Pretty in pink

---

Greeting from the sea. Again, we're sitting on a ferrry heading to Athens for the night. Actually the ferry is only to igomenitsa then we're on an overnight but to Athens, where we will be arriving at a questionable 5:30 in the morning....should be interesting! We're thinking an early hike up to the Acropolis, a very early hike!
Now the pink palace, where shall I begin....This place is an alocoholic's paradise. We are not alcoholics haha, but did partake in the festivitives for a few of the nights wer were there. But a girls gotta take a night off every so often! There was a lot of lounging on the beach and working on the tan, followed by afternoon naps and then dancing at night! They have their own night club so everything you could need is walking distance from your room, plus a 24 hour bar. yikes!
Luckily for us there was some exercise incorporated into our stay. The walk up from breakfast and the beach was over 100 stairs and was brutal on certain mornings haha. We also went out and did a kayak tour on the sea. The kayaks are 2 person and they recommended a guy in the back to give some extra power. Now thanks, we put Alyx in the back haha! So we paddled out to a spot to do some swimming and cliff jumping. I'm a friggen wimp and didn't cliff jump, but did did enjoy the clear water!! Normally they take you to this monastary up on a little rock island, but unfortunately for us they were redoing the stairs and we couldn't go up there, so we were dissapointed in that. But we headed over to a little cove and did some snorkeling!!! That was SO COOL! I didn't uae the snorkel because that's nasty, but looking with the goggles was really neat. There were little tropical fish and tons of sea urchins! So you had to be pretty careful. On the way back....the wind picked up. Alyx was sore so I had to man up and be the power on the kayak! But we did a lot better than these little french girls who were seriously falling behind, embarrassment avoided!
The next day all of us were pretty sore in our shoulders and chest. But that's how we know we worked it good! After a nap, we rented our pink satin togas and prepared ourselfs for the toga party. After a lengthy dressing period we were ready to go! (we being Alyx, myself, Jaclyn and Larissa. we were together the whole time and are sharing a hotel room for a night in Athens before they go home and people think that we're all travelling together and have been friends for years because we're all getting along so well and never seen without eachother haha). After dinner there was traditional greek dancing and music. We were having a good time watching from the sidelines, all of a sudden one dancing man is asking me to come up to the floor....so naturally I went for it. I had no idea what was in store for me.....They sit me down on the floor and ask 'how many shots of ouzo can you take?' So I threw a 5 out there, he said 4 is normal. So they fed me 5 shots of pink ouzo in a row, not going to lie I felt like a champion getting cheered on. Next I had to sit stick straight looking forward and not bending neck. I sat there in nervous anticipation for a little too long, then SMASH! stack of plates on my head. Thank god they gave me the ouzo first! The greeks went around to everyone giving out free shots, can't pass that up right? Lets just say the night ended up getting a little messy but it was on the top of the list for fun nights in europe! We all danced the night away, and from what I can remember had an amazing time! hahaha.
The following day....not feeling so hot. Wave jumping, sun bathing, and napping fixed that problem!! So we took it easy that night!
All four of us were planning on ripping up the island on our free quads. Just larissa and myself ended up going but had an incredible day exploring! These quads look small with no power....wrong. We were doing some mad off-roading and going up mountains, keeping up with traffic! They were great and so much fun. In the middle of nowhere there was this little restaurant so we went in for lunch. The view overlooked the whole outer side of the island and we had authentic greek cuisine! I've never been a fan of dolmathes....but holy mother of god they were fresh and fantastic! Just thinking about them is making me hungry!! The cute old man told us of a little spot with a view that we should check out. So we went up this steep dirt road as far as we could and had to end up hiking for about 20 minutes, but it was totally worth it! At the top there were these random buildings so as we were going around them, we noticed there were berries and cherry trees all over! While looking at the berries considering what they might be, this big fella is motioning us to....we're not sure. it could have been eat, don't eat, go away, come here. It ended up being eat! So he let us into the area and told us to try to cherries. best cherries of my life. There obviously weren't like okanagan cherries, but there were 2 kinds. one was a little red one and the other was a bigger yellow-redish one. The berries looked like blackberries but didn't have as much flavor. The man then showed us into what we think is an old monastary. There looked to be a crypt in the middle but with the greek letters, we can't be sure of anything. It was so amazing in there, especially because this place was up in the hills away from everyone. To top it off the sun was shining, it really couldn't have been better. We then went to a hill top town with a great view of the entire island and had a very old fortressy thing, thta they called kaisers throne. All in all, I want a quad now. hahaha
Yesterday was Jaclyns's birthday. In celebration we were going to party it up on the booze cruise. Now, the shitty thing about islands is that the weather is really hard to predict. Abnormal winds came in and no booze cruise was happening....serious sad face. As an alternative, we faced the wind and got some sun! Alyx had gone into the main town on the island because she didn't want to go on the cruise and had gone really early. Her mission was to find a birthday cake. However, in Greece this is rather hard to do. She ended up bringing back baklava (??) a traditional greek dessert with layers of philo pastry filled with chopped nuts, honey butter and sugar. Serious sugar coma after that one! So we suprised Jaclyn with candles in this dessert and sparklers. This was followed up by a roast chicken dinner, drink and more dancing! She said it was a really good birthday, and I'm gald we could celebrate with her! This morning we had to check out nice and early, but the bus leaving to Athens didn't leave until 7:45pm so we had a day to kill. Alyx, with her poor sickly immune system, wasn't feeling well this morning with a sore throat and the chills. So she stayed in to nap while we hit up the town! Got lots of souvenirs and did some delicious spirit tastings!
Now here was are, another night of travelling! We're looking forward to getting into Athens, then getting the hell out of there! Apparently it's filthy and there's really nothing to see besides the Acropolis. Especially with the political turmoil going on we're not going to take any chances by sightseeing around the government buildings. After that we've booked 4 nights in ios, then another 4 nights in santorini. The aussies from Nice are going to be there for 2 of this same nights and we can't wait to meet up with them! After than, we were maying thinking mykonos or crete, but alyx wants to head up to the mainland and i'd like to see more of the islands. not sure what we'll do yet, see how this next week goes and take it from there!
It's hard to believe we're already half way through our trip, can't wait to see what's instore next!


Just an addition. The overnight bus was the worst experience in history for all of us. Zero sleep because there is a metal festival starting in Athens today so there were these metal heads singing the whole bus ride! Then we rolled into town a whole hour early, which means at 4:30. The bus didn't start running till later. Man this bus station was diiirrrtyyy. Totally smelled like urine, stray dogs running around, and a family of what looked like Albanians sleeping in a cluster in a corner. Sketch.
We made it to our hostel, dropped out bags off, did a nice early hike up the Acropolis, came back to the hostel, had a wonderful nap, woke up and went out for an amaazziinngg traditional greek dinner and now we're going to bed early to recover from our travels. We're saying goodbye to our friends tomorrow when they fly out to go home! Safe travels to them, and here's hoping that there is no strike on the metro line like there is every few days!
oh....and to top it off, because there was a strike yesterday, everyone is travelling today and tomorrow. Therefore there was no room on any ferries to get to Ios. We considered flying but it's expensive so we're staying another (unwanted) night in Athens, then shipping out early.
pps. our third star sighting of the trip and we actually talked to her in a random little jewelery store....Caroline Rhea. As in the fun aunt from Sabrina the teenage witch, took over the rosie o'donell show, and hosts the biggest loser!!! She was with her daughter and super nice, we didn't let on that we knew she was a celebrity. But she was wearing major shlumpy clothes. Yes shlumpy is a word, pretty much the same meaning as frumpy. As you can tell I am obscenely overtired and going a little crazy.
Goodnight. Hopefully talk to you from Ios!

---