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Published: March 26th 2007
I have returned from the Greek Islands! It was an absolutely wonderful vacation. I'll just give a day-by-day blow for everyone reading this:
Friday: Erin, Ranjit, Julie and I all met at Namesti Miru at 8pm and took green line to the end stop where we picked up a bus for the airport. Of course, there was a crazy rave going on near the busstop and it was very tempting to just forget Greece and go see some sweet rave-ness. However, we resisted the urge and boarded the bus for the airport. After going through security and etc., I realized I had a fever and we sat on the floor near some restaurants playing movie trivia. At 11pm we realized the calls on the loudspeaker were last calls for the flight to Athens and then we realized they had pushed our flight up without telling us. We ran to the terminal and barely made it. On the plane they served goulash and tiny knedlicky (dumplings)! Me and Erin rapped to Girl Talk and ate and then slept for like a half hour. We got to Athens at 2:30am (but Greece is an hour ahead so it was actually a really short flight).
Saturday: After we got to the airport, we hung out and ate paninis and picked up our pre-ordered ferry tickets and waited until we could take a bus to the port. We took at bus at 4:30ish am and realized the port stop was the last stop so we thought we could relax (I had everyone's passports and things in my money belt so I was supremely uncomfortable). Turns out, Athens bus drivers don't kick you off the bus at the last stop and since Julie and Erin were asleep and Ranjit and I couldn't see, we missed the stop. The bus driver just like went to the bus station and kicked us off the bus at a sketchy loading dock at 5:30am. A guy felt bad for us though and drove us back to the port. THEN we realized the stupid Blue Star company booked the wrong fucking tickets. So we had to go to the agency at 6:30am and get our tickets changed. The boat left at 7:30am and we basically slept and played movie trivia for EIGHT HOURS! We finally got to Santorini (Thira) around 3:30pm. We had traveled for almost 20 hours straight at this point. Of course, Ranjit couldn't remember the name of our hotel, but we guessed right (San Giorgios), and the guy brought us and some other kids to Fira (the town we stayed in) and the hotel from the port. It was a really beautiful drive because the port is at the bottom of a cliff so we had to drive all the way up and the water and scenery is all just so pretty. Mr. George (the hotel owner) was really nice and told us all the key places to go. Ranjit and Julie went and passed out and me and Erin explored until dinner. That night we went to this place called Acropolis and ate authentic Greek food (Mousaka, Souflaki, etc.). We all drank Mythos (Greek beer) and decided we couldn't drink Greek beer because Prague had spoiled us. That night we just hung out in the rooms, but it was so much fun.
Sunday: Although Mr. George wanted us to rent cars, we went against his advice and rented two four-wheelers for the day. Luckily Ranjit and I had liscences so we were able to do this. It was the best decision ever. So so so much fun. We went beach hopping to this one black sand beach and then to Kamari (a pebble beach) and waded and tanned and relaxed and saw scenery and a Greek soccer game and it was awesome. That night we ate at this Greek taverna and each got a half liter of wine! (oops). It was so fun and Ranjit tried to find a Greek birthday party or something to attend..but was unsuccessful. After dinner we went to this super Euro place called Town Cafe and got Frappes with Baileys. It was really fun and we meant to go out (I swear!) but we were exhausted and passed out instead at like midnight.
Monday: This was the best day ever. We ate crepes for breakfast and then bought tickets for the boat that goes out daily to the volcanic island. Basically, you climb down 700 stairs to the Old Port where you take the boat out to the island. It was supremely rad. At the volcano, we played Land Before Time and Lord of the Rings (or I did and everyone laughed). It was really awesome. Then the boat took us to the "hot" springs which were actually lukewarm. We had to jump off the back of the boat, swim about 75 meters to them, play and then swim back. Since I can't swim and I suck, I thought I was going to perhaps die or something and barely made it. It was still an experience though. The water before the springs was FREEZING and the second I hit it my lungs just closed up and I couldn't breath, but I made it! After we got back to Santorini, we took donkeys back up the steps! It was so so so fun! Then we had a delicious lunch and I had mousaka and wine and salad and then we went and got deserts at a cafe! (we ate so much...that's what all my money went towards). after, we rested and showered and stuff and then went out to dinner to a place Mr. George recommended. It was really good...I had an awesome Caeser salad! We ran into some kids Ranjit knew from high school (weird) and were gonna go out, but then Julie felt really sick so we stayed in again. It was fine though, vacationing takes alot out of you!
Tuesday: We woke up on Tuesday and decided to rent four-wheelers again for the day. It was so much fun! We wanted to go see the ruins of Ancient Thira and then visit the famous black sand beach Perissa. That's not exactly what happened. We rode the four-wheelers to the road you take to Ancient Thira and realized it was far too treacherous for us to go on. So we went back down to the town and tried to pay for donkey rides up the cliffside. However, the place that you rent the donkeys wasn't opening for another week so we weren't able to go to Ancient Thira. Instead we went to Kamari for a bit and took a bunch of weird pictures on a small cliff. It was really fun though. Then we had to four wheel all the way around the mountain to get to Perissa because its on the other side and we couldn't go over it. When we finally got to Perissa I was exhausted and fell asleep in the sun for a couple of hours. By the time we left, Ranjit really did not feel well and he didn't come out to dinner with us that night. So Julie, Erin and I went out to eat together and had a really nice meal and then we went and got desert crepes together afterwards! We all got strawberries and some form of chocolate (milk, white or dark). Of course delicious.
Wednesday: This was the first day it wasn't totally beautiful the whole day. It was slightly overcast for part of the day lol. On Wednesday we took a bus to the town of Pyrgos and went to Santo Winery. It only cost 16 Euro for 12 wines and cheese, bread and olives. We had alot of fun pretending to know what is good or bad wine. Then we bought some stuff at the gift shop, admired the really nice view for awhile, walked back to town and then took the bus back. When we got back to Fira we shopped around a little bit. That night we went back to the Taverna and the owners liked us so much that they gave us two complementary half liters of wine! We had a lot of fun at that meal. Ranjit got fish and it was literally a whole fish! Head and teeth and all. Me and Erin got to eat some and it was really good. I got mousaka and Greek salad again that night (I wish I was Greek so I could eat that food all the time). Afterwards, we went out to Murpheys (this kind of lame Irish pub). It was really fun though and Julie was hilarious all night. We left around 1:30 and went back to the hotel and hung out for a bit before bed.
Thursday: This was the first and only day it rained. Our plan was to make this day our shopping day. But the rain was so bad alot of stores didn't open and the wind was so treacherous we didnt' really feel like walking around in it. Instead we went to brunch for a long time, then went to one way too expensive store and then went and got crepes and frappes and milkshakes. We got back to the hotel and checked out. Then right after Mr. George informed us that our 3:00pm ferry had been cancelled b/c of the weather. There were a couple groups of us that were all planning on leaving the island on that ferry. Mr. George was pretty frazzled (he later called this the worst day ever), but he managed to give us a four person room in the basement. At first we were like, "Ok, no big deal. We'll hang out, rest, get dinner and go to bed early and catch the 7am ferry tomorrow morning." Then, around 6pm Julie got really sick and continued to get sick about every 2 minutes for the next few hours. Erin and I spent from 6pm until about 11pm going back and forth to the pharmacy, the internet cafe to research the water situation in Santorini, to get water and pretzels for Julie and to just kind of escape the room in general. It got so bad that Erin ended up BUYING a portable dvd player and two dvds. We ended up sleeping on a bench outside the room. Well, Erin slept and I read and watched "The Breakup."
Friday and Saturday: The next morning, Julie was still kind of sick and the 7am ferry got cancelled. Mr. George took all of us to the port at 8:30am and the ferry left around 9:30. Luckily, Julie was mostly better (still felt like shit but not getting sick anymore). But at least her and Ranjit didn't have to upgrade to a private cabin. It was another 8 hour ride. We slept and watched Harry Potter on the portable dvd player. We got to Athens around 5pm. After we completed all the public transportation to our hotel, it was 7pm. Turns out, our hotel gave our room away! We had originally planned to stay there Thursday and Friday night. But we tried to call the hotel Thursday night to tell them we wouldn't be there that night and would be there on Friday. When we couldn't get through, we emailed them. The hotel however claimed they didn't get our email and gave the room away and had nothing else available. We trekked to another hotel (ps this was a really sketchy area too) and basically checked in to take showers. After we did, we went to eat at this nice but expensive place in the main shopping district. After we finished it was 11:30pm. We wanted to at least go see the Acropolis at night, but we were so tired and dying that we just went back to the hotel. We slept for a whole hour and then took a taxi at 2am for the airport. I passed out at the terminal until our flight was called and we flew out at 5:00am. The meal was good and the flight was short so we got in at 6:30am Czech time. I finally got home at 8am and slept about twenty hours on Saturday.
So that was pretty much my vacation. It was really fun and amazing except for the last 24 hours or so. I am pretty bummed we didn't get to spend Friday in Athens like we originally planned, but there's not much you can do about it.
I guess I should go pay attention to my Central Euro professor (even though alls he's doing is asking us about our study abroad trips).
*Note: I have a gallery of my photos from Greece. It will only let me fit 50 photos and they take forever to upload, so its a work in progress. I'll try to finish it within the next day or two.
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matt
non-member comment
jeez
how often do you guys get sick? it sounds like a game of oregon trail. julie got bit by a snake and died today. you found some wild berries.