Day 25 (20 June)

We're still very much enjoying living within the ancient walls of Chios castle, and appreciate the historic-but-still-local atmosphere. Today we covered a couple more of its offerings.

I wouldn't necessarily recommend forking out the EUR 2 each required to enter the Justinian Palace Museum (the one that's embedded in the walls by the gate), as the amount of artefacts on display is quite limited (though I guess you can feel good about doing your bit for conservation).

What is interesting, though, is the (free) glimpse of the interior corner of the castle:



The Byzantine Museum is definitely worth a look. This is not within the castle confines, but rather in a 19th-century Ottoman mosque not far away. The building has a fine dome, a decorated mihrab, and an imposing pulpit.



Most striking is the museum's collection of frescoes (including a gorgeously golden representation of the Archangel Michael, and an arresting rendition of the Prophet Habakkuk). But it also has gravestones (Turkish, Jewish, and Armenian) and architectural fragments (including a frieze showing St George slaying a terribly tiny dragon).


After all this, we returned to one of the cafes on the castle square (which we'd been avoiding for the sake of economy).

You will recall the precious substance produced by yesterday's mastic villages. Of course, we've done our bit to support the industry... To date I'd sampled mastic-flavoured water, and mastic liqueur, and found I very much like the resinous taste and aroma. Today I tried a mastic coffee. The distinctive flavour is still there, but is much softer.



There followed a bit of travel housekeeping in readiness for the next bit of our journey on Saturday.

It was easy enough to convert our Erturk online ferry booking reference into two tickets.

It was not at all easy, however, to convert some euros into Turkish lira...

We asked around a lot, but it turns out the only place you can do this in Chios is the National Bank. Banks here shut at 2 pm, so the hours immediately before that time are busy. Expect a wait.

And don't plan on changing much. When we were there, the bank could only rustle up lira to the value of EUR 50... Plus, there was a EUR 6 fee. (EUR 6!! Think what you can buy with EUR 6...)

So all in all, It would definitely have been better to acquire lira beforehand.

Never mind, it costs a lot less than EUR 6 to console yourself with another of those wonderful agiorgitikos...

Day 26 (21 June)

Today I persuaded Nigel that it was a good idea to get the 5.00 am bus to Volissos, a northern Chios village with a Byzantine castle.

"The only other option is the bus at 1 pm, and if we take that, we won't have time to do this great walk I've found," I said.

"Think how wonderful the world looks first thing in the morning," I said.

"It'll be fun," I said.

And, because he's a game old traveller really, he acquiesced.

We left the house, somewhat blearily, at 4.30. A ferry had just arrived in the harbour, and newcomers were already trundling their luggage through the streets.

The bus eventually rolled up at 5.15, and we embarked on an even more picturesque Chios bus ride than the previous two had been.

Out past more of those awesome windmills:


And then up, up, up, on a corkscrew road, to the high places of Chios, where tufts of vegetation look like threadbare carpet, softening but not concealing the stern stone beneath.

We arrived in Volissos before the sun had really got very far...


... and we finally got going on the aforesaid walk at about 6.45.

The first thing to know is that the 2.5-hour time estimate is well adrift... You'll spend that amount of time looking for the path, and extracting poky pieces of vegetation from the various bits of clothing into which they have somehow managed to insinuate themselves.

It's best to prepare, mentally and physically, for a route that lasts about double the time they say, and is very hot towards the end, as there's no shade.

So take PLENTY of water. I'd anticipated taking time at the end to relax up at the breezy castle. But by that stage we weren't up for lingering, as we'd run out of liquid.

Having said all that, I wouldn't have missed it...

You pass ancient water mills and solitary churches. You get great views over this dry but very beautiful landscape, with its imposing mountains. The wild flowers are wonderful, and veritable clouds of butterflies float around certain favourites. Pink and white oleander offers a splash of colour against the olive shades of the countryside. The castle is really impressive.

And, if you're like us, you won't meet a single other soul the whole way...


















At journey's end, we clumped down the steep road from the castle. Parts of the village are starting to crumble away, but it's still very attractive, with several churches and many fine stone houses.




If you're thirsty, though, you won't start appreciating any of this until you've procured and downed a bottle of Greek lemonade with mastic. It felt like the most refreshing liquid I'd ever had in my life...

After that, at a little resto called Yaouzaki, we had a great (and inexpensive) lunch (Greek salad, and vegetables stuffed with a tasty rice mixture). We whiled away the rest of the afternoon strolling and drinking coffee.



And now it's our last evening.

Chios has been such a pleasure... And the apartment has been really comfortable. It's a long way from being our cheapest accommodation, but we've very much appreciated the location, the space, the facilities, the outdoor patio -- even the pigeons, whose cooing and whirring have been part of the soundscape.

For all these reasons, we're really sorry to leave.

But tomorrow -- Turkey!