The next morning was unsurprisingly a late one. When we finally did wake up we went to find some food which turned out to be much more of an expedition than expected. Ios has a reputation as the “partyisland”, but it’s like they operate on a completely different time schedule because of it. Businesses just don’t open until around 1pm and when Shereen and I were walking around the town at 10am it was completely deserted. We bumped into Ray who was heading out for a boat tour around the island with Sam and the others. She was saying goodbye to Alana as well as she was heading off to the airport a little while later, so Shereen and I sat with Alana and had a crepe and smoothie for breakfast in just about the only café that was open.
We headed back to the hostel where I spent the rest of the day laying by the amazing hostel pool . We finally ventured out again for lunch, only to find that our favourite gyros place still wouldn’t open until3pm. We ended up finding the only open gyros café down at the base of the giant hill the town is perched on.
In the evening, Ray came to move in and the others came with her. We all decided to go out for dinner and found a restaurant in the main street of the town. I had a great steak dinner which would have been nicer if the restaurant wasn’t filled with people smoking. After dinner the others were keen to go out but I was knackered and definitely had a cold coming on so I was looking forward to cancelling out some of my sleep deficit from the night before. Everyone ended up coming back to our hostel with the plan that they would have a nap there and then head out later.
I didn't have the greatest amount of faith in this plan, so I kept my bed to myself and left Sam, Rhys and Georgia to nap with Shereen and Ray on their beds. By about10pm all three of our guests were asleep and Ray and Shereen and I were still awake.
I finally had to crash and got out my earplugs and face mask.It was a terrible night sleep. Sam and Georgia had left in the night but theycouldn’t budge Rhys so he slept in Ray’s bed while the girls shared. Everyone was waking up at ungodly hours to use the bathroom or have a coughing fit. At one point I woke up to someone trying to stop Shereen’s iPad from buzzing and I could have sworn it was Sam,but in my sleep deprived state and her dishevelled mid-sleep look it turned out I had mistaken Ray for him. It made me slightly less annoyed that Sam and Georgia hadn’t in fact stayed the entire night, but I was still desperate to get Rhys the hell out of my room which he did way to slowly for my liking.
Shereen and I went to get breakfast at a little café near our hostel that had a great view out over the sea, before needing to head back,pack up and catch our ferry.
Shereen and I waited for a couple of hours but they were taking a long time to rent ATVs and come back to our hotel to go and get dinner.
We decided we didn't want to miss the sunset waiting for them and all we were doing otherwise was sitting in the room because they could only contact us via Internet. So Shereen and I went and found a restaurant for dinner with a stunning view of the Caldera, with an additional unfortunately stunning (but not in the good way) smell of donkey crap as we were close to the path they bring the donkeys up from the port. But that didn't spoil the night as we enjoyed a delicious baked feta with filo pastry, honey and sesame seeds as well as my main of Greek roasted lamb.
After enjoying the sunset and finishing our delicious meal we headed back to our hotel.
Until next time.
xx
