May 31 Turkey to Greece (Day 247)
We were up early this morning, finishing packing and eating leftovers for breakfast before our driver arrived to take us to the ferry port in Çeşme, an hour’s drive away. The ferry will take us across the border into Greece, only a half hour away, to the Greek island of Chios (pronounced Hee-ose).
Finally onboard the ferry, after 2 passport checks and baggage x-rays, we spotted this megayacht docked nearby, with a helicopter on board! I looked it up later, it’s the Cloudbreak, and it’s available for charter!
Disembarking in Chios, the ferry looked bedraggled compared to the megayacht docked back in Turkey!
We made our way through town and found our Airbnb, a penthouse studio apartment with a huge rooftop terrace!
From the terrace we have a view overlooking a church, and looking opposite, a view of town and the mountains in the background.
We partially unpacked, we will be here only 2 nights, then set out to explore the town, Chios City. We headed back to the port and found a car rental agency that we can rent a car from for tomorrow’s exploration further afield, then we wandered into the old part of the city, aiming for the bell tower of a church. We came upon the “Holy Church of Saint George at the Castle of Chios“, a Greek Orthodox church. In the overgrown weedy yard we found cannons with the dates 1687 and 1689 on them!
It was early evening, so we weren’t able to enter the church, but you can see the interior in the above link.
Wandering further into the narrow lanes paved with stone, ancient stone buildings on either side, some in disrepair, some being restored, feeling lost with all the angles askew, we climbed a weedy stone stairway…
…and discovered that we were on top of the city wall! We climbed down and made our way out of the maze to marvel at the stone city walls and the gate we finally found!
The city has expanded beyond these walls of course, but back in medieval times this must have been the sanctuary people fled to in times of attack!
We headed back to our apartment and enjoyed the food that our host provided to us; delicious ripe tomatoes, crusty bread, feta cheese, olive oil, lemonade syrup, lemons, a variety of homemade jams, fresh cream with fruit compote and a whole melon!
We enjoyed our simple meal while we watched the sun set behind the mountains.