More photos to come. We're off to bed now.
Next stop was Christos/Rahes to go to the ATM and pharmacy, and explore the town square. We went to a cafe and sat down for some water and snacks. Nearby, two men were chatting and they heard us speaking English and wanted to know where we were from. Turns out one of them was a French guy who had moved to Ikaria to retire. He told us to go to lunch with him, so we followed him to a tavern and spent an Ikarian hour with him (three and a half hours). He told us the first thing he learned how to say in Greek was "I wait." He gave some examples of needing to use that phrase, like when he is driving and the road is blocked because two drivers are stopped and talking to each other. He said this happens often and he just turns off his engine and says, "I wait." That three hour lunch was exhausting, so naturally we went home for a nap.
Dinner at Thea's was a Greek salad, zucchini croquettes with super garlic sauce, stuffed tomatoes, and Greek ratatouille. Thea asked about our day and we told her we met a French guy, and she said, "Oh, Francis! He's a cool guy, isn't he?" Everyone on Ikaria knows everyone even on the other side of the Island.
The next day we went to Evdilos to look for a nice place to swim. We ended up swimming on a rocky beach, which was fun. We drove passed a man leading a donkey, who was carrying tools and construction equipment. I wish we could have gotten a photo of the donkey with a chainsaw strapped to its back, but it passed by too quickly. We went to the nearby port to have some lunch. As we were eating, a woman at a nearby table asked us if we were American. She was Greek but born and raised in Chicago and she had come to Ikaria to visit family. We had a nice chat with them, and they asked how we had heard about Ikaria. That was a recurring theme. Everyone seemed to think it was extremely odd for Americans to come to Greece and go to Ikaria instead of Santorini or somewhere more touristy. At the end of our meal, they surprised us by ordering a dessert and having it sent to our table. It was homemade yogurt with homemade apricot sauce. They said they wanted us to remember Greek hospitality, and we certainly will!
Our last day we went to return the car and told the guy we were leaving on the 7pm ferry through Nel Lines. He told us there was no 7pm ferry. After some investigation, it appeared that we had purchased tickets for a ferry that did not exist. So we had to go back to Evdilos to find out what could be done. The woman at Nel Lines was super unconcerned about it. She was basically like, "No ferry." And we were like, "Ok, is there another ferry?" And she was like, "No." So we went to Hellenic Seaways and asked about a ferry. The next one was going to be the following night at 11:30pm, getting into Samos at 2am. So we got tickets to that ferry, knowing we would now have approximately 12 hours in Samos, during most of which we would be asleep. Ikaria, man. Gotta go with the flow. So this wasn't going to be our last day there after all.
We had lunch again at the port, and a giant bumblewasp got super bold and just hung out on our food. John was swatting at it, and I didn't want to be stung, so I was freaking out and running away. The lady at the restaurant brought over a plate of brownish powder that was smoking to ward off the wasp. I don't know what it was - we speculated it was a spice of some kind - but it worked.
Dinner at Thea's that night was meatballs and black eyed pea salad. The sauce on the meatballs was absolutely incredible. It took a lot of self-restraint not to just lick the plate. The black eye pea salad was apparently a very typical Ikarian dish. Very simple, healthy, tasty, and filling. We can't wait to make it at home. She also brought us these fresh doughnut balls covered in honey, which were crispy and hot and amazing. Thea's husband, Ilias, found a big hedgehog in the front garden and we all went over to check it out. He was much larger than the little African pygmy hedgehogs people have as pets in the U.S - he was about the size of a really large guinea pig. Ilias moved him to a nice little spot out of the way of people walking through. He stayed there, balled up, for hours. The hedgehog, that is. Not Ilias.
Our real last day, we woke up rather early, so we headed over to Armenistis to swim in the ocean. It was a really beautiful beach, and since it was only about 9:30am, there was hardly a person awake on the whole island. The water was extremely calm and green-blue. The beach extended a really shallow slope into the water so that when we got out about 40 feet from shore, we were still able to comfortably sit down in the water. We swam for about an hour, playing games and looking at rocks in the water. Then we drove back to Thea's to have some breakfast.
We asked Thea what time we needed to be out of our room so that they could clean for the next person. She looked very concerned and said that we should not rush out of the room because we needed to have our nap. She insisted that our nap was important and we should take our time. So we had our yogurt with honey and our mountain tea, and then went upstairs for a snooze.
In the afternoon we went back to Christos to see the little shops. We bought a Greek cartoon movie at one shop, and headed over to the women's co-op for some cake. We relaxed at a cafe that had a swinging bench and drank the two-liter bottle of water we had purchased for 50 cents. The brand name of the bottled water was "Dirfy's," which John and I found hilarious. After having our fill of Christos, we headed back to Thea's and sat down on a flat area of rock overlooking the beach and watched the sun set. There was a storm coming in and we could see lightning way off in the distance. We went in for some dinner, but the wind was so strong that we had to sit inside while the storm passed. We sat with a few other Americans at dinner and had our favorite moussaka.
At 10:30pm, we said our goodbyes, and Thea told us we have to come back and stay longer next time. She gave us her card and told us to stay in touch. It was like saying goodbye to a close family member. She really took care of us while we were there.
We took a cab to the ferry in Evdilos and waited at the dock. The ferry was huge, and when they were lowering the gate at the back, it made a funny sound like a TARDIS. Then hundreds of people came pouring out. When we got on the ferry, we had to go up two escalators to get to our seating area. The seats were very comfortable - they were much more spacious than airplane seats and they reclined a lot more too. At this point it was 11:30pm, and despite our nap, I was very sleepy.
Before I knew it, John was waking me up to tell me we had arrived in Samos. Down the escalators and out the giant gate making sounds like a TARDIS. We grabbed a taxi and headed to our hotel nearby. After being in Ikaria for several days, Samos was a bit of a shock. It felt very touristy. The hotels were huge and had big swimming pools. It was raining but warm. It was about 2:30am when we checked in. We went upstairs to our room and collapsed on the bed.
We woke up around 9:30 to shower and eat breakfast before our flight to Athens. Our hotel was near the port, which is quite far from the airport. So we took an hour-long cab ride through the mountains in Samos, admiring the views and laughing about how little time we were spending here because of the ferry mishap. In honor of Pythagoras, John and I did some mental math problems together during the ride.
The Samos airport was small, and going through security took approximately 20 seconds. You just put your bags down on the conveyor belt and walk through a metal detector. It was a short flight to Athens, and the view from the plane was very pretty.
