The Island of Patmos

Thur, April 8, 2010
Patmos, Greece

What a revelation!

We are on the tiny island of Patmos for one day before taking the ferry to Samos so we can catch a ferry from there back to Turkey so we can go visit Ephesus. Because the high season has not yet begun, ferry service is pared back. That means routes that are run every day during the summer are only run every two or three days, which is why we have the stop-over in Patmos. It has turned out to be a happy accident.

Patmos is incredibly beautiful. Although it’s small, it has an extraordinary amount of shoreline because the land meanders along inlets and outlets and little peninsulas and lots of pretty little bays. If viewed from above, the island of Patmos looks a little like a very knobby seahorse.

We got off the ferry this morning and went in search of a place to spend the night. We found a little hotel right on the harbor, got a great room at a good price, and even rented a car from the hotel manager. We’re pretty sure it’s her personal car. She excused herself for a few minutes to clean it out before turning it over to us. There was no contract to sign and there are a couple of onions that she seems to have missed rolling around under the driver’s seat. No problem… the price was right and the terms easy to accept.

Patmos is the island to which St. John the Theologian (as he’s known here), aka the Beloved Disciple came sometime in the 90s AD. It was in a cave on the island that he heard the voice of God issue forth from a fissure in the rock presenting him with what later became the Book of Revelation. As with other holy sites we’ve visited, the location is venerated and a small chapel has been erected in the cave. There is a hammered silver plate surrounding what is said to be THE spot in the rock from whence God’s voice was heard. Once again, I’m somewhat skeptical about the exactitude in identifying that particular spot as THE spot; however, I would guess they’ve got the right cave anyway. And if not the exact cave, I gotta figure they’re in the neighborhood. That’s good enough for me.

So we visited the Cave of the Apocalypse and from there we drove up the hill to the Monastery (I forget the exact name of it). It is perched high above the shore and offers a clear view for miles around. It’s built like a fortress and is still in use today. It has some lovely mosaics and faded paintings that must have been glorious at one time.

After lunch we set off in the car to poke around the island. It was a wonderful way to see Patmos. The island is so small that we put very few km on the car, but it took us hours to make the drive because we kept stopping the car to jump out and take photos. We both commented on how it reminded us of New Zealand in its stunning beauty. Every turn of the road revealed a new beautiful view. I can certainly believe that St. John found inspiration in this place, and the monks who followed him as well.

For dinner we asked our hotel manager if she could recommend a restaurant and she told us to walk up the road just a short distance to a restaurant called Heliomodi where we could get ourselves a nice fish dinner. We had driven past it earlier trying to locate it and had no luck, but this time we were on foot and able to take our time reading the signs. After walking past it, we turned around and decided that it must be the place given the décor of fishnets filled with seashells strung along the interior wall, Looked like a fish restaurant to us. Then we saw the sign. Silly us. How could we have missed it? The sign clearly stated the name of the restaurant… in Greek.

Anyway, the restaurant turned out to the local hangout and the food was great. We got a big plate of fried calamari and the mixed fish plate. The mixed fish came to us, fried but not filleted. It was very tasty and I’ve apparently gotten over some of my original squeamishness about having my fish come to me with head and tail still intact, that old eyeball looking up at me. Too bad old fellow, it’s eat or be eaten. All the other customers seemed to be locals and they were all greeting one another with hearty handshakes and hugs and sitting down to massive piles of octopus and squid, mussels and fish, salad and bread and olives, shoveling it in as fast as it came and washing it down with lots of wine and laughter. Even though we didn’t speak the language, it was still fun to sit in the middle of it and just be part of people enjoying each other and their food. We had a quite a pile of bones and very full bellies when we rolled out of there an hour later. Our Patmos experience was the best of what Greece has to offer… a beautiful island with friendly people and great food. A thoroughly enjoyable experience.