The Greek Islands
Hey Cool People!
We the past week or so has been amazing island hopping. Lydia, Jess and I had partied it up on Mykonos, Paros, Santorini and Ios. Here is what we did:
Day 54 Saturday, July 11th - Athens to Mykonos - This day was a little hectic. Lydia, Jess and I are traveling with the Busabout tour group around the islands, which has recommended accommodations for members of the tour. Now, the great thing about Busabout is that it is very flexible, so you can stay as long as you want on each island and stay pretty much anywhere you would like. In Mykonos, the recommended accommodation was at Paradise Beach Camping. Well, when I originally started reserving accommodations for our travels, Paradise Beach was booked full, so, alternatively, I booked at the next beach over, Super Paradise Beach.
Super Paradise Beach was beautiful, but not the easiest to transport to and from. Lydia, Jess and I had to take a taxi from the Port to Super Paradise Beach and it cost around 25 Euro and to get anywhere we needed to pay for a shuttle or taxi. I can't be too upset though because where we were was gorgeous. Our room was right off the beach. We had a private three bedroom, with our own bathroom and air-con!!!!!! So nice.
View from our hotel room on Super Paradise Beach in Mykonos
Lamb Kleftiko
Well, that night we were supposed to meet up at Paradise Beach before heading into Mykonos town for dinner. Like I said, transport was a bitch and it was easier for us to just meet up in Mykonos town, so that is what we did. Our tour group went to dinner at a lovely Greek Tavern named "Opa." It was a bit pricey, but well worth it. Lydia and Jessica split seafood pasta that came out in this giant shell, and I enjoyed some cheese saganaki and Lamb Kleftiko. My food they kind of forgot about. Poppy, our tour guide had to go ask them about it, but it was well worth the wait.
After dinner we all walked over to the famous Windmills to watch the sunset and take some pictures before heading out to some of the local bars. Now let me tell you, the Greek know how to make a strong drink!! After a few bars, we were meant to hop on a public bus to Paradise Beach. Well, about half of us made it on the bus and the other half (Me, Lydia and Jess include) were stuck in Mykonos town. In our drunken state, we waved down a private van to take us to Paradise Beach Club where we would meet up with everyone. It was a little pricey, but a lot of fun because we were passing around drinks, and singing and dancing in the van on our ride over.
(L to R) Jessica, Lydia, Loren, and I
When we got to Paradise Beach Club, Poppy gave us our entry wrist bands and a free drink voucher for the club. Lydia and Jess weren't feeling so great so they decided to head back to our place and I decided to head into the club with some of the people I had met in our tour group that night.
The club was amazing! We got in around 1 and it didn't really seem that busy, but around 2 am the place was packed and Will Sparks, an Australian DJ, came on and well.... I had a lot of fun. Jess had given me her free drink ticket and I somehow kept finding the free drink vouchers on the ground, so I didn't pay for a single drink in the club.
At around 4 am, I was well pretty tired and decided to leave. Because I can be a cheap person sometimes, I thought it would be a good idea to try and walk back to Super Paradise Beach where we were staying. Well, I ended up doing a complete 360 and ended up back at the club. I had the hardest time waving down a taxi because I was one person going to Super Paradise Beach. So, again I walked around, found someone else in the same boat (he was trying to get to Paraga) and we were going to walk and try to wave down a taxi together. We were trying to wave down a taxi and all of a sudden this car stops and a man shouts out "You need a ride?" He asked us where we were going and offered to drive us to our places. He wanted 25 Euro for me and I told him I would give him 15 Euro, and then he told me to get in. He dropped the other guy I met on the rode off first and then took me to my place.
The man was hilarious. I believe his name was George. The ride was a little scary because he told me how the government took his driver’s license, took his car plates, but that the government was dumb because he still has his cars, so he keeps driving. Told me all about him, how he used to live in New Jersey and that’s how he speaks such good English, and all this crazy stuff. Anyway, I ended up making it back to my room just before 6 am.
Day 55 Sunday, July 12th - Mykonos - This day Lydia, Jess and I were going to have a more relaxed day at the beach. Jess and Lydia went down to the beach pretty early. I slept in a little before walking down to meet them. Our friend Loren, who we met in Athens, decided to take the water taxi from Paradise Beach to ours. We all laid out, went for a swim, and got some lunch together. Loren left after lunch to go back to her place. That night we were supposed to meet up at Paradise Beach for a paint party, but Lydia wasn't feeling the greatest and I didn't want to pay the transport to go there and back.
That night, Lydia laid in bed, while Jess and I enjoyed a few drinks on our balcony, caught up on some blogging (I know I am a bit behind) and relaxed. We decided to go down to the beach to get some dinner and check out the beach party that was going on. Ana, who runs the place, gave us a mad discount on our dinner. Anyway, Jess and I didn't stay out late at all; we were in bed pretty early that night.
Day 56 Monday, July 13th - Mykonos to Paros - This morning, Lydia, Jess and I packed our things and caught our transport to the Port to catch the ferry to Paros. In Paros, we were staying at this cute little family run place about a 10 minute walk from the port called Angeliki's Studios. When we go there, Demitri, who runs the place, loving yelled at us from not calling him to pick us up from the port. I apologized and he said "It's Ok" and showed us to our room and told us to relax before we officially checked-in. About 10 minutes later, I went out and Demitri showed me how to get around from where we were. He pointed out where I should go to get cheap coffee, and the supermarket and the beach, etc. Then we took us into reception so we could pay and they were so happy we paid in cash versus credit. Demitri even said "Fucking Euro." Then they sat us three down and brought out this homemade pastry. It was a glazed orange thing. Soooo good!! After that they apologized for leaving us because they had to work. So sweet.
That night we meet the tour group to go have dinner at Krios Beach. We had the chance to participate in plate smashing and Greek dancing. After dinner, we went back into town for a few drinks. The night got a little wild. It was Lydia’s birthday at midnight, so we had a few shots to celebrate before walking back to go to bed at around 3:00 am
Doing some Greek Dancing
Shots at midnight for Lydia's birthday
Day 57 Tuesday, July 14th - Paros - Today was a big day. At around 9:00 am we sailed around the island of Anti-Paros on the Alexandros boat. I brought some run to enjoy on the boat and right away the captain saw me pull that out and wanted a little bit. He was hilarious, ended up giving me a couple shots of ??? for the rum. We made a couple of swim stops before stopping at the beach for a BBQ lunch, where we had grilled octopus, souvlaki, wine and ouzo. I made the mistake of having a little too much ouzo because Jerry got a little drunk. When we were on the beach, I grabbed my phone to take some photos, well this dumbass forgot that I had it in my pockets, so when we got back on the boat, I ruined my phone. Luckily, I had been backing up all my photos, so I didn't lose too much.
Anyway, after lunch we made a couple more swim stops, did just cliff diving and made it back to Paros at around 5:00 pm. We had a small break before meeting up for dinner and then going out for drinks. Again, I went hard! Jess and I stayed out till about 4:30 am.
Day 58 Wednesday, July 15th - Paros to Santorini - The struggle was real this morning. Lydia, Jess and I had to wake up and gather our thing to catch the ferry to Santorini. I felt bad because we didn't have a chance to say goodbye to Demitri for his hospitality. Anyway, I slept a little on the ferry and when we made it to Santorini I told myself I was going to relax the next couple of days.
Well, we met everyone at Tropical Bar in Santorini, where Poppy told us a little about the history of the Island and how it got it current space. After a couple drinks, we went down to Fanari Restaurant for dinner, which had an amazing view over the water. After dinner, I was convinced to stop at the Highlander bar for a couple drinks. Well, my relaxing stay brought me back to the room at 2:30 am.
Day 59 Thursday, July 16th - Santorini - Today we took part in the Sun-Tour-ini Tour. At about 9:30 am we hopped on a private couch with our hilarious bus driver, Stavros, and headed to the Black Beach in Persia where we would enjoy a beach side breakfast. After breakfast we relaxed for about two hours by the water, swimming and sunbathing on reserved sunbeds. Later, we hopped back on the bus to the famous Red Beach. During the bus ride, Poppy, our guide, explained how the beaches got their color from the volcanic eruption 3500 years ago, the Ancient Ruins at Akrotiri, and some of the legends of Santorini. We had about another two hours to relax at the beach, which was a little bit of a hike to get to, but so worth it. Before the hike, we stopped at a little shop and grabbed a few Volcan beers and enjoyed those at the beach.
Black Beach
Red Beach
Black Beach
Red Beach
We got back to Fira, where our hostel is, around 2:30 pm. We had some time to relax and get ready for tonight’s activities. I showered and got ready right away and then walked around Fira town for a little bit; found some loukoumadas to snack on before hoping back on the bus around 5:10 pm. We were dropped off at Santo Winery, where we had a wine tasting of three local wines looking over a truly memorable view! From there we headed to Oia. In Oia we had a Gyros Picnic before watching the most beautiful sunset. After the sunset, we had about an hour before we hopped back on the bus to Fira, so most of us found a cocktail bar to enjoy a quick drink.
In Oia, we buddied up because of how busy it was; we didn't want get separated or lost. My buddy was Kate. On our walk back to the transfer we both said we were not going to go out that night when we got back to Fira. Well, then we decided that we would go out till midnight, but not drink in the bar, then we decided that one drink was ok, but we would still leave at midnight, then 1 am. We are both so easily convinced to go out and have a good time.
Anyway, on the bus ride back to Fira, we were passing around a 2 liter bottle of sprite, which may or may not have had some vodka in it, we sang, we laughed, for some reason the bus started chanting "Jerry, Jerry, Jerry." This was probably my favorite night of the trip. When we got back to Fira, Lydia and Jess stayed at the hostel, while I went out with some of the people from our tour to Highlander bar. I told myself I would only stay out till midnight, but I actually ended up leaving around 1 am.
We found our real life Kotas - 'Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants' referance
Day 60 Friday, July 17th - Santorini to Ios - Lydia, Jess and I started this morning off hoping on a bus to the Port. The night before we had a photo competition on who could take the best photo, I won with my picture at Santo Winery and was given my prize (a box of Baklava and a bottle of Ouzo) on the ride to the Port. At the port, we grabbed some breakfast at Cafe Spartacus, where I had a Greek Coffee and a Ham & Cheese Toastie. The ferry to Ios was pretty short, only about 45 mins. In Ios we were staying at Far Out Camping. Originally, we had booked a three bedroom tent. Well, when we got there we walked up to the tent and immediately decided to upgrade. The tent was small; it could barely fit us, let alone all our stuff. So, we upgraded to a bungalow with air conditioning. Well, worth it for how hot it got during the day.
We spent most of the day relaxing. I took a nap to recover from the lack of sleep from the previous 4 nights out. At 7:30 pm we sat down for an all you can eat pizza dinner at Far Our Village poolside, surprisingly the pizza was really good and I had my fair share. After dinner we played a little flip cup, we even taught some of the Aussies how to play. Lydia, Jess and I were on the same team and we never lost. A little later, we made our way to Ios village for a 9 pub Bar Crawl. I made it to about 6 or 7 pubs before I quiet and walked back to Far Out and went to bed.
Day 61 Saturday, July 18th - Ios - Today we very relaxed for me. I slept in pretty late, grabbed some lunch, got my washing done, and took a nap before meeting up for dinner. For dinner, I had octopus salad. After dinner, it was another night of bar-hopping, this time to 11 pubs. Again, I couldn't make it all the way. A bunch of us quit around 3:30 am, found a snack and walked back to Far Out to go to bed.
Day 62 Sunday, July 19th - Ios to Athens - We were heading back to Athens this morning. We woke up, got our stuff ready, had breakfast and made our way to the port. At the port we were making bets as to who wouldn't show up. There were a couple guys we nicknamed the mustachios, that we didn't think we going to show up, but to our surprise they did. They said they only made it because housekeeping woke them up to clean the room.
The ferry seemed to go pretty quickly, but I slept for a good chunk of the ride. When we got into Athens, we checked into our hostel. A few of us had made plans to meet up for one last dinner together. It was really nice, we had a room all to ourselves, we joked about the last 9 days together and ate sooooo much food. Poppy and I split a giant seafood platter. We were the only people to finish our plate!
After dinner, we got some gelato and said our final goodbyes to each other as we would be going our separate ways in the morning! It was kind of sad because we had grown pretty close over the last few days.
