Greece

Photos

8 – 21 – 2011

Gergo and I made it to Santorini after four flights and over twenty hours of travel time! We were pretty exhausted when we arrived but after a walk along the beach and a nap in the sun we are back in action! We are 9 hours ahead of Austin time but our bodies have adjusted well to the time difference. We are off to dinner and we hope you check in on us from time to time!

Gergo and Em

Gergo enjoying a snack while waiting for one of our many flights (thanks mom!)

looking fly while flying

almost to Santorini!

beach time

relaxing before dinner

8 – 23 – 2011

We promised ourselves that this trip would be a bit more planned out than the last trip but we quickly slipped into our old ways. When we arrived in Athens, we got out the guidebook and started deciding whether we should take a 20 min. flight or a 12 hour boat ride to the island of Santorini. That was the easiest decision of the trip so far.

When we got out of the airport terminal we decided what city to go to first (there are only about 4 to choose from). We ended up going to Perisso, a small town along the coast with a beautiful black pebble beach. We spent a couple of days exploring beaches and zipping around the island on a 4 wheeler. Oddly, they wouldn’t rent us a scooter because we don’t have a motorcycle license, I have a feeling this rule is enforced differently on each island and different operators.

The postcard image of the greek isles is the city of Oai on Santorini, houses painted vivid blues and stark white, great views of the Caldera and volcano, and the famous Santorini sunset. We decided to check out what all the fuss is about…apparently everyone else was interested in checking things out as well. We spent a day ducking past other tourists in tiny corridors between buildings to get a few photos, have a coffee and an excellent dinner (peppercorn pork and some sort of sausage made with a mix of lamb, chicken and beef. It was awesome!).

We are now headed to the island of Paros to do more of what we have become accustomed to…motor bikes and beaches.

Notes:
For the sake of becoming more cultured Emily has broken the veggie lifestyle.

It never fails, every time that we get on a bus or boat everyone rushes on with no respect to any type of order. Even when seats are assigned and there is no gain for early entrance, people elbow each other out of the way.

The ride we rented along with many others on then island didn’t have a reverse. If gravity wasn’t able to help us reverse Gergo would have to push the vehicle into the correct direction. At first Gergo thought he had missed something in his ATV tutorial but we soon noticed many other ATV’s being pushed around.

beautiful Santorini

yea!

just the two of us

night

our accommodations

8 – 25 – 2011

After we got to Paros we jumped on a bus to Naoussa. We finally had a plan to stay at a particular hotel…the sun was blazing, our packs felt a bit heavier than usual and everywhere we needed to go was up a hill or up stairs. After about an hour of searching, we finally found the hotel, took one look and were ready to continue walking.

We quickly found another hotel that turned out to be great. We took a well deserved nap and headed out to see the town. I have never been to Italy before but, this is a greek version of what I expect it to look like. All the buildings were painted stark white, stone streets and amazing cafes with tables spilling into the street that already felt a bit small. At every turn we saw boutiques, bakeries, pastry shops, bars and restaurants. In the evening, an open town square turned into outdoor seating for several restaurants.

We spent the next few days exploring the island of Paros on a scooter (they don’t seem to mind about the motorcycle license rules on other islands). We spent the day buzzing around the entire island. We saw a butterfly sanctuary, several beaches and beautiful countryside. By the time we dropped the scooter off it was time to follow our noses through the tight streets to the restaurant that looked and smelled the best.

Up next, Mykonos island

grapes are growing everywhere without trellis; they just mound on the ground. Also, if you choose to eat one be prepared for lots of seeds and really tough skin!

seeing the sights

instead of a sign telling you you’re leaving the city limits, you get this

butterfly sanctuary that we stumbled upon while scootering

Panaxia butterfly up close

zooming around the island requires safety gear!

Gergo and his Thunderbird gear (thanks Taylor!)

9 – 1 – 2011

The travel books have all mentioned that Mykonos is the place to go if you would like to stay up for most of the night and wake up somewhere near the beach only to be disturbed by the afternoon sun. We were not interested so much in the all night bender but the beach part of it sounded quite appealing. Paros is a beautiful island with great countryside and towns but the bit about laying on a beach with a great view and doing not much was noticeably lacking.

Our last moments on Paros were spent trying to dodge the Italian movie being filmed and trying to make a reservation in a hotel on Mykonos…any hotel on Mykonos. The last few days of August is the end of peak season and it seemed like only 1,000 Euro per night rooms were available. So, we did what we could, booked the presidential suite. No. We did the opposite, we went to Mykonos under the assumption that there would be a few desperate hotels sending staff to the ferry in hopes of booking the last remaining rooms (this is very common).

As we exited the ferry at 8 pm, there were several people attempting to convince us in broken english that their hotels are better than all others. For some reason, we decided on Paradise Beach Club. The name sounded pleasant enough so we were off with several other youth travelers (in hindsight this should have tipped us off). Paradise Beach Club is a large compound with accomodations and amenities including small bungalows, studio apartments, plywood shacks and canvas tents along with a cafeteria and beach club featuring advertised Europe’s hottest dj’s. The place was exactly what I imagine college kids hope their spring break to be but never quite measures up to…what ever you can imagine happened in front of, next to or in close vicinity of us. We managed to stay one night.

One quick note, many greek islands have main cities that share the name of the island (on Mykonos island the main city is also called Mykonos). If the city is not called the island’s name it is called Hora or sometimes Chora, both meaning main city (it took us a bit but we are trying to keep up).

The next day, we checked out and went to a hotel booking service in Mykonos. There, we talked to a woman who found us one room and seemed quite offended when I asked what our other options were (as if her performing the miracle of finding us one room under 100 euro wasn’t enough for me). The place she found us turned out to be amazing. Family run, minutes from a great beach, steps from a bakery and a gillato shop and to top it off got us a good deal on a scooter. We spent the next 4 days getting bronze on phenomenal beaches and exploring the cities on Mykonos Island.

Next stop…Andros

9 – 3 – 2011

We left Andros without too much fuss, waving down the bus on its way to the dock and having plenty of time to spare before our giant vessel arrived. We were heading to Rafina, a port city 1 1/2 hours east of Athens (aka Athena or something in Greek that sounded like a sneeze. On that note I totally understand where the phrase ‘it’s all Greek to me’ comes from. On one of our many bus rides Gergo and I counted three different types of ‘E’. The conventional E, a summation sign I’ve only seen in math classes, and an E with a tail that looks like a monkey hanging from the bottom line.) The ferry was huge – we watched giant tour busses loading and unloading from its insides. On the boat we struggled between being smothered by smokers in the only wind free and shady place, being roasted by the sun without wind, and being in a gale of wind in the shade. We shuffled between areas and I survived the journey without any seasick incidents.

As soon as the ferry docked we followed the crowd to a bus marked Athens and climbed on. We were pretty proud of ourselves until the bus started making stops in Athens and we realized didn’t know where to get off. We decided for the end of the line and catch a taxi to our pre-chosen hotel.

At the end of the line we gathered our packs and waited as the line of taxis pulled up. The first was quickly taken from us by a European family. The next taxi asked us a few questions about our destination then sped off shaking his finger at us and shouting ‘No!’ Gergo took over the taxi hailing at this point and the third taxi zoomed past us shouting something about the street being too busy.

After trying to to figure out the rail vs. bus vs. metro system we spotted the Acropolis in the distant horizon and started walking toward it. We walked. We received wrong directions from a nice man and told ‘look at the map!’ after we asked for directions from not so nice man trying to sell us a tour. After an hour of walking, we made it to a hotel marked in the guidebook but they were on a shift change and wouldn’t help us so we found our way to the Hotel Phaedra. The receptionist was very nice and soon we found ourselves in a clean room with an awesome view of the Acropolis! We were told they even have wifi and if you’re reading this post it must be true.

So here we are in Athens- it’s exciting! After a nap and some water we will be ready to explore!

bright eyed and bushy tailed ready for the day

our vessel

the Acropolis view from our window

9 – 4 – 2011

Gergo checking out the map Ancient library Temple of Zeus Something cool next to the Parthenon Ancient Agora Streets of Athens This dog isn’t dead Night Acropolis and Dionisos Ancient Theater
Parthenon