Awake after a good night’s sleep. The beds are really comfy at the studios, although the heater clicks and clacks all night long. The showers are also nice (not always the case in some Greek hotels/studios), as is the homemade breakfast of (really orange!) scrambled eggs, Greek coffee, toast and biscotti. We’re slow risers again, which is good, as I’m still dragging for some reason. Delayed jet lag? Beats me.
We’re off to see the monastery on the side of a cliff today. Or I should say the rest of our group is. I’m not particularly religious, and sheer cliffs make me wobbly, so it’s unlikely I’ll be going on the full adventure.
Sure enough, part of the way up, my stomach says no. The monastery isn’t open yet, but Callie hikes on up. The rest of us putter around in the general area. When Callie is done, we drive down to a beach just below. It’s a beach. ZiZi finds a church and rings the bell. That’s kind of how slow-going it is on this part of the island.
Off to Katapola for lunch. We settle on Mougari, right by the port (and mentioned in some guidebooks). The food turns out to be excellent, except for the “fresh” fish, which is tough and not good. We are protected by the Hellenic Coast Guard, which has a ship docked at the port the whole time we are there. Any Turkish marauders who want to take our tough fish are SOL!
After lunch, we cruised around the limani to give Katapola a closer look in case we don’t make it back. Like Egiali, it’s a very sleepy port town. We run across a man who looks like Callie’s (late) dad, and stop for a photo. He tells Kulla (in Greek of course) “Again with the photographs?” That’s funny! Off to the monastery, again.
Part of the way up for me again, and I get nauseous, so it’s back to the car to update the journal. While I’m waiting, a blondish youngish chick comes by and asks something in a language I don’t know. I shrug and ask, “English?” She asks if the monastery is open. I tell her yes, I think so, but that she will need a long skirt (she is wearing a short skirt and tights that only go down over half her calves, which shouldn’t pass muster according to the posted dress code). Apparently, they let her in, as Callie talked to her and it turns out she was a very religious Romanian chick. Some other people come and go, breaking up the general peace of the place (or is it monotony? sometimes hard to tell!).
Monastery adventure complete, we head back to Egiali and check the ferry schedules as the weather is still awful and there is no reason to stay on Amorgos if the weather is too bad for hiking. This is an instance in which the ferry schedules do not match the internet (or Rick Steves’ mythical “brochure” — dumbass). Not ever close. We had originally planned to leave Amorgos Friday, but decide to catch the Thursday morning (6:50 am) ferry to Paros from Egiali. Egiali is the closer port to where we are staying (10-15 minutes driving). So this is good. Next question is whether we can drop the car rented at Katapola at Egiali. A couple of phone calls to the car rental place finally gets this arranged. We call Michail to arrange paying for the studio, and he agrees to meet us at the restaurant later.
We have a coffee and decide to watch the ferry arriving at 8:15 pm (I love ferry comings and goings in Greece for much the same reason I love airports here in the US — it’s fun to watch the people). It is cold and windy. Have I mentioned this? BRRR. The silly little Express Skopelitis (the little ferry that could!) comes chugging in. In these choppy seas, that is probably not much fun. We will be taking a big Blue Star boat out the next day, thankfully. There is much entertaining commotion around the ferry, and that’s that.
Kulla heads back to the market and the proprietor sells her some of his stash of rakomelo (a honey liqueur that seems unique to Amorgos — made from honey and raki). We’ve had some of this stuff at the restaurant, and the monks even gave our crew some. The local guy gives it to Kulla in a previously used water bottle. Kula expresses some skepticism, and he bangs it down on the floor to illustrate that the bottle is durable. His wife seems exasperated by this. We will kick ourselves later for not purchasing MORE of this incredible drink, creative bottling notwithstanding! It’s delicious.
We decided to drive up to the village above Egiali for a quick look. It’s charming. Callie and I take a quick walk and run across the only interesting bar we have seen on this island. Alas, no time to stop, unfortunately. Maybe another trip. We head back down to the restaurant.
We order our food and Michail finally shows. He visits with some others in German. We later visit with him as we are settling our tab, and find out his mother is German and his (late) father was Greek — indeed, was a builder who built much of Egiali, including the studios we are staying in. Michail splits his time between Germany and Amorgos with his family. Tough life! Oh, and he strongly resembles Rob Booth. That was kind of interesting.
Back to the studios to pack and get ready to leave in the morning. Heater cranked up. Have I mentioned it’s cold and windy?