Ios

The intrepid explorers, ready for Ios

The last island in our Greek tour was Ios, the “party” island. Whilst the whole island is generally geared towards getting absolutely blotto and forgetting where you left your pants, we discovered some great alternatives.

Luka and Stella – two most excellent chicks.

We signed up for a kayak tour around the bay, which was actually pretty awesome. Heading off nice and late (so that the boozers could sleep it off...) at around 2:00pm, we struck out across the bay for our first stop. Lunch. A big fire was rocked up, and we munched on fresh salad, weird Greek “bread” and sausages cooked by some Aussie dude... needless to say, the snags were charcoal, but really nice.

Cute little wall stuck on the side of a cliff

Next stop was a cliff jump, from an 8m precipice.

Swimming out to the launch zone

Scrambling up, we realised just how high 8m is.

Gonna jump, Jimmy?

Not bloody likely!!

Hannah strapped on her figs and showed us all how it's done... Creating

quite possibly the LOUDEST back-flop ever. That's my girl!! We've got a rad video of Hannah exploding ONTO the water. I'll try and get it up later.

Everyone who was jumping had a jump, then we moved onto the next bay for some snorkelling and sunbathing.

There isn't heaps to see, since the Greeks decided to a whole lot of fishing after the war. A whole lot of fishing using dynamite. Apparently anything that might have been there was well and truly blasted to a billion tiny bits of sand, which does make for some interesting landscapes underwater.

We finished up the day with an Extreme Hell Ride biscuit run behind a powerboat, blasting around. Everyone rolled up a little slow and sore this morning!!

The Other Hannah takes the plunge

We're in Athens again now, we've said goodbye to the Islands, and will start our next leg to France very soon! Tomorrow, the Acropolis!!

Paros & Naousa

We took quite a few shots when we headed up to the small fishing village of Naousa (sounds almost like Noosa) with the girls, and around Paros, I thought I'd do a separate post of some them here.

The cobbled streets wind down narrow alleys, bustling with late night shoppers

The proud Greek village of Naousa, full of life, light and laughter.

Flowerpots adorn the merest of corners and crannies, adding colour everywhere.

Life moves at it's own pace in Greece, hence the notion of "Greek Time." Very calming.

Silence falls over the village at siesta, but come 11:00pm, when the sun goes down, these streets host an ancient theatre of trade.

A portal to another way of life. We could learn a lot from their laid back ways

Hand crafted wares abound.

Such contrast and vivid colours.

Traces of shade greet the weary bargainer.

Just a small selection, we have taken literally hundreds, but we need to go through them when we get home. I hope you get a bit of taste for where we've been!

Contemplation.

Paros

The "Alexandros."

So my pillow in Paros was like heaven. Our lovely little room overlooked a lemon orchard and had super cool air con and a decent bed. Only a short stroll into town, we checked out Parikia (the port town) for lunch and more gyros. I should explain the awesomeness that is gyros at this point. They are like a small kebab/souvlaki thing. Pork, tomato, onion, garlic sauce and chips all rolled up in a pita. Yes, chips. So good.

We met up with some of the girls on the tour in Naousa for dinner. It a very nice little seaside town with lots of restaurants and not as run down as Parikia. I had stuffed squid after we sampled some of the worst cocktails any of us had had in Europe to date.

There's so many cats in all these islands, not all as cute as this gorgeous little thing.

Yesterday we went out on a boat around Paros and Antiparos for the day. I think we now both finally feel like we're on holidays.

I agree with Hannah, the boat trip yesterday was good fun!!

We headed off for the trip around Antiparos (where Tom Hanks apparently has a home) and then stopped somewhere for a quick swim, through some natural bridge thingies.

Hannah's ghostly visage, showing just how blue water can get.

Yearrgh! A happy pirate with awesome hair...

Then onto the beach of Despotiko Island, where we were stuffed full of souvlaki, Greek salad, tzatziki and fresh bread. Needless to say there was gallons of wine and ouzo... I enjoyed my lemonade. Oh, freshly caught BBQ octopus. Big thumbs up, Spartacus style.

Awesome down-blouse shot.

After a nice lunch on the beach, we climbed back aboard, stopping at this private little cove with a climbable cliff for another swim. This place was so magic. It's hard to convey just how clear the water is, and the colour is something else. When you're swimming around, it looks like the water is maybe an inch below your feet. When you stick your head under, you realise it's maybe 4 or 5 METRES deep. Wow.

Surveying the drop into bliss.

Attention everybody! I have a very important announcement to make....CANNONBALL!!!!!!!!!!

The journey home delivered an outstanding number of giant waves erupting over the bow, and into our faces. Everything and everyone was soaked in a matter of minutes. So awesome.

Today was taken up mainly with arguing with hotel staff and ferry rides. We're here in Santorini, perched upon a hill in a sweet little hotel with Parosian marble floors. I've stuffed another gyros in my gob, and now I'm happy as. Zzzzzzzzzzzz.......

Greece!!

Here we are, safe and sound in the Mediterranean! Ensconced in our (tiny) hotel room in the Athenian port of Piraeus, we're only just now starting to work out exactly where we are, and what we're doing...

After coming back from Gnaraloo and having a few days off, our mindset was a bit off...we kind of felt like the holiday was over, even though it has only just begun!

So here are we in Athens. We had great flights, food was awesome, and we both managed to sleep for a few hours on the longer flight. Hannah was pretty cut that they didn't have the same movies on both planes, because the end of the ghastly Miley Cyrus movie she was watching was cut short, so she doesn't know if Miley got the guy or whatever.

It's very easy to get the Piraeus Port, from where the ferries all leave. We just jumped on a bus, got lost, found a cab, and got driven the 100m to our hotel.

This is how amped we were to be on a bus. That sign behind us advertises some casino, for which their slogan is a very Borat-esque "NAICE!"

This is the view out our window. There's so many houses built just like this, white squares. When you fly in, it's amazing how many miles of perfectly square white houses there are. Oh, and there are NO tall buildings in Athens. No sky scrapers or anything, nothing above maybe 20 floors. Interesting to see!

Looking left out of our balcony, you see a glimpse of a small bay. We're going to check it out at dinner time, there should be some nice little cafes and what not there.

Traffic is pretty spinny here. You can park wherever the hell you like, like on the corner at a traffic light intersection. Also, giving way to pedestrians seems to be encouraged, but optional.

Can't wait to check out the ferry tomorrow. We're off to Mykonos!!