Tuesday, September 27, 2011

After five hours on two ferry boats, one bus ride, one taxi fare and running to catch the last boat, we finally arrived on the Greek island of Patmos just as the fiery-orange sun was setting.
Beautiful sunset as we were getting ready to dock at Patmos, Greece.
My first impression of this difficult-to-reach island in the Aegean Sea is tranquil. In fact, last night, the sound of chirping crickets, a lone barking dog and the rustling sea breeze were the only sounds I heard. 
No honking horns. 
No shouting people. 
No mosque calls (which I don’t generally mind but sometimes do wake me up.) You could even see the stars up in the night sky.
Skala, is the main village on Patmos, where the port is located.
One of the northernmost islands of the Dodecanese complex, Patmos has a population of 2,984 and an area of 34.05 km² (13 square miles).

I am traveling with a fellow American friend Sheryl, of The Altered Passport, whom also lives in Istanbul. She has long been interested in coming here because Patmos is mentioned in the Christian scriptural Book of Revelation.

Two sites on today’s agenda:  the monastery of St. John and the Grotto of St. John, whom was exiled to Patmos from Ephesus, Turkey, in 95 A.D. St. John the Theologian lived in this cave on Patmos, where he reporedly recorded his divine visions in the Book of Revelations in the Bible.

I’m sure we’ll see some amazing sites today, and I’ll write about them soon.

Iyi yolculuklar!

How to reach Patmos from Turkey:
A ferry from Kuşadası to Samos runs daily departing at 8:30 a.m., until Oct. 31, this year. The daily ferries resume again in April, from what I understand.

From Samos, you must take a second ferry boat, running regularly on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays only through Oct. 1, to reach Patmos. For more information, click here.
This is the ferry boat we ran to catch at Samos. We were nearby, but it
looked like the boat was pulling away. Nope, the crew just had some
issues with trying to dock the boat. =)

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2 comments:

jaz@octoberfarm said...

wow! i can't wait to see what you see! thanks for taking us on this adventure with you!!!

Joy said...

Very quiet Greek island - I love that it's the end of tourist season here! =)