blow a lot and I decided I would investigate the possibility of sleeping inside and I recommend it the rest of my companions do the same. They dismissed me. So after going inside, and it being about 2:30 AM, I got myself a snack and, sure enough 75% of the first-class seats were open, and sure enough everyone else who was supposed to be committed to the upstairs deck were also using the seats. I quite excitedly went and told the others, and was dismissed as someone who is going to get in trouble… okay sure, once again this was an example of the reserved, or as they perceived-cultured, nature of my companions — except for Kate who joined me. At that point, I was willing to take the risk of being uncultured as a trade off or good night sleep. So I we went down there and had a snack, I drank my last beer, and passed out for the night. But even in this nice seats it was not a good night’s sleep. The wind from the outside kept blowing the doors open even to our cabin and I can’t sleep on moving things to begin with. I can only imagine what it would have been like to sleep outside with the others-this is one example where I definitely did take the easy road, but why not a matter like that.