We spent some time visiting with Meni in her office before we headed off on the morning ferry for the Island of Kos. We went to an outdoor restaurant for dinner and walked around the town square enjoying the sights and atmosphere. We decided we would to do a bit of an island crawl for the next few days up through the Greek Islands on our way back to Turkey.
The following day we pulled into Kalamos Island briefly on our way to Leros Island. A
retired fisherman started up his own restaurant on Leros, where we headed for dinner in the evening. He chatted to us quite a bit and told Pat to come back in the morning and he'd teach him how to splice rope, We went back to his restaurant before lunch and Pat had a great lesson - he has now shipped his splicing ropes back home for later reference.
Our next island was Lipsi - a beautiful little island that is not overrun with tourists - very laid back and enjoyable. The months of July and August are very busy with swarms of visitors on school holidays from many parts of Europe, so the end of August and the month of September are brilliant times to visit the Greek Islands. The crowds have gone home, the prices are cheaper, the weather is glorious and the sun is not as hot. The people on the islands are very friendly - even our Pansione owner Marina, kissed and cuddled us every time she saw us.
We met a couple, Chris & Maryanne, from Tasmania and they told us this is the twelfth year they have visited Lipsi for holidays. They love coming here because the sea is wonderful for swimming in and it is possible to swim quite far without encountering any dangers that might lurk below the surface. I find the smaller islands very enjoyable also - I'm not too keen on huge crowds - I guess Dingo Beach has rubbed off on me.
At Lipsi, our room was was right on the bay - the water was about 20 metres from our front door. Pat decided to bus out to the beach for a little while before the ferry arrived - I decided to stay at home and type up my blog. What happened? He fell asleep on the beach - missed the bus - and had to hitch hike back! No dramas as I was all packed up and ready to go. The next day we visited the island of Patmos, where we spent a few hours before heading to Samos.
Samos Island is also a great little place - the bay is full of boats - all shapes and sizes from the tiny little fishing boats to multi million dollar super yachts. Outdoor restaurants hug the bay and the waiters are out on the walkways trying to entice passers-by into their establishments. The atmosphere is great and the competition between the restaurants keep the prices very reasonable.
The ferry headed out of Samos onto Kusadasi on the Turkish coast, from where we headed north by bus to Canakkale which is just across the water from the Gallipoli Peninsula. On the bus, we met up with a young Canadian couple from Edmonton, Tara and Robin who were travelling around Turkey for their honeymoon. To make the most of our time, we decided to take the ferry at 9pm across the Dardannelle Strait to Eceabat. The Dardannelle Strait connects the Mediterranean to the Black Sea - a very strategic wartime area which connects directly into Istanbul.
Tara and Robin were also maximising their time before heading back to Istanbul, so we were lucky enough to be able to organise a tour of Gallipoli Peninsula with our own guide and in an air conditioned taxi. Our guide was great and he made our trip very enjoyable - he has been a guide here for 24 years and is so passionate about what he does. He was able to tell us wonderful stories we otherwise would not have heard. Gallipoli is a truly beautiful place yet very tragic.
We heard the stories about the badly planned decision to land our troops on the beautiful beach at Brighton Beach - the sea current was not taken into account - therefore pushing the landing barges and the troops 2 klm further north to Anzac Cove and the base of the mountainside - from above the Turks had clear vision of the troops below.
Anzac Day - 25th April 1915 is forever etched into the memories of Australians and New Zealanders. We toured some of the gravesites where headstones are marked out with the names and particulars of those who lost their lives. The headstones are tokens only - the bodies are buried all over the peninsula - many buried where they fell. In the Gallipoli campaign around 500,000 lives were lost, one of the the worst wartime blunders of all time.
Our travel from Eceabat through to Greece was a bit disjointed, but all eventually worked out. We took a bus to Kesan - a taxi to the Turkey / Greece border - hitchiked across no mans' land (as it is a Military Zone and no one is permitted to walk) - our driver then took us onto Alexandroupolis from where we took a train to Thessaloniki on the Greek coast.
The following day, we booked a train through to Skopje the capital of Macedonia. We shared our 6 seater cabin with 2 lovely young girls and their Mum who were travelling home to Skopje. Boyana (15 yrs) Yvona (13 yrs) and their Mum, Stefka were delightful company on the journey through Macedonia. Both girls could speak English quite well and their Mum could understand a lot of English but was not as vocal as the girls. The country is quite mountainous but with lots of good farming land. Vegetables of all kinds are grown here in Macedonia - as with other Mediterranean countries, the tomatoes are sensational - naturally red and vine ripened.
After checking into our great little hotel we headed out to the Old Bazaar, but being Sunday, many of the shops were closed. At the markets Pat bought 2 klgs of muscatel grapes for the equivalent of $1.25 Australian - he was in his element. We also bought 1 klg of peaches for about 80 cents.
The little restaurant nextdoor to our Hotel cooked our dinner even though it had reached closing time. We had great spareribs, salad and the most beautiful freshly baked cob of bread - the Macedonian beer and wine were also very good. In the morning we headed into the City Centre to visit the Blessed Mother Teresa centre. Mother Teresa was born in Skopje and the City is very proud to call her one of their own. What a magnificent lady she was - her legacy lives on.
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