My Blog

I've been having a rough couple of days and this image brought a brief smile to my face. For those of you that don't know its from the British version of the show "The Office". Hope you like it as much as I do.

I woke up on my final morning at 7:45am with a battle plan. I wanted to get some final snacks for the plane before my cab picked myself, Vanessa, and Valerie up at the hotel. I ate a quick breakfast and briskly walked to the nearest grocery store. The whole town was quiet, almost eerie, like the movie “The Dawn of the Dead”. Everything was closed. I guess people in Greece take Sunday’s pretty seriously and don’t open up their shops until later in the day.   Most of the shops and pharmacies on the islands were open 24 hours a day so I was surprised to see everything closed on Sunday morning.

I headed to the airport and the cab driver tried to rip us off again. He told us that the ride to the airport was 35 euros instead of the 25 we were told by both the hotel and our tour guide. When we insisted and argued with him he said he didn’t understand English is a very clear, good English accent. We laughed and basically just said fuck it. It wasn’t worth fighting with a cabbie over 10 euros – I’m sure he needed the money more than we did.

The airport check-in process was crazy. There was a huge line for Delta and they wouldn’t let us check in until exactly 2 hours before our flight. Security was pretty tight but similar to flying in the US except that we didn’t have to take our shoes off. The duty free shops were awesome and they had all kinds of alcohol, wines, foods, jewelry, designer clothing, etc. but I found it funny that they were selling liquid items when we all knew that we couldn’t bring anything liquid on the plane.  Read More...

I woke up on our final day a bit anxious about going back to Athens. On one hand, I was really enjoying the beach life of Ios, but on the other I was really missing certain things (and people) at home and I wanted to get back. 

Our hotel in Ios was infested with yellow jackets which was a real pain in the ass. Nick was telling some final notes about the end of the trip but it was hard to concentrate because of the heat and the onslaught of the yellow jackets. Luckily, I think everyone escaped without being stung. However, by this time about 90-95% of our group was sick with some kind of upper respiratory infection. People were coughing non stop and being the only healthy one, I felt totally skeeved out.

Getting on the high speed ferry was pretty comical. The best analogy I can think of was that getting on the ferry and finding your seat was a lot like Battlestar Galactica when the ship was under a Cylon attack. There were sirens buzzing and beeping, the sound of huge mechanical doors opening and closing, people yelling in strange languages, and all the while the floor was moving back and forth.   I remember at one point I was in a line of people trying to go upstairs with our luggage. One of the crew came up to us and yelled “Keep moving, Keep moving” but there was nowhere for us to go. It kind of reminded me of this time I was with Jessica at her Orthodox Temple in Irvine and this little kid was playing in the hallway. This man came up to the kid and told him to shut up just as he smacked him really hard in the butt. Of course the kid started crying and he was way louder than before. I love stupid people. Read More...

Woke up this morning at around 4am (or was it 5) to my roommate having a night terror. Oh yeah, he brought another girl home with him and I thought that his middle of the night screaming was her throwing up on him or something but as it turns out he gets them from time to time.

Woke up again around 9am and hit the beach nice and early after breakfast. I picked out a nice lounge chair next to the water and relaxed and continued reading “The Hobbet” for an hour or so until an Aussie guy came up to me and asked me if I would mind being an observer for a wakeboarding lesion. I said “hell no” (just kidding). I jumped at the chance to be on a ski boat and of course be around wakeboarding. I thought about doing it myself but 30 euro for 15 minutes sounded like a pretty bad deal especially since I like pretty long runs and it could take some time to get used to their equipment. As it turned out, the person getting the lesson was an Aussie woman who had never wakeboarded before. The instructor’s name was Gus and he totally sucked when it came to giving her instruction. He basically told her to sit in the water and then when the boat starts to move, stand up on the board. Obviously she didn’t get up so I offered some tips cautiously because I didn’t want to interfere with her lesson. She didn’t wind up getting up after about 10 tries and I felt bad for her because the “instructor” finished the lesson without really trying to help her. Lame. On her final attempt I said fuck it and I told her what I usually tell beginners on my boat. It helped a little and I think she was appreciative but she still didn’t get up. Oh well. It was a nice ride in the sea though and the water was beautiful.

After the beach I headed back to the hotel and met up with Jacquelyn and Kristin by the pool for a bit. They seemed like they were in a bit of a piss mood and I was pretty sure it was because they missed their boyfriends so after an hour or so we headed down to the beach to grab some lunch. I ordered a Greek pizza with feta, tomatoes, olives, and green peppers which was quite tasty. Lindsay and Maria met up with us and joined us for the end of lunch. After we finished eating Kristin and Jacquelyn left to go back to the hotel and I spent the rest of the afternoon at the beach club pool with Lindsay and Maria. They wound up meeting a couple Italian boys that I think they liked and I continued to catch up on relaxing and reading.   One really cool thing about the pool area is the DJ. During the early afternoon played chill lounge electronic music and then as the day progressed they slowly increased the volume and changed the music to more house and trance music. By late afternoon the idea was to turn the place into a big pool/dance party.   Read More...

Today rocked. We started the day off by renting a pirate ship at the Ios port. Most of the group was hung over from the night before but these two girls from California were ready to start drinking and had already done breakfast shots at the hotel. They also decorated themselves with eyeliner with pirate style tattoos. I don’t think 10 minutes passed on the boat until they started ordering drinks from the bar. I think even the Australian guys thought they were overdoing it a bit. The wind was mild on day 10 but the pirate ship handled it smoothly. I found the slow rocking of the boat soothing and the view of the island from sea was spectacular. 

The pirate ship sailed for about 30 minutes until pulling into a small bay. The water was still quite deep here, but it was so clear that you could see the bottom almost as if looking through bumpy glass. We all took turns jumping off the top deck of the boat into the sea and swam around for a bit. It was quite a thrill jumping into the deep blue water. The nice thing about the clarity was that you knew you wouldn’t jump into anything nasty or dangerous.

After the swimming session, we climbed aboard and set off for another small cove with a private beach. Some people swam to shore while others took a small motor boat to the beach. The wind was really strong at the beach which made it difficult to do any serious sunbathing because with each gust came thousands of tiny beads of sand which felt like tiny pinpricks on our skin. Most of the people including myself played in the water or socialized on the shore.  Read More...

My alarm woke me up at 8:45 and it felt really early. I put on some clothes and headed to get some breakfast. The hotel provided a pretty simple breakfast and I got my usual bowl of muesli/oatmeal and tea. We had to leave the hotel by 10am to catch the morning ferry to Ios. I was told that Ios had a reputation for being a party island similar to Mykonos so I braced myself for the next three days of partying on the beach.

The ferry ride over was super quick and we arrived at our hotel, the “Far Out Resort”, by around 2:00pm. The resort was beautiful. It sat atop a hill overlooking the beach and a small bay. This place reminded me of a club med style resort in Mexico. The landscape was very dry here and quite rocky. The resort felt like a bit of an oasis out in the middle of the desert and there were lots of Italians and Australians around partying like rock stars. The resort has three flags hanging up: Greece, The EU, and Australia. I knew I was going to like this island.

Most of the people here seemed pretty friendly. I met one group of Greek girls that were pretty stand-offish and didn’t seem to like talking to anyone not Greek (or maybe they didn’t speak English very well – it was hard to tell) but I met a nice group of Italian women at the beach that seemed friendly. Most people on vacation have a pretty positive – especially in a place like this where there is nothing to do but soak in sun, alcohol, and trance  music. Some may call this heaven on earth. Read More...

Our last day in Santorini was a free day so I could do whatever I wanted to. I had the option of exploring the black or red sandy beaches, head into town again, or go diving off of the cliffs into the sea. I was feeling a bit of a sore throat (Contiki cold) coming on so I decided to have a mellow day and lay by the pool for a few hours and then check out one of the black sand beaches. When noon came around, a couple of us decided to grab lunch before flagging down a cab to hit up the beach. As it turns out, we had a typical Greek lunch. In Greece, waiters are notoriously slow, and getting your food can be even slower. The waiter brought out everyone’s orders one by one, and didn’t return with the next order for about 10 – 15 minutes. Needless to say, we spent about an hour and a half at this “quick” lunch place. Afterwards I was sleepy and didn’t feel like going to the black sand beach anymore. Instead, I found a coffee shop and enjoyed an ice coffee while watching the people, mopeds, cars, and a stray cat go by. I spent about an hour there and I felt it was one of the most productive and valuable times I spent on the islands thus far. When I imagined myself in Greece before I came, I pictured myself spending a lot of time at coffee shops spending hours people watching and absorbing the culture.

I decided that since Santorini was famous for its sunsets I would have my last dinner there overlooking the cliffs so I could watch one final sunset. My friend Kristin and I walked into town around 7:30pm and picked out a relatively nice looking place that had the most amazing view. I was sunned to see that there were barely any people having dinner since this was prime sunset time. I guess it’s not common to have dinner in Greece before 10pm. The nights don’t really start until sometime between midnight and 1am. Often times people wouldn’t get back from the bars well until 5am.

Anyway, I ordered Carbonara pasta and a pizza with extra garlic. It was probably one of the most romantic places I had ever been and I was feeling a bit bummed that I didn’t get to share it with anyone special (no offense to my friend who came with me to dinner). I think Greece might be a better place to visit with a significant other. I watched the sunset go down as I enjoyed my food. I didn’t feel any pressure from the waiters so I hung out there for quite a long time. It’s awesome to see the sky turn from pale blue, to orange red, and then a deep purple and then finally black. I walked back to the hotel after the sky had gone almost completely dark and found the rest of the Contiki bunch having a pizza party by the pool. They were playing all too familiar card games, Kings Cup, etc. and I felt more like relaxing rather than guzzling down Smirnoff and backwash.

On our first free day in Santorini I spent the morning relaxing by the pool soaking in the sun. It was very relaxing and very hot because there wasn’t much of a breeze that day. sat in the sun until I couldn’t take it anymore and then jumped into the nice cool infinity pool. I was instantly refreshed and recharged. 

Later in the afternoon I went into town and had lunch at a little crepe place. I ordered a calzone which didn’t really taste like a calzone. After lunch I trekked through winding streets up to the top of a big hill which overlooked the Mediterranean. It was quite a spectacular view and I could see all the Cliffside homes, businesses, and restaurants. Personally, I would be worried about having a house on the cliff here considering they have earthquakes about as frequently (if not more) than San Francisco. Our guide told us that they built the houses with dome shaped roofs because the dome shape reinforced the houses in the event of an earthquake.

As evening approached I remembered I had signed up for the Santorini Sunset tour. Our group loaded up into a bus and headed to the north side of the island. Apparently the sunsets here were famous world-wide and I was excited to check it out for myself. Nick prepared a nice picnic of watermelon, wines, cheeses, and Italian breads for us as we hiked up to a lookout point over the sea. Read More...

Our last day on Mykonos was pretty uneventful. In the morning most people slept in and nursed their hangovers. I was feeling pretty good and I made it to breakfast. We shared stories of the night before and compared tales of drinking and dancing.

Around noon, we left the hotel and caught a bus to the port so we could head to Santorini. We had a few hours to kill so I spent some time shopping in the streets of Little Venice. Most of the shops had pretty generic Greek trinkets and knick knacks. I found a few small boutique stores that had some pretty unique items that were made by the owners of the store.

Waiting for the ferry was extremely hot as there was no wind that day. We were under this wooden overhand with about a thousand people waiting for our respective fairies. There were no fans so the air was still and boiling hot. We used our Contiki welcome packets as fans to keep ourselves cool. Read More...