To Ephesus With Love: Sunny Samos

This morning we farewelled Athens, and flew by Olympic Airways to the Greek island of Samos. The flight took less than an hour. After about 45 minutes, the island came into view from the air, and looked extremely hilly, mountainous, and rugged. It also looked large. The aircraft was a Bombadier Q400, so it was small, and it was the roughest landing I'd had in years. The plane tossed and turned with the sea winds. By the way, the other day, when we flew Aegean Airlines from Rome to Athens, all the Italians clapped when the plane landed. Apparently, Italians always do this.

We caught a taxi to our hotel in Samos Town, and settled in. We have a nice little balcony with a good view down to the port on the left, and, on the right, some mountains provide a dramatic backdrop. We walked down to the port to get our tickets for tomorrow morning's voyage to Kusadasi. We looked in some tourist shops, got a milk shake and cafe frappe (which the Greeks claim to have invented), and strolled along, taking a couple of photos. Jean bought a new pair of sunglasses. It's a public holiday in Greece (at least it was in Athens), and the island seems deserted. No locals and no tourists. It's as if the island is here just for us. We bought some Greek beer, Mythos, and took it back to our balcony and drank some of it, reading up on Kusadasi and the ancient ruins of Ephesus, which we will visit the day after tomorrow.

We are now very close to Turkey. One part of Samos is only about one kilometre from Turkey.

Me having a Mythos beer on our hotel balcony