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Published: November 8th 2006
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After the other boys decided to spend a week or so in Tunisia on the beach on the North coast of Africa, Luke and I were faced with a decision as neither of us were interested in that trip and had both heard fairly average reports of the country. Steve had his heart set on the Ukraine which, again, Luke and I weren't particularly interested in, so in around 45 minutes we looked at the map of Europe, checked flight prices to a few destinations and were booked onto a flight to Greece with the plan to see Athens then spend a week or so in the Greek islands and make our way to Turkey from there. This, in retrospect, was an excellent decision.
We arrived in Athens in the middle of the night and, after dealing with several rude taxi drivers that refused to take non-Greek speakers, we made it to the hostel. First thing during the day we went to a travel agent and were presented with an itinerary that seemed perfect to us. The only problem- it was offensively expensive. After a few minutes deliberation, Luke and I figured that as we'd be 'saving' money by travelling through
Gateway to Olympieion
Yes, I am being an idiot. eastern Europe thus far, that we could splurge on the islands. We celebrated our succesful planning with a good Greek salad and a beer. The rest of our time in Athens was dominately spent in true tourist fashion wandering around the city and strolling past all of the thousands of years old ruins. The first day included the Temple of Olympieion Zeus, the Gateway to Olympieion, the first Olympic stadium which held the 1896 Olympic games (though we never made it to the new stadium), the parliament building, the royal palace and finishing up with some casual drinks on the balcony of our hostel in a cool old part of town.
Day 2 included the theatre of Dionysis, the Acropolis and the Pantheon (the most famous of the ruins) and the ancient city of Agora. The temperature was uncomfortably hot and by the end of the day we were unable to do anything except mope to the McDonalds on the corner (vowing never to go again) and crashing out in bed.
The third and final day in Athens was quite uneventful as we had knocked off most of the major tourist sites. We climbed a hill in the sweltering heat
to see the Hill of Muses and also and old observatory. Bed again came early to prepare for the early departure the next day to the islands, making our stay consist entirely of sightseeing and never going out on the town once, in contrast to our usual MO.
The first island we visited was Santorini in the southern region of the Cyclades, which we arrived at via a very nice high speed ferry. After checking in, we went for a walk to see the islands but our orientation was quite off and we walked in the complete opposite direction to the main town centre. What we saw, instead of the beautiful views the island has to offer was dry, uninhabited, rocky nothing. Quite disappointed, we turned around to go home but on the way came across the valuable information of where the town was. As approached the top of the town, suddenly the stunning view across the bay and of volcanic islands opened up to us and we saw what we had come for. We celebrated the amazing view with a nice cold brew at a bar overlooking all that Santorini had to offer.
The next day we took a
worthwhile day trip on a boat, which took us around the nearby islands. We began by stopping at an active volcano/island and walked to the top. We were told to wear shoes, but after climbing up and down in our pluggers without getting a speck of dirt on our feet, we were quite proud of ourselves. Afterwards, we motored over to some natural hot springs were we jumped off the boat and swam into a little cove where the water was very toasty, though quite murky. The final stop was to a smaller island, called Thirasia, which supported a small fishing village. We climbed some very steep steps in the heat and arrived exhausted at the top, but the view back to Santorini made it all worthwhile. After returning home, we finished off the night at a pub which sold Coopers, happy with the days acheivements.
The next day was spent sunning ourselves by the pool with a good book until our next ferry left for the isalnd of Paros. Unfortunately, this was an extremely uninteresting island and very little was done here except eat nice food and wander around aimlessly through the 2-3 days. Luckily we had a TV,
First Olympic Stadium
Me in front of the main 1896 Greek Olympic Stadium which neither of us had watched for months, and it gave us a chance to rest before Mykonos- the party island.
The hotel in Mykonos was amazing and had an infinity pool and a beautiful view of the ocean. We also were close to the old harbour and always had a sleek cruise boat parked not too far from the shore by our hotel. After taking it easy during the day we headed to Paradise which we had read was where everyone went to party. And a party is what we found. Club Tropicana was right on a beach covered in deck chairs, had a small pool to swim in, a restaurant, a DJ and a very long bar. Everyone there was dancing in whatever space they could find and all looked to be completely inebriated. It wasn't long before we found a flyer advertising DJ's playing that weekend and soon realised that Ricardo Villalobos was playing that night. We quickly jumped in a taxi home to change and mentally prepare before coming back to Paradise beach to go to Cavo Paradiso- a very excellent club on the cliffs overlooking the Mediteranean. This turned into one of the most expensive
days of the trip but was definately worth the cost.
Being the day after the night before, we spent almost the whole day asleep, to recover and re-energise for the next night when Lou Vega would be playing at the same club. Disppointingly though, the sound system shat itself and the night was basically ruined. We decided to end the night early (at 6am).
Luke and I spent most of the next day around the lovely town centre, eating and taking in the sights. We finished off the day again at Tropicana in Paradise. The next day held an unpleasant surprise for us. Expecting to take the ferry the following day to Turkey to meet up with the boys, we learned that there had been several bombings of tourist areas across Turkey including Istanbul and a number of the south-west coastal towns which we planned to visit. Ultimately, after a great amount of teeter-tottering back and forth from 'go' to 'no-go' we decided against it and resolved to alter course to Croatia to meet up with Andrea and Ro.
I'd be quite impressed if anyone actually reads down to here but cheers if you have. Don't feel shy to write
comments or send me an email, would love to hear from everyone. Later
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Ryan
non-member comment
man, what an amazing time it seems you've had! i've immensely enjoyed your last 4 blogs, but will only comment in this one :) you're quite the photographer, i'll have to take note. keep safe man, enjoy the last couple of months of travel. glad to hear you're still having an awesome year. get yourself psyched for Japan in Jan! it will be wicked, i shall book a week off next week for it. all the best mate, say hi to Luke