Ios Insanity

Our ferry to Ios wasn't leaving until the afternoon but Sam, Shereen and I had to check out of our room by 10:00. I had asked the hotel manager the day before if we would be able to leave a few bags with him while we waited for our ferry and he said that was fine, but when he showed up and we were giving him our bags he said he wouldn't take any bags that had valuables in them because he was just going to leave them in his car unattended. When I said I didn't care that he left them he still flat out refused to take them because he didn't want to make his car a target. Why his car would be more of a target with 3 giant suitcases with valuables hidden in them than with 3 giant suitcases with no valuables hidden in them was a mystery to me. So with no other option but to take our heavy day-packs with us, the three of us proceeded around the corner to a cute little cafe for breakfast. I had the last of my giant apples and grapes while Shereen had a coffee and Sam had a mixed fruit crepe that looked amazing.

Next we wondered how to spend the next 3 hours until our ferry arrived, with the beach being out of the question and keeping in mind that we had spent more than enough time in the old port.

Still with no real choice in the matter we shopped around in the old port for a while, and I managed to find a belated birthday present for my mum. After killing a mere 40 minutes and feeling sick of walking with our day packs on, I decided the best thing to do would be to go around to the ferry port and find a restaurant to string out lunch in.

We found a really nice restaurant with no one in it overlooking the sea and the ferry port, with free wifi to help lengthen the eating process with constant Facebook and Instagram checking.

We ordered a mix of small dishes to share including a giant mound of tsatziki, baked feta and calamari, and Sam and I waxed lyrical about how much we were beginning to love Greek food. About an hour and a half before our ferry was supposed to arrive I decided to check with our waitress that we were at the right port for the ferry since our hotel manager had not given us very good instructions.

She told us that, in fact, we were not in the right place and that it would take us about an hour to walk there. We quickly paid and left, and started walking to the port she had told us.

About 10 minutes in, the pedestrian path along the road ended and we had to start walking along the shoulder of this very busy road. I decided it was a bad idea and that it would take us more than an hour considering how winding the road was, so we headed back the way we had come to find a good waiting point to catch a taxi. We waited about another 10 minutes for a taxi but every one that came past had a passenger they were bringing from the new port and all were going the wrong way.

Deciding it would be hopeless waiting for one to come on this stretch of road without a passenger we decided we should walk back into the town area where there would be more taxis floating around. Finally we caught on dropping off passengers at the ferry port we had originally been at and we all piled in and gave him the name of the port we wanted to go to. He told us he didn't understand.

I got out my map and showed him the picture and the name in Greek and he said "you want to go there?" and I said yes, to which he replied, "That's here".

After a confusing discussion about which island we were going to and which ferry company we were with, we sorted out that we had in fact been in the right place the whole time and that our waitress was either too dumb to read a map or wanted us to leave the restaurant after we had been sitting around using wifi and barely ordering anything.

We walked down to wait in the ferry terminal, which turned out to be a building that had started construction and was abandoned at the skeleton phase before doors windows or any fitting of any kind were put in. Since we were still a good 30-45 minutes early for the ferry we decided to head back up to the cafe at the top of the hill- right next to where we had been half an hour before. We ordered some drinks and pilfered more wifi while we waited for the ferry.

When we finally make our way down to the ferry port we first had to meet our hotel manager who was bringing the bags he would store for us down to meet us at the port. We got our bags and sat around in the car park waiting for the ferry to arrive along with hundreds of other people. One ferry came and went and a few hundred people went with it, but our ferry was nowhere to be seen and the only information we were told whilst we were waiting was "it's late". Thanks, we got that.

After more than an hour of waiting in the sun our ferry finally came and it turned out we had assigned seating and I was next to this couple while Shereen and Sam were across the wide aisle. Luckily when the ferry started moving the seat next to them was still free and I was able to move.

We arrived in Ios and were greeted by our hostel van. Sam was staying at a different hostel to us at the other side of the island and so we parted ways there. When we got to the hostel we contacted Ray to see when she was going to move over to the hostel from Alana's hotel, but she decided that because it was Alana's last night in Europe she would stay with her.

We contacted Sam to see what the others had planned for the night and they mentioned some bar they wanted to go to. I told Sam that Shereen and I were going for dinner and since they wouldn't have a chance of contacting us once they left their hostel's wifi signal, we made plans that we would meet them at this bar if we were going out, but if we weren't there by 9 then they could assume that we weren't coming.

Shereen and I finished dinner and were feeling super tired, so we decided we weren't going to go out. Before going back to the hostel we headed down to the supermarket to buy some supplies for the room. When we got down there it was 9pm and Ray, Sam, Rhys and Georgia were at the cafe next door. 

We decided to head back and go out with the people from the hostel instead. After a few drinking games and welcome shots we all headed to a bar owned by the same guy that owned our hostel. Ray and the others came to find us there, but a few of the friends I had made at the hostel wanted to go off to a different bar and I decided to go with them.

The bar was exclusively flavoured shots and for every 7 shots you bought you got a free t-shirt. Without going too far into it... I had more than enough shots for a shirt.

We left the bar a little while later and I went to find Shereen again. She had chosen to stay with the others and they were all together in a different bar. We hung out there as people started to disappear slowly- Ray tripped on the treacherous cobble stone street outside and was kindly escorted home by Rhys, and the friends I had made at the hostel also decided to call it a night. Sam was the next to want to leave when he sat on a single-serve packet of butter that Shereen had made me steal from the restaurant where we had dinner. It had started to melt in my bag so I threw it out onto the stone bench I was on, much to the dismay of an unsuspecting Sam.

After that we decided it was time to call it a night, and I wrangled a few people to help me drag Shereen home.

Look out for my next post on the rest of our time in Ios.

xx