My 75th Greek Island

This is the peaceful little Greek island of Kasos. It's great to hear these cicadas. Hey there. Good morning. How's it going? Today is Sunday, September 20th, 2026. Currently 75 degrees Fahrenheit. That is 24 degrees Celsius. And this is Kasos, my 75th Greek island in 36 years of traveling to Greece. Just arrived here yesterday, as I showed in my last video, coming from Crete island, the largest island in the Mediterranean Sea and of course largest Greek island. Five hour ferry journey. And then got over here yesterday morning. I have my hotel there for two nights and then will be leaving tomorrow evening at 5 p.m. taking a ferry over to Karpathos island there. Quite a bit larger than Kasos. I've been to Karpathos once before. I think that was in 2018, but am happy to return to it for a few more days. So today is my main day for exploring here and the plan will be to get into the main town there of Frii and rent a motor scooter or rental car or whatever I can get to be able to get around this island. Because although it is small, it is not teeny tiny. As you can see there are actually mountains here. It is a very quiet and little visited Greek island, but as I mentioned, 75 Greek islands. So at this point, in my quest to visit as many Greek islands as I can, then I am having to seek out the smaller, more remote and harder to get to ones. So a good question that a few of you might have is, well, how many Greek islands are there? How many left are there for me to visit? Now that number is variable depending on your criteria. There are thousands of islands and islets, most of which are uninhabited. There are apparently 227 inhabited Greek islands, but what I have deduced is that of those 227, about half of those have an official population of one and that could be outdated data and that person is no longer alive or moved away or whatever. And then there are dozens that have only a few inhabitants. Basically there are about 90 or so, as far as I could figure out, that have a population of 100 or more and so would have at least a little tiny village. So roughly a dozen, 15 more for me to visit. All right, we have a windmill here. And so if you happen to see my last video about my jet lag as a result of the long 11-hour flight San Francisco direct to Paris and then landed, a couple hours layover, and then flight to Crete, arrived there at midnight, and then I had a 5 a.m. ferry to get over here. So that was a very long journey getting to the middle of nowhere here. But the jet lag continues because after sleeping in the afternoon yesterday, I then couldn't sleep all night. And so I'm not sure what's going to happen today if I'm going to get some sleep in the afternoon or just power through it or whatever. But that is the way it goes. I don't have any nice quick easy fixes for dealing with jet lag. It just kind of depends on various factors. What time you land, the time difference, but also whether it's an overnight flight. And if you land in the morning, that's trickier, trying to stay awake all day when you're super tired versus if you happen to land in the evening or at night and then you can go to sleep right away. But anyways, despite that, I am happy to be here on this very authentic little Greek island. What's the deal here? We have a not just locked but totally bordered up door. So now let's walk over to the main town of Friis and try to get a scooter or something with some wheels on it. So not sure what this is about, but it could be very, very old quarry digging. I saw something over there that also looked like an old quarry. And so I wanted to mention about the town of Friis because it is not a proclamation of freedom. It is spelled F-R-Y. And of course, we are in Greece. Greek is not a romance language. It is very different. And so the Greek words don't necessarily correspond or have any similarity with the romance language words. Although, of course, we have lots of words in English that come from Greek words, but that is different from the languages being similar. So anyways, point being, Friis, right there, F-R-Y, does not mean free. It means something very, very different. Free means eyebrow. I guess because the shape of the town on the map is kind of like an eyebrow. And so here we have that other quarry. So curious how old this would be. Hard to date. Rock, of course. It could be very, very old. Anyway, let's get into town there. So first impressions of this island are that it is definitely a bit rough around the edges, a bit scruffy, neglected, but has charm and potential as well. And I think that it is going to be an interesting day of exploring, getting out and seeing more of the island. But there's a great deal of variety between all of the different Greek islands. There are some islands that you arrive at and are just kind of blown away. I went to Castellarizo earlier this year and was blown away. It was just so exquisite. The main town was really like a fairy tale. I had heard so little about Castellarizo just little bits here and there and had maybe watched a video, but it was a real surprise when I got there to find that this little teeny tiny out-of-the-way Greek island that is very little visited was so nice. I'm not getting the same impression so far of Kasos, but it's still always interesting to see another island, see what life is like. And it certainly has a very authentic feel. People have been very friendly. The taverna that I went to last night seemed to be a mix of locals and tourists, but I think mostly locals. I think tourists are a minority here. Population of around a thousand. And as you can see, not a lot of people around, but a little bit of activity. And so I feel like the two nights and, as it turned out, three days, although I didn't make much use of yesterday, but that feels like about the right amount of time I will have tomorrow all day to see a bit more as well. Here is the port where the ferry docked yesterday. Here a map of the island. We are here. And then there are these different villages nearby. Aia Marina. Arvanitohori. And then I don't think there's much in the way of towns or villages elsewhere on the island. But supposed to be a nice beach over here. And then you can see roads, various churches, and hiking. So this is showing hiking trails. So a fair amount to see for a small little island. Kasos souvenir mini market. Oasis rent-a-car and bikes. Oh, today's a Sunday. I hope somebody's here. Oh, no. Okay. So here is the main square with some nice rock designs. Here is the tavern where I ate last night. Had a ouzo drink and sausages with fries and fried zucchini. Local banks. And boom. Mission accomplished. There was a number to call. It was 25 euros, less than 30 bucks, for two days. And I was able to get the scooter, even though technically you need a motorcycle license to be able to rent a scooter in Greece. But on the smaller islands they are more relaxed about it. So let's hop on this thing and get out and see more of this little island. Well, I didn't make it far. There is the bank. And I saw this church poking up. So I rode over here. Beautiful church with an incorrect clock. It says 6.20. It's around 11 in the morning, I think. And then there is this very cute little harbor here. A common symbol in Greece. I forget what it means. Like, sort of the all-seeing eye, something like that. But then you have this really cute harbor area with some ducks and then some restaurants. So that looks like a great place to eat dinner tonight. And another windmill out there. Let's take a look at the church, see if we can look inside. Okay, is it open? I took off the helmet. Yes, I think it is. Let's take a look inside. I guess they already had Sunday service. All right, it's really nice. Amazing. Okay, Arvane Tokkori to the left, Aia Marina to the right, and airport. So there's actually an airport here. Whoops. But I'm guessing there aren't a lot of flights. Okay, it's saying go this way. Holy moly, look at the color of this water. Absolutely magnificent. Tiny little beach over there, but you don't necessarily need a beach to take a swim. Sometimes I actually prefer just jumping off the rocks right into the kind of deep water, although here it's a bit rough for getting out. But still, nice spot, especially for being right next to town. Didn't expect that. It's so much different from the other little beaches on the other side there. And there is the airport. It's a longer runway than I was expecting, but I'm not here to see the airport, but something else that is alongside it. A piece of history. Okay, so there's actually more to see here than I was expecting. I think that is what I saw on the map. It was just one word on the map, and it said cistern. I love a good old cistern. Not that this is looking super old, but maybe a few hundred years. So cistern being a water tank, and I think that is indeed what that is. And that isn't that interesting, actually. But we also have this very cute little church and some old ruins. But some cisterns are more interesting than others. Oh, I wonder if you can actually get inside from down there. Maybe I'll check it out on my way back. But for example, the Basilica Cistern in Istanbul is absolutely phenomenal. It's massive. You go deep down, it's huge, and there is this absolutely spectacular Medusa head there, because of course Istanbul was Constantinople, part of the Byzantine Empire, which was Greek. And Medusa was a Greek... not god, right? Like, witch or whatever. Okay, interesting. So I'm obviously not entering from the right direction, I guess. Is there a path? Oh yeah, some stairs there. Another randomly placed little Greek church, as usual. Love the blue and the white. And we have a key in the door. All right, let's take a quick look inside. Okay, not too much to see inside this one. So these stairs don't actually go anywhere at all. Strange. So, oh, here we go. A big driveway. All right, well, I'm curious about what that old building might be, but it looks like a real pain to get there. So let's get back down and just take a quick look at the other side of the cistern. Man, what a scene. So classically Greek. So many different phases of history represented right here. A very new looking church, old decrepit building, however old that thing is, and then airport. And out there, I think that island over there, or rather Eylet, has a really nice beach on it, and you can catch a boat over there. If it isn't too windy, and nothing to see here, no way in. So I'm getting hungry. Let's get to the town right up there and hope there's some sort of a cafe, bakery, market, whatever, to grab some grub. This might look like a small island on the map, but it ain't tiny. Airport and free to the right, there it's spelled F-R-I, and Agios Konstantinos and Antiparatos to the left out there, and Agia Marina up there on the hill. And here we have some interesting things, a couple of churches, that one built into the rock, an old crumbling structure up there, another little church there, some crosses, old rock walls. Katarti Airport, Agios Konstantinos, Antiparatos, free. It is very quiet in Agia Marina, is that it? So on the map it actually does show a bakery. It doesn't show if it's open or closed. I would not be at all surprised if it is closed on a Sunday at noon, but let's walk through town, so to speak, and check it out, find out if anything around here is open, and if there are any people I didn't see. Man oh man, this village is a serious maze. I should have done the cats versus people count. So far I think it's tied to, you know, three cats, yeah, and three people. Okay, where is this bakery? I'm getting close. Oh, we have a pretty big church here. Definitely a few people living here, seen laundry, heard TVs, kids playing. Oh, a really good smell. Maybe that apartment there. Okay, we got to be close. A little square here, and some kind of a parrot. Is that a store? It kind of seems like a store, but the bakery is right down here. Let's check it out. Well, some more good smells here, but I don't think they're coming from the bakery. That's locked. I think that's got to be it. So how hard is it going to be to find my scooter? Okay, I think last chance for a marina here is that possible market. Oh, I see two people walking away with a plastic bag. That's a good sign. All right, got some munchies in the nick of time. Getting really hungry here, so cashews, pistachios, yogurt with berries, milk, and granola. I don't have a cup or anything to eat the granola in, so I'll just have some handfuls of it and then follow it with some milk. Well, I seem to be lost. I'm not sure which way to go to my scooter. I don't recognize anything now. I've got to be close, but which way? I definitely didn't come this way, I don't think. Oh, yes, I did not go that way, but there's my scooter right there because I went up that way. All right.