Pythy Comments From The Waiting Place

It's not everyday that a Turkish woman sitting down next to you, smoking a cigar seems apropos  - but today it did. Emily had gone inside the air conditioned inside of the ferry from Kusadasi, Turkey to Samos, Greece to work on her laptop using her iPhone as a hotspot. Matheus took Sennen to the other side of the boat and then eventually into the air conditioned interior as well to escape the growing intensity of the sun on our port side seats. Ailyn was sprawled across my lap napping and I had my backpack and hat saving a seat two down from us, marking our territory in case Matheus and Sennen returned.

Per the ferry operator's instructions, we showed up at the ferry terminal at 7:30 am for our 8:30 boat. However, the immigration authorities didn't start stamping passports until 8:15 and the boat didn't depart until 9:30. The kids were tired and had already endured a lot of waiting by the time the Turkish lady carrying a can of Mythos beer at 10:30 am pushed her way into the seat next to Ailyn – and moved over only one seat when I said my son would be coming back and pointed to the backpack and hat as seat-saving markers.

"That's ok, that's ok…" as she scooted one seat to the right instead of leaving, popping open her beer and then reaching into her knock-off Chanel purse only to pull out a cigar and light up. The disjointed morning seemed complete as she blew heavy smoke everywhere. In Turkey, there are often no-smoking signs posted on walls – but they seem to be some kind of lip service to a regulation no one enforces. So I knew that unlike in California where a woman lighting up next to a sleeping four-year old would not only face a mob with torches and pitchforks but would find herself the subject of some viral video or meme shaming her for eternity – I had no right to say anything or realistic expectation of help.

Thankfully, that's when Matheus texted that he and Sennen found seats inside and that there was room for us. I woke my kid and brought her to cleaner, cooler ground. Luckily, we had only 20 minutes left to reach Pythagoria and the return to Greece and its more peaceful ways was in sight. Unfortunately, the disorganization of the Turkish boat operator had one more blow to deliver. When we docked, there were no immigration officials on hand to begin stamping passengers in and ten minutes later when they arrived, passengers were let off the side of the boat only a few at a time to wait in a single file line that moved VERY slowly. So, we were stuck in a line to get off the boat with no room to move for at least a half hour.

The good part of that time was that Matheus met the first Brazilian he had seen or heard in Greece – a nice guy about his age and they chatted while waiting. And I found myself next to a British family who talked travel and politics for a bit. 

Fortunately, the Greek police are very family friendly and offered a second express line for families with babies and young children. Once we made it off the boat, all five of us walked up to the front of the line and were taken care of immediately, saving what could easily have been another half hour's wait.

Once through the immigration office, we breathed in the fresh Greek air and absorbed the calmness of Pythagoria. There wasn't much going on and it was quiet. We walked our way around the harbor, turned left and went up four blocks to our hotel, which was challenging to find due to poor signage and data reception on our phones. However, we figured it pretty quickly. Elli Studios is a classic Samos hotel – clean, charming and bare bones accommodation. The owner spoke very little English and mostly spoke at us in Greek. We spoke back in English and despite her being VERY slow in her process and having overlooked charging us for both rooms and needing to correct it, we found ourselves able to get into our rooms and drop our bags at about 11:45 am.

The kids were fussing about being hungry and of course they were tired from the early morning. So we walked out the door and across the street to the taxi stand to had for Vathy, the island's largest town where Emily and I stayed nine years ago. Since we spent our afternoon in Pythagoria Wednesday, it made sense to see something different today and Vathy is only a 15-20 minute ride away. Little did we know that all the shops in Vathy close on Sundays. We couldn't figure out how we had missed this nine years ago until I realized that our one Sunday in Samos, we rented a car and drove around the island for my birthday – spending no real time in Vathy. 

Luckily, the restaurants do not close Sundays and we quickly found a beautiful garden restaurant with a great menu for lunch. We took things slowly and savored the lack of rush or frenetic energy we had become accustomed to for the past four days. The food took a very long time, but no one cared. Our table literally had grapes hanging over us as vines formed a canopy over the tables. After all, Samos was where Dionysus defeated the Amazons with the help of the Samians and in return taught them viniculture which is the mythological origin of Samos' famous and unique sweet wine. 

After a long lunch, the kids wanted to go to the playground we had passed coming into town. On Wednesday, we thought the playground in Pythagoria overlooking the harbor was the playground with the best view in the world, but it turns out Vathy has a larger one with an even more superb view. Children are treated very well in Samos. Our played on the very nice playground while the adults took refuge in the shade – until Ailyn pooped her pants. "I thought it was just gas, but it wasn't!" she said laughing. For the cost of a few bottles of water at the nearest cafe, Emily was able to clean Ailyn up in a nice bathroom and discard the ruined underwear. "It will be a secret and I will trick everyone because they will think I'm wearing underwear, but I won't have any!" And so the day resumed.

After more than an hour of playing, we wanted to walk around and see more of Vathy – but the kids' stamina for exploration was low. So after a few blocks, we returned to the town square where the adults sat at a cafe and had drinks while the kids intermittently ran around the square like crazy people and colored at a cafe table. Eventually we FaceTimed Grammy and Zaide – and then the kids went back to run around like crazy people. No one in Vathy cared one bit – and the streets were nearly empty.

Given how little there was to do – we decided to return to Pythagoria for an "early" dinner (meaning about 6:45 pm which is very early for Greece and for us these days) and early bedtime. Given we get up early again tomorrow to make an 8:30 ferry back to Patmos, it seemed a good night's sleep was in order for two already very tired kids. 

"Can we get gelato tonight? We need to celebrate making it safely back to Greece. And tomorrow we should get gelato again to celebrate returning to Patmos," Sennen suggested. After a seaside dinner, we enjoyed some great artisanal gelato before heading back to the hotel for the night.

While they had their difficult moments here and there, both kids were in light, silly moods for the day. Sennen spent a lot of time digesting The Lion King and also asking questions related to math, imperialism, medicine and mental health – all topics rolling around in his insatiably curious brain. Most interestingly, he wants to understand the different between the brain and the mind – aka consciousness. So that made for some interesting cafe conversation.

As alluded to, Samos hotel rooms are rarely very good – and our selection was limited by the fact that we needed a place for only one night and within a walk of the port. This family-run hotel is very clean, but has standard-issue cheap-Greece-hotel uncomfortable beds and basic wooden furniture with a low-functioning air conditioner and a shower with no curtain or stall. Needless to say there was some clean-up from water flowing out of the bathroom during Emily's shower and cooling off the room after a hot day is a journey more than a destination. Still, it's fine – it's just a night. 

The strange thing about the day was how little we were really able to do given how shut Vathy was. While Samos has 16.5 times as many permanent residents as Patmos and Vathy is a near metropolis by comparison to Skala or Hora it felt like we practically had the island to ourselves. Perhaps the Fates did not mean for us to love Samos. In 2010, we had just come from a month on Patmos and were experiencing some post-Patmos blues. We said that we probably would have loved Samos if it hadn't come after Patmos. So our four-day stint here was "blah". Today, it felt like we were just here waiting for the next ferry like we did on Wednesday, only we actually had an entire day and night. Beautiful, large, green Samos with its colorful 19th Century buildings, lovely breezes and shiny harbors never quite aligns with our hearts and seems destined to be a waiting ground – a place between two worlds.

Thus, we'll happily depart in the morning and return "home" to our beloved Patmos where Matheus and the kids' big challenge of the day will be choosing at which of their favorite beaches should they spend the afternoon.