My holiday to Kos- Laur's holidiary


Laura: Hello lovelies! I've finally had time to sit down and finish off editing my holidiary so I can post it on the blog for you all, woo! The vid I made from my holiday will also be up on Instagram soon so be sure to keep a look out for that. Enjoy reading what I've been up to!

Sunday, September 11th, 8:30pm:
So, we've made it- we're finally on the beautiful island of Kos! For those of you who don't know, Kos is an island just off mainland Greece, and is one of the smaller Greek islands (it only takes an hour and a half to drive from one end to the other along the only main road- wow!) We took a transfer bus to the hotel, and there were gasps and 'oohs' as we emerged into the long driveway and the reception and entrance hall came into view, like a glistening star amongst the darkness.
Our room is gorgeous. The entire hotel is all greys and whites and sharp corners with wooden walkways and pristine waterfalls. Our room is much of the same theme, with not one but 2 double beds (there's only 2 of us!) and a beautiful marble bathroom and a balcony that gave us a panoramic view of the sea. As far as first impressions go, Pelagos Suites Hotel and Spa has probably given me the best start-of-holiday feeling I could have asked for.


The hotel entrance

The beautiful sea view from our balcony


Tuseday, 9pm:

Yesterday and today were all about getting to know our hotel and surroundings a bit more. Brad and I walked across the road to the beach that we could view from our room, and discovered after a scratched knee, split hand and cut big toe that, pretty as the beach was, it wasn't so fun to walk on barefoot thanks to all the jagged rocks. It was much nicer to observe it from a distance, where the glittering turquoise sea against the pearly white sand and blue skies could be appreciated without the pain! We also checked out our hotel's swimming pools- there were four in total, but the standout two were the main pool (which boasted a row of huge, white, four poster bed-type loungers that were suspended over the pool) and the pool next to our room, which had the 'adults only' vibe with its frothing jaccuzi and bar, where you could sample drinks from bar stools submerged under the water.

As our hotel was all-inclusive, we enjoyed our meals in the hotel's buffet restaurant. I was expecting typical all-inclusive meals of imported chicken nuggets, chips and plain pasta with basic tomato sauce, and boy was I wrong! The waiters made us feel 5* by leading us to a table at the restaurant (which was indescribably beautiful- see below picture) and taking our drinks orders, and the food was fresh and obviously home cooked, which was a lovely surprise. So far so good!


Our favourite pool in the hotel
The beautiful restaurant (ft Brad)
Wednesday, 7:15pm:
What a day. Today I experienced something I never have before- I rode on the back of a quad bike! Brad hired one out for the day, and after much hesitation, I climbed onto the seat behind him with a YOLO attitude I'd had to fight to muster up, and prepared myself for the most exhilarating road trip of my life.
I never expected to enjoy the feeling so much; the wind in my hair, the rush of the buildings and trees that flew past us. I was worried about the roads feeling unsafe, as Greek drivers tend to drive like maniacs, but was pleasantly surprised at how much of a distance other drivers gave us on the road.
We drove through little country lanes with a constant view of the sea, and passed tiny, sun bleached houses surrounded by crops of all sorts of colourful fruits- banana trees, pepper plants of red and yellow, chili plants and olive trees- and I imagined the families who lived there, and who saw more importance in being a skilled farmer than getting an education. It's crazy how different one person's life can be from another's.
We also drove to a little village called Zia, the highest inhabited village on Kos, which was on the top of a mountain and had an incredible panoramic view of the island and the sea. Here we bought ice creams and admired the view, enjoying the traditional Greek feeling of the village.
Our quad bike took us on one last adventure: to a salt lake in beach town Tigaki. I've never visited a salt lake before, and it was so strange! The ground where the lake had dried up was dry and cracked, and with every step our feet sunk a couple of inches below the surface (my poor flip flops were ruined). Not only that, but the whole surface of the ground was glittering with thousands of grains of salt- hence the name 'salt lake'.
When it came to handing our quad back at the end of the day, I felt super sad to have to part with it. It gave us such an amazing tour of the island that we vowed we'd hire our a quad next year for a week rather than only a day, no matter where our travels took us!


Our quad

The salt lake- so crazy!
Thursday, 9pm:
The waterpark in the middle of the island had been in the back of our minds for a while now, so we visited it via a transfer bus, and arrived mid-morning. The whole place was pretty much deserted, thanks to the timing of our visit (most children had gone back to school a week earlier). This meant we had a free run of all the slides on offer: a rubber ring black hole slide, a mat racer slide, three very steep slides that actually hurt my back a little, a spacebowl slide, a lazy river and three huge swimming pools. We were spoilt for choice! For lunch we had our first pizza of many; it was typical Greek style with stringy cheese and whole tomatoes as opposed to tomato sauce, and for only €2,50 it was delicious and definitely worth the money.
Dinner this night was our absolute favourite of the week so far- the hotel had put on a Mexican night. I plied my plate with fajitas, Mexican rice, chili con carne, spicy chicken, Mexican style pasta and chili potatoes, which left me feeling incredibly sick (but it was totally worth it!) By this night I was beginning to wish I could live the all inclusive life forever, despite the fact that I'd probably put on 5 stone in 5 weeks.
Our Mexican meal- not bad for an all inclusive

Friday, 5pm:
Today saw us up at the super early time of 6:30am to set off on what was most definitely our best trip of the week. We took a coach into Kardemena, a bustling town full of mouthwatering food smells and beautiful town houses, and from there, boarded a boat headed for the island of Nissyros.
Nissyros is a tiny volcanic island inhabited by only several hundreds of people, most of whom live at the highest point of the island, which has magnificent views of the sea and can only be accessed by driving up a single steep, winding road. The island was once far more populated, but after several earthquakes and volcanic eruptions that pretty much demolished all of Nissyros' houses, most people left their homes and moved to one of the safer neighbouring islands.

In the village was a restaurant with mirror that had been smashed during the war by a flying bullet that had killed one of Nissyros' inhabitants. The mirror remained in exactly the same place, and had been untouched for years, which I found fascinating.
One particular earthquake had caused the volcano, which once stood tall above the island, to cave in on itself, creating in its place a deep crater. We visited the crater in the morning, and were allowed to actually climb down a path to stand inside it- it was huge, and parts of the surface were still bubbling and emitting steam. It also smelt terrible! We were warned that the crater generally smelt like rotten eggs, which was totally correct. We actually had to hold baby wipes to our noses to disguise the smell somewhat. Despite the smell, the experience was still a brilliant one. I've never walked on a volcano before, and now I have some (very smelly) rocks to prove it.
The afternoon was spent exploring the main harbour town of Nissyros. We browsed in the little village shops, and were pleasantly surprised at how cheap everything was. I bought a bottle that had a hand-painted sunset, little shells and sailor-stripe fabric wrapped around it for only 99 cents. Me and Brad also bought and sampled the traditional drink of the island- bitter almond syrup, which you add to hot water just like you do with lemon syrup back home. We became absolutely obsessed with the stuff and ended up bringing a huge bottle back home with us- it tasted just like battenburg cake in liquid form 😍
After an exhausting day, we headed back home feeling a little bit down. Saturday was our last full day in Kos and we didn't want the adventure to end.


The shattered mirror

On top of the huge hill, with a view of the volcano crater below
Saturday, 10pm:
After a much needed lie in, we prepared for the day I'd been most excited for- shopping in Kos town! A 5 minute bus journey took us right into the town centre, with shops only a short walk away. I spent all my money within an hour on souvenirs for myself and others, and somehow managed to get shouted at for trying to find the price inside a bag that turned out to be €100 (the shop assistant told me I'd make it dirty with my hands- how dare she?!) Brad, of course, took reasonably longer, and I was fed up and sweaty, but feeling pleased with all my buys, when we finally decided to head back to the hotel.
As we were totally spent up by this point (I literally had €3,50 left of my spending money), there was nothing left for us to do other than spend the afternoon lazing around by the pool- and I definitely wasn't complaining. We also took a very long walk along the beach, which followed the roadside for as long as we could see, and found everything from pretty rocks and shells to abandoned shoes, pipes, housing tiles and even what looked like a detached octopus tentacle (it was still moving as well, gross).
As we watch the sun set for our last night, I feel incredibly lucky to have been able to stay in such a beautiful resort as Pelagos Suites Hotel and island as Kos. There's no way Brad and I will be able to afford a luxury like this 4* hotel again for a long time- the only reason we could this year was due to the lowered prices after refugees invaded the island last summer and saw it fall hugely in popularity.

I can only hope that Kos will not suffer too much from its lack of tourism this year, and that next year all will be back to normal. But for me, it's created some of the best memories I could have asked for, and that's all that matters in my eyes.


Beach walks

The stunning sunset

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