One of the strange things about an island is that you're either on it, or not. When you leave there's no gradual goodbye or change as you drive away. You get on a boat – or in our case tonight a floating city – and when the boat unties and pulls away, you're off the island. Everything changes just like that. That moment is coming for us. It will be painless, and we'll be just fine when it's passed – but we dread it all the same.
If you have only one day left in Patmos, what do you do? Our answer is to go to Agriolivadi Beach for the morning and early afternoon. Agriolivadi with its stunning turquoise calm, shallow water; gentle breezes; comfortable lounge chairs; shade-providing umbrellas; kind people; great taverna; good parking and sandy beach the kids enjoy so much make it an easy choice. In fact, it was one of the two beaches we chose for Sharon and Conlan during their brief visit.
Matheus made his last lunch picnic for he and the kids and used his best judgment and technique to make Sennen one small pistachio butter sandwich and one small salami and cheese sandwich instead if the salami-cheese-pistachio butter sandwich Sennen insisted he wanted. Ailyn bobbed in the water in her unicorn donut and Sennen intermittently jumped from the little dock, flipped around in the water and made sand balls in which he made wishes and either tossed them into the sea (if they are for himself) or buried them in the beach (if they are for the world or his country). To everyone's amazement – particularly Matheus' – the kids never tire of days at the beach and there seems to be no limit on how many times Sennen can flip in the water, sticking his feet in the air or that Ailyn can play with her sand toys or chill out on her donut.
A local recently pointed out to us one if the ironies of Patmos life – the beach is safer for children than a swimming pool because in the pool, "the water is heavier" – meaning the still, highly saline water of the Aegean is very buoyant whereas a fresh water pool is not.
However, we cut today's beach time shorter in favor of a solid afternoon nap. Our ferry boards at 11:55pm and the kids will need to stay up past midnight before we get settled in our cabin where we can all sleep until our arrival in Athens at 8:00 am. From there it will be a taxi an hour to the Athens airport where we'll check-in to the Sofitel right in the middle if the airport. We'll pass Wednesday in comfortable limbo, hopefully getting some mileage out of the hotel's indoor pool with a view of airplanes taking-off.
But back to Patmos where I'm trying to keep my focus. While the kids nap, I'll return our car to Dimitris, the very kind man who rents it to us. Our uninspiring, but trustworthy Hyundai I-30 "family sedan" (aka the hatchback that constitutes the largest rental car in the island) has been a central part of our summer – the key to our ability to enjoy the entire island and move at our own pace and schedule. After nap time and some work, I'll take Sennen for a quick haircut from Kris the barber – who while very slow, does very nice work and whom Sennen likes. Sennen wants me to take him solo because he doesn't want Ailyn to breathe any of the cigarette smoke that lingers in the barber shop. Kris' afternoon schedule is from 5:30 to 11pm, so we'll have plenty of time.
When you have only one meal remaining on Patmos, how is it even possible to choose? Well, it helps a little not to have wheels and narrow it down to what's in Skala. The kids don't crave seafood the way Emily does which both further reduces the option and the bill. So we'll head to Pantellis just off the town square with its outdoor seating and occasional live band softly playing traditional Greek music. Matheus can finally get the pastitcio he keeps meaning to try from a place that does standard Greek dishes and mezzes very well. A quintessential Greek dinner. Followed of course by gelato – this time at Marechiara to say goodbye and thank you to Andreas, the owner.
From there, I'll have a work call or two and some email to tend to. The kids have some postcards to mail. We pack the last few items - almost everything is already set – and schlep down to the ferry.
The path to the dreaded moment is clear and fairly pleasant at that.
But perhaps this is the wrong story on which to focus. The real story is one of extreme success and blessings. When Emily and I first discussed the idea of launching off of the Israel trip for a summer in either Greece or France, it seemed a lofty goal – even for us. Sure, our kids are great travelers and their ability to adapt is great. But to actually close shop at home for two months, reorient our kids to a different life and to make it work with our jobs was up for question. Even as we inched toward the idea that it could work – having secured consent from my employers and Matheus' buy-in – the idea of Patmos seemed risky. Emily and I love it more than any other Greek island and if we chose Greece, we could hardly imagine going anywhere else.
For precisely the reasons we love Patmos – its calm, simplicity, laid back character, beauty, the people we see over and over again, having just enough but not too much "stuff" – it could well backfire with kids who could conceivably become quite bored. As they so often do, Sennen and Ailyn surprised us with both their resilience and ability to appreciate what's important. They like the culture, beauty, food (always, everywhere), but most importantly the opportunity to use their imaginations. They make up games on the beach, throw sand balls, swim, think about what's around them, meet people and join the vibe of what's around them. They are as comfortable eating noodles in the back-soi's of Bangkok as they are with Greek folk dancing or touring thousand year-old Greek-Orthodox monasteries (which Sennen is likely to tell you is his favorite place on Patmos!).
Our kids spent the summer opening up, being more independent, navigating Skala themselves, making friends with kids from several other countries and cultures and taking on another way of life which emphasizes simplicity over scheduled activities, entertainment and toys. They played with very little compared to home. The playground honestly does suck compared to what they're used to in Westlake Village. The iPad was the one real source of entertainment – but was used overwhelmingly as a vast library of books. Matheus came with the notion that he may need to come up with a lot of activities, crafts, projects and structure for the days – many of which would not likely be at the beach because they would get bored. It turns out that a few markers, colored pencils and paper are important – but they don't need that much help or stuff to be happy.
Writing postcards was a cool summer-long project. So was reading Greek mythology and National Geographic kids books.
Emily and I were prepared to deem Patmos a failure if necessary and retreat to Rhodes or another larger island like it. Sennen and Ailyn made Patmos a success.
"This has been the best summer of my life!" Sennen exclaimed the other day. Given, he isn't working with a long string of summers – but still, he was happy. Emily and I felt the same and that's saying a lot. We've had some great summers in our 41 years.
We should also credit Patmos and the Hellenic Republic for some key advancements. Internet has become faster, more stable and ubiquitous since our first visit in 2009. Not just on traditional land-based connections, but also from cellular data. Most of the island as LTE speed data and we can not only easily use our phones – but can use them as hotspots for our laptops, opening up more beaches to us and preventing stresses in the event of a technical snafu. On that count, we should also credit our 40's. At 41, we can and don't mind paying for the unlimited international phone, text and data plans on our iPhones. Infrastructure is key to our ability to work effectively and make our whereabouts as invisible as possible to our employers.
Given that, there were a few moments when I thought someone might call me out on some noisy motor scooters riding by when I was on phone calls while working at cafes. There was also the awkward moment when I got a fairly important, but unexpected client call while our excursion boat was just about to leave remote Arki island. The signal was less than ideal while the boat sounded its horn that it was ready to depart and crowds of people not only boarded but crossed over our boat to get to the next boat that was moored to us. Either I did a great job of minimizing the ambient noise, the client didn't care or she just couldn't imagine that she was hearing 150 or so tourists mobbing two excursion boats on a remote Greek island.
So the story of our Patmos summer is a success – paving the way and whetting our tastes for more such adventures. Yet another way to look at it is that it's another successful chapter in the even more amazing story of the life Emily and I have been living since we met. We are so fortunate to have taken many successful risks and turned a number of dreams into our life. In this light, the summer doesn't seem like such a surprise at all. If I had to pick the best aspect of our relationship, it's how we work together toward our mutual goals which fortunately align for so many things big and small.
Neither if us would have believed nine years ago that we would be back on Patmos for the summer with our kids and au pair. We probably wouldn't have imagined all the other travels since Sennen was born either. We decided to go after what mattered to us and reach. We are so fortunate and blessed that it continues to work.
So when the Blue Star 2 pulls away tonight, it may be a sad moment, but it will also be the marker of another amazing chapter.
