We had a bit of a lie in this morning and then I let Siggy go ahead of me to the pool because my brain was farting. We had agreed to just stay at the hotel today before we had to leave, but for some reason this simpler plan (simpler than going to the beach again) confused my logistic chip which hadn’t carried a current for a fortnight. Thoughts of what to pack, what to wear, what to throw away, what I needed for the shower room, what I needed for a possible change of clothes at the airport swirled around me like crows until I felt like I had sustained bump no. 5 to the head.
Eventually I made it to the pool and read some more of the Hunter S. Thompson book (to ensure I had enough of the Forbes book left for the wait at the airport and the flight home). At lunchtime we had to vacate our apartment and leave our cases in reception, which we promptly did and then walked down town for some lunch.
No prizes for guessing what I had. I let Siggy have my chips.
We then went back to the pool for a short afternoon of sunbathing and a quick last dip in the lovely swimming pool. The air temperature is getting hotter and hotter and a last vanilla milkshake seemed essential. Then we used one of the two big shower rooms down some stairs from the reception area at the hotel and I managed to figure out all those things that I had confused my waking brain so much earlier in the day.
We shared a cheeseburger and a Greek salad (with sweet cherry tomatoes from one of the hotel staff’s garden) before the coach turned up about ten minutes early. The coach and bus drivers have all been totally efficient in Kos and I wonder if they are really Greek at all?
The airport is small and disorganised. That’s an unusual exercise in understatement by the way… What it lacks in space and seating it totally doesn’t make up for in useful signage or information points or number of staff.
Our flight was one and a half hours delated due to a technical fault on our original aircraft that had to be swapped for another one. I sat with Siggy outside of the airport, enjoying to last of the sun and a light breeze, near the taxi rank and the ‘Welcome to Kos’ sign until we realised that the seats were used by the taxi drivers. At which point we moved to some seats nearer the airport.
Once we went through passport control (which was a shambles) we were immediately confused by the existence of another set of gates (for internal flights I eventually realised), a cafeteria and shops on the other side of some upstairs windows. ‘Don’t let the airport spoil your holiday,’ our rep had said earlier that day. I wasn’t sure what he meant until we tried to find somewhere to sit and I had a minor panic attack about which gate the flight was at. I really don’t know what was wrong me that day – perhaps the stress of having to go back to reality was subconsciously getting to me.
The only seats we could find were two massage chairs. Siggy didn’t want to sit down but I did and so plonked myself down. ‘I’ll get up in the unlikely event someone wants to use it,’ I said. Then an alarm went off. The designers, the bastards, have made sure that the only people sitting on their stupid bloody chairs are paying customers. Good luck with that if Greece is declared bankrupt!
The flight back was the polar opposite of the flight out. The cabin was darkened for the full flight and most people slept. The remains of the rowdy wedding party (those who had stayed on the island for 2 weeks instead of 1) had skipped off to a nearby taverna probably for tea and drinkies instead of waiting around the airport and so having already been fed and watered were very subdued.
It was odd getting off the plane at about 11.30pm UK time and being hit by a blast of hot air. Unbeknown to us, the UK was going through something of a heatwave and when we got home the house was like an oven and I wished we could pay 5 Euro’s for a night’s air con!
All in all it has been a very nice two weeks spent in a bit of Greece I have not visited before. The gripes and niggles I have written about in these posts were really minor in comparison to the fun I’ve had. Pretty much all the locals have been genuinely friendly and not just interested in getting us to part with our hard earned cash, the food and drink has been excellent, the places of interest around the island interesting and plentiful (and unlike Skiathos, steeped in history), the beaches generally good and our hotel was excellent. I am sure we’ll be going back some time. Soon.
All photos: Copyright 2015 Matthew Haynes
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