We left Lesvos with the evening tide. Well, not really as there aren’t tides in the Med but it sounded better than clambering aboard a great big ferry with everyone else!

There is something very relaxing about being aboard a ferry, moving between islands. Turning up 30 mins before departure. The port is invariably in the middle of the main town (I wouldn’t call it a capital) and you see a wonderful mixture of locals and tourists on board. It’s the main mode of transport between islands so it’s cheap and very reliable.

We arrived in Chios around 10pm and fought with everyone else to get a taxi. It is wonderfully chaotic with the Port Police trying to ensure people don’t just abandon their cars to either pick up or drop off as well as get the vehicles and the foot passengers off the ferry without getting run over. A thorough process re-engineering is definitely called for!

We were soon at our hotel about 5 miles south of Chios Town in Karfas Bay. It was a fairly basic room but it had a balcony, sea view and, more importantly, air con. We decided on a hotel as we would only be on the island for a couple of days so it saved us having to shop. The weather has been getting hotter and hotter by the day, reaching over 40 degrees C in the sun and not much cooler in the shade. It was still over 30 at 10pm.

We were glad we’d chosen a hotel by the beach (like right on the beach) as there didn’t appear to be a lot to do on the island. Chios is famed as the only place where mastic is commercially produced and the gum like substance is used in many things, including ouzo and various drinks. We spent our first full day doing absolutely nothing apart from sun bathing, reading and swimming in the sea. Lovely.

Yesterday we caught the bus into Chios Town to check out the waterfront and generally mooch around. The bus route was a meandering 40 minutes through a number of villages so it gave us a taste of the island without having to hire a car. The main town had a great town quay that seemed very quiet for mid July with only 10 or so boats on it and space for many more. However, everything was dwarfed by the cruise ship, Oceania Sirena, that had come in earlier that morning. We went to a couple of museums, including an archaeological museum and a folklore one at the central library which had a birthing chair. After that much culture we needed refreshment and found a bar dedicated to the film director, Stanley Kubrick. We thought the bar would be more of a homage to him with photos and film memorabilia but it was a bit of a disappointment although at least the wifi password was Clockwork. Kubrick moved to England in 1961 and settled on the Childwickbury Estate just outside of Harpenden!

It was so hot in town that we decided that lounging on sunbeds on the beach back at the hotel was required but before catching the bus back, we checked out the castle. We were expecting it to be just a ruin but we were pleasantly surprised to find that there was a thriving community living inside its walls. Houses, shops and restaurants abounded.

Whilst on Chios, we ate in a couple of local tavernas close by the hotel. They were okay but nothing special. The pièce de résistance of our stay on Chios, though, had to be the Kokkinos Vraxos beach bar we found about a mile from the hotel. Cheers!