Blogs from Naxos, South Aegean, Greece, Europe - page 7

Our first ferry trip in Greece!! We were so excited to take the Greek version of Bart to the port, but of course they were on strike - just our luck so we had to take a taxi... and traffic was ridiculous because of the strike so it took forever to get there. Lambrose our driver was super nice, he helped us map out our island hopping excursions. At the port we had our first Gyro's!! and free beer!!! It was so friggin hot! 31 degrees which is over 90!!! Hot hot hot. The ferry was super nice - we got suckered into upgrading to the "airplane seats" that reclined in the ac section of the boat where they showed movies in english!! We figured out later that no one checks your tickets and you ... read more

We flew into Athens on Oct 30 to some misfortune. It was cold and rainy and we found ourselves at the luggage claim belt a bit longer than expected. The belt was empty and Ryan's bag didn't appear. So while we were already tight on time, we had to put in a claim and then run to the metro, which we just made. They actually had to reopen the doors for us. It was about a half hour ride to the Port of Piraeus where we scrambled through the rain to purchase our tickets and find the ferry. It wasn't hard to miss...it was basically a small cruise ship. After taking ferries in Nicaragua and Honduras we had some misconceived expectations....much to our delight. It was a gorgeous ferry with restaurants, tvs, dvd/movie rentals cushy seats, ... read more

Well hello again. I know I said I was only going to write once a week, but I'm not so sure I'll be doing it for a couple of days and I want to catch you all up. So I got up to our first night in Athens. We all had a great sleep, even after the afternoon nap. Went down to breakfast (which was an additional 4euros, but no kitchen if you wanted to provide your own, very strange), which consisted of a side plate covered in yoghurt, with honey and museli, a cup of coffee/tea, orange juice, and 5 pieces of tiny bread (kind of like short stick cut downwards). Very filling, although I'm not quite sure the price is worth it. As I've said before, I think hostels are losing what their original ... read more

Well here we are... made it too some bareable heat, delightful beaches and amazingly tourist orientated island! Our departing athens went according to plan, and here we are on our third day on Naxos! We caught a ferry from pyraeus in athens - about the size of a nz interislander, give or take - in the blistering heat at 5.30pm (local time) on wednesday 6th sept... Having arrived about 2 and a half hours early we were sitting in the heat constantly being talked into buying replica binoculars, sunglassers, watches and electronics; from a series of blangledeshi guys (which explained how they could wear big tops, jeans, and hats without melting), when a girl walked past carrying a delicious looking roll, I (ez) say 'mm whats she got i want one', 'oh its a french baguette ... read more

Monday 31 July and no trace of the subdued mood of Monday morning. Rather another visit to the Croissanterie - an apricot pastry for Maz and for me, the usual ham and cheese croissant. No wonder the hole on my belt is becoming stretched into an oval shape. We packed up our things early and loaded up our bags into Michel’s little Fiat. After breakfast we met up with Vangelis, Michele and Yiannis at the Port. The K’s (minus Yiannis, who is 16 and has other things to interest him) will be catching up with us in Naxos en route to Santorini. We boarded the high speed ferry which, by the time we got upstairs to the rear deck, was so far from land it was not possible to distinguish our friends. We found some comfortable ... read more