| Submitted by: Mark Nowak United States |
| Submission Date: 10 February 2005 |
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OLD THIRA, AKROTIRI, MYKONOS
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We were up early to visit the Helenistic site of Old Thira. It also gave us a great view of where we were staying and the beach. I was always amazed at how difficult building these cities must have been -- carrying so many huge rocks uphill. We then visited Akrotiri. I found the site very interesting. It's a site a lot like Pompei, but 1500 years older. They didn't find any bodies there, so they figure that the people knew the volcano was going to blow and escaped in time. We could see ongoing excavation work in progress there. Nearby, a red sand beach can be found.
During the afternoon I wrote a bunch of postcards. We were taking the hydrofoil to Mykonos at 5:00. It costs about three times as much to take a hydrofoil than a ferry, but it's much faster. I'd never been on one, so it was quite a treat for me. It was all enclosed, but the back had a small deck -- room enough for several people to stand or sit. After we were all settled, I went out on the back deck for the view. We slowly left the port, and then it was pretty thrilling when the hydrofoil rose up on the water as it picked up speed. The views were once again breathtaking. Passing ferries was fun too.
We stopped at Ios, which Nick told me had basically one city and used to have a drug problem, Naxos, Paros (we had to basically go around the island to reach the port) and finally Mykonos. I caught a great sunset while on the middle deck of the hydrofoil before we got in. I also noticed a young girl on deck that I kept seeing wherever we went. Actually, I kept seeing a lot of the people from the hydrofoil -- Mykonos isn't all that big either. The island has a reputation for nightlife which I can verify to be true. We checked into our hotel and returned to the port town for dinner at a pizza place. We had to allow the hotel staff to write down our passport numbers.
At some point during the trip Nick and I discovered that our digital watches gave the same time to the second. We decided that as a result our watches gave the offical time for the trip.
Nick, Mary Jane, Tae and I took in a cafe where I had more iced coffee and walked around where all the action was taking place. Tae and I went our way. We stopped at one bar where I had a Long Island and he had a beer. The Long Island was pretty expensive -- 2000 drachma (about $9). He talked with some girls. I invited a couple from another table to join us, but no such thing as a male Blonde Effect as far as I know of. We also had a little trouble finding girls who could speak English well enough for a conversation. At 3:00 AM we took the free bus to the Hard Rock Cafe. It seemed unusual that they would put it a few miles out of the port town. We were the only ones on the bus besides the driver. As we approached it, we could see the lasers they were using to light up the sky. The cafe was more like a complex with a swimming pool, huge restaurant, video arcade, bar, dance floor, shop and outdoor bar shaped like a giant guitar. There was a huge group of people waiting for the bus threatening to rush it when it stopped, so the bus driver kept the bus moving, so we could get off. I don't think I've ever stepped off a moving bus before. I had my long awaited Hard Rock Cafe Hurricane and took the glass as a souvenir. They were playing hard rock (not the usual stuff they play in dance clubs) and people were dancing. We took the 4:00 AM bus back to the port town and a taxi back to the Hotel Kamari by Plati Yialos beach. The fare was 800 drachma (about $3.50).
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Up at 7:30, most of us took the ferry across choppy seas for an excursion to Delos, the scared island that was home to the Delian League. We had considered chartering a smaller fishing boat to get there but decided against it. It's a good thing too -- Nick thought we would have drowned if we had. The waves were huge. There were many ruins to be seen, so I left the group and moved quickly and climbe the hill for an even better view. Mary Jane was with me most of the time. There were many temples (including one to Isis) and a theater. The Romans when they conquered a people liked to make them feel like they were part of the empire, so they would build temples to their deities as well. We took the 12:15 ferry back. It's illegal to be on the island after 3:00. I saw the girl from the hydrofoil and her friends on the ferry back.
We then ate lunch at a nearby port taverna (Nikos). I walked around with Luz and took a bus back to the hotel where I ended up joining Nick and Mary Jane at the beach for a couple of hours. On the bus ride back an Australian girl was bothered by a couple of Italian guys. One wanted her to sit on his lap and wouldn't take his arm from around her waist. She did her best to ignore him, but her female friend got pretty upset asking them why they couldn't just leave her alone, why they assumed they wanted to be touched and bothered like that. They just had smart remarks for her, but they got off okay.
Even though the views at the beach were tremendous, I spent most of the time sleeping, waking up just to turn over. Tae, Anne and Erin spent their day at the beaches. Paradise beach was nude and Super Paradise beach was gay. Tae thought Elia beach was better than Paradise beach.
We ate dinner at Zorba's down by the beach. The food was good and they had dancers entertain the customers. That part was kind of tacky. Even though the dancing was good, the dancers wore T-shirts identifying themselves as dancers with exclamation points -- way too touristy. Anne and Erin left and said their goodbyes -- they had decide to leave the group and spend more days on Mykonos before returning to Athens and then on to Italy. I figure that if I every see them again, it'll probably be on an episode of Studs. Tae left that night on a midnight ferry back to Athens. From there he would take a flight to Rome where he would tour for another week or so. He couldn't get a cabin, so he was going to have to sleep on deck. He didn't even have a sweatshirt, but he was going to try to get one at the Hard Rock Cafe boutique at the port. As it turned out, he didn't get one, but he was able to sleep indoors on airplane type seats.
Mary Jane and I watched the dancing pretty late waiting for Nick. The three of us took a taxi to town where I had some more iced coffee. I convinced them to check out the Hard Rock Cafe, so we took the 2:00 AM free bus out. They were impressed. Nick thought he might take a future tour out there. We had some snacks in the restaurant and walked around before they left on the 3:00 AM (or so) bus. I saw the same girl and her friends again. I ended up having a Long Island and dancing for a while before taking the 4:30 bus back -- it only took about 10 minutes to get back to town. People were still swimming around 4:00 AM. While waiting for the bus I laid down and enjoyed the view of the stars and the aurora borealis effect the laser made on the sky. The girl and her friends were waiting for the bus too, and I struck up a conversation. Her name was Mary, but I started talking with Eve. She asked me if I was from England. I told her I was from Chicago in the States. She said, 'Same language -- different accent.' They were recent high school graduates from Belgium on a 2-week classical vacation in Greece, basically covering what we covered in less time. They told me they were tour sites and partying all night which sounded very familiar. Once again I felt like an uncultured American boob since everyone had to switch to my language to accomodate me. I was born in Poland, but I think I only heard Polish spoken once or twice during my entire stay in Greece.
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I walked through the town, made my way to the bus station and took the 5:00 AM bus back to my hotel. It was the last bus, and it left seconds after I got on. Nick was now my roommate, but I didn't wake him when I got back. After about an hour of sleep, we were up for a quick breakfast, so we could catch our 8:00 AM ferry. I was a little disappointed that we wouldn't be taking the 2:00 PM ferry like the Belgians I met. It always feels weird to meet some interesting people from different backgrounds, speak briefly and then never see them again.
The ferry stopped at Tinos (where a shrine where people make pilgrimages for healing miracles is) and Andros before arriving at the port of Rafina. From there we were bused back to the Grand Hotel in Athens. I didn't sleep on the ferry, but I did on the bus even though it was just an hour to the hotel. I helped Luz look for travel information around town. We met up with Audrey and Mary Jane, bought stamps, changed money and had milk shakes at McDonalds. We did a little more shopping at the Monastiraki bazaar. I haggled a woman down from 10000 drachma to 6000 for a tablecloth for my mom and bought some more postcards.
We noticed that there were far more tourists in the city than when we had first arrived. For example, every room in our hotel was booked. We ate dinner once again at the Stamatopoulu Palia Plakiotiki Taverna in the Plaka. I was pretty exhausted at dinner. I was struggling to keep my eyes open as Nick gave us an informal quiz over everything we'd covered. He told me I wasn't allowed to answer any questions he labeled as easy. As it turned out, even his easy questions were pretty hard. Marriott said I couldn't fall asleep because I had been so tireless during the whole tour. Well, I was definitely tired now. Nevertheless, I went out with Luz, Mary Jane and Nick for some iced coffee at a place called the Neon near our hotel. It wasn't until 1:30 that I finally got to bed -- my own room for the first time.
I noted that I had definitely packed too much stuff for three weeks in Greece during the June-July timeframe. Washing clothes as we traveled was easy, and it was so warm that I slept on top of the covers most of the time -- my bed usually didn't need to be made in the morning. Mosquitos were sometimes a problem, but for some reason I didn't get bitten as much as some of the others in our group. |
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