Day 4: Island of Samos

After three awesome days in Thessaloniki and Philippi, we were looking forward to our “island hopping” tropical vacation kicking off in Vathy, Samos. We had a little bit of excitement getting there, though. We had budgeted about 1.5 hours to drive about 12 kilometers from Salonica center to the car rental place, then to get a shuttle to the nearby airport in time for our flight. Plenty of time, no? Turns out we didn’t expect log-jam traffic of epic proportions towards the popular beach destination Halkidiki on a late Sunday morning. After an hour in traffic, we frantically dropped off the car with 35 minutes to spare, only to find out from the car rental lady that our airline closed the gate a healthy 20-30 minutes before takeoff, and we were still 5-7 minutes from the airport, let alone through check-in and security. Chances of making this flight? About the same odds as the Apostle Paul had at winning mayor of Thessaloniki after a few weeks in the city. The car rental lady (bless her heart) sped to the airport, security was relatively painless, and God took care of the rest. As they were making the final call for “…passengers Sarah and Jesse McCree, please come to gate 5…” we showed up, more than ready for a drink and a beach vacation.

The island of Samos, as shown in this map, is one of the eastern-most islands and set away from most of the popular tourist destinations of Ios and Mykonos. Not many Americans were here when we arrived, and just as well – we’ve had a very calm and tranquil stay. We picked the island mostly because of its proximity to Turkey (where we’ll have a short boat ride to the ancient city of Ephesus), and to some of the eastern Aegean islands like Patmos that interest us. Paul stopped in Samos on his way to Miletus (and ultimately, Jerusalem) to meet with the elders of the church at Ephesus. If we had checked out some of the beaches, he might have been convinced to stay longer…

Great hotel we’re at, and for only 30 Euro a night (maybe $40 at most) it’s a steal with the hurting Greek economy. The owners of the hotel have been very kind and accommodating, although it would have been difficult to not enjoy our stay with sunset views every night like this:

We’ve had a helpful travel guide that has steered us well. One of their suggestions for beaches was a locals-in-the-know-only called Lakidika Beach. A few observations: 1) Getting there took “off the beaten path” to a whole new level with unmarked lanes and dirt roads; 2) It was, hilariously and unabashedly, straight from those Corona commercials, complete with banana leaf cabanas and lounge chairs in the incredibly warm water; 3) While this was very much unlike what we’re used to, we enjoyed it immensely, although we’re pretty sure the sunlight and non-stop hedonistic parties had irreversibly affected some of the locals. We got a couple of looks, of course, when we broke out of Bibles for some easy-going beach reading. Awesome. Check out the pictures:

We explored a little mountain village near a monastery with incredible architecture and neighborhood design (classic Greek small village with whitewashed walls and narrow paths) and some amazing views:

We had a great meal at a restaurant called Garden. Lamb with rice pasta, mousaka (like a lighter, Greek shepherd’s pie), Greek salad, and good wine and ouzo.

We’re gearing up for Ephesus (and maybe Patmos?) in the next day or two. Looking forward to some more journeys through the Acts and Epistles!