Greek Islands

September 12, 2010, Naxos.

This morning we woke up at 5:40 am and caught the taxi to Port Piraeus. It was cold and dark and Blue Star Ferries' ticket office had broken down. About 30 minutes later we got the tickets we had reserved and we were on the huge, and I mean HUGE, ferry leaving Athens behind at 7:30am. As for the trip itself, well; it was long, it was boring, it was for 5 1/2 hours. At 1pm we reached Mykonos. My first impressions was that it was nothing how it had been made out to be. Feeling disappointed in Mykonos I walked along with Michelle through the crowds at the New Port trying to find someone with a TravelTalk sign. Eventually we found it. On the boat, The Viking Star, which was next to our ferry, just on the opposite side to which we had begun walking. We also found Mykonos, it was behind the giant ferry on the other side of the island. We checked in and checked out our room where the shower is just on the wall and drains into the hole next to the toilet.
Up on deck I met some interesting people. Most of the group are Kiwi's, again, though we have quite a few South Africans as well. They always say 'phenomenal', I wish I had their vocab, the words they come out with are just... 'phenomenal' and sometimes 'distasteful'.
Around the sunset we disembarked the boat after an extremely rough journey to Naxos, however walking through the town was amazing and everything you imagine a Greek island to be. We had dinner as a group that night and began making more friends throughout the group.

September 14, 2010, on ferry to Santorini.

The Viking Star has a few problems so we've all been put on the giant Blue Star Ferry heading towards Santorini which is also where we'll spend the night in a hotel. Yesterday was just spent on Naxos. We walked around the shops and found a beach which had really hard sand, nothing special.

For the sunset we checked out the ruins of Apollos temple which just looks like a giant picture frame.
For dinner we had ice cream, damn it was good too. Later that night we were told we couldn't use the toilets on the boat because of the accumulation of toilet paper. Golden rule on the boat is to put it in the bin next to the toilet. Eventually that problem was fixed p but some peoples drains in their rooms are still blocked. We went out to a bar for 5€ cocktails which were soo good and cheap. When back at the boat I made the important discovery that the pear in our rom had a face! It kind of looks like a smiling Voldemort if you ask me...
3 people have left the tour already and have brought tickets for the same ferry which we are on today though we didn't pay for our trip. So it's a major waste for them now as they're paying for accommodation and transport to all the islands and they've also paid for the tour. I don't think we'll be seeing them very often from now on though.

15th September, 2010. Santorini Apartments.

Yesterday arvo we arrived in Santorini and were able to get amazing shots from the ferry of the island.
We were bused up and over the island to the Black Beach area which was where we were to stay in these nice apartments. After we did a small orientation walk of Thira, the main town on the island.
The shorts that were on the light in our apartment... Strange.
The narrow streets with slippery stones (again) were packed with tourists and I actually didn't enjoy it that much so we headed to Oia, the town on the northern peak to watch the sunset. !00's of other people had the same idea, unfortunately, but we still found a good spot anyway.
The wind picked up and cooled things down as we went out to dinner and then to a club down the walkway. The cocktails here were really nice if you thought them as milkshake fruit juice mix things but as cocktails - crap. It was a fun night out though, and I think now we're all a bit sick of that Speak No Americano song.
Today we caught the bus back up to Oia. We should be pro's at these 1.40€ bus ways but you have to know 'Greek Time' to manage that one. It was way better to see this part of the island less crowded and in daylight. Oia is truly spectacular and i would love to come back one day and stay in one of the places on the cliff with the pool looking out to the ocean.
Tonight we will be catching a ferry to Ios and reuniting with our boat then hitting the town for the biggest night yet. Not feeling too up for it though All the travelling is now starting to catch up.

Black Beach in Santorini.

17th Spetember 2010, on the boat (again) in Paros.

The last few days have been very cruisy. Ios was a bit of a flop. At first it felt like we were the only ones on the island, especially given that the season is now over. The boys played cricket in the square within the harbour using an ice cream sign as a wicket. It became very serious and why not when the players consisted of Australians, South Africans, Kiwi's and Brits. The Kiwis didn't let us forget that infamous underarm either. Mind you, they were proud of me for knowing about it. I cop a bit on these tours for only being 19 and all. It's all in good nature though and they admit to being jealous of my age so I feel fine. Had the best banana split while watching the guys play as well. If it's coming across to you that I've been eating ice cream most the time on this trip then you'd be right.
That night about half of us went out. The vodka was watered down and I guess for 2.50€ what more can you expect. I was a bit let down on this one but some of the others seemed to have a great night.

The next day I slept till I heard Alex, our guide, come through the hall shouting "Swim stop!". Within 5 minutes I was in my swimmer and on top deck ready to go. The water wasn't as warm as Turkey but still the awesomeness of swimming from a boat never wears off!

We arrived in Paros that evening and hung out on the beach then at a cafe where we all ended up having a very serious competition of Connect Four. We all went out for tapas that night, granted it was mainly seafood but the extras like salad and so on were delicious. So were the Mojitos afterwards. On this night a gorgeous boat pulled in next to us which they were saying would have cost a fair few lots of 1,000,000€ and apparently Queen Rania of Jordan was on it last week which I thought was really cool as I admire her social work in Jordan.

Today we probably should have gone to Antiparos but we just caught the bus to a nearby town on Paros and walked around. After some sun baking we had lunch and basically a really relaxing day. Most of the group went out on quad bikes today but I enjoyed just doing nothing.

Also today I learnt that the phrase touching cotton means you're about to shit yourself. Which is the case for about most people on the boat as a virus has made it's way on board. Hurrah.

19th September 2010, Ferry to Athens.

The tour has come to an end and I'm on the ferry in Mykonos with Michelle, Glenn, Aidan, Naomi and Julie. We've kind of formed a little group as we're some of the only people from the tour going back to Athens on this ferry.

Yesterday we had another swim stop which has ended being my last swim in the Mediterranean, which was on our way to Mykonos. We arrived on the island late afternoon and after a gelato break we were lead through the small streets to the windmills and Little Venice.
We didn't get to see Peter the giant pelican but we did see some octopuses being sun dried in fashion and a wedding. There was actually 2 weddings going on at the same time when we were there.

We just walked around some more afterwards before dinner and I finally found a turquoise necklace for a decent price.
Dinner was great as it always has been when eating out in Greece. Everything is always covered in olive oil but tastes great. Speeches were given with Alex saying that "Love is the most important thing to have in life" and we just thanked him and paid him a joint tip. Also found out some things about olives on this too strangly enough. I still don't like them. We decided not to go out after dinner, not many people did, I could barely keep my eyes open. Then at 5 am I had caught the virus. So close to getting away as well.

This morning nothing happened. Michelle went into town to get the tickets for the ferrywhere she also ran into Brittany. I went to the tavern for a drink and last chat with some of the group before they went to the airport. It was deathly boring when they left so I ended up back at the tavern for lunch with the group I'm with now. Glenn and I had drinks spilt on us and almost into my bag with my diary in it, that was aobut the most exciting thing that happened. I'm glad I don't have to go back on the Viking Star again or, the Sea Donkey as we called it. Slow and you felt every wave.
And now I'm here on the giant ferry. So close to going home, I'm almost jelous of those going now while I have 4 more days left. It's just getting very tiring and it's so close it's almost irratating.