I took a train from Meteora to Thessaloniki, which was about four hours. I then took a ferry to Chios, where I am now. The ferry left at 3 in the morning and was scheduled to be 18 hours. It actually turned into 21, though, and I didn't end up getting to Chios until about 12 am.
I've been here for two days, and this island is fantastic. I spent most of yesterday in the sun (which I am dearly paying for now), and today I explored the villages in the south. They are absolutely amazing, completely different than anything I have seen before. My favorite was called Pyrgi. The buildings are decorated with intracite designs of grey and white. It's amazing. They use a technique of coating the walls with a mixture of cement and black volcanic sand, then painting over that with white lime. After that's dried they then scrape off the lime with the bent prong of a fork, which reveals the matt grey underneath. Some of the designs are geometric, some are based on animals, and still others ar floral. I've been told there's nowhere like it in all of Greece.
The second village I went to was called Mesta. The village is very much a maze - a 14th century defense mechanism, or so I am told. The streets are cobblestone and the houses stone. It was quite amazing.
And at three in the morning I am catching another ferry to Samos, where I can catch a ferry to Ikaria. This is the island I am looking forward to most of all. I'm half thinking about renting myself a vespa, because apparently public transportation is non-existant. It'll probably be too expensive. But what an expirience that would be!
I have now learned that the best thing you can do on a hot day is eat ice cream and dangle your feet off the docks, over light blue water.
posted by Lisa @ 6:47 AM
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