We’re here for a good time… not a long time….

Right now we are on the ferry headed to Santorini after spending almost a week on the island of Kos in a town called Tigaki.  The ferry is a lot nicer than I thought (from the outside they look really dumpy) but on the inside its huge with restaurants and hotel rooms and lots of things to do (I can’t imagine what a cruise ship must look like).  Anyways, on to Tigaki.

The island of Kos is one of the closest Greek islands to Turkey.  We arrived early in the morning on a flight out from Bari to land at the airport and find out the taxis were on strike.  Normally Travis and I would have considered hiking into town if it wasn’t that far but we realized it was 18km, 10:30am and already 38C.  So we opted to take the city bus.  Now, as much as I hate taking public transportation (I truly am all for helping the environment) but the people who take it is what I dislike most.  Its also quite difficult to take a bus when you A. Have no idea where it is going and B. don’t speak the language.  Anyways, an hour later we arrived at our resort.

Tigaki is a small resort town (as are a lot of the ones on Kos) that must have built most of its hotels in the 70s and that’s where they’ve stayed (I felt a bit like we were in Dirty Dancing).  Anyways, our place was still great and right next to everything so we were glad we had chosen it.  We grabbed a quick lunch and spent the rest of the day laying by the pool.

When we arrived we noticed that everyone rents either quads, motorbikes, scooters or dune buggies to get around town.  We decided it would be fun to rent a dune buggy and check out the island (which is about 50km from one end to the other so its really easy to get around)

We drove into the main town (Kos Town) and wandered around there.  They have a lot of ruins there as well that are thousands of years old but for some reason – we’re not sure why – unlike all of the other places we have been they aren’t kept in very good condition.  Therefore, instead of being surrounded by gates, you actually can climb all over them (I’m sure they’ll regret this one day). 

Next we were on to a town in the mountains called Zia.  It is known as a tourist spot where people go and watch the sunset.  We then went to a beach where they kite surf.  Travis really wanted to try (partially because it looks super cool and fun and partially because Brett does it) but we didn’t have time and had to get our luxury sedan back to its owner.

The next couple days we spent lying by the pool.  At night we would walk into town and found some really great places to eat.  One place, called 7 Days, we found the most interesting, hilarious Greek girl who chatted with us long after everyone had left.  She told us all about the traditional Greek drinks, how the tourism industry has changed and how she thinks it will with all the problems Greece’s economy is currently having.  She was a lot of fun and we were really glad we met her.

The second last day we were here we decided to go to Turkey.  Initially we weren’t going to but we figured, being so close, we’d regret it if we didn’t.  After a 45 minute boat ride and a hot customs line later we were in Turkey.  We opted to do a city tour (because it was so, so hot) and were taking to some of the cities attractions as well as a few others (because they were the ones who had sponsored the bus).  While they were cool to see they were a bit misleading as they said because we had come in a group we’d get amazing prices however when Travis picked up a watch and asked how much it was he replied $1600. 

One of the places we visited along the way was the old windmills of Bodrum.  Before we had gone to Turkey I had said I really wanted to ride a camel while we were there but after getting there I realized it probably wasn’t going to happen . However, when we arrived at the windmills, there were two camels sitting right next to them.  And it was great.

Turkey is also know for its knock off clothes, purses and pretty much anything else you can think of.  It is the second highest producing country of this after China (or that’s what they told us).  Travis therefore took advantage of this buying 9 (yes 9) Lacoste t-shirts for a whopping $4 a shirt. 

Our last day we spent by the pool, enjoying the hot weather (every day it was over 35C without a cloud in the sky).   We are now headed to Santorini (this is the island that people think of when they think of Greek islands with its white houses) and will get to spend our 3^rd anniversary there. 

And last, but not least, I’d like to say congratulations to one of my very bestest friends Rebeccah and her new fiancé Chad! YAY!!!