It is a sad, sad day today. We are leaving our little sanctuary of Patmos and heading back to the craziness of Kos and then onto what will certainly be the craziness of Frankfurt.  This trip is almost over, unbelievably.

We make our traditional morning trek, walking down to the end of the harbor and marina, then turning around and heading to Sam’s for our last cappuccino and the little individual Tiropita the sweet lady who serves us every morning turned us onto yesterday.  As we are finishing and she learns this is our ls day, she sweetly tells us goodbye and chats about our visit not being long enough.  In some ways we agree – in others – well – its getting on toward season and we probably would not like it here over the summer.  Not to mention the boredom factor.  But still, it is sweet of her.

Back at the house, after a little fiasco with exploding frozen beers (yeah, don’t go there – it was a mess and well – the best laid plans for having nice cold beer when we get to Kos have been laid to rest!) we finalize our packing, take our showers and wait for Liza to come to check us out.  With a little over an hour to spare before the ferry, we hang out at a coffee shop with cappuccino, then decide to go over to the pier – even though there isn’t really a formal waiting room or anything – but there are a whole mess of people already there and we want to make sure we get seats by ourselves.

Turns out to be a semi-decent idea – we’ve still got a ton of time, but as it turns out there are 2 ferries coming in at the same time.  The vast majority of the people (with huge big bags) are going on the big ferry, while about 25 of us are going on the fast ferry to Kos.  A nice security guard sorts us all out and tells us our ferry will be down the pier a bit and we follow the crowd to the middle of the pier. You should have seen the crowds getting off when the ferry pulled in!  Probably 100 people!  Yep. Leaving is the right decision.

But holy hell – we get on the ferry expecting it to be empty and surprise!  Not only are there still people on here, it is party time on this ferry! There is a huge group of Greeks traveling together – from what Island we don’t know because they were on here when we boarded – and they are loud and laughing and yelling and talking non-stop (for an hour now so far…and we’ve still got 1 ½ hours to go!).  Oh and there is also some guy in front of us is clacking on his huge rosary beads sounding annoyingly like a bug zapper.  Geez! And we thought the Aussies were loud!  It is all we can do to tune them all out and concentrate on reading (Ed) and blogging (me).  (But I’m going to rip that rosary out of that guy’s hands soon – totally annoying!!!)

And then there are the people who get on at each different island stop.  They walk around the cabin in circles, once, twice, looking for seats.  There are seriously 50 to 60 open seats on this ferry – a lot of them with completely empty rows of 4.  I mean we are taking up a row of 4 with us and our bags and there is still plenty of space to be had.  It is hysterically funny – and we are just giggling as we watch the musical chairs…where the music apparently never goes off!

Finally off the ferry in Kos, it is raining – as predicted – so we don our rain gear and walk 10 minutes to the restaurant we chose for lunch – Amaryllis.  Right on the way to the rental car office, this place has a huge menu, and umbrellas – because it is really raining right now.  We get there and it doesn’t appear there are any seats, but the waiter escorts us to a table right on the edge of an umbrella and sets it for us.  Perfect.  We can strategically set our bags on the ground and the chairs and keep them from getting wet.

It takes a while for them to get around to us – but we are in no hurry as we have nothing to do all day.  We just sit back and watch the world go by – oh and what a world! It is crazy busy in this town – tons and tons and tons of tourists. We are ever so happy we are leaving and heading home. It’s going to get even uglier out here on the travel circuit!  Our lunch arrives – very good saganaki (we have to try it everywhere, you know), big think slices of garlic bread and an excellent mixed souvlaki platter of chicken, pork and kefkes.  We’re happy and full!

By now the rain has stopped (thank you!) and we wander down to the rental car agency where they upgrade us to a VW Polo – just like driving our Jetta except manual!  And hit the road.  We stop at Lidl for supplies (yay!  Beer and breakfast and those excellent cough drops!!!) and continue onto the hotel, easily finding it and the parking lot with tons of spots (thank heavens, that was always the concern!). 

Depositing our bags in our room (they kept our big bags and they are here safe and sound) we head out for a walk, stopping at the restaurant to confirm our booking for 7:30, then continue on through town, which is just a huge tourist trap and of absolutely no interest to us.

We skedaddle back to the hotel, taking the walkway along the beach which, while lined with restaurants and beach beds, isn’t anywhere near as crazy crowded as the main tourist roadway – probably because of the weather.  Fine by us – we just want back to our little sanctuary to wait out our time until dinner!  Sadly though, it is not as peaceful as one might hope.  The people next door in the hotel are, well your typical obnoxious “holidaymakers,” who are loud, singing bad rap songs and with their balcony door open (it is really breezy and cool outside) and then come out to the balcony with their music.  Sigh.  At least they’ve moved on from rap! They better not be loud tonight or there will be some wall knocking a’happening!

Hours whiled by, and finally it is time for our dinner at Ta Adelfia.  Yeah, yeah, yeah, we know, same restaurant as last time because a) it was excellent, and b) it is Friday night in Kos where it is now “season” and crazy busy with “holidaymakers.”  Which means we wanted to ensure that we had a spot for dinner.  We get there, and horrors upon horrors, there is no “reserved” table for us.  What?  We specifically came here to double check and literally saw our name in the book!  Honestly!  The owner – who reminds us so much of Michel at Rendezvous at home – chats with the girl who actually made the booking and then goes to a table of 3 who are taking up 2 tables of 4 and moves a table over for us.  Ok, well, then.  All is not lost. Just a bit frustrating.

But the meal is just as excellent as the first time – we start with their awesome Saganaki.  It is absolutely the best – even though yesterday’s lunch was good – this is the winner, sizzling delectably on the hot cast iron plate.  Then Ed has his octopus – of course! And I have the stuffed squid, which is excellent. Stuffed with feta and peppers – the peppers don’t overwhelm the cheese of take away from the taste of the squid.  So good.  We are treated to a lovely little square of dessert cake, and then we are done  Perfect meal for our last dinner in Greece!

Back at the hotel, the obnoxious next door neighbors are blissfully out somewhere, and not obnoxious at all when they arrive back to their room.  We are blessed there!  So we spend our last night in Greece happily on the balcony, in the lovely cool breeze under the stars and the moon.