Day 37-Samos

We were able to sleep in a bit today since we only had 6.5 miles to walk. It was a nice surprise to see so many people we knew at breakfast since I thought they would have left much earlier.

The weather was mild and no rain was forecast. The trail went up and down but nothing too steep. Since we weren't in a rush, we stopped midway for a coffee...and sorbet. We walked through a few sleepy towns loaded with chestnut and walnut trees.

Today's calamity is brought to you by my curiosity and obsession with food. I kept seeing these big bunches of herb-looking plants growing wild everywhere. When I think a plant is an herb, I rub a leaf to smell it to determine what it is. When I rubbed the leaf, I noticed it was fuzzy and then I felt a really painful, prickly, burning sensation in my fingers. I thought I had a dozen splinters in my fingers but Pat said it was probably stinging nettles. I did an image search and, sure enough, that's what it was. It will take a few hours for the pain to completely dissipate. I wonder what mess I'll get into tomorrow.

As we entered Samos we were greeted with a beautiful view of the 1500 year old monastery. We'll tour it tomorrow on our day off.

When we checked in to our place, we met an Italian couple. It was fun practicing my rudimentary Italian and I was able to have a 15 minute conversation with them before running out of words.Read more