Chios: a short stop in Greece

📌 A short trip to Greece by ferry, we enjoyed a tasty breaky with delicious greek feta whilst waiting for the car and this was a good start to the Greek food to come. Impressions of Chios were that is was a large island with little tourists and mostly residents. The population is 50k.

📌 We had a lovely host at an Airbnb type accommodation a few metres of the beach, it was nice to have freedom with a car and space.

📌 The main attractions visited were the mastic museum and mastic villages. Mastic is a unique product of the trees growing on Chios, it was popular during the the last 500 years as medicinal and cooking products and was exported all over Europe. The museum also talked about how the island was often ruled by others such as the Romans, the Ottomans and the Genoans. Eventually it rejoined Greece in 1920. Pygri and Mesta villages were big stone walled village complexes with narrow lanes and unique buildings.

📌 We drove around the island, taking about an hour where we visited some 11th century monastery and an abandoned village that was abandoned during the massacre of Chios by the ottomans in 1820.

📌 The food was a highlight, the feta was delicious, particularly when in a stuffed capsicum. The gyros were brilliant of course and the seafood was also great. A couple of standout restaurants were an old stone building and a traditional Greek taverna. Overall it was a worthy stop over in Greece, and an island worth visiting if avoiding overrun tourist Greece.Read more