Place we stayed at in Santorini called San Georgios, highly recommended, very helpful guys Dina and George.
Boat trip around Santorini was soo cool. To get to the ship, we had to climb down 3 times as many steps as heaven – thats a lot of steps. Donkeys could have taken us up or down the steps around the islands, but we’re hardcore. Everything we did on Santorini just ended in fantastic views.
First island stop was the volcano, still active, with occasional plumes of smoke (really small) we had to climb the volcano, had no idea we were doing this, and Pat, Stef and Maia wore thongs. Our second stop was some rust coloured water, which had 40 degree water merging with the surrounding ocean, making for some comfortable 25 degree waters to dive into from the ship and have a nice swim around. This island was inhabited by 1 man … and his goat.
Third stop saw us doing more climbing, which was great for the thong people who made me look good, always a bonus. this time up many more steps to the only restaurant on this island. Oh yeah, forgot to mention our guide to the islands, Maria, who seems to be able to speak fluently in at least 7 different languages, she was cool.
Lastly, our 6 hour tour ended with us on the Oia end of Santorini, ready for more steps, soo many steps, soo hot, so we took that lot slowly. All this step climbing certainly beat any of our step climbing days in Turkey. We then sat in some trees drinking beer from the local supermarket until it was close to sunset. Then we wandered to an old castle, just a little one, where we could watch the sun set, apparently one of the best places to do so. It was absolutely packed with tourists, but we managed to get not a bad spot after we pushed a few people off the edge. They were only tourists after all.
Then we ran around like idiots trying to find a bus back to our hotel. After all that excercise, things become a little hazy. We sat outside a jazz bar drinking beer after we cleaned up and listened to some nice live music. Then we wandered to the local recommended place called Murphy’s, the local cheap place to drink and dance stupidly (ok, probably just me who dances stupidly). I think we sleep walked home from that place about 4am, but had lots of fun.
Next day we got some sleep before heading off to the ferry to Mykonos, thankfully an afternoon trip and only 3 hours, though it was late and we had to hang around and pretend to be awake and nice to each other. Once again, once we got to Mykonos, our very friendly hotel lady, Christina picked us up, and had managed to fix up a weirdo booking that happened over the net, thanks to Dina from San Georgio’s who’d called her that morning to let her know, people just know people all over the islands (we didn’t ask her to call).
Rest of the day, I think we just lay on the beach and swam, just down the stairs from Mama’s. Mama and Papa, as they are known to everyone are Christina’s parents and fed us breakfast every day, and tried to tell us stuff in Greek that we barely understood, which was quite amusing. First breakfast we met some more Australians, you really can’t escape them, especially when beaches with sand are involved.
Most of Mykonos was spent lying on beaches and swimming, the second day, we hit Paradise Beach about 2pm, and found out things started kicking off, well, just behind us on the beach about 5pm. So we scored ourselves a table, thanks to our amusing waiter (yes, paradise is having a waiter bring you cocktails while you lye on a beach). Then we scored ourselves a bottle of vodka (Absolut) for 60 euro (you do the math) – of course once that was finished, we scored a second. OK, the bottle also included any mixers we wanted.
Then you just have to imagine us getting up and dancing on podiums, the Aussie girls from the hotel also ran into us at some point and joined us. Then imagine myself getting onto the bar with 5 lovely dancers, until Pat tried to join in, so the bar tender kicked us off – good one Pat. OK, you don’t really have to imagine it, photos will surface at some point. We partied on there til aroudn 3am before taxiing it home.
Next day, we lay around a pool, soaking up sun and swimming, bet you didn’t see that coming. Don’t think we did much else that day. Had dinner by the beach, place running off generators due to blackout earlier. Then the generators died, so we all had a nice romantic dinner in the dark for a while. Some wedding thing was going on at this place, so we got to see drunkards doing greek dancing, was great. Also met some 19yo American guys at the hotel, with their own stories of paradise beach, involving them, alcohol, shoving and bouncers. They looked a little worse for wear in the morning, hehe.
By night, days and days of sun and beach took its toll as Pat and I ended with sunburnt backs and stomachs. Seems weeks of Turkeys sun didn’t make us invincible, ah well, live and learn.
Next day we hired 4 wheelers and power toured the island, stopped at Super Paradise Beach, don’t know where they where coming from – where was my waiter with cocktails? But was still fun, 2 of us on each bike, just cruising an island.
Then we had to get back for our midnight ferry. Mental note #187, bring a travel blanket at least next time I travel, also a mini mat and sleeping bag. Also, book ferries well in advance so you don’t get stuck on a 5 hour midnight ferry that turns up late, with crap tickets that get you stuck on the deck, with 100km (felt like it) winds, and nothing but a steel floor to attempt sleep on.
Anyways, Athens came around 6am, and had brekky and went straight to airport to Milan (Italy for the unitiated). Got to Milan and had left over pizza from last dinner in Greece. Mmmm … soggy … Then got to the city and found accommodation, which we went for 2 nights instead of the original 1 idea. I like Milan – it’s very … big. The streets are huge, the buildings are hugely wide, not so much tall. The shops in the main shopping area are so fancifully laid out. And everything is ridiculously expensive. Except the really nice gelato we had, from a nice lady who couldn’t speak English, but was teaching us bits of Italian 🙂
Saw one of the local landmarks, the Duomo, undergoing restoration, but so … big, and intricately detailed. Also wandered to the Castle at night after dinner (I ate wild boar, it was good), going to see it today as well. And that brings me to now, only a week and a half to go. Time to plan the next trip. Ciao!