We continue exploring Nisyros and are sailing to Kos!

Pali

Last september we met a nice swedish couple in Zakynthos and we sailed together for two weeks. Now they are back in the Med (stayed in Sweden for some months in winter) and we saw they were coming in our direction. So this week we met again on Nisyros. While we were waiting for them we had a walk in Pali.

In the building with the yellow sign we rented the car, Manos Car Rental.

In April Pali is a quiet village. Here you can find a small supermarket, some restaurants and a bakery, and a church.

You can stay on the both side of the marina.

The main road is coming down in the right of the photo.

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And we did some laundry. It is possible to do laundry on both car rentals in the marina.

And finally Ingela and Lars came from Astypalaia. We had a nice evening in our boat.

Emporios

We had already decided to continue our car rental for an extra day, and invited Ingela and Lars to join us. Popi at the car rental told us about the celebration of Virgin Mary the next day, and we had to check it out. First we went to Emporios.

We went some places we didn`t see while we last visited the village.

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Ingela and me

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We had very early lunch that day, already at 11 am. The reason for that was the huge celebration of Virgin Mary, we were waiting for a parade with cars and scooters, starting in Nikia around 1 pm. And you never know in Greece, it can be earlier and it can be later…. The view from Emporios Balcony is stunning, and the food was excellent! This restaurant is not open at this time of the year, only on this day. Thanks Popi for telling us!

We also had to check out the natural sauna you can find just before you enter the village. You can feel the heat before you enter the “door”. It is really hot inside. It is very small, only for a couple.

We saw people started to go down to the main road so we were following the locals. First there were a lot of scooters.

After them the police came, and the bus carrying the icon of Virgin Mary, which is believed to be miraculous and patron of the island.

The parade was very long and all the cars honked and made a lot of noise. You have to see the video below with sound on!

The locals followed the parade, but we continue our exploring and went to the vulcano again. I waited it the viewpoint while Astor, Ingela and Lars walked down to the vulcano.

Nikia

Then we drow to Nikia, and we took the car up to the church instead of walking the stairs.

It is still a nice view up there! Lars, Ingela and Astor.

Astor and me. Tilos in the background.

The main square in Nikia (the photo below). If you haven`t checked out my last post, you can read more about Nisyros there:

The vulcanic island of Nisyros

The square in Nikia

The church, Issódia tis Theotókou, is laying on the square and is a really beautiful church.

Narrow streets in Nikia

In the evening we drove to the main town, Mandraki.

It is a very popular place to see the sunset, but it was windy this day so it started to get cold

We had a glas of wine and beer before we walked around in town waiting for the firework.

It was people throwing firecrackers everywhere so you had to be careful. You can see the firework in the same video as the parade. The priest, together with the icon was walking around in every houses on the island, and he also throw firecrackers inside the houses.

After that busy day we had some boatworks to do. And we also got company of Liza and Frits coming over from Symi. So we invited both them and Ingela and Lars for dinner. Sorry I don`t have photo of our guests here.

Lars was coming over to help us hoisting Astor up in the mast, thanks for helping Lars! And Ingela and I was just relaxing in the sun 🙂

We got a new neighbour, Levent and Cristal, and Ingela invited all of us for dinner.

Lars, Levent and Cristal

Ingela, me and Astor

It was time to move further on, and we left Nisyros.

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Kardamena, Kos

It is just a couple of hours to sail stright north from Nisyros to Kardamena, Kos. It was space for us in the marina, and everything was free, also electricity (if you find one) and water. They started charging 1th of May.

On Nisyros it was not easy to find a supermarket, only small ones, so when we arrived in Kardamena we went stright to the supermarket. Then we found this amazing coloured house.

And we found pita gyros! One of the best we have found for a while. It was from Pita Way, I recommend you to go there!

After a couple of days we were together again. Ingela and Lars, and Liza and Frits. Liza and Frits invited for dinner. Excellent food as always!

The next day Ingela and Lars invited for dinner, unfortunately I don`t have photo from that evening. And then it was our turns to make dinner. It is nice to be together with other people and it is a big chance me meet again somewhere.

Then it was time to leave Kardamena. We wanted to sail north while waiting for a friend coming to Kos town later in May. Before we left we had a short walk through Kardamena to have some photos. It has been some cloudy days here in Kardamena, but now finally the sun is shining!

There is a beach on both side of the marina, the nicest one is on the western side.

All the shops started to open up the last week, waiting for the tourists to come.

I bought bikinis, ready for the season!

Kardamena harbour. It was a lot of space in April and everything was for free. But after 1th of May there is less space because of all the touristboats, and you have to pay a small fee.