Kos Town, Pt 2

Kos Town is an incredibly beautiful place, and especially so when bathed in the glowing evening sunshine. History oozes from the pores of the streets, with ancient monuments lying where they once stood strong, be that at the side of the road, against a bus stop or overlooking the town.

We jumped off the bus and dived headfirst into the maze of busy winding streets packed full of restaurants, cafés and tourist shops. Having devoured the guidebook whilst lazing around the pool in the last few days, I dragged Mr P off in the direction of the harbour, via Eleftheria Square.

Kos Town is an eclectic mix of grand church buildings and elegant, curvaceous mosques. Narrow pathways flowed like streams to great squares covered in wide spanning olive trees providing the much needed shade.

We did however come across a few scarier statues on the way…

Dawdling around the walls of the town, in a quiet shady square, we found the Plane Tree of Hippocrates. Legend has it that this current tree is at least 500 years old, and is said to be a descendant of the tree where Hippocrates taught his students the art of medicine under the shade of the leaves. The scaffolding around the tree is for support for the great reaching, but now hollow, branches.

A bit of "If I were a millionaire..." boat shopping then ensued and plenty of goofing around…

And then I found possibly the most iconic sight of Kos, those big white and blue steps of the most photogenic Ouzeria’s I have ever come across in Greece. Completely excited about the prospect of finding the place that I’d pinned consistently on my pinterest since booking a holiday, I obviously insisted on a million and one photos.

We decided it would be too much of a shame to come all this way and not actually dine here, so we grabbed a table with fantastic views and ordered a carafe of rosé to drink them in with. 

Followed up with veal stifado for him...

And prawns cooked in an ouzo, cream and dill sauce for me! Greek roast potatoes are the best. I don't know how they do it but I can never recreate them exactly no matter how much I try!

The food was incredible and we enjoyed every single bite! Well, when I say every single bite, I did have a little bit of competition...

I may have 'dropped' a little bit...how can you ignore those eyes!

We then trundled along a few more shops and got lost a few more times to walk our dinner off.  The town changes and comes alive with such a different buzz when the sun goes down, but with full bellies and bags clunking with souvenirs we headed back for the short bus journey back to our comfy bed.

Chilled Out Kos, Pt 1

In the midst of a very stressful January, we trawled through holiday websites for days until we decided upon this beauty, Palazzo Del Mare in Marmari, Kos. As I finally finished all of my exams this year, it would be the first summer in at least 7 years with zero revision and zero exams. So a major chill out was on the cards, and this place had chill written all over it.

After a serious few months of countdowns and major shopping, it was time to jump on the big metal bird. Is there anything more beautiful than watching the sun set from above the clouds?

Apart from watching the sun set with some ice cold prosecco, obviously. You've got to start the holiday off as you mean to go on!

We got to the hotel at about 3am Greek time, so were pretty exhausted. We fell straight asleep, well, after some ooohing and aahhing at our room.

We woke up early the next day, bright and breezy ready to check out the hotel in all it's morning sunny glory.

I managed to keep myself from diving straight into the pool, at least long enough to go and get some breakfast.

Ok, yes, that is a glass of champagne with breakfast. Don't judge. It was my first day, and it doesn't count when you're on holiday anyway...

After letting all that food and early morning wine wear off, we set up camp where we ended up spending a good 90% of the next 7 days.

The next few days flew by in pretty much the same chilled out haze. Lots of pool fun and getting through a tonne of books.

Punctuated by plenty of frappés and mojitos, of course.

After a few lazy days, we decided that we really ought to head out on a bit of sightseeing. More on that later...