Greek Island Hopper

Day 62 – 75



Athens


We arrived at about 1am on day 62/63 and after a minor fuck up with our hotel booking we checked into our flash hotel. Ah so luxurious – free wifi, massive plasma and great beds! After a awesome sleep in we decided to spend the day re-connecting with the world seeing as we were spending the next day in Athens on our Greek Island tour.


So...we stocked up on cookies, juice, chips and spent the afternoon relaxing and preparing ourselves for our greek island top deck tour.


At about 5pm we met and gret with our new TD team. Abundance of aussies and one American flying solo – brave girl! From the moment we met our group we knew it was going to be a wild ride – a lot more people our age and only one couple – not that our first tour group was bad (love you guys) but this one had a different vibe.


We started to spot similarities in characters from our first tour – for instance...Team Blasian (blonde and asian) were apparent on first sighting and Steph McGregor clone (except the original has better drooling skills)!


We all went to dinner together to enjoy some Greek cuisine. Whilst at dinner, these ethopian men were walking around our table trying to sell dvds – ofcourse we want new dvds. So, naturally Totti and I sat the ethopians down and sifted through their collections and walked away with Alice in Wonderland, Twilight (the new one), Sex and the City (the new one) and Karate Kid (again...the new one). We were THAT excited about our new pirated movies that we wanted to bail on dinner and head to our hotel to watch them. Sad.


Twilight was GREAT. The occasional mid-movie pee break appearance and the odd “down in front” comment but other than that it was pretty much the Cinemax experience!


Athens


We would just like to give a huge shout out to The Baby Grand Hotel in Athens for providing normal, human, consumable, edible and TASTY breakfast foods. BIG FAT NORMAL GREEK BREAKFAST. It seems like for ever ago that we were able to track down a slice of toast and a glass freshly squeezed orange juice. We would also like to thank them for cat free eating areas and clean chairs to sit on! Much appreciated!!


So with full tummies and a couple of muffins for the road (yes, we are thinkers, plus we couldn’t fit them in for breakfast, so we had to compromise and take them for snacks – much to everyone’s envy come snack time :p) we went on a brief walking tour (although the walk was brief, it was stinking hot and we sweated like we were running a marathon) up to the Acropolis. Our tour leader Nikki (soon became known as Mummy) took us on a LONG ass walking tour – can we just add, she was wearing heels the whole tour. Oh the pain. We walked up to the acropolis and saw some stuff and some other things of the oldish kind. It was nice but not as good as the slushies we inhaled – owiii brain freeze!


We then spent the rest of the afternoon walking through the flea markets – getting hassled by greek men...and hassling them back! My favourite quote by Totti “You – too expensive” in her best greek voice! Such a wog.


In between dinner it was time to head to Cinemax again and watch Sex and The City 2.....well Totti did.......somewhere between Samantha trying to hold onto her youth and Kerrie trying to rekindle her marriage to Big. Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz. Lol.


We met back up with our tour group and enjoyed a nice traditional greek dinner complete with greek dances to which some of the girls were quick to join in on. You will all be pleased to know that we are both seasoned wine drinkers now. Yeyah!


We kicked on at a local bar where we dominated some Ouzo (barf!) and hassled more greek men (gypsies). One girl...Mel Ho whom we nick-named MyHo was getting so frustrated with the dirty gypsy men that she bought a megaphone and proceeded to yell into it at his face “GO AWAY!”. Needless to say Ela and I were both in stiches.


Just as a side note – we downloaded the Shrek 4 iPhone application and entertained us...and everyone else with the “Do the ROAR” kid. Too funny. We all headed back to the hotel for some much needed shut eye before our walking tour in the morning.


Paros


FML. 5am wake up call to head to the port to catch our ferry to the island of Paros.


Pool for bombing. Tick.


Quad bikes for hire. Tick.


Boat to awesome beach. Tick.


Sand for making funny images. Tick.


Sand for burying. Tick.


So our life was pretty much complete. When we arrived we were well chuffed that the pool was right outside our room so we quickly swapped our jean shorts for our swimmers and did bombs.


We had lunch at a local cafe with the group while we waited for our hotel rooms to be serviced. At lunch we were well amused when we witnessed someone with a very simular random humour to ours. “What did you order for lunch”...MyHo replies in a Tourettes like outburst “MOUSAKA”. Far out we cacked ourselves. Guess you had to be there!


Soon bored, we decided to rock the beaches with our fros so we headed to the boat and off to Krios beach.


After a nice refreshing swim we started to get an itch to do something devious – so we got a half eaten apple and proceeded to make it into a face...and then built a body....and then gave it a extra long body part...the photos are priceless! Filia and Steph we shall privately send these to you! LOL!


We then thought it would be fun to bury each other in the sand and take photos – little did we know that half the beach were watching us and probably thought we were re-TARDS. But we had fun being sand monsters.


That night...well a bit of a blur really but it was good fun which ended in a swim of some kind – a true bomb-a-thon! We achieved two things that night: 1. The nickname Team Canberra and 2. A drinking record – which later got broken in Santorini.


Paros


The hangover – probably still over the limit we decided to get a group of cool kids and hire a bunch of quad bikes and hoon around the island...our leaders – US! Ela navigated, Totti at the wheel and off we went map in hand with our 7 quad convoy!


Seriously the best day ever complete with in-tune honking and holding up buses because we were too busy taking group photos and videos, that plus getting lost and one of our quads breaking down. Our convoy however seemed to think we were amazing (naturally) they felt that we would completely dominate The Amazing Race. Look out!


We stopped at random beaches all along the island every hour or so and went for regular swims and practised out floating skills (which p.s we would like to inform you are now world class. Even Totti who used to sink like a rock has come so far since her first floating attempt in Cancun).


We were accompanied by an awesome group of girls and guys whom we shall now give a shout out too: MyHo, Wallbanger, Paris, Amy, LN, Matty, Andy, sexy eyes Antonio!  Miss you guys x


We met back up with our group and went and watched a beautiful sunset by the water – heaps of pretty photos.


The need for speed soon kicked in and we jumped back on our quads and headed north to the town of Naoussa (pronounced Noosa) for a walk along the old port and some dinner. It was such an exhilarating ride in the dark through the mountains however we had a minor hiccup when Paris’ bike started sparking from the back...but we are all still alive!


TRAVEL TIP: If in Paros, hire quad bikes – they cost 15 euro for 24hrs of pure awesomeness. The best thing is that you keep them overnight.


Mykonos


We spent the morning bumming around Paros before we headed to the port to catch our ferry to MYKONOS – the party island. On the way we were informed about a little fuck up at the hotel we were supposed to stay at – the bad news: the hotel double booked with another tour so we couldn’t stay there. The good news: they paid for all of us to be upgraded to a 5 star (yes 5 star) resort for the night. This made the 4 hour ferry much more bearable. When we arrived, we were chauffeured to our luxurious honeymoon 5 star resort complete with fluffy slippers and robes!


Our resort was that big it came with a map – the pool was infinity edge – there were several bars – a restaurant and a cafe...and free wifi!


We spent the afternoon relaxing on our private balcony overlooking the water and ducked in for a swim. One of the girls had her own Jacuzzi on her balcony. We were very spoilt.


That night we watched the sunset by the windmills and enjoyed a flash dinner on the water. It was then time to see what Mykonos had to offer in terms of nightlife. We started the night at the Mex Bar where we were showered with napkins...and alcohol...oh and free t-shirts. There was tequila, flaming shots, shakers full of potent shots and much more. MyHo was quick to pull out her booty moves and gave Coyote Ugly a run for their money by dancing the shit out of the bar. We were well entertained. Favourite quote of the night, Wallbanger “I have a really high threshold for alcohol”...3 minutes later “Fuck, I’m so smashed”. Ah...FAIL! lol.


We finally dragged our butts away from Mex and headed to the famous Scandinavian bar where we were again showered with free shots and t-shirts. YEYAH! We love free stuff. There was a pole in this bar which MyHo and Matty dominated. Lol. More bar dancing. More alcohol.


We got home safely. That is all.


We decided it would be a great idea to make use of our fluffy robes and slippers and head to the pool for a late night/early morning swim. It was rather cold so we didn’t last long but our robes and slippers (which we stole) were rather comfy!


Mykonos


We wore our slippers and free t-shirts to breakfast and drifted around the hotel lobby until we found the breakfast room. Lots of blood shot eyes and ‘no-showers’....Andy – you dead mon?! Lol.


We decided there was no better way to spend the day than to hit Super Paradise beach for some sun and salt water. The boat took for frickin ages to get there but with Pringles, Coke and icy poles with tattoos in hand we didn’t really care. We spent the day on the beach...that is all.


Round 2: We hit up Paradise beach, Tropicana bar...sausage fest! YEYAH! Lol. We were well over dressed in tights and a t-shirt as everyone was practically naked by the time we got there but we enjoyed it. Mmmm...


Tropicana bar closed at 12 so we walked up to Cavo Paradiso to see what was happening. It costs 35 euro to get in and we both agreed we’d be well devo if we paid and it was shitty, so we left the group and headed back into town. We drank and danced some more at Mex bar and then enjoyed a white nutella crepe...mmm....


TIP: Apparently Cavo Paradiso plays really heavy dance music but is a awesome venue on the cliff overlooking the water – not really our cup of tea but keep it in mind if you’re in Mykonos.


Santorini


The most anticipated island of the tour – we had all heard so much about Santorini. The sea was really choppy so we managed to get our hands on some TravelCalm motion sickness tablets and zonked out for the whole trip. YEYAH!


We got to our hotel early evening, showered and walked down the road to the local taverna for dinner. We were still fairly drowsy from the trip so decided to have a early night and invited the girls and Matty back to our room for a cinema experience screening The Karate Kid. Great movie.


Zzzzz.....


Santorini


Sigh. Breakfast fail again. Warm milk in 30 degree heat = soggy cereal. Anyway, so we got picked up by our private bus and made our way into the main town: we had an action packed day to come, cable car ride down to the port, hiking up an active volcano and then a swim into the hot springs to play with some mud. Yehyah! Followed by a hilarious donkey ride up 500 steps.


TIP: thongs hiking up a volcano = fail and most probably face plant into the schmelting hot lava. So, hungy, complain, tired, hot, more complain, thirsty, no water, schtinky, complain – “But whhyyyyy-ya!” “Doooooonnnttt- uh” You get the picture. We finally made it to the top of the4 stupid effing volcano and enjoyed a lovely group photo (our tour guide payed us out – as she was standing there with about 10 cameras in her hand, she forcefully reminded us that it is in fact 2010 “you know guys....there’s a thing called facebook...you can tag people” shut down lol), some warm water and stale cheesy Pringles. Ah, the good life.


After making it back down the volcano, we took our private boat into the entrance of the hot springs and bombed off the side into the 30 degree water. Which turned into minus 2 degree water, which heated back up to 30 degree water – so strange!! We doggy paddled, floated, waded – any other form of swimming, to the mud. Ah, the mud – it’s a shame we couldn’t get photos here, basically we all looked like Shrek or The Hulk. Apparently this mud is meant to be amazing for your skin, so instead of just having a face mask, we pretty much coated ourselves in it lol. Unfortunately it was time to swim back to the boat and head back for our donkey ride.


Fucken stupid donkey – we have both appreciated having bruise free and uninjured legs, the stupid animal thought it would be nice to crush us into the wall numerous times up the mountain. The situation was NOT helped when the little greek man ringing up the rear whipped the donkeys, only making them pick up bursts of speed and merge into a giant donkey orgy of stink! FFS! It was very fun and our favourite donkey name of the day “Wallbanger JR.” LOL! That’ll do Donkey, that’ll do! Eh, eh! See what we did there?


Sooooooooooooooo..... the mud turned us into Oompa Loompa’s, we were radiating bright orange. Fake tan much? We couldn’t wait to get back to the hotel so we could have a bomb-a-thon.


- Side note: The perfect bomb shall henceforth be judged based on three criteria


1: air time 2: Facial expression 3: the size of your splash.


We also convinced MyHo and Matty to have bellyflop competitions - rather entertaining!!! Their pain was our joy lol.


So, sick of looking like oranges, we decided to leave the pool and exfoliate our faces off. Lucky for us, the mud all eventually washed off and we were back to our bleck looking selves in no time.


Since being named “Team Canberra” or Team Berra for short, we decided that because it was our last night on tour, that we should go out with a bang. We made arm bands from the ripped sleeves of our Mykonos T-shirts and accessorised our outfits that way. Coolest kids in school.


We decided to follow suit and get a roadie to take with us on the bus, so we went across the road and got a take away vodka lemonade in a paper cup (classy) and hopped on the bus. So it was pretty much a repeat of Berlin, the measure of Vodka to Lemonade was rather overwhelming, vom. We made it into town alive, and watched what was most possibly the most beautiful sunset we have had the pleasure of witnessing.


After that, we got a quick bite to eat and headed to our first pub on the pub crawl list: Murphy’s. Well.....where to begin....two for one cocktails till 10:30 and complimentary shots......more two for one cocktails......the sailor hat.....the roses.....rum and coke.....rum and coke....lady gaga...MyHo bar dancing.....more rum and coke.....good night!


Next morning. F.A.I.L. – well.... Totti punished the dunny. I feel that this stench has reached the top of her shit- o –meter. She was even surprised at how much it stank. We pretty much spent the day feeling sorry for ourselves, we just assumed the foetal position in the hotel lobby and waited for our bus to take us to the port. Stupid crack head kitten had to disturb our serenity. This little bugger was burning around the lobby – then it found us and took a liking to clawing our feet off. Yes, we are tough, scared of a little kitten.


We were not looking forward to the 9 hr ferry ride back to Athens – so we popped another travel calm and fashioned ourselves some beds out of our seats and extra chairs and passed out for a good four hrs. The rest of the trip was rather entertaining – we just watched MyHo and Ellen bicker and pay each other out. Wallbanger was about to hit the wall ( A thankyou) “I need to get off this effing boat – NOW!”


We FINALLY arrived in Athens at 1am and dragged ourselves back to our room and hit the pillow. Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz!


After a nice solid sleep, we all went down to brekky and said our goodbye’s – the last ten days has gone too quickly for our liking and we were sad to see everyone leave so soon. We’d like to thank everyone for making this trip so memorable – we hope you all make it home safe, and keep in touch. And don’t forget “We love dance, do do, do do do do do do, we love dance”


We then spent the rest of the day strolling around Athens and finally did some shopping (by shopping me mean more dvd’s off our Ethiopian dealers, we now have shrek 4, toy story 3, Grown ups, and a couple of random ones), went up to the acropolis and came across a little boy taking out his revenge on the pigeons in the town square. This was the highlight of the day – the elation on Totti’s face “LOOK AT THAT KID, HE’S STEPPING ON THE STUPID BIRD’S WINGS (LOL). Finally, someone who hates them as much as her. Too effing funny!


We said goodnight to the ice addicts shooting up outside our hotel and finally updated our blog!


And so we are gearing up for three weeks of Italian domination – food, food, and more food.


Yamas, bitches. Say hi to your dad for us.


Love, Team Berra xxxx