Day on Delfini (Syros Island)

Neighboring lovely Kini was another quiet little beach called Delfini. After renting a scooter and stopping at the market for some bread, eggplant dip, and fruit, we took a very dusty and bumpy ride to the beach. For 8 euros, you get an umbrella and two chairs- all you need for a nice long beach day. Here was the first place we decided to do as the Greeks and shed some clothes (or I did at least). It was pretty fun actually- especially since I used the silver sand as a cover up and it looked like I was covered in diamonds. T and I explored a calm little reef and found many scary creatures there- sea anemones, strange fish, and a plethora of prickly black urchins covering the ocean floor.
Now this event deserves its own paragraph. Despite our most careful efforts, one of those creatures got me. While wading back to the main beach, I felt what was like a bee sting. Having been stung a dozen times by jellyfish, I didn't immediately panic. I reached down in the water to rub my stinging leg and felt something rubbery still attached. I tried to get it off but eventually had to lift my thigh out of the water for T to pluck the little sucker off. That's when the pain really started setting in.
I tried to be tough and exited the water quickly to lie down. I looked down and everywhere I had rubbed the little tentacle had left a trail that was blistering and swelling at lightening speed. It hurt- A LOT. So I ran to the nearby bar and showed the bartender and she said with a very sympathetic look, "Ohhhhhh, coh-lee-tee-ahn-yos." Phonetic spelling is the best I can do, not being a Greek speaker. I know now she was talking about a local anemone that is known for "sticking" to its victim. She handed me a medicated lotion and a guy sitting at the bar said it would be hurting for a while- and boy was he right. T and I decided ouzo, the local liqueur, was the best way to cope with the pain. So we shared a few glasses, played some cards, and watched what is one of the most amazing sunsets I can recall in my short life time. It was a hell of a great day.


Our latest scooter adventure



Relaxing on Delfini



Sundown


T checking things out


Monkey relaxing after long beach day


OUCH!!


Sun setting on a fabulous day

Syros (Kini Beach)

T and I visited the travel agency in Athens about the possibility of heading to Santorini for a few days and were met with a few challenges-- money (that place is pricey!), time (you'd think with 40 days... but no), and the fact that another overnight ferry ride would be required (one a month is quite enough thank you). So it was time to rethink. After sitting down with our Greek Islands book, we discovered a very remote island in the same cluster as Santorini called Syros. What stood out most for us was a tiny beach called Kini, a name that for some forgotten reason, T calls me to this day. So Kini beach it was.
After a relatively painless ferry ride (there was a pool on top which was nice), we arrived on the tiny island of Syros and looked for a bus to take us to Kini. It's interesting- to get anywhere on this island, you must go UP. To get to Kini, directly across the island, we had to go to the top of the mountain and back down its other side. It was quite a ride. We arrived at the bay of Kini and had no problem finding a cheap room, mostly because there were only two places to choose from besides some lady's couch. For 30 Euros a night, we got a fabulous room. The beach was just gorgeous. The sand was not black like we've heard of that in Santorini, but SILVER! When you peer at a still place in the water, it looks as though a handful of coins is resting at the bottom. There was very little to do in Syros, and that may have been the best part of all.


T outside of our room


Eggplant field- yummy!


The road ending at Kini Beach


Monkey's view to Kini Bay

Athens, actually

Thank you, T, for that riveting (and somewhat accurate) picture of our neighbors across the Atlantic. We are doing catch up on the blog today because Turkey wasn't exactly the most blog-friendly country.

Athens in a nutshell:
"Help! I'm a big city trapped in a tiny nutshell!"
We liked it. The ruins were absolutely fascinating. The people were friendly and we had a much needed noodle house near our hostel. We ate there not once, not twice, but thrice-- Greece did not exactly have the most diverse restaurants.

Our newest computer wrinkle is that this computer won't let me post titles for pictures or change format, so here's some pics and you figure out the rest...

Athina

OK, so it is my turn to write this blog now, and the first thing I have to say is that Europe is just not all that it's cracked up to be. The people speak another language, possibly Dutch, they eat wierd stuff, and they have little or no concept of personal space. In fact, I woke up after spending the night on a park bench and this homeless guy and his dog were splitting a falafel right on top of me, and they were using no napkins of any kind! How rude. Also, once, in France I think, I saw a hunchback, and quite possibly a dwarf. Could have been the same person, but my spatial perspective was all messed up from staring up the belfries of decrepit churches all day. The National Health Care doctors here tell me I have the wickedest case of Knave Neck they have ever seen. But, Athens? Athens was by far the worst. The Parthenon is way more run down than the one in Nashville, the gyros lack the proper amount of tahini sauce, and the democracy is sub-par. I did like the people, or at least I liked that one guy who fell down from dehydration. He was a hoot. As this will probably be my last blog entry once my darling wife finds out what I have been up to, let me add one thing. Hey! Greece! Make a decent lamb chop, and then talk to me about culture!

Port O' Patra

From Corfu, we took a ferry to a port city in Greece called Patra. This ferry experience was quite the opposite of our previous from Italy to Greece, thank goodness. We were happy to find a pool on the top deck and soaked up some Adriatic rays along the way. Approaching Patra, we saw their beautiful bridge, the world's largest cable suspension bridge. We didn't know much about Patra, but it turned out to be decent place to stay for the next day before we could hop the train to Athens. Our place was called Pension Nicos and they had a great little rooftop terrace. Patra had a pretty happening nightlife, and we went to a little club called CiboCibo. While there, we ordered what we thought would be 2 seven year old Havana Clubs, but instead ended up with 4 glasses of tequila. Not wanting to be rude to our new Greek friend, we of course drank them. Next morning---- ATHENS!

Suspension bridge


On the ferry

Washing up on Corfu

After the hellacious boat ride, T and I would have been happy to have gotten off that ferry in the Gobi Desert. Fortunately, we landed on Corfu Island instead. We rented a cute little VW and headed up the mountains to an area we'd read about called Paleokastritsa. Legend has it this is the beach on which Odysseus washed up after his travels. And what a lovely place to land! Our hotel had a marvelous view out on to the bay with a backdrop of mountains.
We enjoyed traditional Greek cuisine for about 2 days before all we wanted was a pizza. At one dinner, there were traditional dancers breaking plates and setting fires. Many questions arose as we watched, but all in all it was entertaining.
The two highlights of our Corfu expedition are as follows:
ONE: We drove our little car up to the northern point of the island and went to Sidari beach. Though the beach wasn't the greatest, there is an interesting rock formation there that locals call the Canal D'Amour. It's believed that if a couple swims through it, they will remain together forever. So we did. And even better, we swam out to a rock made of.... we're not sure... but it was a cross between mud and rock. So we broke pieces off and covered one another from head to toe in the mud like we saw some other locals doing. After allowing it to dry, we swam back and it took a good two showers to get clean, but it was awesome.
TWO: T did some research and found that there's a beach on Corfu that many consider to be one of the most beautiful on Earth. It also happened to be one of the most difficult to find, and after paying 4 euros to park, we realized a half mile hike down a steep dirt road lay ahead. Sweating like a couple of Albanians, we were relieved to arrive at what truly was a gorgeous beach, and we headed down the stairs. But there was a catch... the closer we got, the more all the beach's glory came into focus. We had arrived on maybe not the most gorgeous, but certainly the most NAKED beach on Earth. We couldn't exactly turn around at this stage, so we kept on and did our best to avert our eyes from what can only be described as the most wieners one might ever want to see outside of a Braves game. NOTE: Mom, Lynn... fear not, we were by far the most modest people on the beach.

***I regret to say I cannot upload my pics on this computer, so I will add them to this post whenever I am able to next.

8-1-07 PICTURE UPDATE

Oh what a night

This titular reference is to what T and I consider to be the very lowest of points on our trip- the overnight boat ride from Bari, Italy to Corfu, Greece. Words cannot describe the horrors aboard this boat, which we like to refer to as the SS Scum Sauce. The ferry was headed to Igoumenitsa, Greece- one of the only ports to get to Albania. Now, I hope no Albanians are reading our blog, because T and I hate you. I'm not kidding, this was a boat full of the smelliest, rudest, loudest, smokiest, most horrible people we have ever had the displeasure of knowing.
Though we paid a pretty penny for a seat on this 11 hour journey, actually getting to that seat was quite the battle. There were people splayed out on every square inch of floor space, luggage blocking our paths every which way, and an old gross lady's feet and greasy head regularly falling onto our seats. While we could not get to our 2 seats, there were Albanians stretched across 4 and 5 seats a piece.
So T and I tried to sleep on the upper deck under the stars (on top of one of the engine covers), but it was too cold in the wind and everything was wet. We also tried sleeping in our seats, but a supersonic snorer prevented that. The only wink of sleep we got was in the bar where many people in our position, blocked from their seats, finally passed out in the chairs in this smelly littered space while listening to the bongs and bells of the neighboring "casino," AKA 4 electronic gambling machines. T tried to help me out by reminding me that RLance and TMeyer did this for months throughout Asia, and I knew they were really hardy guys. Inspired by them, I was tough, and I only cried a little bit.