Greece

Now, although I am not at work, I am ready to blog (work having been unseasonably busy since my return!).

Two weeks in Greece, overall itinerary was four nights in Athens, two in Mykonos, two in Paros, two in Ios and four in Santorini. Travel partner was Shauna from my work, but unfortunately, also a motley crew of contiki-style people as well. Busabout turned out to be less like a Eurail pass (as I had thought), and more like a Contiki pash-and-booze-a-palooza. Best part of that is, that although I had a good time, fabulous weather, beautiful islands...i did not resent coming home too much, as I was coming back to my own room and some peace and quiet. (In flat news, my canadian flatmate is moving out and an irish man moving in, so now will be just me and two irish men...hmmm....I feel a pilot for a sitcom coming on).

We flew into Athens with very low expectations. Everyone had said that Athens was completely lame and dirty. However, I found this to not be at all the case. First of all, the airport was lovely. They even have a museum in the airport showing all the bits and pieces dug up when they were building the airport (vases, plates, etc). The trains into the city were really clean and easy to use as well. Having been to Istanbul recently, I found Athens was no dirtier than Istanbul...actually quite a bit cleaner.

Our hotel was also fabulous. The man at the desk was the most helpful hotel man the world has ever seen, AND it had free internet. We were pretty much in the central tourist district, a fifteen minutes walk from the acropolis, among lots of restaurants and across the road from some kind of porno cinema. It is very impressive walking through Athens, as you can see the Acropolis up on the hill from nearly everywhere.

First night in Athens we went out to try the local cuisine, which haunted me all through the night and made me appreciate the chair that was situated next to the toilet in the bathroom. Quite comfortable to be able to sit on a chair next to the toilet, back against a cool tile wall, able to vomit whenever you like...well as comfortable as you can be after throwing up for hours anyway.Better than sitting on the floor! Ok, think have flogged the vomiting story to death...Despite the first meal in Greece turning my stomach, I decided not to avoid the local cuisine thereafter, and really did not have another problem. In fact, loved Souvlaki, which is of course meat on a stick...mmmm. convenient. In double che news, double che in greece was odd as it had no sauce, no onion, and no pickle!

So in Athens we visited the Archaelogical museum, the Acropolis, the Agora's (ruins of marketplaces), temple of Zeus, and we caught a bus down to the temple of Poseiden at Sounion, which is kind of just like all the ruins in Athens, but by the ocean...which is nice. The most impressive thing I found about all these ruins, is that the marble that they are all made of was mined on Paros in the Greek Islands, which is at least 7 hours away on a modern ferry! so 2700 years ago, someone found this marble on the islands, mined it, and shipped bazillions of tonnes of it all the way to Athens to build not only the acropolis, but lots of other temples around the place, and even many of the gutters in Athens are made of marble!

From Athens we caught a five and a half hour ferry out to Mykonos, where we stayed at the Contiki resort. Hilariously, for those who know my feelings on loud americans, the majority of the resort was at the time booked out to students from Miami university. To my uneducated mind it was reminiscent of all those shows you see about 'Spring Break'. Their confidence and volume were amazing. Another funny thing was that our tour guide for the Busabout thing I was on was a young american called Cody...as soon as he introduced himself I could not stop smiling. Natalie, a girl I befriended on the trip, pointed out to him that in the book 'Freakonomics' she was reading, Cody was the number one name that uneducated parents choose to name their child. (I did not look into this statistic, but assume that the survey was only taken of americans, because if it was an international survey, and Cody was the most common name chosen by undeducated people internationally...well maybe I shouldn't go there in case I get hunted down and killed for Anti-american sentiments...)

In Mykonos we explored the little town, which was everything you would expect the greek islands to be about...whitewashed buildings with colorful doors and shutters, cobblestone streets, restaurants on the water, white dome roofed churches and windmills. There were also these couple of pink pelicans walking around the town. They aren't scared of people and just walk up and down the streets, into shops, get chased out of shops. Apparently the original pelican was a gift to Mykonos from that Jackie Onassis.

Back at the resort, we lazed around on the beach a lot on sun loungers and under umbrellas, taking advantage of the fact that they were free, as on every other beach we went to they cost quite a bit. Then I went on this thing, which was like a big rubber donut, that they tie to the back of a speed boat and take you out on the ocean for fifteen minutes or so....very fun.

After Mykonos we went to Paros (where all that marble came from). Paros was a lot quieter, the towns are still as picturesque though. The accommodation was hideous, so if possible, if you go to Paros do NOT stay at a place called the Coral Roms in Naoussa. Naoussa itself is quite nice though. In paros we climbed this MOUNTAIN to St Anthonys Monastery, which was beautiful, but I nearly died (repeat occurence on volcano walk which I will talk about later). We visited the traditional village of Lefkes, which is built away from the coast and up in the hills to hide from pirates...which is odd, because throughout the greek islands, all the other towns seem to be built on the coast.

The third island we visited was Ios, where we stayed at the 'Far Out' resort. I highly highly highly recommend this accommodation to anyone going to Ios.But stay in the hotel, not the camping grounds, as the bungalows in the camping grounds are stiflingly hot and full of insects, so Shauna and I upgraded to the hotel, which was only 17 Euros a night each anyway, airconditioned, and beautiful. There isnt much to say about Ios, other than that it is the party island of the area and it is super cheap. It is very debaucherous, and not really my scene, but I had fun anyway, and got a little bit tipsy on my first night there.

My favourite island of the four was Santorini. Actually, the island is not called Santorini. the island we stayed on is called Thira, and the group of islands is Santorini. All the islands used to be part of a volcano (I suppose they still are actually). After some big earthquake, a lot of the sides of the volcano collapsed, and the ocean ran into the volcano, and there were just bits and pieces of the volcanos rim left above sea level. and those are the islands. They are all situated in a circle shape, so you can see how big the volcano would have been (9 by 6 miles apparently). In the middle of the circle are some new islands, which are made of lava that is being pushed up from the centre of the volcano. (I don't think I explained all that properly).

Santorini is beautiful. High, jagged cliffs, with villages perched on top, white washed buildings set against the dark cliffsides, and beautiful sunsets. The first night we went out for dinner on the Caldera, which is the very edge of the inside rim of the volcano...I sat and ate my squid (ordered calamari, it came out as a whole entire squid), facing the ocean and the other islands, high above sea level, watching an amazing sunset. Would have been romantic had I been with anyone good (you know what I mean). After dinner we went to a pub to watch the Australia Croatia game, and since we got through to the next round, I may have gotten a little bit tipsy...

This was to haunt me the next day as I clambered around the lava volcano island thing, in searing heat with a hangover. The ground was all black, barren, dusty and hot, it was a steep walk, there was no shade, it was a nightmare. Old, fat ladies were walking past me with no problems though...

After that we caught a boat around to another side of the volcano and dove off the boat into beautiful clear blue waters to swim into shore where there were some hot springs. As I dove off the boat into the water (movie-style) I felt a million times better, very refreshed, and was able to enjoy the warm springs and soft clay/mud which is apparently supposed to be very good for your skin.

Santorini is also famous for its three different types of beaches. Black sand, red sand and white sand. We didn't see the white sand, as with limited time we assumed these would be the same as all the other beaches we had seen, but we went to the black and red.

The red sand beach was my favourite of all the beaches on all the islands. It isn't really sand, it is red pebbles, but they are quite comfortable on the feet, and the water is amazingly clear. It is set against a background of these sheer cliffs which are black and red rock...very impressive. Must somehow post photos.

The black sand beach was much less impressive. It is what I would imagine Port Kembla beach to look like if Port Kembla beach wasn't actually nice, and if it had coal instead of sand. The water wasn't as clear either. The only good feature of it was that it was a lot easier to get to than the red sand beach, which you had to clamber around a point to get to (although, that only adds to its charms in my opinion).

I have returned from Greece with quite a good tan I think, not one speck of sunburn, and a really cool necklace thatI have taken a photo of which I will also have to post. If you are going to the Greek Islands though, try to make it early or late summer, as it was almost uncomfortably hot already at this time of year (or am I just becoming too British...?).