So we made it to Athens.. Looking like the train had actually run us over a few times, so at least the stares were more so deserved during the hour wait for our train to priaeus, where the ferries leave from. There was a Chinese man walking around the train station with a cardboard box tied around his neck selling the largest collection of crap I have ever seen. We sat and wait for our next "free" train hoping the island crowd would be a little more delightful. As we got off the train ready to run to the port where we had no idea what was goin on, this lady volunteered to help us out.. So nice.. And she quickly talked with the travel agents as we kept walking down the way trying to find our boat to santorini. Of course the boat had just left 5 mins ago, so the next boat out in 35 seconds was to Mykonos.. Our next best chance to get to any island today... We booked it there and were escorted upstairs to buy our tickets at reception.. Where our 30% discount doesn't apply of course. There was nothing stopping us from leaving that counter.. Actually I did for 20 mins and then went back.. I shouldntve gone back but I didn't know any better.. You always learn the hard way.. And in a guilt/honesty/unsure of the system moment, we both volunteerily paid full price for our €30 tickets... €5 already above my total daily spending limit as my new budget report tells me.. And we didn't have a place to sleep yet! Aye yaye! I knew Greece was gonna hurt! But you get smart really quick.. And now it only takes one expensive move to learn all the tricks of the trade.. Kinda like buses in different cities.. Some you pay for.. Most you don't even think about it.. If you hesitate, your doomed. Like now.. I'm on the ferry back to Athens for €6.. or I mean I'm on the ferry tios.. Whichever stop comes last :) so after a luxurious 5 hr ferry ride.. The ferries are actually crazy nice.. But when all you want is a seat and your the last one on, it's kinda tough... We made it to mykonos and took marinas offer at the pier to drive us to her place into town for €25 a night for both mere and I.. Not too shabby.. And the best perk of being in a place where there really is a low season. We quickly threw on our beach attire and were so done with our last oufits from the last 24 hours that. Started in Prague.. And we headed to town to figure out the ferry situation. Well santorini was going to still take another 2 hours and only leave mere with less than a full day there before having to head back to Athens to fly home so after a long unsure decision.. We decided to camp out with marina for two nights and take it slow on the beach.. And then we could take the first ferry back on the 13th so we could explore Athens for a bit before her flight.. Perfect. A plan! We shoulda known better... I think i've now learned a plan is the worst plan because it never happens. Ever. A direction is good, and necessary.. But plans suck. But our plan didn't start for another day and a half.. So life was just dandy til then :). Well, mostly! We found a little beach about 15 mins away from town... We walked around the corner to see if there were better options towards oronos.. All we found were more men yelling at us "hey! Hey!" and "hello baby" because that always makes me want to turn around and come talk to you...
The man following us down the road doing inappropriate things to himself was a really special frightening touch. We walked quickly back to our first beach to release the stress of our beach hunt and enjoy the last bit of warm afternoon sun.
We saw a great sunset, got some groceries at the smile market, took a picture of the famous huge bird we just thought was a cool bird at first, and strolled again through the winding streets of Mykonos town always ending up in little Venice instead of the old port.. Prague, your winding streets have nothing on these ones.. Every wall is white, the windows- either blue or light blue, red on occassion, every shop is a clothing store or souvenier shop with the same litle things in it and theres a cat at every corner..
You feel like yor going in circles, because you actually are... But I figured it all out by the time I left! There are painted "rocks" outlined in white on the ground too... Just to make sure it all stays looking the same :) at least it's cute and I'm not in a hurry or it could be pretty stressful.. Apparently it's like that to confuse the pirates back in the day.. A job well done! If I were a pirate and was walkin through that town a long ass time ago without like logos on every third window, I'd be completely confused. We headed back to our honeymoon suite.. Or two rock solid matresses pushed together as a big bed and had a picnic with our hot water heater, making pasta and soup and tea and hot chocolate with some veggies on the side.. No wonder the food bag bit the dust.. It's been working hard carrying all that and more around the world! We did a bit of laundry and life organization that night.. Well I did a heap and mere washed one tank top that managed to get dragged off the table around the corner by a cat prolly playing with the strap.. It was found later in the morning covered in dirt with a bonus slug strolling across! Hahaha.
The next morning we caught the bus at the really cool local bus stop... You know, the one that's two rights and a left over that way, to paraga beach which was suggested by a few locals. There are only two buses there a day in low season, so we got there early and stood on the bus stop... The sign is painted on the curb of where the buses park.. Haha o these Greek ppl.. So slack. The bus drivers I guess decided they wanted to switch routes and so we climbed from one bus to the next and then got to the beach! It's pretty nice.. The scenery is still not completely as we hoped.. No one told us Greece was dead like a desert... It makes perfect sense but I guess that park is so easy to overlook in pictures of all the cute white cubed houses and churches. We layed out, and swam to the rock in the middle of the little bay.. Natually I scraped my legs up tryig not to touch the plants below by beaching musket like a whale onto the rock.. And worked on our tans and blonding of hair- maybe not the best idea for the region! This funny Spanish man gave mere tips for getting into the "cold" water.. And told us stories of the high season and how even the rocks in the sea are dancing in the summertime. O how magical! Haha. But really.. You can just tell this places pumpin in july and august.. All the little closed huts turn into bars and the beach turns into the dancefloor.. Prolly like phi phi in Thailand I can only hope! (But 4 times the cost!) so we decided to walk to the next beach over.. Paradise, which is the young popular tourist beach where the party really is goin in the summer.. Maybe there would be something happening in October?! Maybe!? We climbed these cliffs along a barbed wire fence.. The suggested path to the next beach which had clearly been traveled before..
Paradise, much like surfers paradise in Australia isn't really paradise.. It's a tourist trap that keeps the tourists off the better beaches down the road. But they had chair lounges we could sit in.. Well we didn't get kicked out.. The usually cost a few euro.. Maybe it was the empty beer bottles we picked up and set on our table that fooled the collectors :) the water was pretty colors, bt the waves were a bit choppy as the wind picked up..
So we moved with our bottles to a bench in the bar area to sit, write our blogs/journals, and relax to club pumpin techno :) haha. then we picked up some gyro sandwiches just outside the tropicana beach club, which apparently is all of paradise, and hung out with the cats as we questioned why Greeks put French fries (or bell frites, chips, potato wedges, freedom fries) in their gyros.. So we decided to walk back instead of paying €1.40 for the bus.. We got honked at a lot for a fairly desolate road.. We saw like 5472 churches along the way, and goats with their legs tied together :( we stopped in a few cool beachy shops and fruit markets.. In the last shop we made friends with the lady who was trying to sell her stuff in California.. Giving her tips on where to gland deciding that we could be her California consultants covering basically the whole state between mere and I. So maybe shell email us. Maybe I'll make her a company identity and maybe well haveta better explain the business mentality in the US vs Europe and even more specifically Greece. Only time will tell! We each got a free shell for our help! Sweet! And then we went for a stroll to the windmills at sunset with every asain tourist in Mykonos. We walked by the oldest church, the icon of Mykonos I'm pretty sure, only noticing it today because there was a whole cruise ship photographing it.. It was prolly our 4th or 5th time passing it and we didn't even know! Oops.
So we did a few more loops around the town, then went back for some more delicious soup and "Greek salad," more of sliced tomatoes and cucumbers on the side with our nasty anise bread.. And then we attempted to go out for a drink, but everywhere was so lame or so expensive that we setttled for ice cream on the corner where the English and south African boy tried to bring us to the gay club... It's ok to go if your not gay because it's the only place goin on this time of year.. We went back to get some rest before our 7 am ferry the next morning.
So we woke up bright and early for marina to take us to the marina.. And then the ferry man told us to go home.. No ferries today. What!? We had Athens to see and mere had a flight really early the next morning.. Apparently there was really bad wind near Athens, we couldn't see it.. But I'm pretty sure the monsterous boat couldve handled it.. Cmon Greece.. You should see the swells that they take you out in in Thailand.. Def 4 times the size, and the boat... Maybe 1/20th. Bah. So marina was nice and helped Meredith get a flight out before they were all taken.. So we were up nice and early with not too much to do til noon. We went and photographed the old church and the windmills in the morning sunrise without all the tourists and wandered the little white winding roads...
We sat for a bit and collected rocks for me to paint on my soon to be very lonely boring day alone on stormy Mykonos. As mere was packin up to leave, this French couple stayin at our place asked us to join them on their car ride around the island all day. Ok! New friends always beat boredom. Although my body for sure wouldn't have minded the rest.. So we all headed out.. Solo traveler again! Kinda. not sure if I'm ready to readjust.. It's so nice havin someone talk with and share all the bizarre moments with...we hand a great few weeks.. I can believe how incrediby fast it all went! But I will survive.. And go back under the radar I hope! So I ventured with Liz and Pierre in the tiny little altos.. Up and down the crazy hills of Mykonos.. Spotting more churches the size of a bedroom, goats, dead hills, and piles of stones
. We stopped to hike up this one hill and it was so crazy windy it was hard to walk straight.. And then the rain came.. And we were all like o shiza.. And ran for the little stoned house out in the field.. We hung out in it for about 20 mins.. We think it was for the goats or sheep or something.. There's no way this janky tiny house that we could barely even fit in was an ancient point of interest.. But it kept us fairly dry until the cloud passed.. Now can they run the ferries!? Of course not. We hiked back down, drove passed some more gorgeous coves of water, and then to some hills for Pierre to run up to find temples or churches while Liz and I were lazy and stayed in the tiny marshmallow car.. Except it was more cubic like all the Greek houses! T
hen it was time to collect and eat cactus fruit.. I was excited because I've been wanting to try it since Egypt, but I didn't know how to pick it or eat it off the wild cacti. So pierre whips out his gloves, we collect like 50 fruits, and we feasted in the wind in the backside of another church. Delicious. Wish I didn't wait so long to eat it! Kinda like passionfruit with a sweeter almost, but not quite, banana twist. And then we hunted for pomegranites.. Only having to climb one wall and a tree to collect a week's worth! Mmm. My type of travel friends. We finished up the day in a little local tavern so they could have their Greek alpha beer they talked abou all day, and I munched on the free snacks the waiter/bartender dude fed us with. I got a free shot of something nasty.. Something ouzso like.. Black licorice. Yuck! But i had to finish it to be polite. Bah. We wet back to our place.. I did another wander through town like a pro to get another boat ticket and some more cereal for dinner/ breakfast and then went back to my downgraded room downstairs from the main level.. Where the electricity wasn't working until I asked them to fix it. Eh it worked! I ate some grapes from the vines in the yard and chatted with Pierre for a bit more about the other Greek islands.. And then I headed to my little dungeon for bed! It wasn't that bad.. I was just sad to be alone again!
And now, I'm on the boat... (I'm sorry I had to add this picture.. You can't be over 50 in Europe without one of these carts.. And is this a man or a woman?!? 4 hours and I'm still not sure..)
It decided today was a good day to run! Headed back to Athens to check of everything I missed there. There's a Greek man basically sitting on my lap as sit cross legged on the couch to type.. Apparently I am more invisible already as these people could care less that this is where I staked out my napping territory and decidedto carry on life right over and around me. There's still stares, though fewer.. Or maybe it's just that there's less eyes to notice. I'll see if the hostel I booked for last night will take me tonight and roam on :) no plans anymore.. But my direction is santorini to rodos to turkey... To Poland or Berlin to ute :) and then home! Plans do take effect nov 13 for slo though.. Hopefully i can recover in my two days at home first!!!! O great. Someone decided to rip half the hip strap off my backpack while it was on the luggage rack... Thanksss.
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