Our relaxing trip started with a six hour bus ride to Athens at 7:30 AM and an eight hour ferry ride to Amorgos, putting us on the island at 1:00 am. We stayed at a cute little hotel room in Aigialis the first day, then took an expensive taxi ride to the other port, Katapola. We stayed with George, a native, in one of his rooms for rent. The first day we got there George made us some Greek coffee and sat and talked to us about Obama, America, and the weather, everything I LOVE to talk about... We had walked around trying to find a room, and this one was the cutest we found. I bargained with him on the price, asking 40 Euro for each night, thinking I was getting a good price. After we got settled in, we saw the off season price list and "won" 10 Euro (meaning regular asking price was 50 Euro a night).
That first day Samantha and I explored the port of Katapola, walking around the the different parts of town, then having dinner at a cute Italian place. We bought some wine, crackers, and Nutella, headed back to the place we were staying and sat out and watched the stars under our blankets.
The next day we slept in, then walked up to the next nearest city, Xopa (Hora). There we ate large Nutella crepes, explored the quaint city with white houses, and vines hanging down from lattices over walkways. It was beautiful, and the weather was just right. On our way down from Xopa, two nice girls picked us up and gave us a ride down to the city center, our first of many hitchhiking experiences.
Another one of our adventures include a taxi ride up to the monastery in Xopa. We walked up the path to the Monastery which was littered with cats. The Monastery was neat, but the good part came on the way back. We didn't want to pay for another taxi ride, plus we were in the middle of no where. Instead of taking the winding road back to Xopa, we decided to take the hikers path, that went straight up. Along the way we encountered some billy goats. For some reason I thought billy goats were dangerous, and I got nervous. I suggested we pray that the billy goats would not charge at us, and we cautiously moved around the goats who were too busy eating to even know we were around. Its just, the ones with the horns scared me... Again, we got another ride down the hill from Xopa to Katapola.
Our last day we needed to get from one port to the other, and we were told a bus would take us. Well, there were no buses running and we decided to try our hand at hitchiking again, since we were having such good luck. After about 45 minutes of standing on the street corner with our bags, a lady drove by who spoke perfect english and asked us if we needed a ride to Xopa, about 1/4 of the way to the other port. We agreed to ride with her, learning she was from LA and her husband and kids moved here to open up a tourist shop. She was helpful in getting us a ride from Xopa to Aigialis, although I think next time I will be taking applications from the people I get in cars with. This man spoke no English, drove down the middle of the road most of the t
ime and had most likely been drinking. I think we would have died if I hadn't yelled "EXCUSE ME" (in Greek) before almost running off the road. This road was windy, one side along the water and the other along the rock wall. We made it back safe to the port, though I think I used up my quota of prayers for the day.
Amorgos was a cute little island, and it was nice to get away for a little bit. Although, both Samantha and I were a little stressed because we didn't have any places booked to sleep for our 10 day vacations to Paris and Dublin. The weather was nice though, and I was thankful for getting the experience of a Greek island.
port
Xopa
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