Santorini: sun, sand and scooter crashes

11/9/2011

I went for another attempt at a run this morning through the Athen’s botanic gardens.  I managed to jog about 15 minutes non-stop which is almost a record in the last 8 months!

Paul, Bastion (a new France dude) went walkabout in Athens.  We visited the local market and brought some fresh Gyros.  More fatty goodness.

It was far too hot so we headed back to the Hostel and packed up.  Winston, Paul and I all arrived in the same room on the same day and now we were all checking out.  It is amazing when travelling by yourself how quickly you become good friends with other people lone travellers.

I then caught the metro out to the port of Priaus and met 3 poms heading to Santorini. We had some good yarns and a few hands of 500 on the boat. 

Here is the score card from the game.  For anyone who knows 500 it is pretty rare to win when the other team has over 500 points.

After 8 hours Santorini loomed into view across the sea.  It looked like a mirage.  The whole western side of the island sits on cliffs several hundred meters above the sea so you could just see this ring of lights along the clifftop.  Surreal and very hard to capture but here was my attempt.

After the ferry it was off to sleep at the local camping ground.

12/9/11

The next stop was Perissa beach where I would rendezvous with Sam Bisset.  I walked the 2 km to the bus station in 30C carrying all my gear.  Really should have just sent my winter gear straight to Prague rather than hauling it halfway across the world.

The architecture here is incredible

I arrived at Perissa Beach and waited for Sam to turn up from London.  The beach has wireless so I just hung out on the beach, had a swim, skyped a few people and had a beer. Perfection.

I walked into Annie’s Studios and found Sam.  We went out for dinner and then went out for a night at the beach bar.  What started out as a small night ended up with both of us getting home after 3. 

13/12/11

The following day we spent on the beach with its famous black sands.  The frustrating thing about the beaches here are the hawkers who walk along the beach trying to sell useless gimmicks. There are two main categories of people.

 First there are the Africa dudes from Senegal who try to sell fake watches, Gucci bags and necklaces.  They offer these entirely useless fake watches for 35 euro.  It doesn’t take much to barter down to 5 euro but they are still a ripoff.  Biss brought a watch for 5 euro and it stopped ticking within 25 minutes.  He dropped it on the way back to the hostel and the back cover fell off – this was after being assured it was waterproof to 100m.

The second category of people are Vietnamese trying to sell 60min massages for 45 euro.  They speak little English apart from being able to tell you the different parts of the body.  They have a chart of the human body and they effectively give you an anatomy lesson for their explanation. Their sales pitch effectively goes ‘back, shoulder, very nice, it very good.”  Classic.

One guy came around offering to sell movies, John said that Biss was very interested not knowing these movies were pornos.  The guy exclaimed with excitement, “so YOU are the master of the goose.” Bisset now has a new nickname.  Little did I know that I would be acquiring an unfortunate new nickname by the end of the next day.

John, Biss, Aimee, Christie and Charlotte

14/9/11

The best way to see Santorini is by hiring scooters for the day.  12 euro from 8am until 9pm.  We had 3 scooters between the 6 of us.  

We were having great fun until about 45 minutes into the day when I decided to crash my bike on a patch of gravel.  I landed on the scooter and Aimee my very unlucky passenger landed on me.  I ended up with a foot soaked in blood plus cuts on my knee, hand and elbow.  Aimee luckily just had a little cut on the hand.  The scooter also ended up with what I would call minor superficial damage.

Following this debacle we made our way to red beach.

 

We then followed the coast road and stopped off at small villages along the way.  Biss managed some wheelies which were much tidier than my earlier crash.

Random little fishing villages

Charlotte enjoying the view from a lighthouse

Yea!

We eventually arrived at Oia for a dramatic sunset.  First we walked around a point and found a spot where we could jump from the roof of a church into the sea. Magic.

 

Sunset was beautiful especially amongst the unique architecture that Santorini is famous for.

After dark it was back along the winding roads back to Perissa beach. We arrived back at the scooter rental shop and I pulled my scooter in discretely and gave the guy the keys.  However he had already scouted the scooters out and said in a mocking, gleeful tone, “crashey crash crash crash……..crashey craaaaaaaash” Busted.  I managed to bargain down the repair cost to 15 euro.   

After a day of marvels and mishaps we headed for an early night, my last evening in Santorini.  I had also acquired the nickname 'crashey crash crash crash'.

15/9/11

Today was another day of beaching and keeping away the guys selling you stuff. I packed up and left the others to continue the final leg of the journey to Prague.   

Istanbul to Athens

After the cruise we briefly checked out the famous ruins at Olympus and then had a transfer to Antaglia. I wait for a standard 6 hours in the bus station before catching the overnight bus back to Istanbul. In the bus station I found a small barber and thought it would be a god idea to get a clip.  Turns out it is a bad idea to allow someone to cut your hair when they cannot speak English...  After some fairly competitive sign language the hair cut was transformed into something that didn’t look straight out of the Turkish army.

I arrived in Istanbul t about 9am and wanted some breaky.  At the hostel you receive breakfast with your accomodation.I asked how much it would cost to buy breaky seeing as I didn’t stay.  20 Lira for breakfast. A nights accommodation is only 25 so apparently the majority of the cost of the accommodation is the breakfast. Strange.

Tired from the bus I went to sleep for a 'short nap'. 5 hours later I woke up and decided I should really make the most of my last day in Istanbul. 

I checked out the giant water reservoir 300AD.  It is underground and the original columns still support the modern roads and buildings of today.

I then went to the spice bazaar, a 1km area fully devoted to fruit, vege, meat and or course spices.

Another mosque.

As I passed a carpet shop the owner yelled out, “where you from?” in broken English.

I said “New Zealand”

“Kia ora bro” he said.  “How many carpets are you going to buy from me today?”

I described my lack of funds to which he asked “Have you plastic?” 

I said “Yes of course”

“Well then no problem”

I explained to him that ‘plastic’ would only fix my cash issues in the short term to which he replied,

“But with plastic, it will be fantastic.” He gave up on me at this point and asked what I do. 

When I said I studied law he asked “So will you be a lawyer or a liar?”

Very good from the lonely sole-trader in the backstreets of Istanbul.

8/9/11

Today I rose early to try and go for my first run since my operation.  It was more of a 5 minute run then 5 minute walk affair but still progress I guess.  My ankle is about where it was before the operation and has not improved for about 2 weeks.  Hopefully it gradually recovers.

I then took the bus/train out to the airport and departed for the euro-zone.

Another retarded alphabet

I found my way to the hostel and there were 4 of us all checking in at the same time.  Winston from Melbourne, Paul from Lebanon and ***** from France. 

9/9/11

Paul and I headed off early to make the most of Athens.  First stop was the colossal Acropolis Museum.  I managed to convince the ticket office that the ‘University of Otago’ is in Spain so had free entry.  The top story is incredible.  It is the same size as the Parthenon and displays the full 360 degree freize.  There is one big section missing from the frieze which is sitting in the British Museum.  A British archaeologist ripped it all off in 1880 and pleas for it’s return are being ignored.  In the 3 hours at the museum I lost Paul and would not see him again until evening.

Next stop was the ‘Ancient Agora’, the heart of Athenian social and political life back in the day. 

 

Hadrian's Library

The Uiversity of Athens, bit of a step up from Otago...

Lunch: a greek salad of course

By this stage it was 5pm, I had tried to time my acropolis visit with the end of the day. The light would be better and the sun less severe. The acropolis sits 150m above the city giving incredible 360 degree views.  Unfortunately the main attraction, the Pathenon, is under reconstruction so there was a massive crane concealing the view but still awesome.

Temple of Athena Nike

I spent about 2 hours up there wadering around reading the lonely planet and trying to get a sense of the place.  It was a good idea to visit the acropolis museum first to really understand what each building was and what I saw.

Erecthion and porch of aryatids

The sunset was incredible, first from the acropolis itself and then a nearby hill

On the way back home I caught the changing of the guards at Parliament.  Hopefully will see it in daylight at some stage. 

I headed to try my first Gyros for dinner with Winston. If the double down is heart attack waiting to happen then a Gyros would be considered a quadruple heart bypass…  Pita bread, pork, sour cream, one piece of tomatoand chips. 

Winston chowing down. 

10/9/2011

The next morning I visited to Athens Archaeology Museum with Louis, a student from Spain who was also travelling alone. I studied classical studies at school and I think my whole Athens experience has been enhanced by the background int4erest and knowledge. The archaeology museum was probably the highlight of Greece for me with a floor solely dedicated to vases and one to sculpture.  The museum had fantastic and guided you through time with a commentary on the small changes in technique and technology.  I spent 4 hour there and probably would have spent more if I didn’t have a date with my cousin.

I met sophie at her skux hotel a nd we had a drink for a couple of hours.

Hadrian's Arch

Paul, Winston and I went to the local pub to watch some footy.  The pub was full of greeks watching various football games.  I was desperate to watch the US Open semi-finals but according to the pub all of the 5 TVs had very important Greek 3^rd division football games on…

 

We retired to the hostel to find a live feed over the internet.  Winston is a chef by trade so cooked us up a stunning pasta for dinner set with fresh olives.

Paul was having a nightmare cooking at the start before Winston's assured hands took over

The end result

After watching Federer throw away 2 match points I headed for a well earned sleep.

Tomorrow will be the last day in Athens before heading to Santorini to meet up with Sam Bisset