Monday, May 6, 2002 10:30
Weather: Hot & sunny. I'm going to have to leave this section out, in future: no news to report.
Location: Aolis hotel cafe, Vathi, Samos.

Well, I've pretty much had enough time in Greece. I'm ready to move on. I've check out of the hostel, dumped my pack at the local travel office (free storage) and I'm enjoying a cappucino with a couple of chocolate-covered coffee beans and a miniature cookie in one of the harbourfront cafes. I don't recognize the music playing, but it's good: sounds like it could be early Leonard Cohen. I have about 5 hours to kill before the travel office closes, by when I have to be back, and my ferry leaves about an hour after that.

Yesterday afternoon was a writeoff. I read my book, watched some Greek TV, and went for a brief swim in the rather disappointing Gregou beach, north-west of the town. After a shower, I met Sahn and Kerry and we found a good bar for a couple of drinks before dinner. They're yet more of the seemingly endless numbers of Australians working in London. As they'd just come from Turkey, I got some useful information on how the buses work (very well), the markets (chaotic), and the hammams (good, but best to stick to the tourist-oriented ones). In exchange I told them about my Greek islands experience, and suggested they skip Athens and see some of the mainland instead.

It turned out that they were staying at the same hostel as me, the Pension "Dreams", so after an excellent dinner at Taverna Gregoris in town we walked back, and I hauled out my Lonely Planet and gave them the Greek section, which I won't need any more. Kerry noticed that someone had abandoned sections photocopied from a Turkey guidebook on the table in the hall, so I picked them up and we're all happy.

Most important lesson of the whole trip: talk to strangers!
posted by Tom at 4:45 AM | link |