Tenerife !

You may take a first look at the Tenerife photos, stories will be added later:

Tenerife photos

 

Day 6 – Travelling on Chios

Click here or on the little map to view all details of our day 6 in Google Maps – including photos, itinerary and points of interest.

Click here to download our day 6 itinerary, photos and points of interest as *.kmz for Google Earth.

 

The long excursion day started with visiting the Byzantian church Panaghia Krina, (see e.g.  external website, Wikipedia (German)). The church is from 13th Century whose exterior is composed of small stone structure complete with great arches and domed ceilings. Unfortunately we could see it only from the outside, it was closed for renovation and covered with scaffold and could not be entered. The old olive grove next to the church was really impressive and justified the trip for us. It is a bit complicated to find the location of the church as it is poorly marked on the maps and road signs do not really help. The best strategy is to first find the village “Vavyli” where you can ask the locals about the church.

Driving to our main target Nea Moni Monastry, we made short stops on the way to take a look at little chapels by the road from Thelopotami to Ag. Gregorios. This road offers great view to the eastern coast of the island.

   

We continued up north in order to reach Nea Moni monastry. From the road taken it is possible to enjoy a great mountainous/hilly scenery, mainly uninhabited with fantasic views to the east and west coasts of the island. The road itself is in very good condition.

Arrving at Nea Moni Monastry, a UNESCO world cultural heritage (see UNESCO, Wikipedia) is already a very pleasant experience when you see the siluethe of the whole complex from a distance in the pine forests. The Monastry itself is indeed a very impressive complex, composed of a Katholikon, Tower, some ancient monk cells, dining hall, two little chapels and some remainings of the first settlement and ancient Byzantine walls. It is originally erected during the mid 11th century. Thanks to a EU grant, the restoration activities are finally almost over. Inside the Katholikon is very well renovated and very impressive with frescoes and mosaics, though most of them have unfortunately been destroyed due to the Ottoman Massacre, wars, earthquake and fires.

Area around Nea Moni reminded us of Cirali, Turkey, because of the high density of pines.

Another interesting landmark for us was that in many places of the island, man made terraces limited by stone walls can be found. Our guess is that these terraces were made in order to support the cultivation of agricultural products such as olives, mystic gum etc.

Driving back to the cost, we passed by the windmills at the coast, north of Chios, on the way to Vrondadhos. We took a look at them and made pictures from a distance. There was also a Tavern next to them, looked promising however we did not try it as we wanted to save the appetite to the supper at Taverna Markellos.

Heading up to the north, we have run into a harbour with several old ferryboats (maybe Minidis) and a small harbor with a shipyard (Ormos Anatolikos Pantoukios according to Google Earth information).

However, continuing to the north from Chios city, there are not so many highlights apart from the hilly landscape that have much less plant cover. it seemed to be a dry area, but still impressive and enjoyable. Signed Hiking pathes are available.

 

Finally we entered the high plain of Pityos, through a mountain pass with a huge cross, a few cows welcome us there.

 

  

Around late afternoon, we have reached Pityos, the passage to our lunch/supper destination. The village itself looked authentic with remainings of a castle and is suprisingly quite green after the very dry area it is surrounded however we did not spend anytime here and just drove through to reach to the Taverna Makellos as quick as possible. The food is gorgeous, everything is home-made, very fresh and delicious. It is especially a unique experience to taste the home-made pasta or better to say first watch it while being done by the ladies and then eat it directly.

After the supper, we continued towards Volissos (see e.g. Wikipedia) close to the western coast of the island. We have the impression that forest fires have been influencing the landscape along the road significantly. The castle of Volissos is an impressive landmark, looked so especially when illuminated after the sunset, but we decided to continue to the beach in order to reach it before the sun goes down.

In the end we arrived at a very nice beach place with a monastry called “Agia Markella” a few kilometres west of Voliossos (see Wikipedia and a commercial website about Chios for some information about Saint Markella). This beach offers sand, pebbles, clean water and a great possibility to witness sundown.

On the way from Volissos to Agia Markella there are a few more inviting beaches, take a look to our detailed information for Google Maps / Google Earth.

We drove back to our hotel, quite a long trip. We passed the west coast of the island – as it was dark we could only imagine the beauty of the landscape. As we were still not so hungry after the food at Makellos, we bought nice desserts at a bakery in Chios city and ate them at our huge and comfortable hotel room at Mavrokardatiko, while sorting out the pictures of the day.

Final Tips:
- Clicking on one of our photos above will open a bigger version of it in a new browser window.
- Click here for an overview of our trip “Greek islands 2008″
- In case you have a question, just leave a comment on this article!

 

Day 5 – Travelling on Chios

Click here or on the little map to view all details of our day 5 in Google Maps – including photos, itinerary and points of interest.

Click here to download our day 5 itinerary, photos and points of interest as *.kmz for Google Earth.

 

The day started with the breakfast at the peaceful inner courtyard of Hotel Mavrokordatiko – breakfast is acceptable, coffee is unfortunately below any standards.

After taking some pictures outside the hotel (there are two old wells that have obviously been run in an “automated” mode driven by humans or donkeys running in circles – very interesting), we visited an old monastery named “Ayios Ioannis” very close to the hotel.

We just followed a Chios monument road sign to find this place. We tried to get more information about what it was and if it is still in use however even locals do not have so helpful ideas. Google is useless as well, as there are I think so many “Ayios Ioannis” monastries all around Greece. Looking like abandoned in the middle of nowhere, the supposedly monastry still shows signs of nice Byzantine architectural style and worths a stop if you are around.

On Chios there are not many helpful direction signs – if they exist, the names do not necessarily match the ones on our map, most of the supposedly relevant signs are written only in Greek Letters, so you need to refresh your Maths knowledge before the trip …

Continuing the trip to Vessa through the hills of southern Chios – Vessa is a little village with a cute old center, with many nicely renovated medieval houses and churches. Definitely worth a walk around. The village seems to look a bit ugly from a distance from the hills, but that’s not the case at all in reality. Surprisingly it did not get as famous as Mastichohorias like Mesta, Pyrgi or Olimbi however has even more to offer in terms of naturality.

It is advisable to take a snack at Kostas´ snackbar opposite of the central Taverna at the entrance of the village. For those who are really hungry, the central taverna also seemed promising but we prefered to quickly have our Pita Gyros and relax under the hundred year old trees.

Passing by the little harbour village Aya Irini, we discovered a coastal road leading north, might lead to Lithi, which was not present in our map – It looked potentially interesting with stunning views over the bay. We could not go further as we wanted to still visit Mastichohorias and have a swim.

Coastal road between Aya Irini to Limenas offers great views to the sea and has two nice small non-commercial beaches, one being Dhidhymia beach. The beach had no facilities as seen from above but looked very inviting.

Finally we arrive at the most famous of ancient Mastichohorias – Mesta. Mesta is a must : Take a walk though the great old city center! Stop at the central Kafenion opposite the central church for a refreshing frappe, surprising but true- you will also get free wireless internet connection there! Unfortunately the village deservedly became a bit over-touristy with so many souvenir shops, but still gives one the feeling of years ago while strolling in the narrow medieval – mostly death-end streets.

Next stop is Olimbi – similar to Mesta, a bit less beautiful according to us. Enjoy a stroll and stop for a coffee at one of the Kafenions.

Pirgi is another medieval Mastichohoria Village full of houses with a typical decoration called xysta. Xysta is mainly geometric shapes done by black or colorful volcanic stones on white background. Another aspect that made Pyrgi even more colorful was the sun-bathing tomotoes on the walls. Still, our favorite stays as Mesta.

Looking for a beach to relax and take a bath, we saw the sign to the “Fana beach”. The beach looked like a secluded little and non-touristy beach, mainly thanks to the non-paved dirt road to reach there. However, there are no facilities (no sunbeds, umbrellas, shower or a tavern/snack bar) there so we decided to find a more civilized one for that afternoon. On the way to “Fana” beach, we took a walk to the “Sanctuary of Apollo Phanaios“, which is apperantly an ancient site with a cute little chapel. Many of the ancient stones around the chapel / church reminded us of those used to build the ancient city walls of Assos in North-west Turkey.

We finally made a short stop at Komi beach to take a swim. Beach is sandy, but the place is very commercial / touristic. LIke all the over-toursity places, the quality of the service at the restaurants and cafes around was drastically lower than other parts of the island.

Continuing to our Hotel at Kambos, we took the dinner in Katarraktis at Restaurant Tsampoi ( Phone +30 22710 61436 ). We had very delicious fresh sea food for quite low prices (Euro 25 for two Persons), directly at the harbor with view on the fishing boats. Katarraktis – once it is dark – becomes a quite and picturesque fishing village with mostly locals/Greek people eating at the Tavernas and cats and dogs trying to get some share from their plates.

Final Tips:
- Clicking on one of our photos above will open a bigger version of it in a new browser window.
- Click here for an overview of our trip “Greek islands 2008″
- In case you have a question, just leave a comment on this article!

 

Day 4 – From Samos to Chios

Download our day 4 itinerary, photos and points of interest as *.kmz for Google Earth.

After checking out at Hotel “Erata” in Karlovassi, we bought some Samos wine from the wine “Cooperativa” close by. Together with Limnos and Santorini, Samos is suppsed to produce the best island wines of Greece. Cooperativa shop is open already at 8 o´clock in the morning and they have also wine tasting sessions, which we did not try as it would not make sense at 8 in the morning with an empty stomach.

Drive to the capital town of Samos / Vathy, we gave back the rental car at the Avis harbor office.

Took breakfast at nice Pythagoras square in Samos / Vathy Center. Opt for the Patisserie to the right of the Lion Statue, they have also wireless internet connection.

 

Hopped on the ferry to take a lot of sun. There is a “deck class” salon on the ferry but with airconditioning functioning too well, it was more pleasant to stay on the Deck. Take a towel or a mat to sit on and find your shady corner to enjoy the Eagean.

Ferry trip to Hios is about 95 km, lasts 3 hours, passing Turkish coast (We have booked the tickets online beforehands from the web-site http://www.greekferries.gr/, you pay around 1 Euros more I presume for the service, but saves you a lot of time and nerves at the venue. You pick up your ticket one hour before the departure at an office close to the harbour ). If you ahev a Turkish prepaid mobile phone card, you can use the Turkish network to make calls without paying the roaming costs.

Hios habour was a bit chaotic, we had extreme problems with picking up the reserved rental car due to the unprofessional AVIS office. Next time take more care of pick up times and call in case of delay …

Drive to Kampos to our Hotel Mavrokordatiko, approx. 2 km southwest of the airport. Try to follow mainly the signs of the hotel as Kampos with its small wall-limited streets is like a labyrinth and it is almost impossible not to get lost.

Following the advice of our friendly host, we took the dinner at “Rousiko” greek tavern in Thimiana Village (phone +30 22710 33352, e-Mail rousiko@gmail.com). We can highly recommend the restaurant – nice atmosphere, visited mainly by Greek guests, great typical Greek food (meat, fish, vegetables, grilled squids were absolutely mouth-watering) prices 3-6 Euros for the starters, 4-12 Euros for the main courses, friendly English-speaking staff, great roasted bread and free yoghurt-jam-dessert.Located at an old and well renovated mansion. The Cathedral next door is a good mixture of Italian-Greek architectural style, so does the houses in the village.

 

Day 3: Travelling on Samos

Download our day three itinerary, photos and points as *.kmz for Google Earth.

We took a breakfast in “Semifreddo” Pasticceria at Karlovassi harbor.

The first destination after breakfast was the idillic village Idhroussa, where we would have the opportunitiy to visit the Oldest Byzantine Church of Samos. Village Idhroussa itself actually worth´s a visit, auite authentic place and not touristy at all compared to Monalates and Vourliotes. It is a great relaxation to kill sometime under the old trees shading the central Kafenion.

After some relaxation, we started the walk to the old byzantian church Kimisis Theotokou (The Rough Guide to Greek Islands, P. 405). It is a bit difficult to orientate yourself and even the villagers themselves seem not to know bout the church. Ask for the way to “Petaloudha”. This is apperantly the name of the source next to the church and they know it. Walk is about 2.4 km and takes about 40 Minutes. Take enough water for the way till you reach the source, you will need it. The walk, though short, enables one to enjoy some good panaroma over the wineyards, olivegroves and the bay. The Church is quite small but very original. Surprisingly it is not locked and inside are great ancient wall paintings, quite well preserved.

Drove to another mountain village Vourliotes close to Kokkari. At the entrance of the village, we saw the restaurant Iy Pera Vrysi under a huge old shadowing tree. It was completely packed so we thought to have our lunch there after a stroll in the village. Vourliotes is a characteristic mountain village on Samos with non-spoilt architecture and nature. Later we have discovered that the restaurant is recommended by so many tourist guides, well deserves it. Great food, very friendly and service oriented staff.

Continued to monastery Vrondianis(Vronda) which is around 3 km. to Vourliotes. The Monastry is currently under reconstruction but one can still have an impression of how beautiful this supposed to be the oldest monastry of Samos was. The nice panaroma over the Kokkari Bay still justufies a stop here.

After the exploratory ambitions of the day have been met, we stopped at Tzamadhou beach at northern coast, some kilometers towards east. The last part, which developed itself as a nudist zone apperantly seemed best to us in terms of clean facilities and beach and we felt perfectly relaxed there although we were not nudists!

Dinner in the nice restaurant “To Kyma ouzeri” in Karlovassi close to the beach. We have decided to try it just because the other day we saw it packed around 21:30 (Dinner time for locals). Well, later we understood why. The food, which was absolutely delicious and well-priced, was slightly different than at the classical Greek tavernas. It was more oriental, less sea food, spicier. So I guess that is why the locals prefer it more than tourists, simply for a change. The old pictures from Samos inside are very impressive.

 

Day 2 – Travelling on Samos

Download our day 2 itinerary, photos and points of interest as *.kmz for Google Earth.

We returned the key of our original village house next to the post office on the beach boulevard of Ayios Konstandinos and made some pictures at the cute lazy harbour village.

  

Took the breakfast at the second little bar on the right side at the entrance of Manolates Mountain Village. Nice and relaxing atmosphere, good food, reasonable prices. Keep in mind that Greeks do not have an extended breakfast culture. As we observed and later were told by the local people, a traditional Greek Breakfast is a dark coffee ( in summer a cold one ) and a cigarette (Greeks decided to forbid smoking in indoor places starting from 2010 on! Everyone is extremely curious to see if and how it would work…). Good thing is unlike some other countries, it is possible to get any type of food anytime of the day as long as the place is open so be creative and make up your favorite breakfast out of Greek lunch, dinner and snack specialities ( opt for Yoghurt with honey and fruits if you are a sweet eater for Breakfast and toast, omlette or even Greek Salade if you are a morning salty eater, fresh orange juice is always available, though costs usually quite a lot ! )

Took a walk though Manolates making a lot of nice pictures. The village is a must !

  

Changed Hotel – now staying at Hotel “Erato” at Karlovassi beach boulevard. Tel +30 22730 35370 Fax +30 22730 35180. Very friendly and well English speaking owner.

Drove to the south coast of Samos through great countryside villages via Marathokambos

Made a little break at the port of Ormos Marathokambou to take some pictures.

 

Made a stop at Nice Psili Ammos beach in the southwest of Samos, taking a swim and relaxing a bit ( There are already other beaches before at the Votsalakia/Kambos area but we found them a bit too overcrowded and dirty )

Watched sun going down at cosy small beach in the west part of the Island close to Varsamo, following a dirt road for a few kilometers down the hill we thought it would lead to nowhere but in the end we had the wonderful beach only for us. Very romantic experience !

   

Took a dinner at the restaurant close to the Varsomo which is “run by three generations of women” (ref. Rough Guides to Greek Islands, P. 408). When we read the description in the book, we laughed at it and wondered why the authors needed to mention this. When we were there though, we realized that this means it is more than just eating at a restaurant. We felt like we were invited to the traditional summer house of a traditional Greek family. The grand grand mother, who desperately tried to communicate with us (unfortunately our Greek knowledge is not far from hello and thank you! so we could not please her so much), the grandmother tried to invite us to stay at the rooms that they offer at a very funny price and the mother cooked for us. Later they are the same thing we have ordered together with us, we even suspected that the husband who was arriving from grocery shopping later by mistake ate the souvlaki that we have ordered ! Normally we would have been furious, but there we have just found it funny and felt a part of these simple but very friendly people. Unfortunately we do not know the name of the taverna and have no contact information (and we were so much involved that forgot to take a picture!) but anyway there is nothing else around, you can not miss it !

Returned to Hotel Erato in Karlovassi.

 

Day 1 – Arriving and travelling on Samos

Click here or on the little map to view our today’s itinerary, points of interest and photos using Google Maps and your web browser.

Click here to download our day 1 itinerary, points of interest and photos for use in Google Earth.

 

We arrived at Samos airport with Airberlin’s monday early morning flight directly from Berlin Tegel TXL. We picked up rental car (previously reserved via Internet) at Samos airport, AVIS has a regular booth there.

Drove to beach place Agios Konstantinos in the north of the island to pick up keys for Valeondades apartments, but the guy was not there – driving up the road to Valeondades we decided to take a quick first look to Manolates – since it was so nice we decided to return the next day.

 Returning to Valeondades an unfriendly guy welcomed us and handed over the keys to the renovated village house. Although house and site were nice, we didn’t feel well. Construction activities were ongoing in the neighboring houses, the bathroom was unacceptable (shower didn’t work, no warm water) and there was  no air conditioning. Decision to look for another accommodation was inavoidable.

Continuing along the northern coast to the western part of the island, we passed Karlovassi. Deciding to spend some hours at the nice Potami beach west of Karlovassi where there is a  characteristic church (Agios Konstantinos) and an acceptable snackbar.

Tried to find another beach more to the west, but had to return because of bad condition of the dirt road. A small jeep would have been helpful here! So if you don´t have budget constraints, rent out a 4*4, would make the holiday funnier! Later our friendly host at Karlovassi Erato Hotel told us that there used to be boat service from Karlovassi to the very beautiful beach called Megalo Seitani to the west but they stopped due to insufficient demand. The only way to get there is to walk around an hour. We did not dare to try given the temparatures over 35 degrees in August ( and that there are no facilities on the beach like umbrellas, tavernas etc… ) but give it a try if you are there in spring/autumn.

Tried to reach Leka from Potami beach but we had to return again due to the bad road condition. Nevertheless there was a very cute village called Tsourlei with relaxing Kafenion on the way so it worthed the effort. It was a unique experience to see the joy and curiosity of the villagers about the tourists visiting their place.

Decided to take the dinner at a fish restaurant at the coast of Ayios Nikolaus on the way to our accommodation. Great fresh food, awesome panaroma, reasonable prices. Do not get demotivated arriving there around normal Continental dinner times like 20:00 and seeing all the tables empty. Locals start to take dinner around 21:30.

Advantage would be that you have a Greek speaking person in the group then you would get the friendly owner at your table advising you the fresh fish and the mezhedes of the day ( usually not mentioned in the menu card). If you do not speak Greek, try to insist on things that you want to see on your table like ” do you have melitzane salade? ” “I have seen it on the neighbouring table!!!”

Returning to our original village house in Valeondades we had a tight sleep after the long day that started at 5:00 AM.

Cash dispensers can be found in the center of Karlovassi, it is almost impossible to find places where they accept credit cards on the island.

Final Tips:
- Clicking on one of our photos above will open a bigger version of it in a new browser window.
- Click here for an overview of our trip “Greek islands 2008″
- In case you have a question, just leave a comment on this article!

 

Greek islands 2008 – Acommodation

• Samos

  • Valeondades original village houses (phone ?, web address ?, price per night ?) we can unfortunately not recommend. The idea, to prepare authentic greek island village houses for travels is good in principal, but if certain minimum requirements concerning comfort cannot be fulfilled, the stay cannot be enjoyed. During our stay we had to find out that the group of houses that ours was belonging to was still under construction, the shower and other facilities in the bathroom hardly worked (insufficient water pressure, no warm water). We knew that there would not be air conditioning,  but the temperature in the house during the night was very high.
    Our stay was from Aug 18th, 2008 on for one night. We had a reservation for three nights but moved out after the first given the problems described above.

  • Looking for an alternative for the Valeondades original village houses, there was not much choice as many hotels and pensions were full. Still, with Hotel Eratos in Karlovassi, phone +30 22730 35370, rate Euro 48 per night excluding breakfast  (see our day 2 itinery for the exact location) we found an acceptable alternative. Clean plain rooms with acceptable bathrooms and air conditioning.
    Our stay was from Aug 19th, 2008 on for two nights.

• Chios

  • Hotel Mavrokordatiko

• Lesbos

  • Pension “Selana” (rooms to let, class A, phone +30 22510 29963 – information by Helen Vogiatzoglu) offers air conditioned rooms with clean bathrooms at a rate of Euro 40 (?) per night.
    See our day 7 itinery for the exact location.
    Our stay was from Aug 23rd, 2008 on for one night.

  • Hotel Gorgona in Skala Sikaminea is run by a German speaking couple who have obviously spend a while in the southwest of Germany. They offer plain, air conditioned rooms with (a bit run down) bathrooms at a rate of Euro 45 per night (excluding breakfast). Compared to what Heliotopos apartments offer I must say that this price is quite high. Nevertheless, the location is nice with the harbor restaurants just 50 m away.
    Our stay was from Aug 25th, 2008 on for one night.

  • Heliotopos Apartments in Skala Eresos (address, phone, web ?, e-mail) are modern, comfortable, nicely furnished, air conditioned flats in very good maintenance condition with excellent little bathrooms (I loved especially the shower). The flats are spread over three buildings which are located in a garden with palm trees, flowers and even a bit of biologic agriculture (fruit and vegetables). All the property is managed by Patrick and Debby, a sympathic and helpful couple originating from United States. They are assisted by parrot Coco and cat Nelly.
    From the apartments, Skala Eresos beach and village (restaurants and bars) can be reached walking within 10 Minutes. The rate is 55 Euros per night excluding breakfast.
    See our day 9 itinery for the exact location. Our stay was from Aug 26th, 2008 on for three nights.

• Athens:

  • Novotel Athenes (Michail Voda street, 10439 Athens) is a very comfortable hotel close to the center of Athens. Metro stations Omonia and Larissa are in walking distance (5-10 minutes depending on the amount of baggage). We were lucky to book a double room including breakfast at a rate of 89 Euros per night (this includes even the stay of two more children) via internet before our trip. The hotel indicates its regular rate as 232 Euros per night (!).
    Our stay was from Aug 29th, 2008 for one night.

 

Transport

-          Transport:

o   Athens:

§  Airport:

·         Athens Airport appears to be modern but too small in size given the huge amount of passengers at the end of August

·         The airport is connected with modern metro line 3 to the city. The trip takes about one hour and costs 6 Euros per person. In our case (two persons travelling) a special price of 10 Euros applies.
Although we took a taxi from the airport to the city on arrival (about 32 Euros including fee for the baggage and highway), we recommend taking the metro as we did on the way back avoiding the road traffic congestion.

§  Metro:

·         Athens modern Metro system helps avoiding road traffic congestion. We have used it several times on our excursions in the city. The regular price for a ticket is 0,80 Euros (validity 1,5 hours). There are several types of group and day tickets (3 Euros for one person). Special prices apply for the connection to the airport (6 Euros for a single person).

§  Taxi:

·         On arrival, we used a taxi to reach the city center from the airport (32 Euros including baggage and highway), but wouldn’t recommend to do it again. Given the usual traffic congestions, it seems to be wiser to take the metro.

§  Maps:

·         We received a free map of Athen’s city center in our hotel Novotel Athenes (see accommodation). It was sufficiently detailed for our trip.

o   Samos / Chios / Lesbos:

§  Rental Cars

·         Many rental car offices offer their services. We made reservations for the cheapest car category at Avis for all three islands via Internet before the trip. If you haven’t reserved a car, you will most probably be rejected. For our three day rental terms, the daily rate was about 50 Euros

§  Buses:

·         There are regular island bus lines but we have not used them

§  Fuel stations:

·         We didn’t have any problems finding fuel stations for our rental cars on the islands. Fuel stations offer free service.

§  Ferries

·         The trip from Samos to Chios takes about three hours. It was good to book the tickets in advance via Internet (URL ?, 1 Euro more per ticket), as during high season the amount of passengers can be high. Price for the “on deck” category is Euro 12,70 per person.
We took the ferry on Aug 21, 2008.

·         From Chios to Lesbos, the ferry takes again about three hours. We recommend booking the tickets by Internet also in this case (URL ?). Price for the “on deck” category is Euro 13,90 per person.

§  Maps:

·         We bought the islands maps of Freytag & Berndt before our trip (ordered via www.freytagberndt.com). While the maps of Samos (1:50.000) and Chios (1:100.000) seemed to require a revision of the author, the map of Lebos (1:75.000) was very helpful.

 

Restaurants, Bars, Cafes

-          Restaurants, bars, cafes

o   Samos

§  Fish restaurant (?)
We took the dinner here on Aug 18^th, 2008

§  Taverna at the entrance of Manolates, even before the parking on the right side
(see our day 2 itinery for the exact location)
We took the breakfast here on Aug 19^th, 2008

§  Little Taverna (“run by three generations of women”) at the west coast of the island
(see our day 2 itinery for the exact location)
We took the dinner here on Aug 19^th, 2008

§  Taverna under the big tree next to the water source (?)
(see our day 3 itinery for the exact location)
 We took the lunch here on Aug 20th, 2008

§  Restaurant close to the beach in Karlovassi (?)
(see our day 3 itinery for the exact location)
 We took the dinner here on Aug 20th, 2008

o   Chios

§  Restaurant Tavern Rousiko in Thimiana (phone +30 22710 33352, e-Mail rousiko@gmail.com) we can highly recommend – close to a greek-orthodox church – nice atmosphere, visited mainly by greek guests, great typical greek food (meat, fish vegetables) prices 3-6 Euros for the starters, 4-12 Euros for the main courses, friendly English-speaking staff, great roasted bread and free yoghurt-jam-dessert. Good atmosphere.
See our day 4 itinery for the exact location. We took the dinner here on Aug 21th, 2008

§  Snackbar Kostas, Vessa
See our day 5 itinery for the exact location. We took the lunch here on Aug 22th, 2008

§  Fish restaurant “Tsampoi” in Katarraktis, phone +30 22710 61436 – delicious fresh sea food, low price (Euro 25 for two Persons), directly at the harbor with view on the fishing boats
See our day 5 itinery for the exact location. We took the dinner here on Aug 22th, 2008

§  Taverna Makellos in Pityos (phone +30 22720 23364) – delicious  fresh homemade pasta and goat meat plus greek salad of course served on a paper table cloth with an island map printed on it
See our day 6 itinery for the exact location. We took the lunch here on Aug 23th, 2008

o   Lesbos

§  Breakfast place in Mitilini ?
Aug 25^th, 2008

§  Restaurant Anemoessa at Skala Sikamias harbor (phone +30 22530 55360) offers delicious fresh sea food offering an enjoyable atmosphere. We tried salad, and various grilled fishes for moderate Euro 30 per person.
We were at Anemoessa on Aug 25^th, 2008 for dinner.

§  Restaurant “Sea horse” in Molivos harbor (phone +30 22530 71320) offers among others a great choice for breakfast.
See our day 9 itinery for the exact location. We took the breakfast here on Aug 26^th, 2008.

§  Restaurant Antonia Georgiados in Gavatas offers delicious snacks at very low prices (lunch about 7 Euros per person). Authentic atmosphere and nice view on the beach. Friendly owner.
See our day 9 itinery for the exact location. We took the lunch here on Aug 26^th, 2008.

§  Restaurant Margaritha in Skala Eresos is a relaxing place directly at the beach even with couches under a sunroof. A great place for a breakfast.
See our day 10 itinery for the exact location. We took the breakfast here on Aug 27^th, 2008.

§  Restaurant Australia close to the harbor of Sigri (phone +30 22530 54227, owner Kostas I.B. Tsiknas) offers fresh sea food and snacks.
See our day 10 itinery for the exact location. We took the lunch here on Aug 27^th, 2008.

§  Restaurant Soulatsos at the beach in Skala Eresos offers fresh sea food, we especially liked the grilled stuffed squid and the grilled octopus. Prices are acceptable, we paid around 50 Euros for two persons sharing several starters, salad, drinks including a bottle of Limnos wine and the fresh fish mentioned above. Thanks to Patrick and Debby (from Heliotops apartments) for their good advice. The restaurant can be easily found due to the big anker in front of it next to the old fisher boat with colorful flowers growing inside of it.
See our day 10 itinery for the exact location. We took the dinner here on Aug 27^th, 2008.

§  Panagotis “Peter” Pippinis’ place is called “Psaropoula” (phone +30 22530 96273) and is located at the little harbor of Tavari in the southwest of Lesbos (see our day 11 itinery for the exact location). Peter is a former sailor who has been most probably all around the world and knows interesting stories to tell. Nowadays he goes fishing with his little boat and prepares his fresh fish to his guests.
Thanks to Patrick and Debby (from Heliotops apartments) for their good advice.
Nice plain food (salad, fish potatoes), authentic atmosphere, cute place – we can only recommend to pay a visit.
We were at Peter’s on Aug 28^th, 2008.