A cat relaxes in the shade on a narrow stone-paved street in Chora
Chora show: One of the big advantages of travelling to the Greek Islands in spring or September is that you beat the summer tourist crowds and don’t have to bump shoulders with throngs of other people while you explore the twisting and narrow cobblestone streets of island villages. In fact, our experience has been that most villages are almost dead during the daytime, coming alive in the evening once the sun is lower in the sky and the temperature is more comfortable.
Overlooking Chora, the main village on Ios, from a hilltop to the east
Sightseeing at its peak: My humble apologies if the headline led you to think this particular blog post is about having a good time on Ios while doing illicit drugs! It’s completely understandable if that’s what you assumed, especially considering that Ios has a notorious worldwide reputation as one of the top summer party destinations in the Mediterranean (if not all of Europe, for that matter).
By “getting high on Ios,” I’m actually referring to something totally different: hiking up hills and mountains to enjoy the amazing island views and scenery, and get a natural, physical high.
This goat was in a herd that gave us a warm welcome to the Hermes Hotel
Warm welcome: Checking into a hotel usually isn’t a memorable experience. Sometimes you get a friendly greeting from a cheery person at the reception desk, and sometimes you just get a grunt from someone who couldn’t care less about making a good first impression to a stranger from another country. And sometimes you really luck out, and get to see an entire herd of goats hurry up a hillside to welcome you to their island.
That’s exactly what happened minutes after we checked into the Hermes Hotel on Ios back in May.
After filling out the registration form at reception, we took a walk to check out the facilities, and headed down to the spacious swimming pool terrace on the hillside hotel’s lower level. When we leaned over the terrace railing to take photos of the nearby valley, we caught the attention of a herd of goats grazing in the field below us. They interrupted their meal and rushed up the hillside to say hello.
It was an unforgettable warm welcome to an island that quickly became one of our favourite destinations in Greece. Thanks, kids!
The goats start rushing up the hillside toward us
The whole herd stopped grazing so they could come up to see us
One of the goats watches us from the hillside below the pool terrace
Another goat arrives to welcome us to Ios
The goats watched us intently for several minutes …
Hermes Hotel is conveniently located at Agios Ioannis on Ios, short walking distance from Chora and gorgeous Mylopotas beach and bay
Comfortable and convenient: In my post on August 17 2011, I described arriving at Ios for the first time, and getting a brief glimpse of the island’s port area, Yialos. Here, I’ll pick up where I left off.
It was late afternoon and clouds were slowly starting to dissipate as a major thunderstorm system moved across the Aegean. It had been unseasonably chilly and windy when our ferry left Mykonos several hours earlier, and the highspeed catamaran was thrashed with driving rain almost the entire trip to Ios. Things looked bleak, especially when we stopped en route at Paros. Rain was pelting against the ferry windows so hard we could barely see the port village of Paroikia, but we did see incessant lightning strikes and hear thunder booming ferociously. Fortunately, by the time the Flying Cat 4 entered the harbour at at Yialos port on Ios, the storm system was clearing and the weather held better promise for our five-day stay on the island.
