A Little Niche Called Halki

Thursday, July 4, 2013—Emborios, Halki, Greece

Left Nisyros. The boat stopped at Tilos. The island was drier than I expected; it looked liked a differently-shaped Leros. I hate leaving an island unexplored (I'd probably stop at all of them if I had the time and the money). But as I've said, the main reason I would be going there would be for the hiking—and the mountains there looked very challenging. Given that the current state of my ankle makes stairs a challenge the gnarly ridgelines I saw from the boat are out of the question.

Now I'm in Halki, a little rock of an island off the west coast of Rhodes. What can I say about this place? Not much so far. All I've done is find a place to stay (more on that later), wander around the port, and find a place to eat dinner, which I'm doing now (in an Italian restaurant, for a change). 

OK, what I do know. This island is small, a big rock with a village. Emborios, the village, is picturesque to the point of being ridiculous.: it's like they created a postcard of it first and then built the town to match it. A crescent of brown, scrubby, desperately dry hills. A little port town clinging to their base. Boats of all sizes in the water, bobbing gently thru the perfect summer air, in the blue-green water, so striking against the brown hills that surround it … Rhodes, massive Rhodes looming in the distance …

Halki is a hip day-trip from Rhodes, but once the transport boats have gone home it's just a relative handful of travelers and the locals (fishermen and the people who work in the restaurants, guest-houses, etc.) Tomorrow I'm going to explore the island on foot (ankle willing)—there' really no other way to get from point A to point B on this little place …

I'd heard that getting accommodation here can be a bit difficult this time of year: there aren't that many places to stay and they tend to be booked in advance. Like I do everywhere, though, I just came in cold. Still I managed to quickly get a place, which has turned out to be a good deal (considering what I' getting for my money). I was wandering up the hill from the port with my pack on, looking slightly bewildered (which I've discovered is a great way to attract the pension owners) when a young Greek-Swedish guy (yes, such creatures exist) came up to me and offered me a room in his family guest-house. The deal I got is more evidence that tourism is really down here. Basically I'm renting a really nice two bedroom house(!) for only thirty five euros a night. Normally I'd guess they could get between seventy and a hundred for this place in good times. I'm spending more than I like to for a place, but like I've said, I'm getting more than my money's worth. Plus, with the kitchen its got I can eat in a bunch and make up a lot of the money there. So all in all things have worked out really cool in this regard …

Don't know how long I'm going to be here. Tomorrow will determine that—if I still believe there's more to see after that I'll hang around another day. The length of my time here also depends on the ferry schedule and my next destination, which is either back to Rhodes or down to Karpathos. Fate and the ferries might have more of a say in this than I do …

Emborios, the port at Halki

Emborios - View from my balcony

Research materials