In every trip, there is inevitably a stop you could have passed on. Maybe it looked good in the guide books, but it didn't live up to your expectations. Well, here we are ... the Greek Island of Chios. We spent most of the morning learning about mastic ... what it is, how it's made, what it's used for, what is its economic significance, and the hits just kept on coming. The problem? I DON'T CARE!

To be realistic, the island had a neat harbor which I enjoyed walking around. It had a few nice bars where I enjoyed a cold beer. It had some neat villages with cool mosaics. And it had a church that looked like a cross between Islamic and Bavarian traditions. So the visit wasn't a total waste of time, but it felt like it at the time.

And as long as we're confessing ... the island is historically interesting. It has been continuously inhabited for 8,000 years. Homer was born here, and I'm not talking about Simpson. It has been occupied by Ionians, Persians, Byzantine Greeks, Saracens, Venetians, Turks, ... well you get the idea.

These photos were taken in April 2008 mostly with a Nikon D3.