Eat, Swim, Sleep

This was to be my motto for the next 10 days of our journey. Our first night in Athens had us showering, eating some Gyros, then sleeping as we had a very early start (5:30am!) the next day!

Our Greek Islands tour started with a very slow ferry ride to Mykonos (5 hours), this was not so bad as we spoke to some people on our tour and got our itinerary from our leader Dax (idiot!). We thought this tour was fairly independent but it turns out that every day and night there was a dinner or activity organised, Eeek! This was not what we wanted. Luckily they were all optional so Liz and I opted out of most of them, main reason being the organised dinners would cost €10-15 each where as we could go and eat in a restaurant for €20 combined AND get actual Greek food. Most nights the food was of other nationalities. As if I paid to go all the way to Greece to eat pizza and Thai!! Crazy bastards.

Anyway, as I was saying in the beginning, we mostly slept, ate and swam. The sleeping happened at all times of the day whether on the beach, in our mini tent huts or by the pool. The eating also occurred throughout the day, dinners were my favourite. We ate in quite a few Greek Taverna's and I think we only had sub par food once (thanks to our leader who took us to this place). On Mykonos I had my first Moussaka. Delish. Here I also had what would be the tastiest Greek Salad of the whole trip. On Paros, we stumbled across a Taverna near our beach, which had a fantastic view of the whole bag and here we had tatziki and iced coffees. Our campsite had a family run restaurant attached to it and I had stewed meatballs (Mum I think it's almost the same as your sausages/meatballs in tomato sauce from the cookbook). They were amazing! Santorini had us tasting fried cheese, stuffed tomatoes and of course more tatziki! Santorini is also where our tour leader took us to the sub par restaurant which also smelt like a toilet - not pleasant at all! Our last island, Ios, had us eating mostly Gyros (we were a little over them by now!) and again another restaurant where we decided to be brave and try the calamari, but it came out on the dish with all of the tenticles and it's head. All fried. I had a little trouble eating it and had to cover up the remaining body parts with napkins!

Onto the actual islands. They are not at all what were expecting. When you see photos of the islands you always see the white houses and the brilliant blue water. This is exactly how they look, except for the brown, barren land that surrounds everthing. As the islands are so windy no vegetation grows there. Also their ground is very rocky so I'm guessing the soil is not very furtile. But it is just an odd contrast. The water is amazing though. On each island it was a different shade of blue or green. Our favourite water was on Mykonos but my favourite beach was on Ios as it was actually sandy! The water was quite cold in comparison to the heat of the day but if you had been sunbaking it was so lovely to dive into. Our skin colour has improved and is no longer pasty white. HOORAY! This was one of the main goals of the islands - plus tasting all the food of course! Mykonos and Ios were the party islands and you'll be happy to know that we did participate in one evening out in the clubs where nothing happens until at least 1-2am. I was so bloody tired! But I did it and with only 3 drinks in my body I managed to get home at 4am. What a feat! The nightlife that we experienced was on Ios and I have to say that I wasn't that impressed with it. When I went into the 3rd bar and heard the same songs for the 3rd time, I knew it was time to go. This nightlife was not for me.

Paros and Santorini were much quieter islands. Paros seemed very chilled out and seemed to be the holiday destination for families. Here we went on a boat cruise around AntiParos (the small island next to Paros) which took a whole day. It was lovely. In true backpacker form the boat was small and packed, but what we got to see made up for it! We jumped off the boat into such clear water - it was like something off The Great Outdoors! On Santorini we went on a half day tour where we got to climb up to the edge of an Active Volcano. It was so cool! There were even spots where you could feel the sulphur coming out of the ground. Santorini used to be a round island but due to the largest volcanic eruption in modern times (the only other larger ones were prehistoric) it split the island up. But don't worry, it's dormant and it's been predicted it won't erupt until 2025 (the last eruption was in 1950). Phew. We were safe. This tour also took us to the hot springs which is caused by the volcano somehow, and the water is muddy brown and about 6 degrees hotter than normal. The mud is supposed to be good for your skin but I chose not to cover myself as it felt gross!

Our accommodation on the island was fairly basic, as we stayed at campsites. We slept in little canvas hut things which locked and meant we didn't have to share with strangers! Yay! But on Paros we actually slept in a tent, on a mat. Let's say it wasn't our most comfortable nights sleep. The only gripe I have is that on the islands you cannot put toilet paper in the toilet. No no no, you have to put it in the bin beside you. That has no lid. That smells like shit. Literally. This very much grossed me out, especially on the 2 party islands as the more drunk people got, the less clean they were. This is not ideal when sharing large shower and toilet blocks. Eeewwwww!