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Published: January 26th 2009
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The Acropolis
5,000 Years of history. There were really no words to describe. After a 5 hour ferry ride, we arrived on the island of Mykonos in Greece. What are you doing here?" - that was the first question 50% of the people we met asked. Mykonos is a couple hundred miles South of Athens in the Meditteranean and is about 15x10 miles long.
We arrived midday on Saturday and quickly realized that the residents are the nicest people ever. It is definitly the down-season as with any beach town, but it was almost a vacation within a vacation.
We got a ride for free to our hostel, which overlooked the beach and had the nicest owner of all time. She did our laundry for us as we explored. We did have some issues with hot water at the hostel, but we got it taken care of after the first day. We headed to dinner in downtown before heading home early for the first time in a while. It was nice to actually have a TV, but we fought to find english programs. We finally found one, and ironically one of the kids at our past hostels had told Mike about it. See, one question we always ask ourselves when meeting people
The Island of Mykonos
The Greek Isles were exactly what I thought... and by that, I mean amazing. from around the world is... Why do they dislike the US so much? Now don't get me wrong, they love Obama and the "change" - but just overall. And in a nutshell, this show (and the others US shows we saw on tv: Married with Children, the Simpsons, and Bewitch) explained why.
The show is called Top Gear, and frankly, it was one of the funniest things I have ever seen. These 3 british guys travel from country to country with "missions" to do. Their mission this time was to get from Miami, FL to New Orleans with 1000 dollars and no public transportation. It resulted in them each buying the most american cars they could for under one grand. Car 1 - 1990 Chevy Camero RS. Car 2 - 1991 Dodge Ram 150, and car 3 - 1992 Cadallic Deville all bought in the ghetto streets of Miami. One "mission" during the show was to decorate one anothers cars to see if they could get eachother shot or arrested through Alabama. They wrote "Nascar sucks" and "Manlove rules" and "Hillary for President" on their cars, and suceeded in getting attacked by some self-proclaimed rednecks at a gas station. They ate road kill, tied a cow to the roof of the Camero and got into multiple accidents along the way. Long story short, along with Powerthirst 1-2, this will most likely become my favorite YouTube video when I get home. The stereotypes and anger they depict serve as examples of why... So many people feel the way they do. But... It most definitly served as some great entertainment on our night "off". I highly suggest, when you have 45 minutes, that you watch this.
13 short hours later, we were up and ready to explore. After a short shower, and my first shave of the trip which made me look ULTRA American, we were off. We wanted to rent Scooters (just like Dumb and Dumber) but the weather was crap midday, so we rented a Yellow Hundai Athos (looks like a smart car) that Mike named Bambi. Well first, all the gas stations were closed because it was Sunday, so we ran out of gas. But... We quickly took care of that and got run off the road by some crazy Greeks before starting to feel the road.
The weather was crazy. We had torrential storms with 90 MPH winds and then sunshine depending on the time of day. We drove to all points on Mykonos including some that shouldn't have been driven on. The pictures will show the truth, but a manual transmission was not meant to make it up these hills. The island had all sorts of geography from undisturbed beaches to thousand foot peaks. It is a tourist MECA during the summer but let me be clear -- Mykonos was PARADISE. We were questioned by people in Athens and even people on the island, "why would you go there in January?" It was 60 degrees on the island, the sights were still as beautiful and yes, even the water was warm (don't ask). A perfect vacation within a vacation - it was exactly what you'd think of the Greek Isles, even if it wasn't 100 degrees. Oh, and it was at least 5x cheaper in the winter than summer. Our hostel was 20 euro per night compared to 180 in the summer, which is on the low end of the spectrum.
We listened to live music with the locals and headed to bed early before more adventures in the car on Monday (we're 7 hrs ahead here). Great food, great music, and the friendliest people around.
We hit the remaining ends of the island, saw where the Greek elite live, and had one last meal (crepes, mmm) before re-embarking for the return to Athens. Oh, and in the interim, Mike managed to lose his personal BB, which he left in the car. We are hoping they can mail it to the states, but nonetheless, it was a minor setback. But, as the motto goes "its all part of the expierience".
We get back into Athens around 8 PM, then up early to see the remaining sites before our flight to Venice.
I'll check in later this week in Slovenia hopefully telling you about snowboarding in the Alps. Until then... Enjoy your Mondays and so long from Greece.
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Bridie
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Ugh!
Guys! Quit losing/breaking your electronics!!! THEY RAN A MCGRUBER PEPSI AD DURING THE SUPER BOWL!