Kos Town

After two nights we escaped from our all-inclusive experience... again by taxi thanks to an incorrect bus schedule. An hour later we arrived in downtown Kos Town and made our way on foot to our hotel. It was a breath of fresh air to deal with the friendly staff at the small family owned Imperial Hotel. After pulling together my stomach, which was still upset from the resort food, we headed out to see some archeology.





Our first stop was the Neratzia Castle. Built by the Knight Hospitaller of crusader fame, this 14th century castle sits on a pier in Kos harbor and is a great place to watch the boat come in and out. The knights, like so many other ancient groups, pirated columns from ancient ruins and used them to reinforce the ceiling of the castle gate.























Much of the stone the makes up the castle walls was also recycled from ruins and some of the ancient carvings are still visable, though many are flipped upside-down and sideways. Apparently the knight were more worried about invading Turks than orienting the ancient Greek character correctly. Go figure.



































Right next door to the castle is the famed Tree of Hippocrates. Though researchers have proven that the tree is not old enough to have been alive in the time of Hippocrates, the local continue to swear that the medicine man himself sat underneath it. It is like if Mainers discovered L.L. Bean was a vegetarian. I'm pretty sure we would still maintain that he was an expert hunter. Hey, you've got to make a living somehow. Oh, also Paul (as in the apostle who did all that traveling and letter writing) taught at the tree. Acts 21:2. Also not quite possible for a tree that is estimated to be about 500 years old.






















You'll notice on the picture that the white marble fountain surrounding the tree has not Greek, but Arabic characters. Eleftherias square, which encircles the tree, is also home to the Defterdar Mosque. Kos is 2.5 miles from Turkey so it is no surprise that this 18th century islamic house of worship exists.



Next we made our way to the Ancient Agora. This marketplace was initially built by the Ancient Greeks in 4th centurcy b.c. The same site was then rebuilt and expanded upon by the Romans. City planners used an early version of the city block model, standardizing the size of the lots.



The site is full of mosaics, including an impressively large and intact mosaic depicting the abduction of Europa. Most of the more intact mosaics are roped off and covered by lean-tos in an attempt at preservation. While exploring we were able to find a few on foot level, though, so to speak.



Alright... time for a break in the narrative. Stay tuned for part two of our archeological explorations.

Why the term "all-inclusive" makes us cringe

So after a long break from blogging... here it is. What you've all bee waiting for... a rant about our all-inclusive resort experience. Sure you might be saying: "No that's not what I've been waiting for at all! Give me ruins! Give me Bergkirchweih! Give me the Austrian alps!" Well tough. You'll have to weed through my rant first. (Though, I will point out that Ryan has imposed a set of ridgid deadlines for me over the next week so the good stuff is coming)

The day after our epic Kefalos hike, Ryan and I were ready to be pampered at what we assumed would be a relaxing tropical resort experience. How wrong we were.

Our misadventure started when we were led astray by our Google Map directions. We had successfully caught a bus in Kefalos that dropped us off in downtown Kardemena. Following the afore mentioned map, we began to trek the road following the beach west out of town. After an hour, and passing several resorts that were not ours, we began suspect that something was a miss. I wandered onto the grounds of one of the resorts that was preparing to open for the season and asked a confused looking man, "We are looking for the Midas Norida. Can you help us?"

He responded that our resort was on the other side of town, and that we had walked five kilometers in the wrong direction, all the while obviously amused by our misdirection. Frustrated, we headed to the nearest open resort and called a taxi to take us to the Norida. On a side note, taxis are very affordable in Greece and a god send when the logistics of your vacation go awry.

Hot and tired we finally arrived at the resort. Unfortunately our troubles were not yet over. We confirmed our reservation with the woman at the front desk, and received a booklet detailing what was included in our all-inclusive experience. Next came time to pay. We handed over our credit card. It did not go through.

Neither did any of the four other card we were carrying. Now being the savvy travelers we are, we had Bank of America's collect oversees helpline number at the ready. The people over at the bank put a speedy authorization on the card and said all would be well... but it wasn't.

The manager of the hotel proceeded to attempt to run our credit card for the next hour without success. His attitude towards us deteriorated by the minute, until he was flat out annoyed and incredibly rude. All the while, Ryan was on and off the phone with the bank. During one of these conversations, the customer service rep mentioned that they could not see any transactions coming through. Having worked in retail, and with creditcard machines, and with creditcard machine companies, I began to be suspicious of that it was not a problem with the card at all.

"Have you run any other creditcards today?" I asked the manager.

"Well... no," he said.

At this point we exchanged a knowing look. This whole mess was his fault... and he knew it. He exchanged some words with the desk staff and hastily left. The women behind the desk informed us that we should take the resort bus into town and withdraw money from the atm there to pay for our room.

Now if we had been a bit older... and more intimidating looking... and less tired... we might have demanded that they let us into our room and fix their creditcard machine. Instead be begrudgingly waited for the bus, headed into town, and easily withdrew the funds.

Twenty minutes later we returned to the resort and presented the cash to the woman at the desk. She then ducked into the back office to talk to the manager, who never came out to apologize to us, and started to count out our change. I was puzzled that the process took her an incredibly long time, until I noticed that she was paying us the twenty-something euro she owed us in coins.

This is when Ryan bent over the counter and began to laugh. It was that sort of crazed laughter that implies: "Are you kidding me?" And no, they weren't kidding. Just completely incompetent.

The two nights we spent at the resort proceeded in a similar fashion. As it was early in the season, much of the included activities (like water sports, tennis, and other sports) were not up and running. On top of that, the buffet style food made me sick in a way I have not experienced since traveling in the Middle East. That's right Midas Norida. Your food is on par with Cairo sanitation standards.

In the end we left feeling cheated of vacation time, but happy to get back to what Ryan repeatedly called "real Greece."