Travel Log: A Long Escapade (Day 13)

Previous Day (Crete)

Destination: Greece & Turkey

Duration: 18 Days 17 Nights (Aug 06~Aug 23, 2012)

Day 13: Kos

Destination of the day was Kos – a small Greek island 4km away from the coast of Bodrum, Turkey. Costa Atlantica was still cruising in the morning and we managed to take some pictures of the coast. We would be docking in Kos harbour from 9am until 6pm today. This was also the day we discovered freshly baked pastries in the breakfast spread were awesome! The cinnamon bun – totally heavenly! They also had minced luncheon meat with potatoes which was scrumptious as well. Yummy!

A View from Balcony

The Heavenly Cinnamon Bun and Minced Luncheon Meat with Potatoes!

One thing that distinguished Kos from other ports was: they actually had dance and free local dessert to welcome guests from the cruise! We were also given a map right at the harbour. Wow! The hospitality! Guess they really loved to have tourists in their town.

The Left View of the Port from Costa Atlantica

The Right View of the Port from Costa Atlantica

Welcome Dance!

Dance Dance Dance!

Castle of the Knights of Saint John was right beside the port and we were thinking about visiting it before we went back to Costa Atlantica since it was so near to the port. This turned out to be a big mistake though. We skipped the castle and walked straight to the bus station to take a look at the blue train schedule to get to Asklepieion – the most significant site in Kos. In order to get to this place, we had to either take the blue train or take a taxi since there was no bus to get there.

Castle of St John from the Top

A Closer Look

Believe it or not, this is the Police Station!

A Building near the Agora

Since the train timing was like 40 minutes away, we’d decided to take a walk in the Ancient Agora. Kos town had a lot of archeological sites and most of them were among the modern building and free of charge for visit. Unfortunately most of them were not very well preserved either. One of the most striking features of ancient agora was the mosaic – a lot of them were covered with sands to prevent tourists from stepping right on it. We explored about half of the Ancient Agora and continue to look for the Hippocrates Plane Tree before rushing back to the bus station for our blue train. 

Entrance to Ancient Agora

Here is the Agora

Little Rooms? 

The Famous Kos Mosaic

Columns at the Agora

Sammy with the Hippocrates Plane Tree

Hippocrates Plane Tree and Me!

Walking towards the Blue Train Station - See how far we've come?

To our horror – the blue train was full by the time we reached there! That was 10 minutes before departure time! *facepalm* We had no choice but to continue to explore the city since we needed to wait for a later train. Train would depart every 1 hour from 8am until 3pm (Except Monday) and it cost EUR10/pax for return trip.

We found a lot of the sites in the map but a lot of them were just ruins beyond recognition. Then we finally stumbled upon a well preserved Roman Odeon. Then we continued to visit another half of the ancient agora before we went to wait for the blue train earlier.

This is the Blue Train! It's FULL!!!

Going into Kos Town

Giant Ice Cream!!!

The Odeon Theater

More Ruins by the Street

Giant Lego!!! Pirates!!!

Back to the Agora to hunt for Mosaic

Walking among the Ruins

Reconstructed Columns

Hidden Room! Picture taken from a Small Window

Cool Ride!

The blue train ride was fun! It was bumpy and musical – they were playing traditional Greek song – quite a nice experience actually. It took around 15 minutes to reach Asklepieion – a healing temple dedicated to the God of Health, Asklepios which was built in 357 BC. There were 3 main ‘decks’ in the temple – ground, middle and top each housing different buildings. The place was huge and there were lots of stairs involved. The view from the top was stunning though!

Finally get on the Blue Train

Let's Roll!

1st View of Asklepieion

Sammy was there!

Look at the Stairs at my Back!

At the 1st Level - a Temple

Yet Another Temple at 1st Level

A View from the Top to look at both Temples

Sammy wanna take a picture!

Going down the Stairs

The Exadra

More Photos!

The Baths at Ground Level

We got back to Kos Town at around 2.30pm and stumbled upon an Ottoman Bathhouse where they had a sign teaching people the right way to bath. Hahaa… 3 hours after meal and an hour before meal! Oops!!!

At the Hippocrates Square

A Machine to Measure Salt!

The Ottoman Bath

Holes at the Ceiling!

Care to Share a Bath?

The Main Area of the Bathhouse

The Ottoman Bath House Exterior

On our way to the Castle, we saw the Hippocrates Plane Tree again and finally noticed why the tree was so special - apparently the tree had become hollowed out over the years! Wow! Really couldn’t believe it was still standing.

A Close Look at the Hippocrates Plane Tree

It's Hollow!!!

We finally reached the Castle of St John and noticed that the gate was closed! *gasp in horror* Apparently the castle only opened until 3pm!!! OMG!!! 3pm? In the summer?! A lot of tourists were gathered there and they were equally dumbfounded. One of them knocked and the doorman confirmed that it was closed! We begged the doorman to let us get in to take a picture and he agreed – so these pictures were the only one we had from inside the castle. *sob* So next time if you want to plan a trip, remember to check the opening hour!!! *bangwall*

Going to the Entrance of Castle of St John

CLOSED?!!! Seriously?

Thanks to the Kind Gatekeeper, we managed to snap a few photos near the Entrance

The Left Side after the Entrance

The Right Side! 

UGH! Closed at 3pm!

Since we had nowhere else to go, we just wondered around and ended up in Everest for Greek famous cheese pie, crepe and some iced drink. Refreshing and such a great view of the port!  We then walked around the castle and went back to Costa to take picture of the castle from the top. Hahaa.. the consolation was at least we know how it looked like from the top. =p

Everest - A big Franchise in Greece

FOOD!!! 

The Iced Blended Overly Sweet Drink is Heaven in a Hot Summer Day

Since We are in Greece, Cheese Pie is a must!!!

Crepe - tasted Bitter though...

The Green Train for a Kos City Tour

Building with Ancient Medical Symbol

The Coast

Another Destroyer!

Castle of St John from Costa Atlantica

A Close Up

How i wish to be up there!

Quite a Big Castle!

A Late Lunch at Costa Atlantica

Tea Time Sandwiches

Look at all the Umbrellas at the Beach

Sailing away from Kos

Bye Kos

Another View of Costa leaving Kos

A Panoramic View

It was a ‘Captain’s Gala Dinner’ night for those embarked from Crete so we had a cocktail party! Free drinks all around – Champagne, Sherry and other cocktails! Cheers!!! Our Captain made an appearance too!

A Costa Atlantica Model onboard

Drinks! Drinks! Drinks!

The Captain! Hmm.. who is helming the ship then?

The dinner tonight was particularly luxurious with seafood salad and Pate maison mousse with cheery jelly and croutons. The pate maison mousse was particularly sinful! It tasted so good that we took extra bread just to eat with it. Yummy!

Seafood Salad

Pate Maisson Mousse! This is scrumptious!!!

Carrot Soup

Pasta of the day was “Stuffed meat ravioli piemontese style” and “Garganelli with shrimps and zucchini”. The ravioli tasted too floury though and the garganelli was just ordinary.

Garganelli

Ravioli - Not Good!

Main courses were “Gilthead seabream with aromatic herb oil, sliced potatoes, grill tomatoes and broccoli” and “Oven baked flank steak with natural juice served with mixed vegetables and potatoes”. The fish was really fresh and meaty. The steak was quite typical though.

Look at How Huge this is!!!

Steak

Desserts of the night were Panna Cotta and Apple Crumble – what a nice wrap up for an amazing dinner. Thus this ended our long day – Costa Atlantica was heading for Samos during the night which was our last destination in our itinerary before sailing back to Izmir.

Panna Cotta

Apple Crumble

Next Day (Samos)

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