Before I flew to Greece, I had a quick but worthwhile weekend in Stockholm where I saw Kevin for a bit before his flight home and then hung out with Sara (who lives there). Stockholm is a beautiful city, the Old Town in particular. Everywhere you look there is water and even though it was a lot cooler there than Spain, it was a nice sunny weekend for me, which was actually a nice break from the intense heat. Sara and I went to the mall where I saw a 9 year old celebrity, some cool gadgets, such as a plastic case for a banana so it doesn't get squashed in your bag (genius!), and then made dinner back at her house. This is Sara´s cat and a tired Kelsey. The next day she moved about 4 hours north for school, so I got a hostel in Old Town and just walked around. Kevin had stayed at the same hostel a couple nights before and met a bunch of people so I thought it was a sure bet. Well, of course when I got there it was all grannies. Oh well, it was one night and then I was flying to Greece!
I landed in Athens pretty late but I had a hostel reserved so I wouldn't have to wander the streets. I met a guy, David (Australia), on the bus into town who was also on my same plane and we talked about our plans for the islands. We were both planning on heading to Santorini first, so we exchanged numbers and the next day met up at the travel agency to bu
y our boat tickets. We decided on an overnight boat because the slow boats take about 10 hours. So that day, we went to the Acropolis, had Greek salads and booked into what we didn't know at the time was the best hostel in Santorini :) We nearly missed our 10pm boat, the port is enormous and we got bad directions (as in, turn right out of the metro station when it was actually left) so if you can imagine me trying to run with my bags..well, just enjoy the thought for a while because it was a sight. We met Mike (New Zealand) and his Spanish girlfriend at the entrance to the boat who also had bad directions and ended up getting a taxi at gate E8, without knowing that our gate was E9. The taxi driver charged him 10 euros to coast from one gate to the next. I said, "you didn't pay that did you!?" He said at that point he was just happy to see the boat wasn't gone so yes, he paid. The four of us had a couple beers on the deck, trying to cool off after my evening jog and later found some chairs to curl up on and attempt to sleep. The next morning, with a sore neck and a bit groggy from lack of sleep, I could see Santorini. Mike and his girlfriend were staying at the same hostel as David
and I, Hostel Anna. When we got off the boat we expected to catch a bus, but instead there was a smelly man waiting for us with a Hostel Anna sign and a bright orange Mercedes van. Glorious! This was the beginning of a wonderful time in Santorini. Also in the van was, Danielle (Aus.), a nice girl traveling on her own and a couple others. Waiting in line at the hostel to check in, we met Jonathan (Aus.), another solo traveler. We dropped our bags as soon as possible and David, Jonathan and I headed to Perissa Beach. I've never seen black sand before and it really isn't very impressive. It looks a bit like a parking lot so it takes away from the island feel. I got over it quickly and jumped in for a swim. Although, jumping in was also a bit of an issue because it wasn't sanding like we are used to, but instead slimmy slippery rock. It's pretty funny watching the topless women stumble out to sea, but I guess I wasn't any more stable with my top on. Lunch time was upon us and I wanted some traditional Greek food, so how about gyros? We 
went to a place called Grandma's, I know it doesn't sound very authentic, but Grandma knows how to make a gyro! We went back the next day. Since I never had a true Spanish siesta in Spain, I decided to try it out in Greece and I approve. That night in the computer room, a nice Swedish girl asked me a question and I could tell we were destined to be friends. The "hang out" area of the hostel is the front patio with tables and chairs, right along the main street in Perissa (the small town in Santorini where the hostel and the beach we went to are, if that was unclear). So David, Jonathan and our new Swedish friends, Ebba and Siri, played some cards and had a couple drinks. We all went down to the street along the beach to Question M
ark Bar (weird name, I know) for a drink with Mike, Spanish gf (I apoligize, I never did understand her name), Bryan, Jackie, Danielle and Daniel. The next day it was back to the beach, this time with Ebba, Siri and David. I love swimming in the ocean and I will never be able to live anywhere without a body of water. We decided to go into Fira (Santorini's main city), for the sunset so we caught a bus around 4pm. We walked through the stereotypical narrow, cobblestone streets, browsed through some shops, had an amazing dinner, were blinded by the white buildings and enjoyed a sunset with an unobstructed view. We also saw donkey's trotting through the streets, so Greek! When we got back to the hostel we got a bottle of wine, met three more girls, sisters (Aus.) and the fun times began. We went out to Beach Bar and danced the night away. We had quite the circle going and then all of a sudden, Jonathan, who I hadn't seen all day, came bursting through the middle with Jackie, Bryan and Danielle not far behind. We never planned on meeting there, so even though Perissa is pretty small, there are a lot of clubs, which made it fun to run into people we knew after being in Santorini only one night. We were already feeling like locals, just kidding, all the locals just stand around the out outskirts of the dance floor and watc
h the silly foreigners. The bakeries in Santorini are open 24 hours, I have no clue why, but it came in handy for us. We stuck with Greek food even in the middle of the night and got these delicious spinach and feta pastries. A nice way to end the evening, but wait..Back at the hostel in our dungeon (a 30+ person dorm, downstairs so it stayed dark in the morning, and with air conditioning which is why it was so great) a few of us girls went to brush our teeth and the water came out a bit brown. One girl said, "oh, it's ok, I'll just let it run, it will clear up." It just started sputtering and the sink filled with brown water. GROSSS! Best 7 euro a night I've ever spent. The next morning the water was turned off, but they got it back and running (clear) again within an hour so. Back to the beach, slippery rocks and Grandma's. Siri and Ebba left that morning and Bryan left that afternoon so our group was becoming Jackie, Jonathan, David and me. I convinced everyone to go to the waterslide park that afternoon which consisted of two straight slides, one spiral slide, a kiddie pool with a ship and a normal pool. It also had a swim up bar which I have a
lways wanted to experience but it wasn't open yet :( They had their doubts, but we ended up having a really good time, such a good time that we are still wearing our Santorini Waterpark wrist bands. That night at the hostel patio, we picked up one more Aussie, Swanny (his last name is Swan, but that's what he goes by). The five of us went to dinner together at a place right on the beach. At midnight it was one of the sister's birthdays so we celebrated and took another trip to the Beach Bar. That night was house/trance/electronic music which I'm not a huge fan of, so I stayed for a while, but bailed early. We had to get up early the next day anyway for Ios and I knew we would be partying on the "party island."Jonathan, Jackie, David, Swanny and the American (me) caught a ferry to Ios and checked into our dog kennels. The hostel was right on the beach, with 3 pools, a bar, a game room, bungalows, tent camping, everything a young traveler could want. Jackie and I got a kennel to ourselves and made the 3 boys share the other one. When I say kennel,
picture a small hut about as tall as me with two cots and a tiny door. Home sweet home. Ios was crazy, and apparently not as crazy as usual since the season is ending. After a nice nap on the beach in the afternoon, my mates and I got ready to hit the village. There are probably 30 or more bars and clubs in the tiny village. They are all pretty small, some are packed, some are completely empty, but since they are all so close together, we just hopped from place to place. We met some cool people on the bus into town and ended up hanging out with them for most of the night. Jackie and Jonathan started calling me `Nigel no Friends´ in Santorini as a joke, (I think..?) so they have taken a bunch of photos of me either by myself or surrounded by people I don´t know. It`s become a pretty funny photo taking task. So whe
n I got separated from them at one point, I was hanging out with the group from the bus, but I heard `Nigel!` and I knew Jackie and Jonathan had found me! The last bus is at midnight, so we decided a walk home would be nice. We found a guy sleeping on the sidewalk on the main road and being the responsible people we are, took some photos with him. He was only wearing one sandal so I put the other one back on for him, I`m so nice. We tried to wake him up but he made an angry face like he didn´t want to be bothered, so we let him sleep. The next day Jonathan said something to these two guys at the hostel about their friend we saw sleeping on the sidewalk. I had no idea the passed out guy was staying at our hostel, so of course we had to show him the photos. He didn´t remember a thing poor guy, or maybe that was for the better. They were from England, finally some non Aussies! Just kidddding, as long as they aren´t American, I am happy meeting 100 Australians. Kidding again, I love Americans...but foreigners are more interesting to meet while traveling. So Ios was a quick two days and Jackie, Jonathan and I were ready to relax on another island sans partying. We decided on Naxos, not really sure why, but it´s on the way back to Athens and I don´t think you can go wrong in the Greek islands if your only requirement is the beach. We got in late, so we found a place to stay and had a nice, restful s
leep. The next day we rented ATVs. SO MUCH FUN. We had them for 24 hours so we took them all over the place. Jonathan didn´t want to drive so he switched off riding with me or Jackie. Such a girl :) We exhausted those ATVs, literally, by taking them to the top of two big mountains. Jackie`s wouldn´t start so she coasted all the way back down, and it somehow started again. The second mountain we climbed was Mt. Zeus in search of Zeus´ cave. We parked the ATVs near the top and started walking. The trail ended but we knew it was up there somewhere. We were in flip flops, but climbed over rocks to get to the cave. Pretty impressive cave, Zeus was a lucky man, expcept the massive spiders were enough to make for a short visit. On the way back down there was a herd of mountain goats being summoned for dinner time. The old m
an asked us to wait to cross the path because we would scare them in the other direction. Once the last one passed we were able to start walking again, but a bunch of the goats had turned around and were coming in our direction. They seemed harmless and right when I asked ´so are these animals aggressive?´ two of the goats with the big curly horns reared up at each other and butt heads. Well, that answers my question! We jumped off the trail and watched these two hit their heads together for about 15 minutes. Back on the ATVs we found a nice beach to sit and watch the sunset. I think I doubled the amount of sunsets I have watched in my life in the 10 days I spent in Greece. The next day consisted of more lounging on the beach, I´m getting really good at it, and figuring out a plan after getting into Athens. I had my plan..Croatia. Jackie and Jonathan were a bit more unsure, but after much hype and a nail biting $420 plane ticket, we were all going to Croatia together!Pictures:
1 Me at Sara´s house with her gato
2 Siri, me and Ebba (Swedes in Santorini)
3 Watching the sunset in Fira
4 David, Jonathan, Siri, Jackie (blue dress), Ebba, Bryan, me, Alex (the only local we met) out at Beach Bar
5 David, Jackie, Jonathan and I at the Santorini waterslide park!
6 Me on the beach in Ios
7 Haggared, leaving Ios, going to Naxos.
8 Me with the sunset, tried taking a couple but I was having a hard time smiling, so this is what I´m left with..
9 On top of the first mountain with the ATVs, this is what we found, lovely
10 Biker chicks!
11 Apollo´s Temple in Naxos with Jack Jack Jackie!
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