Yassou!
I woke up in my lovely hotel room in Amoopi, made myself a coffee to enjoy on the balcony and then headed down for the included breakfast. Had a great sleep because this was the first really comfortable mattress (glad I bring my camping Thermarest every time I travel) and it is super quiet as I am their first guest of the season and only one here. The hotel is set amongst olive trees and a bee farm. Breakfast includes an egg, cheese the husband makes from mainly goat milk, delicious yogurt with their own honey, fruit juice and coffee. There is a fruit tree on their property that has a fruit I haven’t seen before and he lets me try some. And the kitten joins me from breakfast, staring at my food from the chair opposite me. Because I am really don’t want to take another taxi and ruin a good mood, I decide to walk to Pigadia. which is where I need to get to to catch the ferry that evening. It is several miles, but I figure I have 6 or so hours to kill.
It is a warm and sunny day, it takes me past several of the beaches of Amoopi which are beautiful. Inclines with my heavy backpack aren’t my favorite, but I take my time and rest when I find shade. Olive trees are great for that! Pass some huge luxury villas in Amoopi and then the landscape is pretty barren with not much scenery other than an occasional goat or sheep and a turkey and chicken farm. The dirt road finally leads me to the busier main road heading down into Pigadia. Several people pass and wave hello. About ten minutes down the road and a guy who owns a car rental and car wash business invites me for a coffee. I have seen coffee delivery people zipping around on scooters several times, and he orders us delicious iced coffees that have a hint of cinnamon while we chat. 
He eventually has to go deliver something to a client, so I continue walking. Was going to try to visit the Archeological Museum, but it was closed. It was a pretty building from the outside, though. Make it down to the harbor and go try to find out about buying my ferry ticket but am told the office doesn’t open until about an hour or half hour before the ferry arrives at 7pm. I wander then harbor a bit and then decide I should probably eat. Find a restaurant on the harbor and order some grilled octopus and stuffed grape leaves. A dirty but sweet cat takes to the warmth of my big backpack and goes to sleep. 
Everyone in the restaurant is so nice and a man who lived in New Jersey for a while and I chat. I see big trucks and cars heading down for the ferry and the online ferry tracker app I downloaded says the boat is getting close, so I say my goodbyes and wait for the ticket office to open. The ferry to from Pigadia to Diafani is only 4 Euros. And they also print my ticket for me for my Sunday journey on the same ferry from Diafani to Santorini that I purchased online.
The man from the restaurant waves from his balcony overlooking the harbor and then comes down to see me off. When the ship appears, it is huge! 
This boat, the Anek Line Prevali runs twice a week and leaves Athens and makes many stops, delivering goods and people to the islands. It was slated to be replaced April 1st by newer, faster boats that will be able to make three trips a week by a different company, but that date kept getting pushed back. This led to some anxiousness prior to my trip as I had a gut feeling when trying to pick which islands I wanted to see that Karpathos was on the top of the list and a lot of if is was doable hinged on ferry scheduling. But it worked and I am so happy it did.
The ferry has multiple floors, with sleeping cabins and a little restaurant and coffee/drink shop. There are indoor and outdoor areas to enjoy the sunset views over the mountains island and probably the best 4 euro purchase I have ever made. I can imagine how great it was when it made its first voyage, as it has a now empty pool, gift shop, and dance/DJ hall. But the ride is only about an hour so I don’t have too much time to explore it all. I will have 17 hours on this boat on Sunday, and now I am really looking forward to it!
I arrive in Diafani and it is dark but I find my hotel easily and the owner is there to greet me. The hotel is situated at the end of the small town, overlooking the harbor and giving it a great lookout over the whole town. I sleep well and wake up to breakfast on the balcony, a great lookout to the harbor and town. I walk to the store for water which is run by a sweet older woman in traditional clothes with a store cat that loves attention. 
Women walk by in traditional clothes and modern clothes. A man waved me down and says he passed me and was the one who honked as I walking with my backpack on my way to Pigadia. He looked for me on his way back to give me a ride, but didn’t see me. He has a batch of baked goods and gives me one as I set off on a walk. A woman in traditional garb has a huge uncooked bread loaf on this giant paddle, heading off to a communal oven to bake. I head to south and check out the old ruins of the town windmills. Then I set off on a hiking trail to a beach. But not far in, I see a pretty church off the trail on a cliff over the ocean and go check it out. 
It is next to a little house and a woman is there with her son and daughter. The woman is about to bake using the old traditional oven and invites me in to watch. She gets the fire going to heat the oven, moving things around with different sized stick/pole instruments. She then makes a brush by attaching juniper bush-looking shrubs to the end of a pole and sweeps out the oven. She has bread loaves of all different sizes and some Other baking goodies, all of which she carefully fits in the oven and closes a wooden door over the oven opening.
She invites me to take photos, so I take a few with my camera that hopefully turn out. I love the traditional clothing and am kind of obsessed with these boots the women wear that look like red dress flats with tan on top so they could walk without fear of local snake bites and thorns and such. She occasionally checks and moves things around, placing something over the embers when too hot and shielding items when they brown. All the while, she is feeding me various baked goods, including a yummy little sausage pastry roll like a pig in a blanket, straight from the oven. Delicious! I finally say my goodbyes and head back on the trail, but never made it to the beach as I am stuffed and in need of a nap.
I venture out for supper, as my hotel owners are still frantically trying to set up their restaurant downstairs and it is not ready yet. Settle on a place with calamari, which is good but busier with younger locals drinking amongst their groups. 
As I am heading back and of course, playing with all the cats, I run in to Manolis who gave me the morning pastry at the coffee shop, and he invites me to join him. Generally women don’t sit in the coffee shop. It appears to always be full of older men playing backgammon and talking with each other, but he says it is okay. He gets me a mountain tea with honey and explains that it is indeed a type of sage. He is from the town but has lived in France and is now back after a life traveling on the sea. He shows me all kinds of old photos of his family and tells me stories of the town. He seems to know everybody, although in a town this small, even I keep running in to the same people over and over again after one day. The next table over is several men talking politics without arguments or anger, including someone running for mayor of Karpathos and lives in Diafani. We finally say our good nights and he gives me his number in case I need anything or want a ride to or back from Olympos. He also explains that the town will be busy tomorrow as there is a festival at the church (which explains all the baked goods being prepared today).
Wake up to another good balcony breakfast and people watch. Everyone is dressed up, either in business suits or traditional clothing. The young girls are in brightly colored dresses with gold coin necklaces. The church is absolutely packed, and I see the woman from yesterday selling her baked goods. I leave them to their festivities and head off on another walk. This time I head north and walk past a cute school with a very decorative facade. I walk to a beach that is beautiful and empty, except for a lone cat to greet me. The beach and water are so clean and I get my feet wet, but too cold to get in. 
I relax for a few hours before heading back. Stop by the old woman’s store again to say hi to her cat. The woman smiles and speaks to me softly in Greek, even though she knows I don’t understand. When she closes the shop to go to her home next door, the cat is lounging in my lap and she runs back inside and thrusts a Greek nougat candy bar into my hands before saying goodbye. Most people appear to have migrated from the church to the nearby restaurants. Occasional firecrackers are lit. This lasts for hours and for the younger drinking crowd, it seems to go on well in to the night. My hotel owners open the restaurant for the first night, but nobody from the festivities come down. So I eat a late lunch/dinner there and the food is great. I choose a baked feta with sesame seeds drizzled with honey and zucchini cakes. Super yummy! I chat with the owner of my hotel for a bit before bed, as she spent time in New Jersey before moving her about seven years ago. I Have an early night as I check out and head to Olympos the next morning and the weather report says it might rain around noon, so I want to beat the rain or midday heat.
Last breakfast and then start the hike to Olympos, a matriarchal town at the top of a nearby mountain. My map says it is about an hour and a half walk away, but I must walk slow because I always take longer (especially with elevation gain and my heavy, large backpack). 
I start the climb and get about an hour in, sweaty and tired and starting to think maybe not the greatest idea. Many had said people will give you a lift if they see you walking on the road (it really is just one road up or down), but the hiking trail is shorter but separate from the road. But the trail soon crosses over the road and some guys in a truck see my and pull over to see if I want I ride up. They are heading to Avalona, the agriculture village near Olympos but give me a ride to Olympos. I am very thankful.
Olympos is colorful and beautiful with a maze of narrow cobblestone streets. I find my hotel near the church that has an amazing balcony view. The owner is very kind and insists on giving me a discount on the agreed upon price as his son was in a car accident and flown to Athens so his wife went to be with him so he can only offer coffee and juices instead of a full breakfast. I don’t mind, but he changes the cost to only 35 euro for the night. We also laugh as it turns out the people in the room next to me are Americans (of which I have only run in to a few) from Capital Hill in Seattle. I have fun wandering the town, going up and down and getting lost until running into something I had walked past previously.
Much is closed at low season but I grab a vegetarian pie and fresh orange juice for lunch and wander past old wind mills and churches and colorfully painted houses. I eat dinner at a restaurant called Olympos because I had read that they had donated meals to volunteers who come to Diafani to care for street cats (they seem sadder in Diafani and Olympos than I have seen elsewhere). Turns out the food was also FANTASTIC, and probably may favorite meal in Greece. All local and fresh, I have baked goat meat in a tomato base that falls off the bone along with traditional pasta called makarunes that are cooked in butter and onion and topped with a grated goat cheese. 
They bring an after dinner treat of orange slices with this deliciously sweet molasses fruit jam. I am sad that I only have room for one meal, even after trying to work myself in to “second dinner.’ I head back to my hotel for sunset as my balcony is west facing over the mountains and go to sleep to silence only dotted with occasional braying of a mule or bleat of a goat.
Wake up early as I absolutely can not miss my 11:55am ferry from Diafani and I have to hike back and hopefully pick up a few supplies for the seventeen hour ferry ride. This time I take the hiking trail for a bit to cut out some of road curving back and forth, but then walk mostly on the road once it straightens out and heads down the mountain. 
Again, an older man passing stops and motions for me to get in, so I get a free lift back and arrive with a few hours to spare to grab a few coffees and wait for the store to open to grab some snacks and drinks. Run into Manolis again and he sees me off to the ferry and points out someone from Diafani who will also be on the ferry who he told to look out for me if I have any issues.
Boarding is easy and I head up to the reception desk to check in. I managed to book one of the few “lux” cabins for the long ride, as it was only six euro more than a regular window cabin. My hopes aren’t high for an extra six euro, especially after several reviews complained about how dirty and uncomfortable the cabins are, but I figure what the heck… I work in a jail! How dirty can it really be?? Ha! They take me to my cabin and I love it! Big with two beds and a sitting area, clean enough for me, complimentary slippers, water, some fruit, and little bottle of honey liquor at the top front of the boat so you can see where you are heading out the window! All settled in and off to Santorini with an ETA of 6am tomorrow morning. Better set my alarm so I don’t miss my port and end up in Athens! Two days with one night in Santorini and then I begin my journey home. I will send one more trip report after returning home with Santorini highlights and a link to my photos once I download them all and get them up on my flickr account.
Love,
Betsy
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