Astypalea & Kalymnos

Astypalea - pronounced Astiparleeya.

It was weird arriving on a new island in the pitch black at 4am. Our accommodation had arranged to have us picked up and a lovely old non-English speaking couple were duly waiting. They drove us the 10 minutes or so our accommodation.

This accommodation was one we had been looking forward to. We chose it because it has an amazing view over the spectacular old town of Hora. We thought we would have to wait until daylight to see it, but we were shown to our room and were met with this view......

We slept late then had breakfast on our balcony with that amazing old town spread out behind us and the picturesque run of old windmills lining the road to the town. The breakfasts here were incredible too!

Those windmills were gorgeous from any angle.

Our first plan was to explore the old town. It was all narrow laneways, whitewashed buildings and gorgeous shuttered windows. It was really quiet though as it's nearing the end of the season. Quite a few restaurants are closed and many houses in the old town were boarded up for the winter.

An open area was dedicated to the many friendly cats around here. Some wag put this sign up.

The old town was topped with a Venetian castle. A lot of it collapsed in an earthquake but it was all very atmospheric. From the castle we could look out over a church to the blue, blue sea.

Checking out inside one of the few renovated parts of the castle.

The castle hasn't been renovated much but the churches have!

On our way back down, this cat followed us for ages! It was more like a dog than a cat. I love the painted laneways here.

Much to our surprise, the sunsets were incredible, even though we were facing east. 

We were fortunate enough to see a full moon rise at sunset on our first night. It was spectacular!

The sunrises were just as amazing!

One day we went into a traditional cafe-bar where they serve small plates of food for lunch. The other two or three tables of locals were all drinking and were having a great time. Before we knew it, a lady from another table bought us drinks! We didn't really want to drink in the middle of the day but we had to!

A short walk down a nearby hill was a gorgeous beach. It was too cold for us to swim though and the continual wind wasn't pleasant. We learned that some locals who live in the old town have holiday houses here. Each summer they pack up their homes and move to the beach - all five minutes away!

We hired a car one day and explored the island. 

Check out the cats hanging around this fisherman as he cleaned his fish.

Like other islands we've been on, the land was arid and rocky but gorgeous turquoise waters lapped at the rugged coastline.

The bare hills can be stunning sometimes. 

We drove to a church where there was supposed to be a beautiful garden. On the way we passed rows of beehives in boxes, placed there by beekeepers. Island honey is very popular. We had walked a few metres towards the church when suddenly we were both attacked by bees! There weren't many but they wouldn't leave. One got stuck in my hair. As soon as I got it out it flew straight back into it. John and I both ran, trying to get away. The closest place to hide was the church and, for the first time in ages, the church was actually unlocked! It was the second time this trip that I had taken refuge in a church. (The first time was when I sheltered from a storm in Aegina.)

We swiped the last bees away and hid inside the church. There were lit candles in there so someone must have been there not long ago. We finally felt safe to leave but on our way back to the car we were attacked again. We must have looked so funny frantically swishing and trying to get into the car. A few bees got in with us and it was so hard to get them out! About half an hour later we went to get out of the car and found another bee still inside. Arrgghhhh!

Our bee experience was nothing like Courtney's where she and a friend were attacked by hundreds of bees in the middle of nowhere in Peru. I can't begin to comprehend how horrific that must have been.

A bit further on, this goat watched us curiously when we passed. We heard that there are about 7,000 goats on the island and I wonder how much they have to do with the landscape being so desolate. 

I quite like goats but the billy goats here reek! I can't stand the smell of them. Sometimes I can smell them before I even see them. I know this sounds weird but I can taste that smell when I eat goat cheese so I struggle with that a bit.

The menus here are surprisingly large - and very delicious!

We actually have a bit of a problem with the food here - there's too much of it! We have learned to only order one main and one salad between us but that doesn't always work when one of us wants something that the other doesn't want. There's not usually enough vegies with the main courses so we have to order a salad as well and the salads are huge! But what we order isn't the real problem - it's what we don't order that keeps packing on the kilos!

Typically we order our meal then a basket of bread turns up. We then get our meal. Then, when we ask for the bill, a free dessert turns up and maybe a free drink as well. This happens almost every time and all those extra calories are piling kilos onto me. We usually ask for no bread but people look at us like we're crazy!

John had a lot of fun cycling in Astypalea. He even managed to take a photo!

The highlight of this island though (apart from the view!) was the amazing people we met. The two ladies that ran our accommodation, Carolina and Maria, were smart women and fluent English speakers. They were really interesting to talk to and were passionate about their small hotel. We thoroughly enjoyed their company - and their dog Casanova was great too! They even took us around the old town to explain some of the history and architectural styles which we really enjoyed.

On our second night we found a great restaurant. The extra food here went beyond the norm - free soup at the start then free dessert and drinks at the end. Oh and bread of course.

The island was really quiet so when we had finished our meal, the owner joined us. She ordered drinks for herself and for us. She had led an interesting life, including spending 13 years or so on a tanker ship! She was passionate about her food so when she told us about something she would order it! First came dolmades (meat and rice wrapped in vine leaves). Then came fried local cheese - this was amazing! Then came something else. I've lost track now but the thing is that all this food came out AFTER we had eaten our dinner - complete with the free soup, dessert and drinks! Then we found out it was the waitress's 40th birthday, so we celebrated that - and got cake as well. We sat at that restaurant until 2am playing music through her speaker. We were the only ones awake on the whole island I'm sure - except for the people we were keeping awake with the music!

We brought Carolina and Maria back here the next night and had plate after plate of delicious mezes and great wine. It was a fantastic way to finish our visit here.
From left to right - Carolina, Maria, the waitress who turned 40, Maroula the owner, myself and John. You can see Casanova's feet under the table!

As much as we loved Astypalea, it was only a small island and there wasn't much else to see so it was time to leave. We approached the next ferry trip with some dread though as the windy weather would make the trip rough. Astypalea isn't really close to other islands - it's the last of the Cyclades islands and there weren't many ferry options to take us to our next destination, Kalymnos, which is part of the Dodecanese group of islands. We dosed ourselves up with the strongest drugs we could find and survived the 3.5 hour trip with the contents of our stomachs intact. The ferry was an older one, and not as large as some we'd been on, but there were only about half a dozen passengers on it! The Greek government subsidises the ferries to make sure that people can move freely between the islands. If they didn't give those subsidies it would be hard to find any ferry at this time of year.

Kalymnos

We arrived at the port town of Pothia and it looked really nice. It's a pity we were staying on the other side of the island! The thing that struck us was that is was so busy. Kalymnos is a huge destination for rock climbers. Apparently its craggy cliffs are perfect for climbing and there are over 600 recorded pitches here. This is peak season for climbing so fit-looking people carrying small packs, ropes and carabiners were a common sight.

I learned a lot from the taxi driver that took me to our accommodation. Thousands of people from Kalymnos have lived, or do live, in Darwin! Our taxi driver lived there for eight years. Nobody that we spoke to liked it much though. They went there to earn money but they hated the heat, humidity and dangerous animals and they missed their family and friends. Many have come back to Kalymnos.

I had to laugh at the taxi driver though - before he picked me up (John rode his bike) he had been side-swiped by someone because the other driver was eating while he drove. For the whole 15-minute trip, my taxi driver barely touched the wheel. He spent most of the time waving one hand out the window while the other hand waved to me to explain his point or he answered his phone or counted things (like the number of poisonous snakes in Darwin) on his fingers.

I later saw this very Aussie-looking windmill and wondered if someone had brought this style back home with them.

We stayed near a small dark-sand beach but we were never tempted to swim here as there were so many cats around and we saw them pooing on the beach. Strangely, the cats here weren't friendly at all, unlike everywhere else we've been. There were even chooks and ducks on the beach!

I had a lovely walk one day to a small church at the end of a rocky promontory. Yes, we were near the airport but this remote walking track was a strange place to have a sign!

I had mentioned to John that I hadn't seen any wild thyme like we had seen on a previous visit to Greece. It wasn't until one of us accidentally stood on a plant and I recognised the scent that I realised it was everywhere! It was just that it was the end of summer and it was all almost dead-looking. The gnarled stems were amazing on some of them.

The tiny church was set in a spectacular setting against a cliff. We learned that the reason there are so many of these small, family-owned churches is because people promise to build one if they get through a bad situation. For example, if a fisherman is caught in a bad storm and doesn't think he will survive, he will pray to God and promise that he will build a church to Him if God gets him home safely. Also if a child is very sick, a parent might make the same promise to God. Obviously a lot of people survived these life-threatening situations because these tiny family-owned churches are everywhere!

There are caves everywhere in these limestone cliffs and there were half a dozen or so near the church, each partly walled off with rocks. Curiosity got the better of me and I scrambled up through the spiky scrub to one of the caves but it was just full of goat droppings and the bones of a dead goat.

We hired a car and explored the island. Off the coast is this striking island called Telendos. Apparently there are no cars on the island and it's possible to stay there but we ran out of time to visit it.

We soon learned that the giveaway sign that there were climbers nearby was the line ups of rental motorbikes and cars along the roads at various locations.

We often had trouble finding the climbers though. You have to zoom in!

We crossed the island to a less-visited area. The road switched back and forth down the mountain.

The switchbacks were cool and they led to a gorgeous little bay.

We headed to the old town to explore the ancient castle that towered over it. It wasn't well-maintained but it was fun scrambling around the ruins. Some of the old churches had cool frescoes in them but they haven't survived well.

To start the climb up to the castle, we drove for a bit through the old town. I found this the most genuine and interesting part of the island.  Old ladies in black dresses and mismatched woolly socks wandered along the narrow roads and old men cleaned their patio or chased chooks off their vegie garden. Cats lounged around and the smell of cooking wafted from almost every kitchen. I wish we had been able to explore more here but it was difficult to get around. As it was, we were so grateful we had a tiny car. With the mirrors pulled in as far as they would go, we still only made it through some places by centimetres. This photo makes it look better than it was!

We had coffee at a café with the most amazing views over the port. The drinks were expensive by Greek standards, but worth it!

A huge Greek flag is painted on the rocks above the town, below yet another small church.

Like many islands around here, Kalymnos prospered on sponge diving. Locals are proud of the old traditions associated with it. It was such a risky occupation though. 

Some old photos in the café:

We followed this up with a visit to a museum set up by a sponge diver who collected all sorts of things from the sea floor. I was fascinated with these coins. They were up to 2,500 years old. Many featured chariots or old Roman writing. I love how irregular in shape they are.

He also found an entire sunken ship from the 1st or 2nd century. It was a commercial ship carrying oil, wine, olives and honey. Amazing! 

The museum was in a tiny village in a pretty bay. Nearby a priest was fishing. You can't get much more Greek than that!

A lot of these small towns were winding down for the season. We tried to buy some things in the local mini-market at one small town but the shelves were almost empty.

We found a valley that was actually fertile. Citrus trees and vegetables grew in paddocks fenced with whitewashed stone walls (presumably to keep the goats out). The valley finished at another gorgeous, tiny bay. They get a lot of day trippers here in summer but now it was just lovely and peaceful.

On our last morning I did another walk to a church high above us. Inside, the cliff formed a large part of the ceiling.

Yet another church on the way down looked stunning against the blue sea, even on an overcast morning.

On our first night we found a fancy resort just near where we stayed. It had amazing cocktails and the food was fantastic so we ate there every night. We did our usual request of asking for no bread when we placed our order. When the bread turned up anyway, we said again that we didn't want it and the waiter was honestly hurt! "But it come with the meal!" he argued. We took it. It was amazing - hot, crusty home-made bread rolls with yummy homemade dips. What hope have we got?

The resort had an amazing pool which looked cool when it started to rain. We didn't get a lot of rain, but in Crete they had floods.

Every night we were treated to spectacular sunsets as we drank our cocktails. You can't ask for better than that!

We had a small apartment here which was lovely but we had a huge problem with noise coming from the apartment next door. We heard every dragged chair, the music they played and even their extra-curricular activities! We were happy to leave really.

We hope the floods at home haven't impacted you too much.

Heather and John.