Ellada - Greece

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... so after taking the flight from Toulouse to Athens and arriving at some ungodly hour, I still had to take a bus to the Central Bus Station and then catch another bus to Thessaloniki!! uffaaa!!!!
I arrived at the Central bus station in Athens at around 3am and the first bus to Thess wasnt until around 7am! it was hot, it was stinky & so was I and my mood! but nevertheless, I made it and was met around 2pm by Ange, her uncle and Ola on the side of a freeway where they picked me up =)

1 month in ellada!! It’s been 10yrs since I was in Greece… and boy has it and my experience of it changed! Actually, I don’t think Greece has changed much at all in the last 1000yrs apart from its new currency and hence rip off pricing, but my experience of it was definitely different for soooo many reasons i'm not gonna go into it here ;p

It all started in Thessaloniki (well, a beach town near it actually) @ Ange’s thia & thio’s beach house. Her family is so hospitable, generous and accommodating and her thia’s cooking was fantastic! Nice to be eating healthy home-cooked meals again =) spent a couple of days at the beach with Ange's gorgeous little cousinettes and then we all went off to Thess’niki with A’s relo’s – thia __ and her kids and kids’ kids... such nice ppl!

Spent a few days walking around Thess, introduced Ola to some of its main sites, ate a lot, drank Amstel as you do there, met a lot of people!!! Ange's relo's and the new friends she'd made =) wink wink...

After Thess we headed to Corfu to meet Effie and Dragan (same Effie & Dragan from Montenegro, who had also continued on with their travels to Greece)! we spent a great few days w them… swimming, driving, seeing stuff.. was nice group and had nice lil house we rented ... Corfu was ok, definitely NOT the best Greek island... I wouldnt strongly recommend it nor would I go there again.... Its not a bad place, but there's a LOT better!!!

After a few days in Corfu, we bid Effie & Dragan a final farewell (Panda!) and set off to Patra to meet up w Connie who had flown in from London just to see us! (ok, I'm sure she also wanted to see Greece!! sheesh!!) ... first frustrating moment in Greece.. trying to find info about getting from Corfu to Kefalonia (our targeted destination w Connie) - almost impossible!!! so, a sleepless nite on a boat, a bus and a mad taxi experience where we almost got our heads bitten off by the owner of Connie's hostel for waking him up at 4am (we needed to find Connie!!!) and another ferry ride later... we were in Kefalonia!!! yipee =)

Connie’s hilarious and so fun to travel with. Our group of 4 was pretty cool. We all got along well, joked heaps, ate heaps, etc… it was nice to see how much appreciation Connie had for everything and fun to introduce her to Greece & Greekness.. after some random joking between Ola & Ange one day... we ended up skinny dipping that nite – bought some wine, snuck around trying to find a secluded beach to drink it on (first attempt VERY unsuccessful... we ended up under a bright spotlight) eventually found secluded dark place and laughed our heads off at the experience.

Best part of kefalonia was renting a small Suzuki jeep and driving around in it for a day from one beach to the other (life goal #88 - fulfilled!! ... then we had to swap it for a chevy crysler for financial reasons... but made friends with car rental guy who ended up inviting us all out for dinner and drinks one nite.... definitely an interesting man & extremely attractive in his 'older' age ;p hehe
We spent around a week on this island! We drove everywhere, saw some of the world’s most beautiful beaches, shipwrecks, went to Zakhintho Island for a day, jumped off the roof of our boat which was super high and scary but had to do it for a fully sick FB profile pic! haha we also saw flying fish & dolphins in the “wild”, laughed a lot, ate a lot .... yay!!!

From Kefalonia we went to atherns (as Connie would call it) and stayed with gyros pita (George) ange’s cuz. He was so nice & friendly and welcoming, so easy to stay with. I think he enjoyed having 4 girls stay w him, but still, it’s a hassle and he was so kind to have us there. We took Connie around Athina, main sites, bars etc… then bade her a final farewell as she went back to London. After that, Ola Ange and I went to (island who’s name we never really knew or pronounced right :p). found a great lil apartment, walked around everywhere or took bus/water taxi.. explored more amazing beaches and tanned lots!!

3 days of this tiring work and we headed back to Athens, to see gyros pita again and finally go to a bouzouki nite, which was a bit tacky but really fun. We stayed out til 5am! Was great! Ange left for Oz the next day.. Ola and I went to Aigina. Rented a scooter and rode around the entire island. Ola was sick and succeeded in giving me her germs so we had to take it easy for a while. We stayed at hotel plaza (for old time’s sake), got stalked by creepy Albanians one day at beach. Mostly just chilled, saw da sites, went to beaches, ate good food, and got along really well :D

Went back to Athens and stayed w gyros. He took us out one nite… then Ola and I split up AGAIN!!! hahaha... I left for Istanbul one day and ola stayed an extra day in Athens before she met me there...

note - the 4 of us did come up with an amazing "revised" Alphabet.. I would like to share it here, but I'm afraid it may give some of you the wrong impression ;p
so, um... too bad! you'll have to get it off me in person... some day... some time... hehe

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Comments

[Spiros]

nice!!!
u have to travel to mainland as well ' cause there is a place called Perama Cave, I saw some pics at anesisrooms.gr and its so great to check it. therefore next tome u will be in Greece try to see the cave I told you.

[halabaloo]

Cave recommendation
Yia sou Spiro! Thanks for the cave recommendation - I hope to check it out some day :)