Cake By The Ocean

As can only happen in Greece, the ferry was running 20 minutes late getting to Kos where Ziv boarded it, but it arrived on Patmos 45 minutes late. Sure, it had stops along the way – but all of them took longer? It was in keeping with everything else poor Ziv experienced from his flight departing late from Tel Aviv to Kos and needing to switch ferries from the 11:30 to the 2pm. But in any event, at 5pm, the Dodekensos Pride pulled up to Patmos with Ziv standing on the back of the upper deck. We hugged after six years since seeing one another.

Unfortunately, I had one work call – and it was scheduled for 5pm. I got it pushed back 15 minutes, but sadly, I had to take Ziv back to the house, get him quickly oriented and do my Zoom. As I did, Ziv got himself a drink, checked out the yard, climbed up to the roof – causing me to occasionally smirk on my call. He unpacked, took a shower, chilled – and then I was done and we were ready to see some Patmos.

Patmos is a hard place to fully explain. One of the first things Ziv told me was he wanted to come because he was curious what kind of place Patmos was to make me want to buy a house here.  It didn't take him long to start getting it. 

"It's nice. It's very relaxed…"

He marveled at how nowhere is too crowded. There are are tourists – but not too many. It's not loud. There's lots of pedestrian-only space. My house operates off well-water. Many facets that make up the Patmos experience.

We walked around Skala, then rode my motorscooter to Stefanos' motorscooter rental. It was like old times – Ziv and I once spent two days on a motorcycle together in Taiwan. Only this was a bit smaller and I am a bit bigger, so it also seemed like a situation that had a short shelf-life. Thanks to Stefanos and the fact that 15 years ago Ziv got a motorscooter endorsement on his drivers license, we were soon equipped with a bike each and able to get around.

Given the poor guy hadn't eaten much all day and left his house at 4:45 am, it seemed more than fair to get him some dinner. So we rode (a little slowly as Ziv was getting used to the bike and Patmos roads) to the southern end of the island and one of my favorite restaurants, Ktima Petra. With fresh organic produce from their own farm, the flavors at Ktima Petra pop more than anywhere else. With some of their most amazing eggplant spread, fava spread, tzatziki, zucchini balls and a piece of moussaka for Ziv, we had a Greek feast to revive a weary traveler.

More importantly, we had a chance to start talking and catch-up. Not that we don't talk or that I haven't bugged Ziv with a million texts of the past couple of years checking on him when Israel was invaded by terrorists, had rockets launched at it, had rockets launched again, faced more terrorism, had massive ballistic missiles launched at – then rinse and repeat – but it was nice to really be able to sit and casually talk about whatever we wanted without rush. Life has its ups and downs and for a two-working-professional family of four, it's been an intense couple of years.

I have always enjoyed and appreciated Ziv's intelligence, insight, confidence and willingness to take on life. In recent years I've also come to respect his fortitude, calmness and ability to adapt to adversity. Nothing is more important to me than the safety and well-being of my kids. So if my family were to be in danger for a prolonged period, I can't imagine anything harder. Ziv handles himself cooly. He takes it all seriously while not losing his head or perspective. He also understand the politics and strategies of leaders, war and the Middle East extremely well. He's well reasoned. It's not easy to be well-reasoned in the midst of war and turmoil. Which makes Ziv easy to admire.

Beyond all of that, it's nice to have a good friend around – someone with whom there's a natural ease. It's even cooler to find the ease persists even through we don't often have opportunity to enjoy it.

After dinner, we walked around Skala and concluded with Ziv having a fresh Belgian waffle slathered in Nutella topped with a scoop of pistachio gelato. He stumbled home, exhausted talking about that waffle.

Today has been easy. We each slept to about 8am, got some breakfast at Petrino in the town square and came to Agriolivadi for Ziv's first taste of Patmos beach-life. I chose Agrio for its strategic advantages – comfortable sunbeds, great cafe and taverna and smooth, calm waters for Ziv to swim. He's a swimmer. It all worked as intended. Ziv marveled at the clarity and smoothness of the water, the comfort of the sunbeds and the apple crumble he got from the cafe. We literally ate cake by the ocean….

Ziv is a quick study in general – and it he's figured out what Patmos is about in record time.

For me, it's always fun to share this place I find so special with others. In particular, it's meaningful to be able to share this island with Ziv since as an Israeli, he was never able to come to Bali – Indonesia blocks Israeli passports. In all those years when I would have loved to share the paradise in which I lived, I couldn't. Greece has a completely different attitude toward Israel and Israelis – and so this paradise is one we can enjoy together.

In short, it's an awesome day – and aside from my shock that Ziv didn't understand what lox are – Israelis don't even use the word (?!), let alone consider them standard on bagels – I'm just happy to have this time.