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Published: August 1st 2008
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Yasus everyone! We arrived in our first European destination, Athens Greece. After a four hour flight from Bahrain we flew over Saudi Arabia, Israel and the Greek Islands before descending over the Acropolis and other awesome sights in Athens.
We were pretty stoked that the weather was a comfortable 32C, sunny and dry! After catching the metro with all our gear to Omonia Square (home to many drunks, prostitutes, beggars and druggies) we finally found our hostel . The area in Athens we were staying is quite multicultural and quite noisy with people drinking 24/7 on the streets. Very sociable people! Although there seems to be more than a few who can’t control themselves and end up passed out along the footpath.
Getting out of the city centre we took off to the historical sites such as the Acropolis, Ancient Agora, Olympian Zeus. These were really cool sites, although the crowds made it a bit of a battle! Nothing we have ever seen in terms of tourism. Matt was the mini tour guide trying to relive his high school classics studies, but sometimes we just followed other tour groups around to pick up their info. The weather is
pretty hot and dry at this time of year and we found that water just kept on running out.
Athens has a cute historical centre with lots of cafes, small alleyways, bright houses and pretty flowers. Very European! Although the majority of the city seems to be reliving the 80’s, with many old office buildings, street stalls, secondhand stores, graffiti and rubbish. The people are very loud and expressive like the Italians, and so many keep coming up to Jane speaking in Greek expecting her to understand! Maybe when we get to Germany or Austria Matt will have the same experience!
After a few days in Athens, we decided that we couldn’t go to Greece without a trip to one of the Greek Islands, preferably the volcanic mass of Santorini (Thera). Although ferry prices were very high, we decided that it would be worth it and booked a 10 hour ferry trip (cheaper than fast boat) across to Santorini. Sailing through the Greek Islands was beautiful, the sea and sky were such deep shades of blue and the islands were yellowy-brown, with steep cliffs and white houses. But the real excitement came when we arrived at Santorini’s port,
with our hostel owner running out to meet us. Driving up through the steep lava fields we realized this was like no island (or volcano) we had ever seen, and the houses were impossibly beautiful. Santorini is unique in that it is a huge caldera that forms a giant ring in the Aegean Sea, with a small island in the centre that everyone calls the ‘caldera.’ Santorini is exactly like all the pictures of white washed, cubist houses with blue-domed Byzantine churches perched cliff-top over the Aegean. Except it seems unreal. Too bright, too perfect, too blue and white and almost too picturesque (in a good way)! We knew from the size of our ship (and the full capacity) that Santorini would be touristy, but thankfully with an island of its size it is very easy to get away from crowds.
When we first arrived at our accommodation we met some Korean Christians and they kindly drove us around in their rental car the first night, where we sampled the window shopping in the main village of Fira. Expensive boutique stores, jewellery and souvenir stalls were all over the place, as were the many young, rich and fashionable Italians
and other Europeans on their summer vacations. The best thing to do here is to hire a scooter and get yourself absolutely lost amongst the villages, beaches and churches before navigating your way to the western tip of the island (Oia) for sunset (with literally thousands of others). Although this can prove a bit stressful when you are trying to hold your few precious cm’s to yourself with all the pushy tourists intimidating you. The sunsets here are the best we have ever seen though and definitely worth seeing. We did manage to find our own seclusions though, and found perfectly turquoise water in rocky little lava bays, empty Byzantine churches and hilltop views with no-one else around. The historical sites of Santorini are also very underrated, and excavations of buried villages prior to the eruption may be opened to the public one day, possibly creating Greece’s own Pompeii. The eruption was mighty (thought to be 3x that of Krakatoa) and is theorized to have destroyed the local Minoan civilizations in Crete, sending tidal waves to as far as Africa. The volcanics give the island it’s black sandy beaches, great soil fertility and steep cliffs in which houses are built.
The main villages of Oia and Fira are so cute and Greek, immersed between many now-Greek Orthodox churches (where the workers aren’t exactly friendly). The small traditional houses are still standing, with some being converted to accommodation and cafes. Those of which are now hotels have ridiculously perched swimming pools hanging over the ocean, with small little courtyards covered in bougainvilleas. We were walking around pretty amazed the whole time, when we bumped into an Ozzie couple who were just as overwhelmed as we were. It seemed every direction was a view that was begging to be photographed, with little gates, pathways, crosses and windows opening out into the deep blue Aegean. Our cameras have never been so overworked!
Santorini has excellent Greek food, with fields of vineyards, cherry tomatoes, fruit and other produce all over the island. We have never seen such indulgent food; everything is pastry, chocolate, fat, sugar…such goodness! But if we stayed here we definitely wouldn’t be able to fit in our plane seats home. The bakeries here are huge (maybe 4x the size of the ones bake home) and sell bread, breadsticks, baklava, chocolate, pies (feta, banana, etc), and so many other inventions
Sweet pool
Hotel for 30 Euros that remind us of extreme childhood kitchen experiments (when Mum was out). The fruit and vegetables are cheap, fresh and so big (watermelons are the size of our backpacks), although the meat and dairy is expensive, but with more range than at home. Our favourite souvlaki and pita gyros (like kebabs but better) are sold almost everywhere and are so decadent, with French fries, meat, yoghurt and fried pita.
A few days in Santorini is all we had, although who knows how long you could spend here. The accommodation is cheap (30Euros), beaches hot, scenes breathtaking, food tasty and locals (generally) funny and friendly. Back to the mainland though!
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Alisha
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Hi
Hey guys, the colours look amazing! Made sure I used a colour printer to send this blog to Grandma. You've missed the big storms here - flooded Whangarei, tornadoes in Tauranga and houses falling off cliffs in Coromandel. It was raining last night and I ran into the STA Travel store again on the way home from work. Read the same round the world travel brochure for about the 4th time - I'm ready for a holiday in the sunshine too I think!