Patmos: Ugh, Early Hike...Tally-Ho!

St. Johns Monastery and the Grotto
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After shutting down the cruise ship for another late night, we had to get up way too early for our next stop, Patmos where TQ was way too excited and perky and dragged us along on an all uphill hike to the big thing here, St. John’s Monastery and the Grotto. TQ kept on yelling “Tally-ho!” which must be some weird Aussie pirate saying but we dragged our tired and hung-over bodies up the switchbacks and surprisingly didn’t lose anyone on the way. The views from the top of this hill were spectacular so getting some exercise after eating 4 courses a day on the cruise ship was nice. Thanks, TQ.

Early Morning Hike (ugh!)
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Anyway, this is where St. John laid his head down after writing some bible-y revelation stuff. Those of you who know me, know that I am not religious so this whole thing meant nothing to me. There were some creepy paintings on the walls that looked like they came from horror movies and Steph found a trough. Getting a cab down was hell. They operate on a number system so you are supposed to order your cab by their cab number and they come up and wait for you. There were some cabs that could’ve taken us down and come back up by the time their passengers were ready. Eventually after much frustration, we ordered a cab with the 2 Aussie girls and waited for Cab #7 for way too long. It was scary going down to the port from here since scooters, people, cars and cabs all share one narrow lane that winds back and forth down the hill.

Oh well, I only bought it cuz it looked like a mini-wheat.

View along hike
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We had some time to kill before our ship took off so we wandered around town. We picked up 6-1 litre water bottles for 0.50 Euro cents when you had to buy 1-1 litre bottle on the ship for 2 Euros so we were very impressed with ourselves. This little bakery looked good so we decided to grab some desserts. Steph got these white powdery things that looked like giant Hershey’s kisses and I got this thing that looked like a giant mini-wheat. Steph’s treats were kind of mushy and gross and my mini-wheat did NOT taste like a mini-wheat or anything good for that matter. Oh well, I only bought it cuz it looked like a mini-wheat.