My Photos

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...