Around the World in One Year: July 2009

Monday, July 27, 2009

Oh Santorini.. 7-27-09

So much to say about this island. Yes, it is beautiful and very romantic, but only because the island has a few exceptional beaches and intimidating cliffs surrounding it. In order to get to all of the beaches and views you must rent scooters or ATV's.. which we did.

The first day we got in we dropped off our bags at our hotel, Agas, and rented ATV's from a sketchy little store (should have known then..). We rode to the black sand beach, walked along the shore and took some pictures. For dinner we had gyros (of course) and then went out in our town of Fira. The cheapest cover is 10 euros (guys and girls) and drinks ranged from 7 euros to 17 euros. After one round at Murphy's we saw the bill and booked it out of there to the nearest quick-mart carts that are everywhere in the streets. We settled for 1.50 euros Mythos beers and decided it would be better to drink these, go in bars, drink more mythos, and go back into the bars. It worked out alright, but was a little inconvenient. We all made it out only about 10 euros down, but somehow Kip managed to lose his walet with all of his credit cards. Luckily he still has his passport, his license at the ATV rental place, and one debit card with him.

The next day we layed around our hotel's pool for a bit and then headed to Boutari, a local winery. We each sampled 8 wines and got a tour of the winery. Each wine had a official rating between 80 and 100 points and were some of the best whites and reds I've ever had. Apparently, the Greeks have a 10 year plan to bring their wines into the U.S. for international sale. The lecture was pretty interesting actually, even though I think I was the only one listening to the guy because everyone was pretty hung over. He said that the grapes here are very special because of the soil and altitude of where they are grown here on Santorini. Also, they do not have bugs to eat the grapes, so no pesticides or chemicals are used.

After sampling the wine we ATVed to watch one of the most incredibly gorgeous sunsets I've ever seen at Calderra view (you'll know the pictures when you see them). We all went to dinner and we so exhausted we barely spoke.. I guess after 8 days of going out every night till 5am, the hours were hitting us and we needed a break from partying. So we called it a night early, 1am. Kip spent a lot of time today figuring out his credit card situation and also managed to somehow lose his debit card today too. Sad day for Kip.. he seems to be doing okay, he still has his driver's license at the ATV place.

Our last full day on Santorini we rode to the Red sand beach and hiked up and then down the cliffs to the beach. This is one of the most beautiful places I've ever seen and took my breath away. The pictures are worth a thousand words.. but if you can picture over 500 foot cliffs ending at red and black stone covered beaches blanketed with hundreds of blue and white beach umbrellas, complete with sailboats and boulders in the water to sunbathe on- this was the view we were seeing. We all swam in the cool water and the girls swam out to the rocks. We sunbathed on them for about an hour and I was in heaven. If I could do this everyday, I would. The water around the boulders sank to a depth of about 30-60 feet, so we all dove into the water and swam back to shore. We rode back to our hotel and relaxed by the pool for a while and jumped off our diving boards and other structures for while.

We ended the night by riding our ATV's to Oia (pronounced Ia) and watching the sun set over the water. This is the spot where all of the postcards are taken from.. the white houses, shops, and restaurants all built along the cliffs, complete with a historic white Church and a windmill of course. I had to fight through the crowds a bit, but I managed to get a couple pictures I'm very happy with.

On the way back to Fera one of the ATV's broke down (ours) so we all waited for Kip and Julie to bring back some gasoline. What should have been 15 minutes turned into an hour and us stranded souls started to worry.. but they pulled though. Two 1.5 liter water bottles were filled with gas and we were on our way! We dropped off the ATV's and headed back. The sketchy ATV place does not have Kip's ID. Now he is all out of everything except his passport. When we got back to our hotel I had a revelation and realized that the reason Kip is having all of this bad luck is because he took a piece of Homer's tomb. Now we all agree that he's officially screwed since Homer's tomb is on Ios and he has no intention of returning it.

Today is our last day here.. the ferry system is not as organized as we are in the U.S. Our 9:40am ferry decided not to come since they are repairing on it (thanks for the warning, also- thank you Kip). In a frantic we bought tickets for the next ferry at 12:00am, and then found out that we could exchange our ferry tickets for plane tickets (if anybody knows how this makes sense, let me know). But, in any case, we were able to get most of our money back from the second ferry tickets and we now have flights out at 5:40pm for Athens. Meanwhile, we've been sitting at the same restaurant at the port for 6 hours. One more hour to go till we get picked up for our flight! Everything is okay here, just playing cards and ordering food every once in a while. The waiter walked by our table and spilt Kip's coffee on him (I'm not making this up). Made another note to myself to stay at least an arm's reach from Kip.

Surprisingly, we're all pretty optimistic about this situation since We will have a little bit of time to see the Acropolis today. Not too much though since we have to get back to our hostel in Athens to wake up early and catch our flight to Istanbul tomorrow morning.

Our group is splitting up a bit after Athens.. 2 girls (Taylor and Joanna) are going home and Julie is visiting other parts of Europe with her family. I'll be with the two guys (Dave and Kip) for 4 days in Istanbul and then they go home and I'll be traveling for another 10 months. (Sigh) Traveling is exhausting.

Pictures: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2847532&id=2006596&l=b9b7637a88

xoxo,

Lauren

Friday, July 24, 2009

Crazy Ios 7-24-09

Hello all,

Internet availability on Ios has been sparse, but young people and partying is abundant! I have never seen a place so full of backpackers and alcoholism. This island is a constant spring break, and beautiful.

We spent the first day taking a 4 hour ferry from Mykonos to Ios, moved in, grabbed an amazing dinner at a restaurant called Seven-Eleven, then went out to the bars. There are about 40 bars and each was packed with aussies, kiwis, canadians, brits, and other europeans. Everyone gets free entry and drinks and shots are super cheap. The guys were very happy because the guy-girl ration is 1-10. So, the guys were pulled into clubs with free entry and free shots. A rare thing in the US.

The next day we took a 5 minute bus ride to Mylopotas beach. This beach was gorgeous! Beautiful stone rocks and pebbles covered the beach and thousands of kids (backpackers) everywhere! The mean age on this beach must have been 19 or 20. At the end of the beach is a backpackers paradise.. a campsite called Far Out, complete with a huge MTV spring beak style pool, slides, and tons of kids dancing all over and swimming in the pool. A lot of backpackers stay at the Far Out campsite because it's only 8 euros a night and is next to the pool, their own restaurants (cafeteria style buffet), and the beach. Pretty nice set-up. After the beach/pool day we went to a restaurant called Harmony. Definitely a spot to check out if you ever come to Ios. It's one of the most chill restaurants I've ever been to. Hammocks and large mats for laying on are all around the outside it, and when you sit inside you get a view of the whole bay and island while listening to great live music along with delicious sangrias and great food.

The girls spent the day yesterday laying by the pool at the Ios Resort and then we went shopping around town for a little bit. I got a couple bracelets.. but everything is very touristy and I'm looking for something more unique to buy. The streets on Ios look similar to Mykonos except they are much thinner and we don't see as many bouganvilla.

After 14 gyros and 6 crepes, I can honestly say that I'm ready for something other than greek food. I had an omelet this morning and it was delicious!

Our group is down to 6 now since Andrew left to go back to the US yesterday. We're all about to get a ride to the port to grab our ferry to Santorini. We've heard great things.. I hope it's half as good as what they say.

I'll let you know...

xoxo,
Lauren

pictures: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2844693&id=2006596&l=6f142c8410

Sunday, July 19, 2009

Mykonos, Greece 7-19-09

Heyyy! I'm in Greece!

Wow, what a way to start my trip. Packing up and leaving my house took hours.. but I finally managed to get everyting into my backpacks (with the help of my friend Sarah) and got to the airport with plenty of time.

I met up with my friend, Dave, in Athens and we bussed it to Pareas where we ate some greek food from a restaurant where no one spoke english and basically just pointed to things on the menu and said- "Good?". One was a greek salad, easy enough, the other was fried fish, squid, octopus, and other random things like beets and olives. We walked around the local markets and shops for a couple hrs and went into a church. We heard how expensive the drinks in Mykonos are, so we spent about 2 hours searching for a flask. Well, no one in Paraes speaks english, so we played a lot of sharades and made some great gestures to each person we spoke to. The moment the word clicked, each person let out a "Ahhhhhh!" and smiled, and then followed that up with a head shake and a "No". Oh well.. guess we'll figure it out when we get there.

We met up with our other travling buddy, Kip, at the dock and boarded the ferry for Mykonos. 15 hours on plane, one hour on a bus, and four hours on a ferry later we finally arrived at our destination!

It was night time when we got to Mykonos, but there was a cool breeze in the air and a quietness to the island. Because Mykonos is so small, there aren't a lot of taxis on the island so when we got off the boat we thought we were stuck. Somehow we managed to find a driver who agreed to bring us to our hotel.

After checking into our hotel and getting ready, we headed out for a night on the town. The 3 of us walked down the street into the city and went to the local bars. The drink prices aren't that bad and the locals are very friendly. Lots of house music and american songs were playing all night with mostly europen tourists drinking at the bars. We were the only americans at the places we went to.

We're staying at Hotel Madalena with a 3 person room. The hotel is huge,gorgeous, and white like every other hotel, house, shop, and building on the island. The 3 of us spent the second day on Paradise beach which we've heard a lot about (crazy parties and lots of people), but it was pretty mellow when we got there. We just relaxed under the cabanas and went in the water. It was a perfect way to settle into Mykonos. Everything was great except for a little fire coral run-in I had in the water. I knew enough to know that there are 2 ways to get rid of the sting-urine and vinegar... I thought to try the latter of the two first. The chef at the restaurant and I became friends as he poured vinegar onto a towel for me and after a few attempts of trying to understand eachother we just settled for smiles. An hour later when we were hungry for food, the chef insisted on giving me a plate of food which he picked out and arranged everything perfectly for me. Baked tomatoes stuffed with rice and herbs, grilled vegetables, large potato fries, and a few other interesting things that tasted great, but in no way could tell you what they were. Moral of the story- I love greece.

Later in the day, Andrew and 3 of our girl friends joined us, so now we have a group of 7 and 2 rooms. We ate at a little pizza shop and then got ready for the night. This time we were going to Club Paradise, it's a "must-see" spot to check out and one of the best clubs on the isles we hear. We had to take a 30 minute bus to Paradise which was so packed with people we couldn't even move! The busses run every 30 minutes and only costs 1,40 Euros, and the club is worth it.

Club Paradise was great, lots of people dancing around the pool and on both floors. Our group stayed together all night except at the very end when we had to take the busses back to our hotel. Our bus was so packed that our friend Kip couldn't fit on it. He was the only person left behind.. we found out today that he slept at a camp site there, woke up to man poking him with a stick, knew he had to get back on his own, so rented an ATV for 40 Euros and taught himself to drive on his way. He told us that on his way back to our hotel he drove through a greek wedding and was yelled at by everyone there. Also, he kept hitting the horn by accident everywhere he went, and he didn't know how to go in reverse or put up the E brake. The ATV is now parked outside the hotel with two large rocks behind the back tires. Good times.

Today we all spent a lot of time in our pool relaxing, we walked through town, ate some fantastic authentic gyros (with the best teziki sauce!) and then came back to our hotel for more pool time, drinking, music, and funny stores.

I could really get used to this life...

Here's a link to all of the pictures from the last couple of days: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2844237&id=2006596&l=41c0b8f5ae

Tuesday, July 14, 2009

2 days till departure.. 7-14-09

Well, here we are.. 2 days before I take off on an adventure of a lifetime. All along I thought I was ready for this, no problem, it's going to be fun... but I think the reality of the situation is setting in and all I can think about now is... "WOW- I'm really going to be gone for a year!". But.. 10 minutes later and I'm excited again thinking about how incredible this year will be.

For the past 3 days I've spent 21 hours running errands and shopping for last minute essentials to make sure I'm prepared for this, which is a joke in itself because I don't think one can ever prepare for a trip like this.

Basically, I'm taking a backpack filled with nice shoes and clothes, cute hair clips, camping gear, bug spray, mosquito nets, and safari attire. The range of stuff I have is a little ridiculous, but I have to pack for the greek isles and the south of france and also for thailand, cambodia, and africa. Don't ask me how, but I'll find a way to fit all of this into a Gregory backpack (thanks for shopping with me Amy!).

I'll let you know how this goes...