But it's raining chaos! When trying to describe our experiences boarding island hopper ferries in Greece it's hard to go past the words 'chaos' and 'shambolic' without thinking they ought to sum up it up quite nicely. Disorganised doesn't even come close. Port security staff giving hell into their whistles, ship crew cursing and yelling over the wind at port staff, arms waiving in all directions, cars being told to turn around...then turn around again, mooring ropes being tied down over other ferries moorings and being tied in the wrong places preventing other ferries from leaving, tour guides skipping queues with 40 tourists and getting screamed at. It's great fun taking this all in, and you do get on the ferry eventually albeit later than planned.
Half the problem is that everyone with a sliver of authority has a whistle, and they all decide to blow them at the same time, while pointing in opposite directions. I can't blame them for being a tad pissed off though. It's 38-40 degrees, and these fellas are wearing black military style pants, black military style shirts, and combat boots. I'd certainly blow my whistle to make me feel better. It would kind of feel like swearing really loudly I guess. Their tortured expressions suggest a pretty quick staff turnover...
Our 2 weeks in Greece began in Crete where we spent 4 days exploring ... well exploring a lounger on the beach. We did make it up at 4am one day however to hike the Samaria Gorge. It's about 17Km and gets piping hot during the day. You start at 1200m in the mountains and walk to the southern coast of the island where you will eventually come out to a lovely beach and await a ferry to take you home. Downhill the entire day was pretty hard going on the knees, and we felt it in our calves for the next 3 days. The scenery was spectacular however. Picture Grand Canyon / Queenstown type of things. At the narrowest point the gorge is 2.5 meters wide, and reaches up several hundred meters either side of you which I found daunting. I kept thinking it was about to start raining rocks or something. It takes about 5 hours to complete and there are fresh springs along the way to quench the thirst you have build up in the 38 degree sun. There are a couple of basic stores at the bottom selling a well earned beer to look forward to though.
The next day we were on an over night ferry to Athens which was a first for me. We had our own cabin and a bottle of liquor to kill the time. These huge liners are pretty impressive, it puts the inter islanders to shame. Bohemith things! I felt like I was on the Titanic, luckily the Med doesn't do icebergs.
Athens was where we were kicking of our island hopping excursion around the Cyclades. Mykonos, Paros, Santorini and Ios are all pretty close by so you don't spend too much time in transit fortunately. On all the islands the food was great, as were the people. One restaurant in Mykonos however deserves a mention. This place has no signs, no advertising, no reservations, no address, and no phone number. Word of mouth is really put to the test. It's a guest house type setup called Kiki's. You sit under an ancient vine shading you from the sun, while over looking one of the most secluded beaches on the island. The food, view and whole experience really makes you feel like you are on a deserted island with waiters at your service. The best directions I can give you is to go to the northern most beach called Agios Sostis and down some pretty dusty looking steps on your left as you head down a steep path toward the beach. Look for the white chimney and old vine on your left. It's about
here and worth a look!We tried to load ourselves up with activities on each island to keep exploring rather than lounging in the sun which was very addictive. Hiring quad bikes to get around is a pretty rad way of doing it (if you can get something that isn't a gutless coward like one of the ones we had). We put ours through a few tests getting over some pretty steep mountains, but we made it through after some long long hauls. It lets you take in the whole island and not be too confined to a particular town or rely on the public transport which was pretty good, but just infrequent enough to make missing the buss a pain the arse.
We decided to give windsurfing a nudge in Paros which was great fun. Picked it up pretty quickly thanks to the Titanic size board they gave us to learn on; it could have shown an that iceberg a thing or two I reckon. You could have taken half the family with you! We also pottered around a butterfly sanctuary which turned out to be in interesting experience. Initially it's quite nice taking in the moving colours in the air around you. However after a while I started to freak me out a little which was a tad embarrassing. I know they are only butterflies, but when I'm in the middle of a swarm of anything I get into a mental state of "fight or flight". They ask you when you go in to the sanctuary not to touch the butterflies as it's important they survive for mating and so on..... Well someone should have told those little bastards not to touch me first! Fighting as it turned out, was futile. Power in numbers meant I was a sure goner from the outset, so after a few feeble swats I ran. Ran like a scared child. Phobias can be generated from traumatic experiences. My first phobia is born. Butterflies. I feel like I've let the family down!
Diving in Santorini was a first for Nikki who loved it and is looking forward to more. Santorini was by far our favorite destination. We had 4 nights split into two in different parts of the island. Both our accommodation choices turned out to be stunners! Big rooms, big deep pools, quiet terraces with views taking in the cliffs which the towns are built on as well as the sunsets where you aren't surrounded by hundreds of tourists. I'd go back pretty quickly. A donkey trail was also called for to get us up the winding cliff steps after an excursion to the local volcano. They are quite feisty animals it turns out. Any other donkey who decided to overtake mine got a swift and sharp bite to the neck. Atta boy, that's my kind of donkey.
A couple of days in Athens taking in the sites marked the end of our two weeks. It didn't get below 32 degrees the whole time which made it hard to come home. However it's a cracker day in Amsterdam today clocking in at 30 degrees so we can't complain for now.
Til next time...
