Sunday 22-06 - The long boat

We packed our things and waited for the 2pm bus. Josh and I walked down to the town to look around and buy snacks for the 8 hour ferry ride. Josh found a nice wallet.



We decided for lunch to get the Greece staple: the gyros pita. We´ve had many of these while in Greece, with varying degrees of taste. This was by far the worst gyros pita I have eaten in Greece. I couldn´t finish it, the chicken was that bad.

We waited back at the hotel.



We had ice cream.



When the bus came it was time to say goodbye to the people we were leaving behind. We all hugged and swapped facebook details and told each other we´d stay in touch.

The port was winding again as we boarded. The ferry was overbooked and the ride long, so the group had a plan to grab good seats. We ran as fast as we could to the front of the line. Who ever could get there first threw bags over every nice chair and table to save places. We did pretty well.

The boat ride was a little rocky, but not too bad. We played cards and slept and ate tuna salad. Then late to sleep.

Saturday 21-06 - Caldera

We met downstairs, with bathers, towels walking shoes for the volcano tour.



I heard there was going to be mud involved so I wore the bathers I wore to the dead sea. Better to get one pair dirty than two. We strolled to town, to the edge of the cliff. We walked along the streets that teetered on the edge and looked at the views. They were breathtaking. We followed them to the cable cars, which we needed to get down to the old port. The cable cars were 6 small carriages joined together. The girlsin the car infront of us were screaming as we went down. It wasn´t bumpy or fast or anything worth screaming about. They were funny.





Down at the old port, we bordered a boat. It looked old and had place for sails, but didn't have any sails, just a motor. We sat on the side of the boat. The wind blew and we got wet, very very wet. Each wave hit the side and showered us so that we were soaked through. a lot of the group retreated upstairs but the rest of us soldiered on. Getting soaked wasn´t all bad. In fact it would be a blessing with the sun and heat of our next venture.



We arrived at the small volcano island of Nea Kameni.



This means new island. The volcano peaks above the water twice, with the second being Palea Kameni, ´old island´. The volcano walk was mostly just a mountain hike to a spectacuar view of the caldera. There were little actual volcano things to see. The walk was a few kilometres up and down rocky paths.



On the way there were rocks covered in bright yellow circles. We thought they might be moss, maybe with the sulphur.



The view at the top looked out over the entire caldera, all the islands. It was windy and I think worth the trek in the end.



On the way back we passed one of the craters. There was steam coming out of a green crystal covered hole. The guide was very enthusiatic and fit. We ran back and forward up the mountain to the different groups. Then she dug a hole in the path near the crater. It went 20cm from the black sandy ground to the darker sand below. As I put my hands on the dirt, it was hot. Hot enough that you couldn't leave your hand there for long. That heat from such a swallow hole is amazing.

Next we took the boat to anchor near some rocks on another island. There were hot springs there from the volcano, with therapuetic mud. We docked 50-100m of shore and got ready to depart. I jumped off the boat and swam out to the shallow hot springs. As we got closer the water got warmer and warmer until it was 20-something degrees. It was also far more shallow at that point. We looked for mud but it was hard to find. The Niki called us over to where the good mud was and we covered ourselves in it.

The mud wasn´t as nice as the dead sea mud. It was more stony and more sticky. It was really hard to get off. Despite our best efforts we all had red-fake tan looking blotches on us for the rest of the day. So did our towels and bathers. I was glad I used my already mus stained bathers.

The boat took us to Thirassia for lunch. As usual we all got bread, Tzatziki and Greek salad. I´m really getting into the Tat and salad. Starting to crave olives and feta. Then we had a Thirassia specialty, squid with pasta in a light tomato sauce. I liked it.



The boat made its way back to old Fira port, via the scenic route. It sailed passed Ioa (pronounced Ee-ah). This town house the painted houses that everyone seems to think of when Santorini is mentioned. Also a huge castle and a library with versions of all the bibles in many different languages.



Once again we got soaking soaking wet. I was tired and wanting to go back to town. To get there we had to take the donkeys. Well, not had to, but they were included and more fun than the cable cars. We each took turns mounting the donkeys, most of which looked like they were probably mules.

The donkeys were crazy crazy.

They kept stopping. They zig-zagged up the 500 or so large stone steps. They rammed into each other. We had no reigns to control them. We were at their whims where we went and when. Still, we all had a great time seeing who would win. It was a blast riding up together. Also watching as our steeds almost ran over the walking tourists who had to take the same path. I see now that it would have been a mistake to walk. Lets just say your shoes would suffer on a path trodden by dozens of donkeys all day.





My donkey stopped behind some others that were just standing around, so I figured this was the end. There wasn´t any other way to tell of we were at the top. On dismounting, I tried with all my might to land on a clean piece of stone. Then dodged donkey-droppings up to the shops.

We were given free time until the evening bus, so we looked around the town. I had seen a donkey marrionette at the port before we left. Now we were back I decided i wanted one. I got one for myself and one for a present. Josh found a shot glass.



Back at the hotel we took a quick dip in the pool before getting ready to go out. At 9pm the bus picked us up and took us to the other side of the island where we were to have our farewell dinner. Have the group had made plans to stay longer in Santorini and not boat back with the tour. That meant this was our last night all together.

The food was the usual greek salad, tzatziki, bread and a grilled chicken dish. There was also pasta for veggies. It was good and there was lots of wine being passed around. The desert was a strannge cake that had the texture of polenta and the taste of Nutri Grain cereal. I was one of the only people who kept eating it after the first bite.



The food was followed by Greek dancing. The girls and some of the boys got up did a dance similar to the hora. We dancing arm in arm, straight out the door into the street. We almost got hit by some cars doing it. I think some of the girls sat at the table and didn't join in. I think they were missing out just sitting there. The dancing was a perfect end to the night.

Friday 20-06 - The Chaucer

This was the day we were to ferry to Santorini. But before that could happen, we were on a mission. A day earlier we had found a Book of Chaucer´s Canterbury Tales in an internet café and now we wanted it. So we returned to the shop in town. It was a book exchange but we had no book to give in return. So we gave the shop owner 2 Euro for it. We were very pleased with ourselves. We waited for the next bus back. We sat, reading out loud the introduction of the book, like some kind of english literature class. Back at the hotel, we waited for the port pick up, taking turns reading.

The wind was very strong and everything was getting blown around. The giant ferry were rocking around like tiny fishing boats. It probably wasn´t the right day to wear a skirt. One of the girls on the trip had been feeling sick all day. I tried to see if there was anything I could do. I think it might have been to much time in the sun. I tried to get her to drink as much water as she could. I felt sorry for her having to be a boat in this weather.

The trip was indeed, rough. I read some more Chaucer and then slept for the rest of the 4 hour journey. Before I knew it we were in Santorini. The first thing you see there is the Caldera. Santorini (or Thira) is a C shaped island with a Volcano floating in its centre. Around the volcano is an underwater valley then large round ridges of what used to be volcano.



These are the caldera and include Thira, Thirassia and some other smaller islands. As we approached Santorini we saw enormous red and black cliffs along the span of the island. The port below and the town of Fira perched on top of the cliffs. It is incredibly dramatic. It was very different to the other islands. The beauty of the place is greater than merely white painted houses or parties. Paros and Mykonos could never recreate this.



Apparently they are expecting an eruption in the next ten years. It will happen after their sister volcano, that is now active, closes up. The last was in about 1950 I think, when a lot of the land fell into the sea.

The bus rode up the winding road to the top of the mountain. Every turn felt like we would miss and drive over the cliff to the ground below. The sun was setting as we rode up, so it sat above, the islands and the water below.





We all dumped our bags and marched across the street to Taverna Simo, for food. Josh and I got Moussaka and stuffed tomatoes and capsicums. I was tired and decided to sleep that night instead of going out.

Thursday 19-06 - Catch up day

We woke up late that day. I woke up mid morning and wondered down to the mini-mart to pick up a tuna pasta salad pack for lunch and some water. Eventually Josh woke up and we made our way to town. We really needed internet at that point. We found Mykonos internet world. We spent 4 hours with a lot of net related house keeping and organising future meet ups with people in Italy.

While I waited for Josh to finish his bit I looked around the small book exchange library in the shop. A few shelves of books on a take one – leave one basis. My eyes landed on a spine that read Chaucer. It was a selection of the Canterbury Tales with explanation of the text. Interesting, sitting next to cheap romance novels and Greece guide books. I sat and read a page or two. Its the kind of book where every second line you have to look at the foot notes for translation. The medieval english can be tricky. But I got really into it. I almost didn't want to leave it there, I wanted to keep reading.

We returned to the hotel for a shower and a small pre-drink. Then we met the rest of the tour group in town. Niki had organised everyone to go out again that night. Not to Paradise Beach, but to a popular and bar and club in town called the Scandinavian Bar.

On the way I was harassed by a man dressed as clown. He wasn´t funny. I wasn´t in the mood for clowns.



Niki led everyone upstairs to the dance floor of the bar. We were the only ones there at that point. They hadn't out cloudy white shots to everyone and we started to dance.



Well, tried at least. The music was slow R&B stuff and quite boring for me. We tried to dance to it, but I was getting restless. I tried requests to the DJ. He didn't have anything I wanted. The only maybe was the Gorillaz, which I was quite happy to have. He played the Gorillaz´s Dirty Harry. Josh and I started to get into into it. I looked around 30 seconds into the song and we were the only ones on the floor. We had completely killed the dance floor with our song choice. Everyone else in the group had scampered when they heard it, but it wasn´t really that much different to their stuff. The DJ made a salvage attempt and cut our song in the middle. Everyone else returned to the floor, but we left it.

Josh and I decided to try some other bars and clubs to find somewhere we could better appreciate. We went to a few, but maybe it is still too early in the season. The crowd just wasn´t into it. So we got some pita souvlaki and headed for the bus station. Well, more of a stop really, there was no building per se.

I thought back to that Chaucer book from earlier. I was drawn to it. I need to take it with me. On the way back we checked the internet store to see if we could get the Chaucer book. It was closed so we decided to return the next day.

I sat on the bus, waiting for it to start. As I watched, the bus became filled with the majority of the topdeck group who went to the Scandinavian. They were also catching the last bus home. Also on the bus was the annoying American hat guy. I think he might have remembered me from the night before when I scolded him for being loud. He didn't meet my eye.

Wednesday 18-06 - Mykonos and the moon party

We woke and packed, then headed down to breakfast. We walked down to the shops with some of the girls and browsed for thongs/flip flops. Josh caught up and asked if I had the water carrier. I thought he had it. We rushed back to the room to find it, but to no avail. We tore apart the bedroom, but it had disappeared. No one else had apparently been in there. We were quite upset, it was a really, REALLY useful addition to our traveling. I decided we should a new one as soon as we could.

We were running late for meeting the group at the port and rushed down to were the ferry was. As I walked briskly I saw a quad bike drive into the side of a moped. The guy and moped went flying. He got straight up and although angry, didn't look hurt, so we kept walking.

The trip to Mykonos was only 45 minutes and on aeroplane-like allocated seats. One member of our group walked around and offered everyone big pieces of watermelon. The rest of us talked about the OC and the Gilmore Girls, while we ate cheese on crackers. At port we pushing past the masses trying to get us to stay at their hotels. We loaded a coach bus and up a hill to our hotel.

It is the nicest person we´ve been at the entire time. It said it was 4 star. The place was exquisitely done up. We had our briefing but couldn't get into the rooms yet. So we strolled the tiny road toward the beach, about 200m.



Right by the beach was our hotel pool, also beautiful. We lay there to wile away the time until we got into our rooms.



The rooms were huge and impressive. They even had a kitchen with a hotplate.



For dinner we crossed the road to the mini-mart and got tinned peas and beans and greek meatballs. We wanted to save that days spending cash for drinking later on. It was all really tasty though.



Niki took us all on the bus into town to show us the important shops and businesses. Then a short walking tour. She showed us one of the many pelicans the island is known for. No one really seemed interested. Then a church known as the melting birthday cake. I didn't see the resemblance.

We went to a place with good views of little Venice and the Mykonos windmills. Little Venice was used by pirates for a while. Every pirate house has a small room on the water for a hidden getaway boat if the island got taken over. By whom? Other pirates maybe, or some army. I´m not quite sure.

I quite liked the windmills.




Some people stayed on to have dinner at Little Venice and then go straight out. Mykonos is supposed to be the party island. We also happened to arrived on the night of the full moon. So we saw posters for a full moon party at Paradise Club, one of the two huge clubs at Paradise Beach, the party beach of the island. Josh and I headed back for some pre-drinks before heading out.

Most the group said they were going to be at the moon party. We thought we might check out some other clubs in town first then head down. We drank bacardi and sprite and listened to music off Ozymandias. Then we bought tickets into town and hopped a bus.

We went to a few places for some drinks and check check out the vibe. They were either empty or filled with middle aged crowd.

We passed the pelicans again, but now we seemed much more interesting.



Actually everything did.



We caught another bus, this time to Paradise Beach. It was packed full of party goers. Many were loud and American and annoying. Especially this one guy with a straw hat who kept shouting and saying ¨Myyyyyyyyykooooooonooooooooosss¨. I quietly felt drunken angry at him.

We got an SMS from one of the group telling us where they were. To my suprise almost the entire topdeck group was there, all dancing together. Including both tour guides.





I´ve never been at a party like this before. The enormous outside dancefloor was a curving frame for an even bigger swimming pool. It was packed with bather and skimpily clad people.

We all danced and danced and danced. In a crazy twist of fate the American guy with the hat and his friend came up to our group. I think I shouted at him for being loud on the bus and then clumsily tried to steal his hat.



We danced.





At about 4 we set off to find a couple of taxis to take us home.

Tuesday 17-06 - Paros and the beach

We boarded the bus at 9 to start our tour of Paros optional tour. Other tour members had decided to rent quads and visit all the beaches. I´m not the kind of person who can sit at different beaches all day. I wanted to actually see the island. So we set of driving between the hills and the sea. There were house building speckling the landscape. We got out of the bus at the entrance to Lefkes, a central town. The buses cant go through, as the streets are labyrinth of white painted stones made to confuse pirates.





There was a church with a story to it. The pirates attacked the town, killing the wives and children. They settled themselves in the town. The preist of the town invited all the pirates over for a large dinner. They drank and drank the wine, which was mixed with sedative herbs. The moment they were passed out all the men in the town descended on the pirates and killed every last one. They took all the treasure they found and used it to build the church.



We ducked in to a shop near the church for water. The owner came out with a big bowl full of home grown apricots and offered them to us. We ate apricots and carried on through the maze.





Everything is so beautiful here. The bright white walls make all the windows,trimmings and colours seem so much stronger. We wondered through until we came to a ice parlor. They gave us all ice cream and we ate in front of the ocean views.





Eventually we got back to the bus. We drove to the next town, Naoussa. Niki led us to a harbor with an old castles stone type place. I wasn´t really listening because I was busy putting on suncream. I really didn't want to get burnt.







We bused again to a restaurant near Amenas beach. We had salad, Tzatziki with bread and moussaka. It was all good.





Then onto the beach. The beach was incredibly picturesque. There were smooth and irregularly shaped rocks to each side. the water. wow.





We lay on the beach until 5. At some point the group that were Quad biking around the island joined us. They had been to 2 other beaches before this one. We all just lay there under the umbrellas or in the sun or in the water.

When we got back I went to shower. To my horror, I took off my shirt to reveal a red-pink expanse across my abdomen and large U shaped burn across my back. I was angry with myself. I had been so carefully to not get burnt. I had been diligent in my suncream. I had put on more cream when I got the beach. Strangely, the areas I creamed on the bus by the castle ruins were fine. In fact I had wanted those areas to tan and they were still pale. The burnt areas were only those I put cream on when I to the beach. All I can think is that Ilay down on the towel too soon after applying and it got rubbed off. Josh also had some red patches.

I moaned to Josh for a while,then put my shirt back on and went to find a pharmacy. I passed one of our tour guides as I left the hotel. She highly recommended using youhgart as an after sun cream for burns. The other guide recommended it to someone else a few days earlier. It seems bizarre, but they swear by it. I went to the pharmacy and picked up some aloe vera cream. Then I went to the supermarket for a tub of plain yoghurt. First we applied the aloe, then we covered ourselves in yoghurt. It smelt really awful. We sat there for half an hour, covered in the stuff. When it had hardened we washed it off and doused ourselves in cold water. Then more Aloe and ready to go out.

We went with the tour leaders and a few other people a cheap and cheerful souvlaki place. I had chicken in pita with chips in it, plus some wine. Then to the guides´ favourite haunt, the Saloon D´or. They seemed to be on good terms with the staff. The soccer was being played at every bar and club on the island and this place was no exception. Some of the group sat near the screen while the rest of us sat somewhere closer to the music.

The waiter brought out pink shots for everyone at the table, on the house. Apparently they are called ẅatermelon and have bits of orange juice, vodka and some other bits. They were sweet and easy to down.



The music became more dancey as the clock got closer to 12. We started dancing and were soon joined by fellow topdeckers. We danced until 2am, to 90s and 00s R&B, hip hop and pop. We left just as the DJ started to bring out the pub anthems like Bon Jovi.