May 1: Amorgos: Chora and Katapola

I arranged to rent a car for Monday and Tuesday. The car agency dropped off the car at the hotel around 9:30am. They gave me an automatic despite me telling them that I wanted a standard. They said they didn't have a standard available so they were giving me an automatic for the price of a standard. It's a Suzuki Celerio, which I've never heard of before. It's actually a dual transmission, but the woman from the agency suggested I just drive it in automatic mode.

After breakfast I drove to Chora, the ancient village at the center of the island. It was "fun" driving the twisty roads through the mountains. There were quite a few goats on the road, and of course it requires some butt-clenching and Hail Mary's to not freak out about the fact that there are no guardrails at the edge of the road and it's a sheer drop off a cliff in a couple of places.

My cousin owns a "house" in Chora, which is more like a small apartment, right at the entrance to the village. Her house is the one on the left with the blue door and blue balcony.

It was quite overcast and cold, so a lot of my photos are dark. The village was almost completely shut down. There were only a couple of cafes and shops open. The village is all organically-built stairs and walkways that are generally only wide enough for a donkey. The cobblestones were slipperier than I remembered.

After I left Chora, I drove down to Katapola. It's the main port for the island, and it has sort of a busy commercial vibe. It's where all of the warehouses and most of the non-tourism businesses are located. Still, I like Katapola. It's a fun place to be at the height of summer.

When I was here in 2014 with Mom, we stayed at a small hotel called the Porto Katapola right in the port by the ferry quay. It was lovely. Sadly, it looks like the hotel is closed - the reception area is being used for storage and the building looks like it is in poor repair.

I had lunch at Mythos restaurant. We ate there almost exclusively when we visited in 2007 and 2014. It's still owned by the same man. In 2014 his daughter was just tiny, maybe four or five years old. Now she's a teen and working at the restaurant with her father and grandmother.

After lunch I drove back to the hotel and went for a swim in the pool. I had dinner late, around 6:00pm. It was the first disappointing meal I've had. I wanted something simple so I ordered spaghetti bolognese. What I got was overcooked penne with jar sauce. Oh, well. I think the hotel staff were all exhausted from the Amorgos Trail Challenge and the big party for the baptism.