FULL FATHOM NONE: More Kos

Sunday, June 30, 2013—Kos Town, Kos, Greece

Didn't get out to the beaches today like I planned, for a couple of reasons. First off, I forgot that it was Sunday, which means a restricted bus schedule. I also wasn't feeling so hot when I woke up. I drink so little these days that my big night out—three drinks—actually left me with a mild but very persistent hangover, which meant that I got a late start and was moving pretty slowly. I decided instead to hike 3 km inland to a famous archaeological site called Askipieion, which is associated with Asclepius, the god of healing. It was also the site of a medical school where Hippocrates’ teachings were followed. It was a pretty interesting place. It was very hard to understand what I was seeing, though. Greek archaeological sites, even big important ones like this, tend to be very poorly explained. The site goes back to Minoan times and was used for various purposes right up until the early Christian era. Mostly what I was seeing was a jumble of material going back to the 2^nd and 3^rd centuries BC to later Roman times; like I've said, though, untangling what I was seeing was pretty difficult. I did get a lot of good pictures, though, to use to try and figure things out later. I also can use some of the shots in my archaeology class this coming semester …

The site aside, I glad I went there for the walk: it gave me a chance to explore a tiny bit of this island's inland areas, which are considerably different than those of the other islands I've been to. Like Patmos, this is a very rich island; it obviously has a lot more water that most of the Dodecanese. Other than this generally richness, though, it doesn't look at all like Patmos—the landscape is softer, more rolling and the colors are different. Patmos has the orange pinkish hue about it, whereas this place is more about saturated yellows; it reminds me of deeper, more intense version of parts of coastal central California (it's as if this place demands to be painted in oils whereas watercolors would render California more accurately). Like Patmos, though, light is a huge factor here: in both places it seems to have substance all its own; it's almost like another thing, trees, water, light … It seems like something you can reach out and touch, feel slip thru your fingers …

Since it has a lot of water it's not surprisingly more wooded than other islands. Even on my short walk today, which only got into the foothills, I was running into pines, cedars, junipers and other species I wasn't sure of. There are also more wildflowers here than other places in these islands (I bet this place is amazing in this regard in the spring when everything is in bloom). There also just more plant coverage in general. No place here I've seen (and I've seen a lot of the coast from the boat that brought me here) has that scrubby patchy look of Leros and so many other Greek islands I've been to. Though I've only seen the edges of the island's agricultural regions, based on what I have seen, this looks like a great place to be a Greek farmer. My guess is that the agricultural productivity here has got to be many fold a lot of the other islands …

(More on this subject later. Tomorrow I'm going on my beach trip, which will have me cross a big chunk of the island. I should have much more info by tomorrow evening …)

Notes: Tourist Crowds of Kos

Last night I ate dinner at an outside table at a restaurant that was in the very heart of the tourist region, in one of the narrow twisty alleys of the old town. The tourist throng was amazing, in both their numbers and their movements. Only in Waikiki at the absolute height of summer have I seen that many vacationers in one place (that many in relation to the size of the place—Waikiki's considerably bigger). What I found most amazing was their interest in the banal shops that are everywhere here: except for some of the teenage girls looking at clothes, most of the them seemed interested because there was nothing else for them to do really but check them out: it was like they had to be interested or there was no reason for them to be there (of maybe here in general). I wonder if they ever wonder why they came here, if they ever wonder if they're really having fun or not …

General Notes:

Bought a boat ticket today to Nisyros, the next island to the south. It's going to be the exact opposite of this place: it sees only a fraction of the tourism of Kos. The main reason people go there is that the island is basically an active volcano and it's possible to hike right to edge of it. This is the main reason I'm going there, that and I hear that there are some other good hikes there as well …

After Nisyros I'll be heading to Tilos, mainly because it's supposed to have some of the best hiking in the Dodecanese. It's also supposed to be pretty far off the beaten path, which is definitely is appealing to me after the tourist crush of Kos …