Kos

15 May 2009

We’ve been in Kos for a couple of days now and are planning on taking the ferry to Bodrum, Turkey tomorrow. Apparently, few people go one-way. We encountered only tour boats. One gave us a “deal” of 15 Euro. Funny, round trip is 20 Euro including a city tour. How does that work?

Yesterday we rented bikes and rode to the Asclepion, a place of healing. The day before, we relaxed in the morning (the midnight ferry from Santorini to Kos rendered us useless as tourists. In the afternoon, we explored ancient ruins. Kos is full of them. I actually liked the ruins here in Kos better than the Acropolis and Agora in Athens. Despite being overgrown with pokey things and obviously not well cared for, there seems to be more remaining. You are allowed to crawl all over the ruins (there are no whistle blowers here as in Athens).

At the Acropolis in Athens, a whistle blower (aka a ruins guard) came over to us and asked to view our last photo. We complied, but didn’t understand (the last photo was me with the Parthenon in the background). She said it was okay, but wouldn’t explain what she thought we were photographing. We couldn’t figure out what it could be that she wouldn’t want us to photograph.

At the ruins here in Kos, we found baths and partially hidden (by sand and rocks) mosaics and wall paintings and all sorts of interesting finds. The ruins seemed to be slightly less ruinous. I could see the boundaries of the buildings and the lines of the walls. In the Forum (in Rome) and the Agora (in Athens), you see piles of rocks. I have a good imagination, but it’s not good enough to imagine structures from piles of rocks with any sort of realism.

Kos is definitely a different place than Naxos, Iraklia, and Santorini. Those three are in the Cyclades (group of islands). Kos is in the Dodecadese and is very close to Turkey. I’m talking swimming distance. How crazy is that? I could swim to Turkey! Except I’m not positive I wouldn’t be harpooned down for trying to enter the country illegally.

Time to start another day. On the agenda today: thermal springs and some beach time.

The fortress and inner castle:

If you look carefully, you can see a couple of helmets stacked up on top of the pile of canon balls.

The pillar graveyard.



The following were taken at the Odeon:

The following were taken at the West Archeological Site:

Taking a bath, Roman style. Am I clean yet?

Check out the mosaic I'm standing on. They are just letting this thing deteriorate underneath a bunch of rocks and dirt.

I loved that we were allowed to crawl all over everything. There were no whistle blowers, no "danger" signs, and no one there to watch us. There was also no one taking care of the site. The place obviously is not tended to.