I always said that there is no need to go abroad with the children before they reach the age where they will remember, as long as their grandmother or grandfather takes care of them. I thought it would be unnecessary expense, fatigue for them, and fatigue for us. However, during our holidays abroad where my wife and I went alone, our words of “Oh, if it were a boy, he would do this, if it were a girl, he would do this” started to increase as the lambs grew older. So, we said so and made the intention to buy passports and Schengen for our lambs for the sake of God:) We took the passport in the first week of our intention, Schengen in the second week, and took Monday off in the third week and went to Ma family Çeşme as part of the 3-day long weekend. We go to Chios Island. We land and go through passport control. Although the first country they will enter is Greece, we are experiencing a slight awkwardness during the transition because we received the children’s Schengen from the French Consulate, but as we expected, there are no problems. We find our rental car guy, get into our car and head towards our hotel. Our navigator, who did not recognize any place on the island during our previous visit and made us nervous until we found the hotel, has learned the roads this time, we arrive at our hotel easily, and we settle into our room with a magnificent view. The center of Chios is on the side of the island facing Çeşme, that is, in the east. Our hotel, Erythrai, is located in the Karfas region, 10 minutes away from the center as you go down the coast towards the south of the island. More like a small holiday village than a hotel, when we book the renovated rooms we are greeted with great comfort and view. The hotel has its own beach. The sea is not great, it is a bit rocky, but it is a life saver for those like us who are eager to swim before breakfast. I don’t think anyone comes to the island and spends the whole day in the sea in front of the hotel they stay in. We put on our swimsuits and dive into the water to relieve road fatigue. Then we get in our car and set off to look for Meltemaki Fish Tavern in the Kataraktes region, which we read about on Trip Advisor. We find Meltemaki, but Meltemaki is full of Turks. My wife’s Turkish allergy abroad is also known from my Samos travel article. While we were sitting at a table by the sea, we got up and went to a more local tavern right next to it. It’s a good thing we’re passing. I don’t know what the Turks in Meltemaki eat, but we couldn’t taste the chops we ate again during the trip. Meanwhile, the lambs fall asleep on the road, and we do not wake them up. We pull up to our car with the windows open and enjoy the silence and the first ouzo of our holiday 🙂 After dinner, we turn our route to the south of the island, the most beautiful and most private beach of the island, which we loved on our previous trip, which is at the top of the list of places to visit. We are going to Mavra Volia. Mavra Volia (Black Pebble) took its name from the black pebbles found on the beach, and these stones were formed as a result of the volcanic eruption called Psaronas. The beach is still very untouched. There is not even a single sunbed, let alone the facility 🙂 The sea is crystal clear even at a depth of 4-5 meters. The pebbles are chipping. We become enchanted as we dive in and out with glasses. While I was reaching Nirvana, I heard a voice from the beach calling me to the real world: “Mom, I’m pooping.” I think there is a sensor somewhere inside children that senses the moment when their mothers enjoy the most, and as soon as this sensor receives a signal, the signal is transmitted to either the bladder or the intestines. If you are in a pleasant time outside, they either pee or poop. If you are at home, for example, the moment you put your hot meal on your plate and intend to take the first spoon, or the moment you first dip the bread into the sausage and egg yolk for a weekend breakfast, someone from afar brays: “Anneeahh it’s over” “You can’t savor the moment, friend! The fun is over!” It is September, the sun is already bending towards sunset. As we were going towards our hotel and getting ready for the evening, the evening sun hitting the seaside tables of one of the restaurants in Emporio Port, right next to the beach, attracted our minds and we had a snack with a small ouzo, a portion of calamari and fried eggplants 🙂 We meet the Chios guru Özgür and his friend at the hotel where we are staying and look for the live music tavern called Apomero on the complicated and narrow stone roads of Kambos village. We struggle for like half an hour and Tataaaam! In the restaurant where all the tables are full, a table awaits us both at the bottom of the view and right in front of the stage. It’s the luck of our lambs 🙂 The food we eat is amazing, the service is slow due to the crowd, but the music is fun, the view is magnificent, of course the mother is on the stage again 🙂 At the end of the night, the lambs have to sleep on the chairs put together again. The next morning, after enjoying the sea, Kizçem’s pool and having breakfast at the hotel, we head to the west of the island. The weather is a little cooler today. But we still swim first at Lithi Beach, then head a little further north and swim at Elinta Beach, a hidden bay. Lithi is a cute beach with small restaurants around the beach and sun loungers placed in front of these restaurants, as well as a small harbour. Although it does not appeal to me much with its sandy sea that does not get deeper, it is ideal for families with small children. The sea is so shallow that we can play catch with the children even though we are quite far from the beach 🙂 Elinta, on the other hand, is untouched like Mavra Volia, but it is much more desolate, and it is a pebbly sea (this time in the pebble color we know) where only a few people visit… Come and go, we are getting hungry. But we are in a deserted place in the west of the island. There are no facilities nearby. We make a shortcut in the middle of the island and move from west to east to the center of the gum. Proceeding north without stopping in the center, we reach Lagada Port for the restaurant called O Passas, which we liked very much in terms of location and taste in our previous trip. That Passas full plus full. I’m putting myself on the waiting list. In other words, I put moral pressure on those who sit at the tables and do not get up after finishing their meal 🙂 The lambs are also wandering on the beach with their fathers. Finally, we sit down and eat our fried shrimps, calamari, angler fish fritters, our must-have Greek salad and ouzo. Children love the fried shrimp with their shells and the mini cornet served after the meal. The lambs are lingering next to the Greek grandfather, who is catching huge fish one by one with his fishing rod made of fishing line and hook, and we are watching the sun in O Passas, with our ouzo in front of us and the sea at our feet. When we get up, it’s too late for another beach. It’s just me, swimming in and out of the sea at Glari Beach on our way, returning to our room and getting ready for the evening. In the evening the weather starts to blow better. Sitting outdoors is like a dream… We find a semi-open local tavern near our hotel and sit there. This time we choose meat and order cutlets and homemade sausage. The bad weather spoils our mood, we are not very hungry, the lambs are fussy, we do not enjoy it very much. We pack our ouzo and complimentary watermelon and return to our room. It’s a good thing we’re returning. We see that our balcony does not get any wind. The bottom of our balcony is the sea, the lights of the full moon hit the sea, the view is amazing. The lambs are put to bed, our package is opened, we start listening and singing Şebnem refreshing and Teoman on the iPhone with the trio of ouzo, watermelon and landscape. It continues with Nilüfer and Sezen, and we make the finale with Orhan father, may this world go down 🙂 This unexpected happy ending of the evening, which started in a bad way, is good for both of us… The next day is the day to leave the island. So we think so. While we bought a round-trip ferry ticket to the island, we did not book a return ticket in case we would stay in Çeşme instead of Chios for the second night. Thanks to the guy at the counter, he said that you can make a reservation from this number when you decide, but he did not say that there is no ferry on Monday evening:( It was great to learn this when we packed our belongings and called the number given for reservation to stay in Chios for both nights and leave the hotel on Monday morning. Anyway, we say, there are a few ferries. There is another company, we will pay whatever it takes, we will go to Çeşme with one of them. Let’s pretend that all these companies have agreed, some as of that week, some as of Monday evening. We are literally stranded on the island. We make a reservation for the 8 a.m. ferry. While we’re packing our luggage, we decide to go to an aparthotel called Theoxenia on the seaside in Agia Fotini, which is in the west of the island, which I had previously eyed on booking.com for a change, but we don’t go 🙂 We make our reservation, throw our luggage in the car. We start our tour that day. Our first stop is Glari Beach, a triangular beach with a turquoise sea that we could not enjoy yesterday because the sun was about to set, and where I shivered and went in and out of the sea. There is no one around as if the beach was reserved for us. We first see this place in the middle of summer before our eyes. A tiny bar in the corner, young people are sometimes standing, sometimes lying on the ground, there is no place to step, let alone put a towel. If you want to leave the towel aside and go swimming, 5-6 people are throwing balls to each other with shuttlecocks on a narrow shore. Where is that Glari, where is this Glari 🙂 Apparently, Chios Island is just like Çeşme, and when it comes to September, the job ends… Thank God, we are old and calmness is good. A little further from Glari, we see a larger bay with the same turquoise color (Mersinidi Beach), and we spend some time there. The boy goes crab hunting in the sea with his father. I, on the other hand, am trying to entertain the girl who is whining for a reason I can’t remember… As you know, most of the time they don’t need a reason to whine: (When our stomachs start to growl, we start to think about what we should eat and where we should eat. Very close to us is O Passas, our place from yesterday, I think my wife is the hungriest among us, so she goes there again. I’m a fan of going 🙂 Even though it’s far away, I want to eat at Komi Beach in the south of the island, as we planned in advance, and then continue the day on its beach. My wife has the last word and decides to do what I say 🙂 Komi Beach; It is a long sandy beach in the style of Lithi Beach, with plenty of sun loungers and 3-5 restaurants along the beach. Although I found a restaurant that I had heard rave reviews about on Tripadvisor, we sit at another restaurant, Tavern Nostalgia, which is closer to the beach, plays Greek melodies in the background, and whose ambiance I like more. My wife and I are eating crispy little silverfish fried with onion strips. The lambs are sharing a huge homemade hamburger, and of course, accompanying it with Greek salad and ouzo… The men’s olive oil is so delicious that we cannot imagine a meal without pouring olive oil over the Greek salad, squeezing plenty of lemon on it, and dipping bread in the water. The girl agrees with us. My daughter would be happy to fill her stomach just by dipping bread in salad water 🙂 The weather seems to have cooled off again after the meal. We move to sun loungers, but we cannot swim in the sea. The kids insist so much, I can’t stand it and I go in, the three of us splash around a lot in the water 🙂 Now it’s time to go to our new hotel, or rather our apartment… Meanwhile, the people who run the apartment call us 4-5 times throughout the day. Where are you, when are you coming, couldn’t you find the hotel, etc. They are in a constant state of curiosity with questions, we cannot understand them. When we arrive, we understand that there is no reception logic here. There is no one to greet us. Our balcony neighbor says: They waited for you, they waited, they left:) Come on, burn it from here! We reach the number that called us, a sister comes, leaves the key, takes the money and leaves. We settle into our summer house for one night. Our flat is on the ground floor above the embankment. The interior has been renovated and is brand new. In front of our veranda is the garden, in front of the garden is the sea 🙂 Some of our neighbors in the next and upper flats are setting the table for dinner, while others are sipping their wine on the balcony, we suddenly get confused where we are. Well, since we say that, we are forced to open the items we bought for our supermarket shopping, which is a must for every trip abroad, as we go to Komi during the day 🙂 We fill up the missing items from the grocery store on the corner. My wife is frying homemade sausages and onions, and I am setting the table like our neighbors… Another night of unexpected pleasure… We are dreaming of renting this very room next year and staying in Chios for a week… The next morning… This time it’s time to really go… See you next year, Chios Island… We love you 🙂 You can follow the author’s other articles at www.gezentianne.com. 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