Can't Spell Samos without Sam

We've been in Greece over 8 months now but somehow it feels like we just arrived in Greece. We enjoyed our time in Thessaloniki, but as the locals like to say, it's a Balkan city, and not completely Greek. Now, we've left the Balkans and set sail for quintessential Greece. But maybe we're becoming like the locals and are overemphasizing subtle regional differences, say, like how they swear that another cheese that looks and tastes exactly like feta, is NOT feta! What isn't so subtly different is that we've left mainland life for island life for the next two months.

Green Samos

After a pleasant 5 days on mastic-chewing Chios, we took a two hour ferry ride along the Turkish coast to Samos. Thirty years ago, Sam spent a night on Samos as she was backpacking her way to Ephesus in Turkey. She wondered if Samos would look familiar, but as we pulled into the port, she said it didn't. But score one for her memory as we learned that the port had been relocated since she had been there.

We really liked Chios, but we instantly developed a crush on Samos (please don't tell island A!). Samos is almost like a Greek island crossed with Hawaii--lush green mountains, amazing sunsets, and incredibly clear water. We stayed on the edge of a town called Kokkari, which looks like a postcard image of a small seaside Greek town with cafes and restaurants spread out along turquoise waters. The place we rented was a few hundred feet from the ocean and had a mountain view behind it. Our hosts spoiled us with all sorts of homemade and homegrown treats like homemade red wine from their vineyard, fig spoon sweet, strawberries, loquats, lemons, mandarins, mint, and other treats from their garden. The sea has just about gotten to swimming temperature and we had our first dip of the year. And we got to do several great walks, including a walk through some incredibly perched mountaintop vineyards. The hiking path actually passes through on one of the narrow terraced rows of grapes. A couple days in and we were both wondering how we could find a longer term rental. We were both sad to leave after just 5 days.

Them Chanias

But just a few days ago, we arrived in Chania (which, weirdly, is plural in Greek!), on the island of Crete and almost instantly felt like maybe we should live here. We're on the outskirts of the old town--where most of the tourists are--and we are two blocks from an amazing natural pool seaside. Locals we have chatted with all feel lucky to live here and we can see why. The produce is great and they have farmer's markets every day. Some people say they can even swim in January, which is almost all Sam needs to hear. People here are friendly; our host even brought us a treasured bottle of the family's olive oil harvested from their 150 trees. It's good to be (back?!) in Greece.