Day 02 - Chios - Good (for catching up on sleep) Friday

The ferry arrived at 7am and immediately orienting ourselves with our lonely planet map of the city, we trudged to the other end of the harbour where we located the Domatia which we had booked to stay at, from Friday to Monday.   I tried the door, but it seemed locked (which kinda made sense at 7am on Good Friday) so we then trudged all the way back down the length of harbour in search of some breakfast.  The only place that was open that served anything other than coffee was a little kebab shop right next to where the ferry arrived.  Michelle went inside to order.  She was asked if we wanted a pizza or kebab or something else from their late night booze food menu but somehow she managed to con the bloke into cooking us a fry up!!  Eggs, bacon, tomatos and toast.  Nice one!!  Whilst ordering our meal Michelle befriended some English speaking lass who was waiting around for her ferry to Cesme (Turkey).

  I think she was a little mad.  Cuddling and kissing stray dogs sat around outside a kebab shop just strikes me as a bit odd.  She seemed to know a few of the locals though and she was off to catch her ferry just as our food arrived.  It was a beautiful, clear, still morning so breakfast at the kebab shop, overlooking the harbour was great.  After breakfast we made our way back down the length of the harbour to again find the door shut.  Bugger.  Mish read for an hour or so.  In that time the breeze picked up and we both became a little uncomfortable with cold.  Michelle then went to try the door to the Domatia – to discover that it was a sliding door.  The failure of my efforts to push or pull it open probably meant that it was open the whole time!! 

Finally inside “Chios Rooms” we were greeted by the owner Don, a kiwi bloke who has lived here in Greece for 30 years.

  He showed us to our room and invited us into the kitchen to chat over coffee.  Since neither of us drink coffee we simply accepted a glass of water and some great advice about what to see and do whilst in Chios.

It was about midday when we were finally settled in our room.  We each enjoyed a shower before climbing into bed and crashing for 5 hours.  We had loads of sleep to catch up on. 

Once we woke, we headed into town.  We arranged for a scooter for the weekend and then wandered around the old town for a bit.  The locals were gearing up for Easter.  Loads of people were headed to church for their Good Friday service.  Other locals were getting in the mood by setting off loads of fireworks.  After sundown we made our way to a quaint little restaurant that Don had told us about.  Set back a couple of streets from the harbour on the edge of the old town, it was absolutely deserted when we arrived.  We needed to mutter our first Greek words “Yia-Sus” (Hello) to get the attention of the staff so we could be seated. 

Dinner was great.  We did the right thing and avoided ordering red meats on Good Friday, sticking with seafood.  Curiously though, our taste buds wanted a red wine. I think the waiter was a little perplexed as he double checked that we did want the red. We ordered some Tzatziki and garlic spread (basically a garlic potato mash) to go with our bread.  This basic appetiser was augmented with some vinegar octopus in a tomato based sauce and for mains we had grilled shrimp and dried mackerel. We also order a glass of ouzo each to drink with the dried fish.  It was all very good food – which was reinforced by the hoards of locals who filled the place up at about 10:30pm – after we’d pretty much had the place to ourselves for about two hours.   On the way back to our Domatia, we stopped at a bar overlooking the harbour for drink.  The G&T’s weren’t cheap but they came with a free bottle of water and some popcorn!