At a loss in Kalymnos

It was moving day again, we were on the road from Lipsi to Kalymnos. I was slightly concerned because I couldn’t come up with any humourous rhymes to go with Kalymnos and I clearly spend far too much time thinking about these things through the day. But Lily helped me out by saying that I was at a loss about Kalymnos and my first problem of the day was solved.
We have had plenty of practice by now at getting organised for a moving day and Jess had made us get up earlier than we needed to do we were ready in plenty of time. We got out of our Lipsi accommodation at 11 and had a few hours to kill before our ferry, so there was only one thing for it, a game of giant chess down near the port. The teams were established, Lily and Ruby against Allegra and Olivia in a battle for their parents love. They all know the basics but none of them are experts and so they are pretty well matched. Tate was not hugely interested so it was Allegra against the other two and she was making all the running. Lily and Ruby were very clearly not keen on losing to their younger sister and were taking ages over each move, it was very hot in the sun so we all just wanted them to hurry up. If not for a couple of small mistakes Allegra would have won but in the end a draw was probably a fair result.
We still had time to kill and it was lunchtime so we sat in one of the small cafes and had a very tasty lunch. It was actually a very generic western brunch, nothing at all was Greek about it, but it was tasty nonetheless. We took our sweet time but eventually thought we should head over to the port and wait for our boat. In all the time we have been catching ferries in Greece, it has been quite impressive how punctual they have been, not today though as our boat was late. So we had to find a spot with a bit of shade and breeze to wait in. Eventually (and it is funny how often I use that word, everything happens eventually it seems) our ferry appeared, actually quite suddenly just from around the corner and pulled up, we hopped on and we were off. It was trying to make up time I think. It was just a short trip today, just over an hour and we were on Kalymnos.
We may actually have travelled from chalk to cheese as I dont think that Kalymnos and Lipsi could be more different if they had set out with this goal in mind. From an island with 800 inhabitants to a sprawling metropolis of over 10000 in the main town itself, it was quite the culture shock. We got our car and drove to our accommodation, the setting looked lovely, a stones throw from the beach with trees and a couple of tavernas. We met our host who showed us around our latest villa, which is conservatively 3 or 4 times the size of our last place, with 4 bedrooms, huge living room, an upstairs and downstairs balcony, two bathrooms, the list goes on. In fact it is so big I have only seen the girls a couple of times since we arrived, I think they got lost at one point. I think they will get an extremely low rating on Airbnb though because despite being the most incredibly equipped place there is NO COFFEE MACHINE. I’m sorry, I went full R u b y there for a moment.
As is often the way, we needed to get some supplies and luckily there is a mini-market that is even closer than the beach. A little less luckily, it leans more to the mini side than the market side. So, if we want vegan mayo we are sorted (!?!?!) but if we want a vegetable, Greek yoghurt or feta, then less so. These things are staples people! The good thing about travelling with our personal chef is that an absolute gourmet pasta with tinned mushrooms, sweetcorn, giant beans, tomato purée and scrambled egg, it was devoured so quickly I couldn’t even get seconds. Thank you Lily.
Tiredness had well and truly set in so it was time for bed, but not before a small battle with the aircon to try and get it to blow cold air in the general vicinity of the bed. I think we just about succeeded.Leggi altro