Just Cos

Last week my boyfriend and I decided to take a spontaneous trip down to the Greek island of Cos (or Kos or Kωs), a few kilometres off the coast of Bodrum (also not far from Datça where I spent a week in the summer). We took the night bus to Bodrum, arriving early in the morning (it takes 12 hours), then took the ferry to Kos. We had less than two days, so we didn’t see all of the island, but what we saw was gorgeous. As always I was left wondering why I live in a stressful, monotone, stinky city. A few things I learnt:

1. You really don’t need weeks to plan and prepare a trip. In this case I had about 2 seconds to decide, 30mins to buy tickets, and 2 hours to pack.
2. My parents would rule them out immediately, but travelling on national holidays can be fun. The 28th was a holiday on Kos & there was bunting everywhere & we even got to see a parade and people in national costume. The 29th is Independence Day in Turkey & there was a free concert in the evening in Bodrum and fireworks too!
3. The end of October is officially the end of the tourist season. The weather was still good enough to swim, and there were plenty of places open, but they were all shutting up shop within the next few days.
4. I could go there and come back on my British passport. This was lucky, as my Turkish passport had expired!
5. People from Kos are called Koans. Which in my book is enough reason to move there. :)

Things to do on Kos:

• Visit the historical sites. We only had time to walk around the Agora, but the Asklepieion and the castle look very interesting too. Hippocrates was from Kos so you’ll see lots of things pertaining to him (including the famous plane tree, which we also missed).
• Eat ice cream. I can’t remember the name of the place, but oh my goodness Nutella ice cream! ‘nough said.
• Rent bikes. Bikes are the way to get around. There are great bike tracks around the island and speeding along the coast is so much fun.
• Eat yummy food. I’m pretty sure a Greek would consider gyros and souvlaki about as representative of Greek cuisine as a Turk would consider döner and şiş kebap, but they were still absolutely delicious!
• Chill on the beach. Go easy on the ouzo though!
• Find a yarn shop. I didn’t have time, so this is your mission, should you choose to accept it. :)

more photos in my Flickr set ➔

Have you done any spur-of-the-moment travelling recently?