Oct 052015
 
in the pool!

in the pool!

this is the final instalment in the ios series of posts – even though its a week since we left greece for cyprus – its taken me that long to catch up!

jade is 11, the same age as kai, and she was also staying with her family at the island house. brett, or ‘nashy’ as he is known on the island is her cousin (i think!), and he owns one of the night clubs on ios. quite a large group of his family had flown to ios to visit and they were all staying with us at the island house.

jade and kai hit it off like life long friends, they could both talk for australia in the olympics – i am not sure who won but it was a good contest! they both share very confident and outgoing personalities so they fell into a happy friendship very easily.

most of their time was spent together in the pool, although we took jade for a morning of water sports with joe, and they had great fun being towed behind the ski boat on various inflatable rides.

i think it was a relief for both families that they became such good friends – it made it easier for all of us as they entertained themselves most of the time!

 

Oct 012015
 
pathos-7

the infinity pool at sunset, pathos

“ˈpāˌTHäs – a quality that evokes pity or sadness.” – nup, not happening for me!

after our epic boat trip, chelsea & joe took us to the incredible pathos beach bar, but pity or sadness was definitely not on the menu.

even with the images its hard to impress upon you the scale of this enterprise, its immense, its expensive of a whole diferent scale, its imposing, its beautiful, its sypathetic to the landscape while creating a envoronment all of its own.

the club is owned by a multi-billionaire greek-american who fell in love with ios and bought up much of the waterfront on the island and then simultaneously started developing ridiculously expensive clubs, bars, restaurants and accomodation – most of it looks to be running at a massive loss but i doubt he gives a damn.

pathos is certainly the crowning jewel, its on a scale bigger than anything else and overlooks his mansion built on the island in front.

there is a story in that mansion alone, he tried to build a causeway across the small channel between the island and the mainland but the locals stopped him – so he bought every single thing in by barge! that alone would have added millions to the cost ot the construction.

all his ventures share names of emotions, the restaurant/bar at mylopotas beach is called free, but pathos is, despite its name, a place of joy and pleasure. its the place to view the sunset on ios, the infinity pool is sublime, the endless sculptures entertain and the funky music soothes your soul as you sip on your cocktail of choice.

after enjoying our cocktails we headed down on to the beach to koumpara seafood restaurant for a very traditional greek taverna style dinner. the perfect way to finish a massive day!

Oct 012015
 
zah zah the cutest gurl in Ios!

zah zah the cutest gurl in Ios!

obviously with joe & chelsea running a water sports business on ios, a boat trip was simply a given. it took a bit of juggling to organise, there were the days after big nights which seemed a bit silly. there was also the odd windy or cloudy day, and other days where we had other activities arranged.

as it turned out i settled on last friday and it was the best day of our stay, so we loaded up the boat and headed off for a day of exploring, snorkelling and bumming around on the beach.

without waffling on too much it was just one of those days, so much what we love doing at home, a day out on the water, great friends, good food, a few beers and plenty of sun & salt!

it was a pleasant change not to be the skipper for a change, so i could really relax into the day. there is not much point in me banging on about what a magic day out it was, so i will just let the photos speak for themselves.

thanks chelsea & joe for a fabulous day!

(the last 3 pics are not actually from the boat trip, just random shots of zara being cute!)

Sep 302015
 
looking back down into the port.

looking back down into the port.

damn, now we are in cyprus and i have posted no updates on our visit to chelsea, joe & zara on Ios! now i will have to bang out a couple of posts over the next few days to catch up.

too much lying in the sun and flopping about in the pool has a price to pay it seems!

so we arrived from the port of piraeus near athens into the port of Ios and were promptly picked up by frangoulis from our hotel, the island house. he gave us a quick rundown on the lay of the land as we wound our way up the hill out of the port, across the top of the island thru the old village of choras, and down into mylopotas beach where chels & joe live.

we had the first 4 or 5 days at the main part of the hotel where the pool is, in a very beautiful and well appointed apartment, it’s balcony was just beside the pool and it was gorgeous and comfortable. due to prior bookings dimitria had to move us down nearer the beach, to their other building for the rest of our stay.

It was still very nice and comfortable, just missed the pool outside the door! but then again the beach was 80m closer!

most days we would catch the bus up to chora or down to the port for lunch and or dinner, there were also some nice tavernas on the foreshore in mylopotas beach, including the beautiful drakos where we dined our first night there with chelsea, joe and zah zah.