Off the Couch and On the Road

One final ferry trip back to Athens and our island hopping days were over. We each did our own thing for the afternoon - last minute sightseeing, internet, packing - and caught up for farewell dinner and drinks that evening (after walking for miles to find a bar, Ios it was not).

The following day was my only full day in Athens, so I woke early and walked. And walked. I saw all the main sites in the city and decided that Athens was wonderful despite the concrete and less-than-perfect scenery. The Acropolis, encompassing the Parthenon, Temple of Athena Nike (she of hot shoes), and Erechtheion were claustophobic if anything to see, people were crammed in like, um, european tourists at the Parthenon in the heat, which wasn’t pleasant.

But it was interesting. Something you have to see even if you’re not overly impressed once you see it. A lot of the site was being reconstructed to rectify ‘earlier mistakes’ of reconstructions of the past, so it didn’t exactly look as pristine and tourist free as the postcards, but it did make me wonder. How do they know the previous reconstructions over the past few hundred years were incorrect? What if they keep pulling it apart and putting it back together forever? Will it resemble chinese whispers and eventually look nothing like the original ever did? And who would know otherwise?

Anyway, Athens was well worth exploring and I had my last Gyros (I could eat them forever, Greek food rocks), before settling into my hotel room with, like, my roommate who like, was, like, totally 18 and was, ohmygod so excited about her, like, island hopping tour.

Bless.

-Sarah

Ios was the party island, so we were told. ‘Don’t waste your energy, save it for Ios,’ Renee kept saying. And it was completely true, because there was literally nothing else on the island except for a ghost town of pubs and bars that only awoke after sunset, and an exquisite beach filled with hungover tourists (Australians, I should say) collapsed on sunbeds scattered down the coastline.

It was a bit creepy, the streets being so empty during the day with nothing open, but our accomodation was at Far Out Village and Camping right on the beach, with pools, cafeterias, bars and music pumping all day, so there was never a real need to leave. Our first day we chilled out by the pool and beach before preparing for our pub crawl that night (preparation consisted of 3 euro cocktails, in case you were wondering).

We went to about four or five different bars, including the ‘Red Bull’ bar and ‘Flames’, with Renee scoring us more free shots every few hours. At the ‘Fun Pub’, the bartener even lined us up and poured tequila and lime juice into our mouths as we lay our heads back on the bar. Man, it was the party island.

Greeks freepour the shots, one drink would have about 4 shots in it, so we didn’t need to spend a fortune which was great. We danced the night away to great music (they played ‘Ice Ice Baby’ and ‘Like a Prayer’, what more can I say) and I stumbled home, via the best bakery in the world (and it’s not because I was drunk, it really was the best bakery in the world) at about 4.30am, leaving thousands of others still partying in the bars and on the streets until everything shut just after sunrise.

The following morning, Aileen and I, who shared a bungalow, complained about ants in the beds and mosquitos in our room, which were attacking us like we had discovered the recipe for erradicating bugs that could never be made if we were declared insane from itching, and got upgraded to the Far Out Hotel and Spa on the other side of the beach.

We were expecting to get transferred to the village accomodation (we were on the camping grounds) and so were unbelievably stoked when our driver pulled up outside a four-star hotel. Karma rocks, I tell you.

We had our own bathroom, blacony and pool noone else was using except for some greek boys and ourselves, and a pool bar. We could even squint and imagine seeing all our friends sweating it out on the crowded beach below. We were spoilt. So I didn’t leave all day, only heading back to the village for dinner and a showing of ‘Wedding Crashers’ before a good sleep in my luxurious bed.

Some of the others went clubbing again that night but I preferred to read and chill out instead, catching up on sleep before our trip back to Athens (sob) the following day.

-Sarah

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