Greece

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Well after a long day of Airports and flights I arrived in Athens feeling reasonably fresh but was keen for an early nights rest as I had a 7.25 ferry to Santorini (one of the Greek islands). But unfortunately you meet nice people and you have a beer. Well one of these nice people turned out to be Kelly whom everyone knows was in the first Oz Idol and was on Video hits. This big Aussie guy by the name of Michael also, brought it up that she looked like that chick. There were a thousand questions going. After that cleared up we all had a bit of a chat, then another Aussie couple enters the room and after 30mins asked the same question. It was at this point that I raised the issue that “I too am famous, well at least in Torquay”. The large big Aussie lad that had pointed out Kelly asked me for my name which I replied Michael to which he said, “You’re Chris and Joy’s son ain’t you.” I got quite freaked and thought back to my conversations when I had mentioned mum or dad, then he goes on further to the bemused crowd that he in fact baby sat me and that his wife used to work for dad. It was here that I worked out with a bit of his assistance that his ex wife Janine Walker use to baby-sit us when she lived in the Lewis Holiday house flat. Too small a world for my liking, so it was not an early one catching up on each others lives and the 6am start was a rough one. As was the journey out to Santorini, a pleasant 8 hour ferry ride that I had to sit outside for on a very crowded deck.

After a quite a long journey I got into Santorini some time after 3. I had booked myself into a cheap hotel with shared rooms, and it took me about 15mins to find it. After checking in I took a look around town and chilled out in front of the TV for a bit, it doesn’t matter how bad TV is it some how cures the addictions during flat parts of your trip.
That night Anna Halliburton was due in for her brother’s wedding. On Friday. Andy Rigin, Lauren and John Howley were due in late that night from the Athens flight. So I caught up with Anna when she got in and was kindly invited out for tea and met the rest of the family. I was lucky enough to even score a free meal and some beers, which is always great on a traveler’s budget, but it still is not that cool if you know what I mean. Johnny, Loz and Andy got in just after tea, so we spent a bit of time catching up near the pool and I enjoyed being able to see good friends whilst you’re away. One of my biggest disappointments on this trip was missing Johnny and Loz’s wedding and I was so glad that I did get to see them in Santorini. The next day was much the same. I headed up to the gangs nice villas looking over a million dollar view and had caught up chats over a few bevies’ beside the pool. That evening was a low key one for me and I moved to the other side of the island for what I planned 2 nights, but after finding out that I could not catch the shuttle bus to the port in time for my ferry on the Friday morning I had to change plans. But the day in Perissa was pretty good, I had a good day on the beach, even if it was black sand and it burnt your feet to touch. That night a good group of backpackers gathered for a sangria party and then headed down the beach. It was a fun night and the lack of food in my stomach made it a cheap one. Unlike the others in the wedding party, that had the bucks and hens nights that day on from midday till late. So battling my own demons I had to head back into Fira where I was lucky enough to get my cheap old room again and then headed up to see the others to see how they where all coping. It was chilling out by the pool once again and just talking over life of a world traveling Ballarat resident. They had wedding rehearsal that evening so I took it as a good time to bid farewell and get back to the hotel to pack my gear and try to get a good nights rest before I had to be on a ferry at 8.15am to Ios.

Well I pretty much slept most of the ferry trip to Ios and got into town with an allocated hostel (Francesco’s) shuttle to where I was staying which was great. I then got something to eat (ice cream) and some water before heading down the beach to try and catch up with Laura & Sarah the two girls whom I meet in Granada. I had stayed in contact with them as we knew we would both be in Ios around the same time.
Well it took only a 100 metres of walking along the beach to spot them and we had a good catch up and bake before wandering back into town, slightly tough 2km walk up hill. Getting there was a lot easier. After a chill out by our pool in the hostel we all showered up and headed down to the Far Out Club, the other big hostel in Town. We were planning on meeting up with a few crew Sarah knew from uni and once I meet them all and realised who most of them were it was a mini Geelong College/Melbourne Uni get together. There was Sophie Betts (my mate’s sister), Steph Simson (Sarah Uni mate and Zoe’s house mates sister), Moo West, Jack Bell & Lisa Grey (Mates with Matt Torney & the gang) so that pretty well pulled down most walls of bad communication.
It was Jack’s birthday the following day, but it may as well have just been a two day festival. After being asked to leave Far Out for bringing in our own grog, 1.50 euro cheaper we chilled out by the beach before bussing it back into town for a few more cheap beers outside our hostel while the clubs got busy. It was a very big night in the end and some classic pic’s taken. I once again ran into another friend of a friend by the name of Tim Cox (Mel Turners friend whom I have met on a few occasions). He was about a month or two a head of me on a round the world tour similar to mine, but had become stuck in Ios for the past 3 months. To add to that I meet two other girls from Torquay one of whom owns Ripe bar and I with my drunken swagger may have landed myself a job there for the summer.
The following day, the Melbourne gang had hired a wake boat for the day to celebrate Jack’s birthday and had 2 spots available. There were 4 of us whom they tried to play off for it. I would have loved to have gone, but I was not fussed if the girls did. But their problem was that they had another friend Georgia with them as well. So we all said no under a lot of peer pressure coming from the group. We did however plan to hire a lot lesser quality boat for the day and have a look around the island also, but were beaten to it by the time we had risen from a big night out.
So we chilled on the beach and then headed back to the hostel for a bit of time by the pool. We headed out for tea that night to Fiesta’s, a recommended restaurant for some Greek food, the Moussaka was great, but the beef was not much, enjoyable but not comparative to the Moussaka. After eating way too much we picked up a couple of travelers and made the 25min journey to Far Out where we caught up with the others who where trying to rub the day fun and games in, which they had every right to. It sounded like a winner. So we had a few there and they headed into town for some tea and we planned to catch up after some further pre drinks in the girl’s hostel room. That night at Far Out I once again ran into another Torquay local in Kelly Paterson who was on a Contiki tour. So pre drinks down we headed to the catch up with the rest of the gang for another good night out and met a few more crew from the surf coast area to make matters even worse. On Sunday morning I had to be up at 11 to make it on the shuttle for my 1.10 ferry so I had a bit of time to chill at the port, before an enjoyable 9 hour ferry ride into Athens. I was able to get some quality sleep in and survive the trip.

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