Hello all my faithful readers (mainly relatives I presume haha) and those of you who just check this out randomly!
There has been a bit of a hiatus since my last post despite my intentions of having this one done a week ago but I have gotten so caught up in relaxing that I just couldnt seem to find any free time to write! Anyways, here is a bit about my lovely stay in Greece before Iceland tried to keep me there :)
After a long night on a ferry and a day filled with poorly scheduled and bumpy trains, arriving to Hostel Zeus in Athens and reuniting with the gang from Rome was a big relief. I lugged my stuff up the 75 stairs to my room – a climb that would get rather annoying after 5 days – and looked forward to meeting fellow travelers. I was kindly greeted by an Aussie dressed in full beach attire and listening to some hip-hop who I came to know as Maxi. We did the general introductions, realized we got along pretty well and then did the usual “what are you doing here” conversation that never ceases to be interesting with kids from all over the world. As for Maxi, he had been working construction for the last 6 or 7 years, decided he was sick of it and wanted to use some of the money he had saved up to explore Europe for about 6 weeks and then go look for something a little less labor intensive back home. A half hour or so later I was informed by some Wisco folk that the gyro stands closed at 20:00 so I had to hurry down the street to the nearest stand to get a pair of kebobs. Admittedly, I had never really ventured into Greek food so I didn’t know what to expect. Oh was I pleasantly surprised! In a nutshell, the kebabs consisted of a grilled pita filled with a meat of your choice, cucumber sauce, fries and whatever other vegetables you wanted to put in there. And for less than 2 euro a piece, it’s safe to say that I ate 2 for every non-breakfast meal for the duration of my stay in Greece!
When I got back to the hostel, the manager was in the middle of telling the people in the lobby that the bar was about to open and he would give free shots to the first 10 people up there so, naturally, I raced up the stairs to solidify my spot in the free booze line. Unfortunately, the favorite liquor of the Greeks is Uzzo, a black licorice flavored vodka type thing. Didn’t care for it much but as long as I didnt pay for it would just be silly to turn it down! Interestingly enough, the hostel manager was a British guy who had left the motherland just to see something different. Kind of a quirky guy although he did tell a good story and did a good job of keeping us entertained if necessary: would learn quite a bit about the Greek people, Athens and Britain through conversations with him over the next few days. The guys had an epic adventure planned for the next day so I just grabbed a beer with no intention of staying up too late. In retrospect, I feel like I knew that that was just an optimistic intention. Maxi and I got to talking with a few others and 1 beer turned into more than 1 beer and a few games of King’s Cup. Then the barman brought out a hookah to bring a relaxing cap to the evening.
The plan for the next day was to get up early, head to Piraeus (Athens’ port) and catch a ferry to the Greek Island of Aegina. Compared to the party paradises of Santorini and Mykonos, Aegina is just a small laid back area without all of the tourist attractions but that didn’t bother us a bit. It was only 45 minutes and 9 Euro away by ferry and gave us a chance to spend almost an entire day on the beech relaxing. Considering I passed out almost immediately on the ferry, it felt like we were there in essentially no time and greeted by a cloudless day. We quickly scoped out the parts of the island we could see and then moved to the first obvious order of business: ATV rental. Originally Stallsmith and I didn’t partake in the rental and set off down the coastline to find a favorable beach. After about 45 minutes of picturesque scenery we came across a completely deserted sandy beach outfitted with umbrellas and lounge chairs. I can’t even explain how wonderful it was to just lay out in the sun for the first time in 7 or 8 months and welcome the sunburn that would soon follow. Eventually the ATV gang came roaring down the road and joined us on the beach with some music and a frisbee. The hours rolled by as we all soaked up the sun, enjoying life, Greece, Europe and vacation.
Every once so often, different people would grab the ATVs and go for a cruise along the coast. One after another people came back with their hair windblown and smiles on their faces until Julian and Abby returned with somber looks. They had been gone an awfully long time so, naturally, we made a barrage of bad jokes when they returned but once they got close enough we all noticed blood on both of their legs. Immediately we broke out into laughter and asked them what had happened. Apparently while attempting to do some donuts with the less than powerful ATVs, they had flipped it! Then, instead of coming back, they figured it would be best to head to the medical center in the town center which they had passed early. In a wonderful story that juxtaposes Europe against American, Julian reached for his wallet after they received treatment before being told “You don’t pay nothing, this is Greece not America!” Something like that says a lot about the differences between the fast capitalist lifestyle we have all gotten so used to and the laid back, relationship focused ideals that represent a lot of European cultures. Admittedly such ideals don’t help much for the debt crisis but they sure do make you feel welcome.
When the story was told and everyone got their laughs in, we all doubled up on the 4 ATVs we had and headed off for the opposite side of the island! The scenery as we made our way up the narrow winding roads from the coast up into the mountains was breathtaking. Not to sound like too much of a nerd but a lot it reminded me of the opening scene in Jurassic Park where the helicopter flies over the island...I digress haha. Our ATVs weren’t exactly high quality so they didnt really fly up the hills, especially Jon and Mikey’s which didn’t downshift into first gear so it often stalled on big climbs so they had to get off and push it up hills. Originally we didn’t know this and just figured they got behind a bit so we headed on forward. Once we hadn’t seen them for a while we figured it was probably best to stop and wait for them to make sure everything alright. We all completely died laughing when we saw Mikey pushing Jon on the ATV because they couldnt make it up the hilly section of road we just got done with. We all knew it wouldve been the right thing to do to go down there and help them but it was just far too funny to interrupt! Twenty minutes later when our stomachs hurt from laughter and they were sweaty and tired we were all together again to proceed downhill for the beach that was our final destination when we left the other side of the island 45 minutes before – we definitely took the long way! Due to our fiasco on the way over, we only had about an hour on the beach before we had to head back to catch our 8pm ferry to Athens. We got some gyros for fuel and revved up the ATVs again for the ride back. This time we pledged to not let Mikey and Jon fall so far behind. To make matters worse for them, their gas tank lid happed to wriggle itself free and fall down the mountain. One pleasure cruise later we arrived back at the port just in time.
Despite Julian’s attempts to shield the fact that he flipped the ATV, the rental folks were not at all happy about the scratches and damage to the ATV and ended up charging him a 70 Euro fine. As for the gas tank lid, who knew a little piece of plastic was worth 25 Euro?! The bad news put a little damper on a perfect day but eventually the anger turned into laugher over the entire scenario.
The guys were scheduled to leave the next day, giving me a few relaxing days to check out the Acropolis and relax on the beaches of Athens. We all enjoyed a few beers around the bar that evenings, marveled at our sunburn and reminisced on how great the last 3 weeks had been. There is no doubt that someday I will make sure to return to the Greek Islands! In the interest of length, I will cut this off here and leave the rest of my adventures in Athens for a later post...stay tuned because it will probably be coming up soon.
I trust everyone had a spectacular time at Mifflin and I’m real sorry I couldn’t be there! Good luck with finals and make sure to check out the pictures I’ve put up lately! Due to the length of this I have failed to re-read it for spelling and grammar so my sincerest apologies haha.
Cheers,
Patrick
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