If I could only visit Greece once and if I could only choose one island of the 198 choices of islands to visit, which one would it be? The answer was Patmos. It was always Patmos. Sure, I wanted to add additional islands to the list as there are many that have captured my attention but as one starts to do the reality of the travels once there, one has to make hard choices of elimination. Crete called our name, Rhodes called my name as well as other smaller ones that I read about but we never came off of Patmos.
For me, a person who loves Christ above all else and a person who absolutely loves the book of Revelation, I guess my desire to visit the place where the Apostle John was given the visions by Christ just made Patmos the obvious place to go. Something cool about visiting a physical place that contains Biblical prophetic history which has come to pass and Biblical prophecies yet to happen. I will wear the Biblical Geek t-shirt with honor. What was extra special was that Ethan too got the Patmos calling.
So, that was our reasoning for going but since having been there now I can say that I would recommend Patmos to anyone as it has a certain something not the least of which is the views; some of the best of the islands it is said. It also lacks the full time tourist hustle feel since it is a Greek cruise destination stop but not so much an overnight or longer island destination. It feels more localized with it’s own rhythm of working around tourism. It feels quiet but not dead, laid back but not dull, enough tourism to feel exciting but not so much that it feels like a “tourist trap” and it took me being there less than 8 hours before I proclaimed the island as a place to perhaps spend a winter to write.
Getting There
There is no airport on the island, such is the case for most of the Greek Islands and passage by ferry is limited more than many other islands due to its distance. The large ferry service, Blue Star Ferry, is the biggest and most regular passage there from Athens. I cannot remember for sure but if I am not mistaken, it is not available daily. It takes a little over eight hours to get to Patmos from Athens and stops twice along the way. What makes it feel extra is the time it leaves; a 6:00 p.m. departure from Athens with 2:00 a.m. arrival and the return to Athens from Patmos is a midnight departure with an 8:30 a.m arrival. In hindsight I would have booked a cabin on both legs of the journey as comfort to rest was not happening on the way there but I only did so for our return. A major power move awaited us complete with a private bathroom on our way back to Athens. Some of the best sleep I got was in that ship cabin but we had been up since 6:00 in the morning determined to milk our last day for all it was worth, so exhaustion may have been a factor.
When we arrived we were greeted by sheets of rain and 45 mph winds. It had been a few weeks since booking our accommodations on the island and at that time the host told me they would pick us up as I was well aware of the crazy time of morning we were coming in and had no idea what to expect. It seemed hard to believe they would pick us up so, once in Greece I messaged the lady to check in that picking us up was still the plan but I did not hear back from her. I told Ethan we either see a sign with my name on it or look for a taxi. It was a bit of a weird and harsh scene disembarking in the middle of the night during a bad storm and it didn’t make for the most welcoming vibe. We had pulled out our rain jackets and got them on before leaving the ship, hoods tightly cinched up around our chins and the wind hit us like a scene out of the Wizard of Oz once we stepped outside. We both felt tired and a bit overwhelmed by this scene but before we could say or do much I suddenly saw a woman running towards the ferry. Could it be? As she seemed to be running towards me I was rather curious about this whole scene. How does she know it's me if this is her? But, towards us she kept coming and as she neared my side I said are you Marie? (Which I don’t think was the woman’s name by the way). She answered me with, what is your name? I said, Lauri and she said, Lauri Day? and I said yes and off we ran towards her little car. I asked her how she knew who I was and her answer was that she researches! I don’t know exactly what all that entailed but it made me laugh to myself and in this case I was pretty grateful that woman had done her homework because as far as I knew being greeted by a horrible storm could have been the only thing awaiting us there.
It was a short distance to the apartment and now nearing 3:00 a.m. she grabbed our heavy bags quick as you could say Patmos and was whisking them up a long outside staircase. She unlocked the door and said she would get to us in the morning to discuss things about the place and said goodnight. The studio apartment was most welcoming and with the wind howling through the crack of the glass door to the patio, we tapped out, most anxious to see what the daylight had in store for us. The next morning we were a bit slow and wondering what time she was coming back, if we needed to wait for that or what. Finally around 10:00 we left to see where we were and find some coffee and breakfast. Once we descended the staircase a man, standing by a car asked us if we wanted a ride to the village. Turns out this man was the lady’s husband and owner of the place, Stephan. It seemed weird he was just out there seemingly waiting for us and it made us wonder if he had been waiting long. So far we were two for two of these folks just appearing when we needed them and it was both kind of odd and awesome; oddsome, perhaps that needs to be a new word.
Commence The Island Crush
From the get go off of the views from our apartment to walking to the car in the morning greeted by a massive vegetable garden as a front yard to our left and gorgeous rows of flowers flanking the walk way to our right the views were breathtaking. I commented to Stephan how beautiful the garden is and when pulling out of the driveway upon seeing more gardens I asked if those were his gardens also and he said those were his Fathers. He pointed out a restaurant to us and said that was the closest one to the apartment, pointed out a few more things along the road across from the port and then dropped us off at what he said was a favorite place of theirs for breakfast. The drive was five minutes or less making us realize we were in very good walking distance to the main center of the village of Skala.
It was Saturday morning. We had no place to be. He dropped us off at what felt like a tailor made spot for the views, the food, the attention to details and the interior decor which had me giddy. All senses were in a playground of greatness and we proceeded to sit there for a good two hour breakfast engulfed in pure joy. I was teary a couple of times due to sheer delight. We spent the day into the night wandering through the little village, popping in and out of shops, cafes and found the grocery store. I love finding local grocery stores in new places; it's a sense of being in a tiny slice of their daily lives doing regular things. We stumbled upon several tiny churches and took a ton of pictures. We decided that Sunday is when we would go to the cave of the apocalypse, attend a Greek Orthodox service there and go to the castle monastery in Chora (pronounced Hora).
On our slow walk back to the apartment we stopped for a beverage and that is where we met Alex, our waiter. Alex seemed to have high level english skills when I found myself getting punked out by him in a communication break over aloe vera juice. It was funny and a case of each of us having a different vision of aloe vera juice but mostly at the time it just came across to me as a bold move to tell me that providing “fresh” aloe vera juice would be impossible. It turns out that Alex grew up in America starting at the age of 3 weeks and moved to Greece in his 20’s I am guessing by his short story so hence his high level English! He grew up in Virginia and his family started a restaurant there which turned into a chain of them. Meeting him was heaven sent as I felt I had a great person to ask questions regarding my instincts to return to the island to write, so, ask him questions I did; poor guy. He put up with me though and when we returned the next night for a drink again I may have detected a slight excitement in seeing us again.
Idiot Guy & Idiot Girl Go To Church
Sunday morning we were up early to go to the Cave of the Apocalypse excited by the fact that it is an operational Church with services you can attend. We never got a straight answer on what time service started but we were told around 8:00 and around 8:30 so we opted for the early around time. We took a taxi since we weren’t sure how long the walk would be and when he dropped us off at the top of the hill we were struck instantly by the views and spent a long while just soaking up the photo ops before following the signs to the Holy Cave. Unsure at first where the entrance was we began to follow what we could clearly now hear as chanting/singing. There was one woman walking in ahead of us and once into this very small (cave) area there was only one other woman in there upon our arrivals. I was feeling stupid about protocol instantly and I question-motioned to the lady in there my attempt of asking if we could sit down and somehow she understood, nodded yes and hand motioned towards chairs.
We sat rather in the back with our view of the priests obscured although eventually found bravery to move up front so we could see. Meanwhile the woman who walked in ahead of us was making her rounds around all the icons, kissing each one and I thought, that seems rather disruptive during the service but hey, I’m not from around here and I guess the icon kissing part trumps being late. And, were we late? It was 8:00 and we were led in by chanting so perhaps it starts “around 7:30” ? as though I was taking notes for next time. We were not new to seeing the icon kissing since we had visited several large churches in the cities already but I wasn’t aware of it as part of a regular service.
Suffice it to say that attending this service was a trip. While we had the most respectful reverence for being a guest in this unique one of a kind anywhere on the planet churches, our post game of the experience could not help but be funny due to our lack of understanding of it all. I mean beside the obvious of not understanding any of what was being said except the occasional amen or the mention of Christos we were clueless and of course that was expected. We had no idea what the protocols were for sitting vs standing as it seemed like a mix of what folks were doing and we tried to follow suit but there seemed no clear pattern. Honestly we stood the majority of the two plus hours and stared at the icon in front of us when we weren’t able to view the Priests activities. There was a Priest in the very fancy robes and seemingly a secondary Priest in a black robe. Between the two of them there was never one second of time in over two hours where there was no chanting or prayers happening and much of the time one was doing prayers while the other kept the chanting going. What really threw us was the layman guys coming in at random times in the middle of service, kissing all the icons then getting to tasks such as standing with secondary Preist and joining in on the chanting/singing or another man who was suddenly in charge of a tall candlestick placement and incense reloading. Speaking of which, we huffed more incense than Philip Seymour Hoffman huffing gas in Love Liza. We were standing on the front lines of the incense moves. We both like the smell however if you can imagine it in a cave about the size of a windowless garage then you can realize it was a tad intense. We both enjoyed how long the smell lingered on us and how much better it smelled mixed with fresh air later though. We were intrigued by how pomp and ceremonious and structured the service was yet the people flow in and out, a mother walking her toddler around within the Priests space the flow of guys taking on service tasks as though they just show up for the precise moment they are needed and the anytime icon kissing thing made for a very interesting dichotomy. It was great and we were grateful for a unique experience.
The Monastery
After the service we set out to go to the Monastery and how the tallest thing on the entire island kept eluding us into what we thought was an obvious hike straight up from the cave, turned into a labyrinth of lost through the houses of Chora. Up and down and snaking through narrow passages, most not suitable for vehicles, we somehow ended up on the other side of the village coast. It was a gorgeous walk with breathtaking views all around, however, it started to feel annoying once the hungry set in and there was not a commercial area in sight. There were no humans in sight, nor cars, so we just kept on walking wondering where the giant medieval castle on top of a huge hill surrounded by white mansions at its base had gone. We hadn’t even had coffee yet and we were at about four miles of walk and two hours of standing so a bit of prayers for patience was setting in. We finally spotted our first human sighting since leaving church; a cute elderly lady who was tending her flowers and I had to try to ask her for directions. I opted to ask about a cafe or coffee thinking one of those would be understood but instead of us getting on the same page she was suddenly picking a flower to give me. Next thing I knew she was saying coffee and handing me a flower. Apparently she thought I was pointing out her flower of which the variety sounds a lot like coffee in Greek, lol. Now she is excited to show me other flowers and she starts coming down some steps. I notice she has a broken arm which she points out to us and says “boom”, and she insists on picking other flowers to give me. Ethan had been walking ahead and now was doubling back once realizing I had stopped. Now she wants him to have a flower too. It was so adorable and funny that a cafe turned into a bouquet.
On we marched, flowers in hand and finally we came to the highway that wraps around the island. We knew that would get us on track. It was still a good up and down and curve around distance until we finally came to life! Parked cars and the look up sight of the monastery. Up the hill we went past the street vendor to the first cafe we saw and it was adorable with a billion dollar view. We were both so happy to be sitting knowing cappuccinos were on their way. In quick hindsight we were happy to have walked and weaved through all of those little streets; not something every visitor would have discovered. We weren’t lost at all. We sat over a long brunch and then started working our way slowly up the curved road with little shops that lead up to the monastery, us stopping and chatting with several shop keepers. With only one place left to stop, we were at the Monastery doors and……they were closed. Full Family Vacation to Wally World vibes and I’m not gonna lie, I was disappointed but it was what it was. Took some pictures of what I could and started to walk back down passing again the last shop owner we chatted with. I mentioned while walking past that we missed seeing it and she proceeded to tell us that it is our lucky day, that yes, normally they close at 1:00 but today they will reopen for a cruise ship that is coming through at 4:00. Turning that frown right upside down, I was back in monastery business. We only had three hours to wait, lol. So we did the sensible thing, found another awesome cafe with breathtaking views and had drinks and snacks and marveled at how from where we were sitting we could watch the cruise ship come in. So, fueled with a couple glasses of local wine back up the hill we went.
The monastery is fantastic and still occupied by monks although now there are only 15 of them. At one time there were 150. The structure is in incredible shape and hard to believe the thing dates back to 1088 I think? When I caught the first glimpse of the worship area the hair on my arms stood up. I didn’t expect how ornate it would be and was truly gobsmacked. There is an ecclesiastic museum there too that blew my mind on what must be some of the oldest icon collections around. A section of a copy of Mark’s gospel dating back to the end of the 5th century, a Book of Job copy from the 9th century; you get the picture. I was so happy I didn’t miss the opportunity to have seen all of it; thank you cruise ship;)
Oh Patmos
I certainly could have spent a little more time on this interesting seahorse shaped island with all of it’s remarkable views. There were many more areas to see as Patmos has many beaches, some of the most of all the islands; some you need to hike to and some that come with a beach scene of tavernas and accommodations. There is a beach which is a sanctuary for donkeys and rock formations jutting out in the sea as well as a lot of inlet areas with bird and other wild life sanctuaries. There are a couple of Convents on the island and many other very old churches. Livestock and shepherds and crops. We didn’t make it to any of that but getting lost in Chora was meant to be and I had never been walking through a village like it. Oh and the air, the air was divine. We both marveled at how much better we could breath. Who knew. I hope to make it back there again but I am eternally grateful we got to visit this fascinating place.
I hope you enjoy the pictures. Thanks for coming along. If you want more pictures as a separate email, let me know, I have so many.
Love to all,
L & Sav (United)
I will not be the least bit surprised when you write a post about packing up and relocating to establish the Patmos branch of Hot Pink Pants Landscaping.
A wonderful read!