🇬🇷 Greetings from Kos, Bundy-Style – A Different Travel Report ☀️

Dear all,

here’s a slightly different kind of post today. I simply wanted to send you some vacation greetings from across the sea, tell you a little about the place where we’re spending our vacation, and of course try to add a little Bundy flair along the way…

My husband and I are currently on the Greek island of Kos, and yesterday we went on a tour around the island. Our tour guide didn’t just tell us about the sights, but also shared lots of little stories about everyday life here, and I thought: I have to share some of these with you.

📚 First, class is in session – Geography

Kos is a Greek island in the Aegean Sea and belongs to the Dodecanese, a group of islands in the southeastern Aegean, just off the Turkish coast. The name actually means “twelve islands.” Which is slightly misleading, because the island group consists of considerably more than twelve. We’re off to a great start with this lesson. 😂

The island is about 45 kilometers long and only around 11 kilometers wide at its widest point. Pretty manageable. And yet, of course, you can still easily find yourself standing somewhere wondering: Where the hell are we?

Kos is probably best known as the birthplace of Hippocrates, who is believed to have been born here around 460 BC and is known today as the “Father of Medicine.” The tradition of the Hippocratic Oath is also associated with him.

Kos in general is pretty much an open-air museum. Greeks, Romans, Byzantines, Knights of St. John, Ottomans and Italians have all left their mark here. So you can casually walk through town and feel like you’re stumbling across another 2,000 years of history every few steps.

There are also beaches, mountains, thermal springs, little villages, lots of olives, cats with extremely strong personalities and, of course, Greek food.

Okay, that part probably wouldn’t have interested any of the Bundys. That’s why I ended the paragraph with the word food. I think I’ve got their attention again.

🐈 First of all: Cats. Lots of cats.

Sorry, Buck. I love you, but you’d be completely outnumbered here…

Kos could easily qualify as Cat Island. Many of the cats around the hotels are looked after there. There are feeding stations and shelters for them during the winter as well. Many are spayed or neutered, microchipped and vaccinated, and animal cruelty is now severely punished in Greece.

🐐 More Brains Than Kelly

Anyone who thinks sheep and goats are stupid is wrong. Some of them are kept here without fences, and they know exactly where they’re supposed to go – and where they’re not.

If it were up to my favorite family, probably straight into the cooking pot. But more about that later.

Our tour guide told us that oleander is often planted along roads here. It’s highly poisonous, including to animals, and apparently they know very well that they’d better keep their mouths off it. So in some places the oleander acts as a natural barrier, keeping those little bleating troublemakers away from the road.

Does that always work? No idea. But Greek goats seem to have more survival instinct than certain members of the Bundy family. 😂

👵 And Speaking of Complaining – Welcome to Greek Family Life

Our tour guide explained that, especially in traditional island families, the hierarchy used to be pretty clear:

At the top: Grandma.
Then comes Mom.
And somewhere after that, eventually, probably… the men. 😂

All I could think was: How would Al react to being told that after the wedding, his mother-in-law would be the one calling the shots?

Or even better: In the past, it was sometimes tradition for newlyweds to spend roughly their first year of marriage living with the mother-in-law.

One. Whole. Year.

I think at that point Al would have volunteered for a second shift at the shoe store – or simply thrown himself into the Aegean Sea. I’m pretty sure he wouldn’t set foot on this island.

At the same time, there was another part of this family tradition that I found really beautiful: multigenerational homes are still common on the islands. Parents take care of their children, and later the children take care of their parents. Our tour guide told us about a care home on Kos where, apparently, only two people are currently living because they have no relatives who can take care of them.

And somehow, that’s a little bit Bundy too, isn’t it? You can drive each other crazy, argue and say the most horrible things to each other – but in the end, you belong together.

🫒 After Tourist Season Comes Olive Season

Many people on Kos work almost nonstop for around seven months during the tourist season. And after that, for some families, it’s already time for the olive harvest.

Nets are still spread out underneath the trees in some places, and the olives are loosened from the branches and shaken down into them. No fully automated harvest here.

And if Al hadn’t gone on strike by then, Peggy and the kids definitely would have. Because pitching in – if not at a proper job, then at least at home – is a family affair.

By this point, the Bundys probably would have decided that Greece just wasn’t for them after all.

🏔️ Better Move On – The Little Bleaters End Up in the Pot: Lunch in the Mountain Village of Zia

I had Kleftiko – wonderfully tender, slow-cooked lamb, traditionally served with potatoes, vegetables and herbs. My husband had pork gyros.

Now that works. Even for the Bundys.

Food, I think, is a pretty safe subject. And the Greeks certainly aren’t stingy when it comes to portions. They’re huge. So I think Kos finally earns its first Bundy bonus points here.

The name Kleftiko is associated with the so-called Klephts. According to tradition, during Ottoman times they cooked their meat hidden away and very slowly so that as little smoke as possible would reveal where they were.

Basically: slow cooking with an escape plan. 😄

💍 And Then There Are Greek Weddings

This takes things to a whole new level, and I think this is where I would have lost Al for good. No amount of food could make up for what comes next.

Our tour guide told us that wedding celebrations here can last several days – sometimes as many as five. At the beginning, everyone is still dressed up nicely. A few days later, apparently sweatpants are perfectly acceptable.

In addition to the personally invited guests, a wedding can be publicly announced and anyone can come – provided they bring an envelope containing money for the newlyweds.

Oh. Wait.

I may have to correct myself.

That would actually be perfect for the Bundys – as long as none of them were the bride or groom.

The envelope would probably be empty, of course, but partying and eating without having to lift a finger themselves?

Yep. That sounds very Bundy.

Maybe Kos gets its second Bundy bonus point after all.

🏛️ Back to Class – History

Another stop on our tour was the Asklepieion, one of the most important ancient sites on Kos.

Built on several terraces, the sanctuary was dedicated to Asclepius, the god of healing, and developed into an important healing center in ancient times.

But since we really didn’t have much time left, we went full Bundy and simply said:

NOPE.

Pay admission just to see a third of it? Nope.

To be fair, we were already completely exhausted anyway. And after five stops on the tour – I haven’t even included all of them here – we all headed, of course, to:

Kos Town

We had already spent Sunday here, so in true Bundy fashion we just wandered through the little streets toward the harbor and then sat around exhausted on a bench until it was finally time to go back to the hotel.

But in the end, it was exactly the right mix: beautiful scenery, history, great food – and, most of all, all these little stories about life here.

I hope you enjoyed my SHORT little post. 😂

And for today, I wish you all lots and lots of fun at the Zoom with Traci Lords! I hope you have a fantastic evening together, and of course I’m already very curious to hear all about it afterwards.

Enjoy every minute, Bundy Family!

Lots of love and sunny greetings from Kos! ☀️🇬🇷
Christin ❤️