Advertisement
Published: July 28th 2006
Samos Island: One Night
So I arrived in Samos home to the Temple of Hera (The Alpha Chi's know what that's about!) but unfortunately I didn't have time to pay respects since I was just in town for a night. I got off the port without any accomodation set which I didn't really care cause I heard rumors that there are hostel runners who wait at the port like paparazzi with rooms ready. I get off the port...no hostel runners...not good. Luckily I booked my trip to Mykonos for the next morning at 6:30 am and the ferry bookers also booked my room in Samos for 18 euro... so I arrived to get a single hotel room right next to the water!! Amazing view...crappy room. The shower was pretty much over the toilet and the TP was still damp from the previous occupant...sad....
Mykonos Island: Three Nights
I arrived at the port and was accosted by hostel runners (where the heck were they in Samos) Last minute, I wrote a note to Alexis on Hospitality Club and he said he could host me in Mykonos (I was two seconds away from camping so yay!) He picked me up at the port wearing coral linen pants a white shirt and he was barefoot. (A true islander I suppose) We "went for a coffee" as the greeks say it which is actually a 1 hour event in itself as I would soon learn throughout my stay. Alexis owns a small jewelry shop in the heart of Mykonos Town on the streets of Little Venice which was appropriately named. All the streets in Mykonos town are made of stone and painted white where the caulking would be. The buildings are a gorgeous contrast of white plaster with the cerulean blue shutters and doors. I think I arrived in paradise.. Alexis has this awesome little flat on top of a hill where you can see all the Cycladic Islands from his home (magical!) so I lucked out on that!
The next day was super windy to the point where I almost fell down when I walked and thought my clothes would rip off. Therefore I headed to the otherside of the island to "Paradise Beach" which is great save for the fact that bodies are lined up and down at the beach recovering from the previous nights antics. Music is pumping...people are drinking and dancing like its Cancun.. I was the oddball who came alone to a party island and still deathly ill from my Turkish antics (note to self...don't come to Mykonos alone ever again) I went back to Alexis' shop where I met his friend Sakis, a DJ on the islands. He took me out to get a drink and invited me to his next gig (unfortunately I would be gone by then) so we drank the classic vodka and redbull...my stomach was not having it at all... So we will just say that I did not get to fully enjoy the famous party island...
Sakis picked me up the next day and we went to a beach that was windy but warm. On the way a papparazzo took a picture of us and Sandrine his friend from Athens who I swear to god is a model. As an avid reader of People and US weekly it was cool to have a picture taken by the papparazzo (I generally don't approve of them but I let this guy slide) Maybe Sakis was a bigger deal than I thought he was but I never asked.
Though my stomach was in pain, I have fallen in love with a certain food in Greece called "Pita Souvlaki" which is a bbq type pork kebap inside of a pita with tomatoes and tzatziki sauce. (Magical and only 2 Euro...the guys at the corner souvlaki place were visited twice a day by me)
Paros Island: Three Nights
I took a ferry to Paros...finally recovered from my bout of Turkish Illness. My hospitality club host Stephanos met me at the port. He's a german guy who decided to up and leave his country to go live at his family's summer home for a year. He had to work so he dropped me off at Magaya Beach where I laid out all day. When I got bored with laying on my back I turned over and layed on my stomach or swam in the ocean and then repeated...it was amazing and fabulously lazy. The water and weather was perfect. There was also a beach bar where I ate a fabulous lunch on the beach front. Stephanos also had some german guests over who were older women (Elvira and Christiana)..they luckily decided to cook dinner for us which was the best end to a perfect day.
The next day I did the exact same thing at the same beach for even longer! Stephanos took me out on the town and we saw the sights and went to some great beach bars! ( I don't think I'll ever get sick of beach bars!) Unfortunately I returned home that night to take a shower and realized that when I had fallen asleep outside on my stomach, I placed my hand on my back...so I am now the sad owner of my own handprint on my upper back...I think I'll need to lay out on the beach to fix that.
Day three...so for the past few days Stephanos has been driving me around on his moped..which I have become addicted to. I have also become addicted to Elvira and Christiana's cooking especially since we have had breakfast every morning on the terrace of Stephanos' villa. Today was sadly my last night and I wish I could stay for a week...
Santorini: 3 days
Sadly no hosts are on Santorini...but the island is perfect...well known as a honeymoon destination with good reason...It is full of the white washed homes and resorts that you see in the postcards. So romantic and picture perfect...its like you're living away from reality...My hostel runner picked us up in the vans to our place on Perissa Beach. For a mere 12 euro a night I was in a four person bed room with our own bathroom. However the bathroom was foul...the showers were sea water so I never got clean and was better off just jumping in the ocean. The plumbing is weak in Greece so we're not allowed to throw tp in the toilet but into a trash bin (also foul) and our room was sweltering hot since someone lost the remote to our AC so the room stank...ugh the perils of Hostelling!
Anyway I met this guy Rob on my way to search for food...we decided to eat at this little restaurant that had a meal special of moussaka, greek salad, and baklava. We had a great conversation and dinner lasted at least 2 hours. Rob and I headed to the beach as they got dinner and sat on chairs right next to the water. It was 9pm, the stars were out and the warm water was rushing to our feet...It was too perfect....we sat and chatted for couple hours and then came up with the crazy idea of skinny dipping in the ocean. No clothes and 5 minutes later we were freezing in the not so warm after all water and threw our stuff back on. (No nothing happened with that guy at all...I know what you all are thinking...Jeanie on a romantic island with a guy...)
Day Two:
So randomly, the same girls I met in my room in Vienna were staying at my hostel in Santorini (Kate and Andrea from Seattle). I convinced them and a lot of people from my van to sign up on a tour of Santorini. So at 10:30 this morning we took a van to the port where we jumped on our Sailboat to go across the sea to Thirassia Island to hike up the volcano (amazing views to say the least!) After the hike we went to a secluded area by sailboat where we could jump into the hotsprings. The issue today was that we had to swim 50 meters from the boat to the shallow water through little groups of tiny jellyfish. I believe I don't have health insurance at the moment so I declined to jump into the jellyfish infested waters (but other people chose to and had fun) We sailed over to another Island on Santorini and hiked up 200 stairs to see the view (also amazing) After the hot hike, we went to a restaurant by the water and I jumped into the sea for a swim from the restaurant table.
The sailboat finally dropped us off in Oia, the picturesque town that is seen in all the postcards. Oia is on top of the cliffside so one could A) climb up the steep steps B) Pay 4 euro for a donkey ride. Obviously I chose the donkey ride...I obviously have a misconception about donkeys thanks to Eeyore. They are not slow animals...my donkey ran up the steep hill like he was Seabiscuit...trying to race past the others...so holding on to dear life with one hand and taking self portraits with the other made for a good night. We waited for the famous Oia sunset by climbing up a building to see the view. The sun set as if it were sinking in the sea (they weren't joking about seeing the best sunset in the world in Oia) As soon as the sun set (it took a mere 2 minutes) the crowds outside clapped. It was amazing!
Day Three:
Rob and his friend Adam rented mopeds and Atv's. So they kindly dropped me off in Fira (I love ATV's on an island!) I ate a seafood lunch at a highly rated restaurant which turned out to be the most bland food I've ever eaten. Not only that they served food in greek time sooo my lunch ended up taking over two hours and it was expensive...I will be writing to the people of Lonely Planet to take this restaurant off the list.
I went back to Perissa Beach and layed out for a bit. I dyed my hair purple again that night with success!! So I celebrated with Kate and Andrea at the Summertime bar where if you buy two drinks you get a free shirt. So I was sold...and the drinks were beyond amazing..by far the best I've ever had and only 5 euro for cocktails (good thing I only had 20 euro on me)
In Transit to Athens:
So sad to leave Santorini but it has to be done. Rob, Adam and I as headed to port for our 13 hour ferry journey to Athens. It was a long trip but we managed to pass the time well. Our ferry got us into Pireaus (Athens suburb) at 11:40. But the metros in Athens stop running at midnight which was not a good predicament since it would cost us 30+ Euro to take a taxi. So with running shoes on and 25 pound backpacks strapped to us we sprinted to the metro station a half mile away. I have a whole new respect for those in the military and firefighters (don't know how they do it) Out of breath we ran to get our tickets and as we reached the platform our train left us... Luckily the guy said one more train would come....5 minutes later...everyone else from the port calmly walked to the metro station and hopped on our same train while we sat for an extra 5 minutes sweating like mad from our marathon.
We hopped on the train and realized the Rob lost his money belt at some point during our sprint. The train was moving so we had no choice but to leave...Oh F! This greek man on the train kept staring at us during our debacle and said check your backpack pocket its in there. We checked and it wasn't there...he said look deeper all the while he was squinting like Jeannie from I dream of Jeannie as if it were going to appear. He was creepy and we think he stole it or something... haven't talked to Rob to see what happened...The train stopped 4 stops before my actual station so I had to get a cab where the guy helped himself to a tip (it was late and I didn't really care at this point) to Dmitrius' house my next host.
Athens Day One:
Saw the Acropolis and all that jazz that I learned about in Art History class thanks to Prof. Hurwitt. It was a sweltering hot day and I went through a couple liters of water I'm sure.. On top of the hill in the ancient agora this random man asked me out and said he could take me for a ride. I kept flashing the engagement ring but he persisted. Too bad I had already asked him to take my photo because he insisted that I do special poses on the hill since he was a "professional photographer." I have an awkwardly posed picture to cap off the awkward man and his proposition.
Dmitrius has an awesome fourth four flat and his balcony outside is huge! So big that they have astroturf and a swimming pool. So we chilled at night in the hot summer as the sun set to a magical puplish grey color.
Day Two:
Saw more sights today...nothing too eventful besides ruins and the like... Oh and jackpot I found all these great jewelry shops so I went nuts today with greek jewelery. Oh and on a bad note...I thought I would pull out some money today...so I went to the ATM and it spit out 480 euro (600 something USD) instead of the "other" button I pushed to get the 200 euro I needed. Needless to say I'm overdrawn and have way too much money that will hopefully last me the whole 25 days I have left! So to the people of US Bank...please forgive me for this sin...it really wasn't my fault... May the overdraft gods forgive me (hopefully the overdraft god is from Greece)
Off to Rome in the morn...I'll post pics soon!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.103s; Tpl: 0.013s; cc: 7; qc: 46; dbt: 0.0747s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
katy
non-member comment
Jealous!
After all of the funness you described, I think I'm gonna have to make a trip down to Greece next year when I'm in Amsterdam. It was great chatting with you though. Keep having tons of fun!