Can we stay here forever?!?

With every new island, I fall more in love with Greece.  It is really getting hard to pick our favorite island. While looking for accommodations in Mykonos (slightly hard to do when you arrive with nothing booked on a 3-day weekend) we joked that maybe it would be easier to just buy a place.  Too bad we all wished we could really do that!  We all just keep asking ourselves, "Can we stay here forever?!?"

After spending about 30 minutes at an internet cafe and finding that everything on Hostelworld and Hostelbookers was either booked or too expensive, we were starting to get a little worried  At that exact moment the man working at the internet cafe saw that we were searching for a place to stay and mentioned that the woman who lives across the street has an extra apartment available down the street.  He went to see if it was free... just our luck it was!  At this point we would have taken anything.  This place is wonderful!  The best part is the large balcony that overlooks Little Venice and the windmills!

Once we had our accommodation settled, we were free to explore Mykonos town.  This place is SO cute!  Its a relatively small town filled with narrow, white alleys…and easy to get lost!  Surprisingly it is quite easy to find your way around.  We have had no problem finding our favorite places such as the gyro joint where we often go to for lunch, dinner and/or late-night snack.  Emphasis on the "and" seeing as how yesterday we consumed 4 gyros in a 24-hour period!  Funny cause it's true. I swear I am going to gain a million pounds from all the delicious food we have been eating. And I am 100% ok with that! In addition to the daily gyros we also usually eat a Greek salad.  One guy in Turkey told us that in Greece, "you can really taste the tomatoes in the salad".  Laura and Ashley keep making fun of how many times I have brought that up saying it's just so ture!  The tomatoes and cucumbers are SO good here!  I sure am going to miss those when I leave here…

Laura was super excited to find one of the famous “Mykonos pelicans”.  It didn’t take long for us to come across one, except that when we did, she was scared shitless and would no get close to it for the photo op!  To her credit, it was HUGE.  When it turned around it snapped its beak (not at her - just in the air) she nearly had a heart-attack. 

Since arriving, our itinerary has been pretty much the same way as on all other islands:  the beach by day and bars by night.  Good thing Mykonos is famous for both!  Tonight we are taking the bus across the island to the famous Paradise Beach for a huge beach party- Laura is excited because Ministry of Sound (an Australian DJ collective) is performing.  

 

 Tuesday we bid farewell to Greece and head to Croatia.  Until then check out my photos on Facebook - I added a bunch in the album Greek Paradise. MUAH!

Naxos

Naxos can lay claim to being one of the most popular Greek Islands.  According to Laura's guide book (note: for the Greek Islands she ventured away from  her trusty Lonely Planet) the numbers visiting are higher and the average length of stay is also greater than that for other popular islands.  That isn't surprising given that Naxos offers a mix of gorgeous beaches, attractive port town as well as ancient ruins.

Just as Jay and I went to Punta del Este back in Feb solely to take photos with God's hand, I think the main reason Laura wanted to come to Naxos was to visit the "picture frame" officially know as Apollo’s Temple.  Only a stones throw away from the port, Apollo’s Temple is a massive picture-frame-esque structure atop a hill overlooking the water.  It is all that remains of what was once a temple honoring Apollo.  We were quite sad to discover that it was roped off (probably to protect the rocks from further decay) so we could not take a picture inside the frame as Laura's book showed.  None the less it was fun to see and take photos in front of.

We spent the first day walking around Naxos town wandering along the small boardwalk filled with restaurants and shops.  Laura was super excited to find a used book store that had a fantastic assortment of English books, something that was VERY hard to come by on our travels through Patagonia.  All three of us bought cute bracelets to add to our ever growing collection.  I forget who said this but someone in BsAs told me you aren't a true backpacker unless you have a lot of bracelets.... and here I was thinking it was the backpack and budget traveling that did it.  Well...I guess we've made it now? Laura said with her 2 from Naxos she's done!  I have a feeling she may give in (we do have 7 more countries to hit up). 

The next day we decided to explore the coastline with its succession of excellent sand beaches.  According to the guide book Naxos is host of some of the (self-proclaimed) best beaches in Greece. While that seems like quite an ambitious boast - I wouldn't be lying to say I could maybe agree.  Ash says they were def her favorite.  For me it is such a close call - they are all just so gorgeous!  I can say that the few beaches we visited on Naxos were are all very nice, peaceful, and great for swimming as most are protected in a cove.

 We decided Naxos was the town where Ash and I would face our fears head on and rent scooters! We did this even after reading the following sentence out of the guide book: "Sadly many of the island's roads are in positively lethal condition in parts (this is one destination where is is better to stick to buses rather than resort to mopeds)."   A little crazy?  Maybe...Needless to say I was a little concerned.  Luckily Laura was right and it was a piece of cake!  I am not sure what roads her book were referring to.  I am glad we choose Naxos as the island to learn on though because there was much less traffic than busy Santorini.  After spending a few hours at the beach we took the bikes on a joy ride throughout the island.  By the end of the day Ash and I were going up to maybe 60km/hr... we wouldn't know as both of bikes had broken speedometers.  But Laura said if she had to guess (based on her speed) that's pretty close. I'm happy to have gotten the first ride out of the way and hope to have other opportunities to rent scooters again!

Mario Kart (the Santorini edition)

After a few days of lying out on the beach and getting baked (read fried) we decided to take some time to explore the island a little. Despite being small, the different parts of Santorini are quite spread apart. The best way to explore the island is to rent a motorbike. Laura was SO excited to get on a scooter again (she spent 10 days exploring the lay of the land in Thailand last year). Seeing as how neither of us had ever ridden one before, Ash and I were a little scared. Well, in the end we gave into our fear and rented ATV quads. It really didn't help that the lady at the rental shop insisted that if we were not experienced drivers we WOULD be in danger. The minute I showed a little hesitation she told us we would need to do a practice run in front of her to prove we were experienced enough to rent a scooter. Laura tried giving us a pep talk about how easy it was, but the lady was staring at us and I really felt under pressure.

While they did not go as fast as Laura's bike - Ash and I had a blast zipping around town on our four-wheelers. Ash hit it on the nose by saying she felt like she was in a real-life MarioKart video game! If you’ve ever played the game, just replace avoiding Donkey Kong’s banana peels with unpaved roads and potholes, and the Dungeon Racecourses with the Greek Islands and you can pretty much get a clear visual of the three of us racing around the island.

Add wine to the mix and the game gets even more fun. Despite hearing that Greece had notoriously bad wine, we decided to stop at one of the many vineyards - Santo Winery - to do some tasting. BEST DECISION EVER! We started sharing just one flight of wines, which turned into 4 additional half glasses…each. The views were so great Not only was the wine actually good, but the view was gorgeous! We decided we had to stay for sunset! I feel like my driving improved tenfold after I has a little wine in me (please note I do not condone drinking and driving).

Well I better log off as Laura and Ashley have already headed back to the room to pack. Tomorrow we’re off to Naxos Island (on the 8am ferry). Despite being on a beach vacay we have not had many days of sleeping in. One of these days we are going to do it!

Check-out my recently uploaded albums on Facebook to see more pics: Istanbul, Cappadocia and Greece.

The land of sun, yummy food and drinks

After just 5 days in Greece I have decided I never want to leave... Honestly this place is paradise!

We started the trip spending half a day in Athens. While I am so happy we checked it out visiting the necessary sites, the Acropolis and Parthenon, 5 hours is MORE than enough time to be in Athens. We were ready to leave the city and hit the beaches.

I have discovered that Laura's glasses take really cool photos... be prepared to see more

First stop: Crete. We took an overnight ferry which was basically a cruise ship. Laura was super excited as she has never taken a cruise before. We all decided this didn't really count (as it was just 7 hours) but since we splurged for a cabin with a bed (as opposed to just passing out on the deck like most other backpackers) it was pretty close!

Our original plan was to spend two days in Crete before heading to Santorini. The plan changed when we discovered that there was a slow (read cheap) ferry leaving the following day (Friday).  The following one would not be leaving until Wednesday, which would totally mess up our island hopping schedule.  So we decided to change our plans.  We ended up meeting a cool group of people at our hostel (in Rethymnon…a place I highly recommend for Crete…much better than Heraklion) that were also heading to Santorini.  The 10 of us boarded the 7:30am bus to the ferry (half of us were quite hung over from the night before).

While we enjoyed Crete, Santorini is what I picture when I think Greek Isles with the gorgeous blue water and all the white buildings on the hills.  We’re in the small town of Perissa Beach on the opposite side of the island from the main city of Thira at a cute family run place called Katerina And John Hotel. It is in a great location and we are only paying 8 euro per night for a private room!

Katerina And John Hotel

As this entry title states, our days have been spent laying out on the beach, eating amazing food (cheap gyros all for ~2euro, tzasiki, hummus, greek salads, etc...), exploring the island by motorbike and going out at night.  Today I got a 45 min back massage on the beach! This is the life. Like I said I do not want to leave.  Luckily we have 9 more days on the islands (that is before we head to Croatia to do more island hopping). Next stop: Naxos and then Mykonos!

 

My Summer Itinerary

After 8 months of living in Buenos Aires I leave today at 6:30pm.  While I am SOO sad to leave this wonderful city and all of my new friends I am really excited to embark on a new journey. I will be heading to Europe for the month of June to travel with my friend Laura. We will then head to Central America for the months of July and August before heading back to The States Sept 1. This will my longest backpacking experience - 100 days total. This is 23 days more than my trip last summer!

Argentina > Turkey on Tuesday, May 24, 2011
Turkey > Greece on Wednesday, June 1, 2011
Greece > Croatia on Tuesday, June 14, 2011
Croatia > London on Tuesday, June 21, 2011
London > Honduras on Wednesday, June 29, 2011
Honduras > Belize > Guatemala > Nicaragua >  Costa Rica >  Panama during July and August, 2011
Panama > LAX on Thursday, September 1, 2011

Thank you to all who have started following my blog again.  I promise to keep up-to-date on my travels!  I hope you enjoy!