TravelStream™ news feed for member jhdavis on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/jhdavis en-us Copyright ©2009 TravelPod.com Wed, 10 Dec 2008 03:52:13 -0500 http://www.travelpod.com http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jhdavis/1/1228405140/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jhdavis/1/1228405140/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jhdavis/1/1228405140/tpod.html Wed, 10 Dec 2008 03:52:13 -0500 Thessaloniki Travels and Beyond!

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Meteora, Thessaly, Greece

Meteora was by far one of the most beautiful places in Greece. As far as mainland beauty goes, I think she holds the top spot. The bus ride there was a little uncomfortable, but good practice for the Athens trip we were taking by bus the next weekend. It was also a nice change of pace from just Megan and I exploring, as we went with several other members of our study abroad group. It was great really getting to hang out with more people this time around, and getting out of our little cliques we formed for each building.
Our first stop on the long ride there was in a little town outside of Meteora known for its remnants of a temple (which literally was a few rocks on the ground) and being the home of the "healing springs" of the Greek God of...yep you guessed it, Healing. The town was small and quaint, coffee shops and little eateries lining both sides of the street, and beautiful parks in different areas. We went on a mini tour to the aforesaid rocks, and had a chance to relax and enjoy some coffee the Greek way. Although it took some getting used to, I eventually fell in love with the Frappes here and I really hope they're not too hard to make when I get back home. (Although it wouldn't be bad healthwise if they were lol)
After our coffee time we loaded back up on the bus for the next leg of our journey that was going to take us to the town right below Meteora (as the rocks and monasteries themselves actually lay claim to that name), Kalambaka. It only took 30 minutes to get to our hotel and after checking in Megan and I went right back out to go through some tourist shops and look for gifts. Unfortunately, once you've been in Greek tourist shop, you've been in them all. They had pretty much the same thing as other stores had, except for this one really random Barbie hat, and Megan decided not to linger too long and to try and meet up with some friends for a night at a taverna.
We headed back and while we waited for people to get ready we watched some Top Gear, a really awesome BBC show about cars and three British guys who do the funniest things with them. (Peel P50 for instance)
So after the show went off we realized that everyone left without us, and so we ventured out on our own to try and find the restaurant they went to (someone decided on getting pasta instead)
Luckily though, when we got there they were full so we actually went with our tour guide, the art history teacher here at ACT and some guys and girls from my building to a taverna not too far from us. We got a few carafes of wine, appetizers, and of course...tzatziki. And once again, Megan skipped out on Greek food and got pasta...why the pasta is so special in Greece i'll never know.
Anyways after eating at the taverna we decided to have a night out on the town and headed down to the bar, Blue. Our original group was small, but after 30 minutes or so everyone else managed to find their way there and Megan and I had a blast dancing around having fun. At one point we did a little swing demo doing the around the world, and although the first 2x we did was good, being buzzed and tired caught up with me on the third one and we pretty much fell to the floor laughing. The night was a blast in general, and when we finally got home we fell asleep with no problem and were ready for breakfast the next morning.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jhdavis/1/1225651020/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jhdavis/1/1225651020/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jhdavis/1/1225651020/tpod.html Wed, 10 Dec 2008 03:16:46 -0500 Thessaloniki Travels and Beyond!

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Milan, Lombardy, Italy

Oh Milan.
Since were only a couple weeks from being home, Megan and I plan on telling everyone about our adventures soon...but for now we wanted to post all the pictures we've taken so far so you could see!
10 more days woohoo!

Megan and I flew EasyJet over to Milan and I have to say that although we couldn't see the ground below and I knew that was some kind of foreshadowing, being above the clouds and seeing a sea of white, was really cool. So after our one hour flight (Italy is an hour behind Greece) we arrived at the MXP airport in Milan! Wondering how to get into the city we wandered around the airport for a couple minutes, but luckily the Italians believe in labeling and making things much, much easier for people to navigate lol. We bought two bus tickets on the express bus (the only way to get into the city besides the suburban railway which for some odd reason was more...) and with our fingers crossed for a good Italian adventure and how we were going to have some amazing food (well at least better than Happy Bar and Grill) we wound our way through the packed city and of course the first thing Megan spots is a market. I don't know how she does it, but I swear everywhere we go now Megan has an uncanny knack for finding the markets and convincing me we need to go. But we were on the bus at that point and luckily we kept driving into the city so we a bit farther away than she was hoping for.
Lucky for us, our Hotel was pretty central to everything in Milan. We had a metro not too far from us, and beyond that the Central Train Station loomed overhead. Our hopes were high, and after asking three or four people about where our Hotel was, we dropped off our stuff and decided not to wander too far and just have dinner somewhere close. I also learned that for some weird reason the hotels in Italy like to hold onto your key, which I thought was weird but was ok with me considering this one had a giant tacky tassel on the end lol.
So in the mood for some really great Italian food we wandered around central Milan trying to decide what place sounded best. We eventually settled for a cook-to-order restaurant that had a buffet style to it. I know, I know...we were in Italy and eating at a buffet chain? But it wasn't like your Golden Corral back home, instead this place had some really great food, a huge selection of wine, and some great pasta. I actually got a piece of lasagna, which unless its Mom's or Stouffer's Veggie Lasagna, i'm not usually a big fan. But it was pretty good here and Megan got a ravioli dish with a pesto sauce. But knowing we weren't going to full on that alone, I picked up a salad to go with our meal. Picking out the dressing however, proved to be a bit harder. Everything was labeled in Italian and nothing looked like Italian dressing lol! We ended up choosing the thing that looked closest to Thousand Island Dressing and left it to eat last. So after we finished our meals we looked at the salad and dared each other to try it first, I ended up going for it and immediately wanted to gag. The orangish looking sauce we thought was Thousand Island, turned out to be a freakin' mayonaisse sauce! Why in the world it was tinted that color I'll never know.
The one Italian tradition we couldn't pass up, especially on the first night, was eating gelato everywhere we go. Walking back from the Italian buffet place, we stopped by a little dessert store and both got a scoop of gelato. Megan, the ice cream fiend that she is, was in heaven. I admitted that it was pretty good :)
Wanting to save the big stuff for the next day (especially since it was already nighttime) we headed back into the hotel for the night and planned out our trip for the next day.
Castle Sforza, Duomo, Metro, Clock being 2 hours late no matter what, and our attempt at finding the markets.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jhdavis/1/1228836180/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jhdavis/1/1228836180/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jhdavis/1/1228836180/tpod.html Tue, 09 Dec 2008 11:01:11 -0500 Thessaloniki Travels and Beyond!

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Thessaloniki, Macedonia Region, Greece

As most of you have heard by now, there is a riot going on in Thessaloniki.
So here's some basic answers as to what's happening, why it's happening, who the targets are, and our level of safety right now.
This whole situation was started by a police officer shooting a teenager in Athens after an alleged encounter involving personal safety. The two officers involved claimed it was an accident but fatally shooting a teenager no matter what the circumstances are, is going to cause a lot of resentment. Unfortunately for Greece, this couldn't have come at a worse time as a General Strike was scheduled for this Wednesday, which gives the rioters all the more reason to keep up the riot until then. A lot of people here disagree with the government and last night I thought that this was the stupidest way to get things done. People are torching Greek shops, destroying banks, hotels, and even burning down the McDonald's...but this is their city! It's the equivalent of a man destroying all his goods before a long winter. This riot will accomplish nothing, no matter how far it extends. The fact is that in this day and age, you can't rely on violence to get things done anymore. Governments have a lot more power than they used to. For true stability and change you need the power of a vote, the power of a voice that relays your best interests. Without the people of a country you have nothing but empty ideals. But rioting to remind the government of that? While I can see how it makes sense that, if a government is corrupt enough, you have to take drastic action but the truth still is that by desecrating YOUR national monuments, by destroying YOUR city, by rebelling for destruction, YOUR voice becomes that of madness. There is no reason in destruction.
You can't bring change on by demand or force, the backlash ALWAYS comes in time, and will hit twice as hard as the first incident.
This whole thing has been blown way out of proportion by everyone. By the anarchists, by the media, by the Greek Government. The failure in letting these riots continue for more than three days just so the police can keep a "positive" image is ridiculous.
But enough of that. The real reason I wanted to post this was to allieve your worries about Megan and I.
So here's the scoop. The fighting is between the police and these bands of college-aged to teen kids who call themselves anarchists. They throw stones at the cops, cops shoot tear gas, kids run away. So far the only big demonstrations have been in downtown Thessaloniki. If you have Google Earth you can search for Kamara or Galerius' Arch. This is where the demonstrations start. Last night 5,000 people gathered and went down that same street torching and breaking into shops. Like I said it's needless destruction. But after you find where that is Google Evangelistria, this is the area we live in.
As far as targets go, no one cares about us. As long as we don't interfere with their activities, they won't bother us. They just want to mess with the cops, that's it. Were tucked away in an older part of the city (a lot of elders live here) and were pretty much out of the radar. We don't have any shops right in our immediate area, and there is no reason for them to come bother us.
Megan and I are staying inside until this blows over. It sucks that this is happening around Christmas time, I really hope that this doesn't ruin things for the rest of the city that isn't involved.
Our main point,
DON'T WORRY.
Love you guys!
Jared and Megan
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Athens, Attica, Greece

Part two baby!
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Istanbul, Turkey

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Sofia, Bulgaria

Well, we were finally off to another country since arriving in Greece and man were we excited about it! It was fall break and our first real time off from school and we couldn't wait to take advantage of the chance to get away from ACT. Jared and I booked tickets for the night train to Sofia, Bulgaria for Thursday at 12:33 and were on our way. When we arrived at the train station, we were running a little late because we decided to walk to save money from a cab fare. We asked one of the ticket men which car we were supposed to be in because our ticket didn't specify. He led us into a car with very nice sleeper cabins. There were two fairly decent sized mattress beds with sheets, a mirror, and mini table in the corner. We were surprised that this was where we were supposed to be because we only paid 12 euro for the ticket and this car definitely looked like first class, but we figured "oh well, someone in charge told us to go here." As we sat in the beds wondering if we should really stay here, the man came back to check our ticket again. He didn't speak much English, but started rattling off a bunch of different prices like 15 and 20 euro. I showed him the ticket and said we already paid 12 euro. We eventually came to figure out that you had to pay more to stay in the section he had put us, so we picked up our bags and got off. At this point, the train was going to leave in another 5 or 10 mintues, and we still had no idea where to go. All of the cars looked like sleeper sections and we did not pay extra for that. We walked towards the back of the train and ran into another one of the ticket men and asked him hoping for some better assistance. He looked at our tickets and pointed to the last car on the train. Apparently there, it's every man for himself and you just take your pick at a seat rather than having assigned ones.
We climbed our way up to the last car and immediately felt like we had stepped into another world compared to the previous car we were in. The whole car smelled like a dirty bathroom with toliets that didn't flush. We made our way down the narrow walkway and peered into the boxes to see if there were any available seats. The lights in the car made it seem like a horror movie because most of them were off while others flickered every so often revealing the dirty walls and seats. All the boxes we passed were either full of people or there were people who looked crazy or homeless sitting inside of them. This was going to be a fun ride. Jared and I stopped at the last box which had only one person curled up in the corner of it. We slid open the door and sat at the edge furtherest away from the person inside. I don't know if it was a man or woman, but they were wearing a huge jacket and kept their head down the entire time execpt for when they would wake up with a terrible hacking cough. There was no way we were going to get comfortable and get any sleep on this train. The seats, which were supposed to be red, were mostly black from wear and dirt over the years. The cushions were ripped all over and some were patched up with another type of material or held together with tape. Yep, Jared and I were definitely in a horror movie now (or at least I felt so).
When the train got moving, we put in our ipods and tried to pretend we were somewhere else. We rode for a few hours before we made it to the border and the train had to stop for inspections. Soliders came onto the train to check our passports several times, and we got finally got some more stamps! We didn't really know what was going on for awhile because the train would stop and then reserve and go back the way we had came. Jared and I were so confused. We eventually started moving the right way again and stopped at the border for a second time. This time though, we had our passports taken away for a long time and I was worried we weren't going to get them back. We finally did about 20 minutes later and after being stopped at the border for about an hour we were were back on track again. The person in the corner of our box ended up leaving before our stop, so we had the place to oursleves for a while. We kept trying to find comfortable sleeping positions because we were so exhausted, but it proved to be impossible. It was also freezing on the train because there was no heater or anything. We arrived in Sofia at 7:43am and made our way off the train. We thought the train was cold while we were on, but we had no idea what cold was until we were outside again. I'm pretty sure I have never felt so cold in my life. I had a jacket on, but the cold air felt like needles piercing my skin and my teeth uncontrolably chattered while my lips became a deep blue color. We walked to the underground area below the train station to find an ATM so we could have some Lev (Blugarian currency) to buy breakfast. We found one and then searched the area for an indoor cafe where we could sit and warm up for a bit. Unforunately, they were all full and we had to settle for a pastry at one of the window cafes. Thankfully, since the lev is so cheap, breakfast only ended up costly me what converts to 30 cents. It was a huge fresh-baked croissant with some type of filling in it (Jared thinks it was fig) and actually pretty good. Jared and I shared that and then made our way to the top of the station to find our hostel.
We weren't really sure exactly where our hostel was from the train station, but the website said it was within walking distance. I really wasn't in the mood for walking since I felt like an ice sickle outside and we weren't even sure which way to go, but Jared was determined to find it on his own and not take a cab. We would have taken one of the buses or trams, but we had no idea which one to get on and we really didn't want to end up in the bad side of Bulgaria. We ended up walking for a bit down the street in front of the station, but after a little while I decided that we needed to ask directions or get in a cab because we had no idea where we were going. Jared didn't want to ask for directions, so we walked back to the train station and got in a cab. We showed the driver the address to the hostel and he agreed to take us. Now, Jared absolutely hates taking cabs because he thinks every single one of them is out to rip you off in any way that they can. I don't competely disagree, but at this point and time I knew it was our only way to the hostel. Well, this time, Jared was right--completely right. The cab driver's meter was jumping up so fast it was ridiculous. We sat in traffic for awhile and the meter jumped up 10 lev just while we were sitting there. I looked at the sticker on the window which shows how much the fair is supposed to be and it definitely wasn't the same as what we were being charged. It's against the law for cab drivers to over charge, but since we didn't speak the language and the guy wouldn't listen to me when I tired to tell him that we were not paying that, we had to do it anyways. It ended up costing us 34 lev just to get to the hostel which was not that far away (but still definitely not within walking distance).
When we got to the hostel, the outside gates were closed and a door on the outside said they did not open until 10:30am. I couldn't believe that a hostel wasn't open 24 hours a day. It didn't make any sense. We figured there had to be people inside, so we started yelling up to the windows, but no one responded. It was only a little after 8, so we still had a while before the place would open up according to the sign. We definitely were not going to wait outside in the cold, so we walked down the street to a little cafe and got orange juice and sat and did our homework for a few hours. When it was 10:30, we left and walked back to the hostel. The door was still locked. So far this was not so great of an experience in Blugaria. We looked in the window, but the place was dark and we thought it was odd because the place didn't even look like a hostel inside. We waited for a while and then an old lady came to the door and unlocked it. We told her we were here to check in and she looked at us like we were crazy and then walked over to the wall by the gate and rang a door bell behind the bars. Whoops. We had been waiting at the wrong place. Apparently that door was for an art store and the hostel was upstairs and to the right of that place. A man came out of the other door and welcomed us to the hostel. He carried my bag up the stairs and asked us how our trip was. We didn't tell him about our mistake because we didn't want to sound stupid. He led us up the inside stairs and offered us breakfast and coffee in a little nook. It was a pretty cute place and had a nice homey feel. The owner seemed very nice and made me a cup of coffee which was actually really good (and I don't even like coffee). He prepared our room while we ate the coconut breakfast bread and pasties upstairs. When the room was ready we dropped off our suitcases and were ready to crash since we were running on virtually no sleep for the day. Our room was very nice, with only three beds in it (unusual for a hostel because there are up to 10 beds in each room at most of them) and we had our own bathroom attached to the room.
After taking a moment to recooperate after the extremely cold weather, we headed upstairs to find out from our host Peter where we should go/the fastest way to get around Sofia. Pointing out the two major roads in Sofia that will lead you to most of the sights, Megan and I bundled up with a few extra layers...well a lot of layers actually lol...and headed out into the slightly warmer day. The contrast between the chill and the sunlight was nice, and it made for some really crisp pictures of the city around us. Following Peter's instructions we headed down one of the main roads and found our way to the first stop--the one and only mosque in all of Sofia. It was well, interesting, and after a few pictures we decided to try and make it to the antique fair our friends told us about. Of course directional sense isn't one of my strong suits, and being in a new place without a map (we had to pick one up from a tourist agency near the market) didn't exactly work for Megan either. So we thought we were heading straight towards the Alexander Cathedral, but in reality we ended up making a squiggly line all over Sofia and totally blew past the Cathedral. But we did find a gorgeous theatre along the way, as well as some really nice parks. One of the defining features of the city was in fact the number of parks they had everywhere. After walking a bit of ways we decided that maybe we should turn around and head back the way we came (that didn't work either). So once again carving across downtown Sofia we found the University (didn't know it at the time) and a really interesting statue that was literally a few feet away from the Church. How we missed it coming back I'll never know, but we did eventually find our way back to the main road with some luck found a tourist agency that gave us a map to use. So with some actual direction in mind, we headed to the Cathedral that literally was Sofia's center. We waded through the antique markey that Megan's uncle would have loved, and contemplated what gifts we wanted to bring back from there. After getting some prices we decided to come back with money later and try to haggle for a bargain. So we crossed the street and took some great pictures of the Cathedral, went inside to see the architecture and all the beautiful artwork. It was a bit more grand than Agia Sofia in Thessaloniki and sitting in there I decided that this was the perfect example of Gothic architecture.
After our walk through the Church, we headed back to our hostel with plans to visit the restaurant that sponsored the city map, Happy Bar and Grill. It apparently served barbeque, and having no idea what Bulgarian food might be, decided to play it safe. Or so we thought.
To start things off, since it was a little crowded they sat us with another pair of customers at a small table...in the smoking area. Megan and I pretty much choked on the ridiculous amount of smoke in the air and waited patiently for our food to arrive. We got some form of chicken...it was supposed to be an Asian influence, some kind of teryiaki, but it definitely wasn't. We also ordered some bread with our meal, and well that was interesting to. If you've ever seen a Tostinos pizza, that's what it was. Just the crust of a Totinos. Really made me miss crazy bread from Little Caesar's.
Well after we finished our wine, and food, we tried many different ways of getting the waitresses attention to pay our bill, but Europe in general just loves to leave you sitting there. So about 30 min later she comes back with the check, and of course we had one more complication to go through before we could leave.
I paid with my American Express card and it showed on their menu that they took it. But apparently the waitress was new to the whole sliding a card thing and well, to make things short, we had to get the manager to finally figure out to use the card machine. As soon as we were good, Megan and I booked it out of there and headed back to our hostel to plan out the next day and get the smoke out of our hair and off our skin.
The beds were actually quite comfortable, partly because they were slightly larger than ours back in the apartments, and we managed to get a decent night of sleep.
The next morning we woke up early, ate some more amazing breakfast pastries and some coffee (that Megan actually liked!) and decided to head down to the antique market to try and get the gifts we contemplated the day before. The best part about Sofia though, was the exchange rate. Megan and I really felt like millionaires walking around, our 50 euros converted into 100 lev. Now this is the part where I would describe the things we looked at, and the gifts we got, but that would be spoiling the surprise :)
Needless to say, what we got rocks and were really excited about Christmas!
We took our bags and stuff with us to the market so from there we jumped on the tram and headed to the airport at the far end of Sofia. It was really interesting seeing how the city changed so abruptly, we went from a nice part of the city into some really slum-like areas. In fact on the way there a man jumped on a few stops away from the airport, and we was that really weird color of dirt and tan mixed together...and for whatever reason he decided he was a compass in the fact that he held his finger pointed in one direction and as we went up and down streets he never lost track of that one direction. As I was trying to figure out what he was doing, Megan was dodging the things falling out of his hair. Yep. Kinda disgusting.
But he got off two stops later and we got off a few after that and headed to the check-in area for EasyJet for our voyage into Italy!
(sorry this took so long to post...but things as some of you know have been a bit hectic...)
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Genoa, Italian Riviera, Italy

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Santorini, Cyclades, Greece

Day two was an everchanging day plan-wise. We originally decided the night before that we were going to book an excursion for the day and save Sunday for riding around and exploring, but since the weather was gorgeous and we woke up a little too late to have breakfast AND do the excursion (it leaves at 10:35 at the bottom of Fira) Megan insisted we choose breakfast over the trip. Her argument? This was the first time we could get real pancakes since we left the States. lol!
So we headed into Fira on Old Yella and decided to book the excursion for Sunday instead so we could have it done ahead of time. We wandered around the streets for a bit looking for a place that was open for breakfast but apparently they don't open until about 10 o' clock anyway. Luckily on the way back to our ATV we saw the owner of a small diner opening up and remembering us from the night before (our friends from ACT who had also gone that weekend had eaten there and we stopped by to chat) told us to come sit down and enjoy the morning. Megan immediately flipped through the menu looking for pancakes. It turned out that this small diner had quite a few choices and although she could have picked anything, Megan went for the plain pancakes with maple syrup. I decided to be a bit more adventurous (pancake wise) and got cinnamon apple pancakes with some orange juice. We waited for our breakfast under the morning sun and already knew that it was going to be a great day. A few minutes later breakfast arrived and although the syrup wasn't what we expected (it had caramel in it and according to the old couple sitting next to us looked more like molasses) my pancakes were so amazing I didn't even need syrup. The apples were literally like candy and although no one can make a blueberry pancake like Mom, this guy sure did put a new spin on an old favorite.
After we finished our breakfast and paid the bill we headed up to our ATV rental place and paid for another 24 hrs use so we could keep the ATV all day and use it to get back into town on Sunday. Using the map we were given on the first day we set off on Old Yella to the east coast of the Island towards the famous black sand beaches. With the sun still not quite overhead, the ride was a bit cold in board shorts and a t-shirt but with the extra padding in the helmets our heads were at least quite warm. As we made it into the town of Kamari, we came across a fork that pointed one way to Ancient Thira and the other to the beaches. Once again going on a spontaneous decision we gave Old Yella all it had and slowly wound our way up to the top of the path. Although I wouldn't see just how gorgeous the view was until later, the feel of the mountain air assured me that the trip up was worth it. Not knowing how far up the path would go, we got off Old Yella a little early and followed a foot path up the rest of the way. My luck of course was that the road went up two more switchbacks and then ended in a large roundabout at the foot of the archaeological site. But we were excited to be exploring something new so we forged our own paths here and there and took some silly pictures on top of random rocks. As silly as the Japanese/Chinese tourists look with their huge cameras, Megan and I started to wish we had one. You really can't get a grasp of just how beautiful everything was from atop Ancient Thira just from the pictures we took. The black sand beach looked like a road and the waters were such a rich blue that the sky paled in comparison.
As we climbed up Ancient Thira we kept looking behind us at the other mountain that was much taller than the one we were on. I spotted a trail that zig-zagged up it and joked with Megan about climbing it. But as we were coming down from Thira we spotted a group of hikers at the top inside of the clouds and knew that we had to at least try and climb it. Megan's flip flops didn't help the case either, but hey if we climbed to the top of Ancient Thira then surely we could do that right? I mean from the summit of Thira to its peak we thought it couldn't be too much higher. And so once again we went on another spontaneous decision and trekked up the adjacent mountain. All I have to say is that Old Navy made some pretty tough flip flops. We went through loose gravel (where Megan looked like an ice skater trying to stay balanced), patches of thorny bushes, thousands of honey bees, and the most bothersome flies you have ever met. I kept Megan in front of me to make sure I could catch her should she slip (which happened quite a lot lol) and tried my best inspirational speeches to keep her going. But with the mountain air it really was hard to stop, it was so invigorating being way above the city and it really made me wish that we had the chance to climb Mt. Olympus before it got too cold. The mountain really only had three types of vegetation, brush, thorny brush, and flowers. The flowers were either purple or yellow and while the yellow ones Mom would have surely told me were weeds, the purple ones were bonafide flowers as they were constantly swarmed with honey bees. In fact besides the wind whistling and Megan's flip flops doing the occasional woosh! I lost my balance sound, the hum of the bees was pretty loud. We did our best to keep our cool as we waded through patches of the purple flowers but the need to swat them away from us was almost overwhelming.
I should have known I was in for a real treat when we started hiking up that mountain. Jared forgot to mention that when we began our hike a large group of mountain climbers were coming our way, so we stopped and moved aside to let them through. The narrow rocky path definitely would not have fit both of us. As they pasted we noticed that they all had on long pants, jackets, backpacks that hold water and have a straw leading to their mouths, and professional walking sticks. They looked at us like we were absolutely crazy. Me in my cotton shorts and a t-shirt with flip flops, and Jared in his board shorts and t-shirt-boy did we look like the thrill-seeking mountain climbers! Maybe we should have a least carried a bottle of water so we looked sporty. Like Jared said though, it was all worth it in the end. Those views were spectacular! We literally could see the entire crescent shape of the island and all the cluster of cities throughout it. The way down though was even more of an adventure than the way up. The flip flops held up pretty well walking up, but the downward slope and complete lack of traction on my sandals made the way down quite and interesting and scary experience. Ok Mom, I know right now you are probably yelling at me saying "how many times do I have to tell you to wear better shoes and stop using those flip flops because they are so dangerous!" but I promise I made it to the bottom without a scratch. But anyways, I pretty much had a death grip on Jared's arm the entire way down because every so often my shoes would catch a slick rock or a pile of loose rocks and I would lose my balance. I guess all those years of dance lessons really did pay off though because I was able to regain my balance without falling each time. It also didn't help that we lost track of the main trail on the way down and at the end ended up having to slide down a massive boulder to make it back to the path. All in all though, it was an amazing experience and well worth the expense on my feet.
Once we arrived at the base we couldn't be happier to jump back on the ATV and let it do the work for us down the windy road to the city of Kamari. The ATV and our helmets were still sitting exactly where we had left them hours ago before our big adventure. We hopped on and Jared started the engine-well, tried to start the engine. For some reason we could not get the thing to turn over! Of course this would happen to us. We tried it a few more times, but the ATV just was not working. Our helmets and the ATV had a sticker with the phone number of the place and they do offer free service, but neither of us had a cell phone that worked, so that really didn't do us any good. There was no one around at the time either so that we could use their phone. After trying to crank the engine a few more times Jared decided it would be best to just let gravity roll us down the mountain. It was either that or push it all the way down the zig-zag road, and with my feet as sore as they wore, I agreed to let gravity do the work. Thankfully, the plan worked and we were able to get ourselves going at a pretty good pace. After rolling down the hill for a while, we figured we might as well pull off and try it again. Jared turned the key and started the engine-I mean actually started it this time. We were so happy to hear that roar of the motor. Apparently we had accidentally flooded the engine the first time and that's why it wasn't starting. Oh well, at least we were on our way now!
When we made it to the base of the hill, we turned right and headed for the beach. We parked the ATV right at the edge and walked out onto the sand with our empty water bottle from breakfast and wallets. It was a gorgeous day and the beach was beautiful. It's no lie either, the beach really does have black sand. At least the end of the beach, the part furthest from the shore is black sand, but as you get closer to shore it is mostly black rocks. They are all remnants of the hot lava mixing with the cold water of the sea. They form the most beautiful stones. Some are all black, while others have streaks of red throughout. Others are orange or yellow or green too. Jared and I rummaged though them while we sat near the shore and collected the prettiest ones we could find. By now, it was getting kind of late and there was still so much that we wanted to do that day, so we gathered up our rocks and water bottle filled with black sand and made our way back to the ATV.
Our goal now was to make it to the Red Beach on the other side of the island. We hit the road again and drove back though a rather deserted area of the island. We passed a group of billy goats grazing in a field of grape vines outside the local winery. It was sights like this that really made us feel like we were on in island in another country. A little further down the road we passed a family of tourists on a moped. Why was this so interesting that it's worth mentioning? Well, because on our way down the road we noticed a man on a moped coming towards us with two little children standing in front of him. Now, as you all know, mopeds are pretty small and there is barely enough room for two people to sit on it, much less on big man to sit and another two children to stand in front near the handle bars. That just can't be safe. As we got closer to them though, I noticed that there was a woman sitting behind him, but the most shocking part of all is that when we were directly beside them, we saw that there was yet another child squeezed in between the two of them! Yes, that's right, a family of five was all sharing one little moped-none of which had helmets. Honestly, I think that was the craziest thing we saw on the island. Anyways, we continued on our journey towards the Red Beach and passed through the city of Pyrgos which was home to some really beautiful churches. We stopped for a little while to take some pictures, but then continued on our way. Although we had a map of the island with us, it was kind of confusing trying to figure out which roads to take. We ended up making a circle around the southern part of the island and drove though the town of Perissa which was completely deserted. It looked like an area that would be very nice to stay in during the high season, but now all the shops, hotels, and restaurants were shut down. We drove all the way though the town until the street ran into another black sand beach. At this point we realized we must have gone the wrong way because the black sand beaches line one side of the island, while the Red Beach is all the way on the other side. Whoops! We turned around headed back the way we came. Thankfully, this time we ended up in the right area.
On the way to the Red Beach we passed a motocross event and had to maneuver our way through the crowd. It was such a random thing to come across as it looked like most of the natives came out to watch and kids as young as 10 or 12 were participating in the event. Once we finally cleared the throng of people we headed toward down the southern crescent and started seeing some old buildings. At the time I had no clue whether or not the lighthouse was going to be new or old, so when we cam across some ruins that kinda looked like the base of a lighthouse I pointed it out to Megan and mentioned that it might be it. Unfortunately I didn't notice until later that the building was sitting behind a massive hill and, well, that just doesn't work for a lighthouse now does it? So as we continued on in the freezing wind, wearing nothing more than shorts and t-shirts, we finally found a little road that wound down to Red Beach. When we parked our ATV we were pretty confused. To our left was some massive red rocks and what looked like an older church, but we could not for the life of us find the red beach! We saw a path that went up a hill and some people were heading that way, but we figured that maybe it was just called Red Beach because of the red cliff and slightly disappointed started the ATV again and headed off to Faros Lighthouse before the sun went down on us. (Later we found out that the little path actually went up at first and then back down to the real red sand beach. Bummer right?)
The lighthouse was pretty easy to find, we backtracked to where the road split for the beach and headed down the path that marked Faros. After Old Yella' climbed up a hill doing all of 5 mph (seriously dogs were trotting past us) we made it to the end where the lighthouse was perched on a beautiful cliff overlooking the sea. Once again we started climbing, trying to find the best angle for the lighthouse and took a few good shots.
We also decided that maybe watching the sun set from here would be a better idea than back in Fira because there was nothing on the horizon save a little island in the distance. So as Megan sat on a rock and relaxed I decided to be a bit more adventurous and found a way to climb down the cliff and onto another little area that overlooked the ocean. (It's the picture Megan took where the ocean is behind me and me and the cliff are a shadow) From here I tried to take another picture with my camera, but as soon as I lined up my shot it died! Horrible timing. Luckily though, Megan still had her camera and we took pictures with hers instead. The lighthouse was absolutely gorgeous once you climbed down and saw how it perched on the cliff, and the view down of the water lapping against the rocks at the bottom so was mesmerizing that I made sure I was at least a few steps back from the edge before looking down. Megan and I really could have stayed on that little perch all day but we knew we were a long way from our hotel and regrettably, if we went back after the sun set we would most likely freeze on the way home. So after one last look out across the sea and writing our name with some white pumice stones laying around, we headed back to Old Yella' and took the mostly downhill trip back to Fira (good thing too because I really don't think it could have taken any more abuse!).
Back at the hotel, we showered, lounged around for a bit, and then decided to head back into Fira to do some souvenir shopping and visit a less expensive taverna overlooking the water. The day before Megan and I had marked out the best shops to get the silly gifts we wanted, but in the end Megan decided to wait to see what was in Oia (the northern city on the island) and I bought Curren his second gift (I can totally tell I'm going to be that uncle who spoils the heck out of his nephew). Curren wasn't the only one I went shopping for though, Mom had told me at least a hundred times before we left that Greece was known for it gold, that buying gold there was the best option. We had also heard that Santorini was likewise known for its jewelry and you could find some really nice pieces while you are there. A lot of their metalwork and jewelry incorporates lava rock in some way and red coral. I don't know where the coral comes from honestly, because the sea is way to cold for any coral to truly exist there (even in the summer months) but it's definitely a staple for the creative use. Of course I'm not going to spill what exactly I got for them, but Megan did help me pick it out (thank God) and I'm pretty sure Mom and Janie will like their gifts. So toward the end of our shopping we ended up in a little art shop that a few nice pieces of work, and after browsing around for a bit the shop owner striked up a conversation asking where we came from and such, and met our official second friend of Santorini-Helen of Melbourne, Australia! We had a lovely chat with Helen for about 10 minutes or so, and then she asked us to come by and visit her later at the bar around the corner, "Tropical" where we could indulge in some American music and conversation. We agreed to meet her around 10:30 or so, and made our way to the closest taverna for dinner. We picked a pretty good one, the service was super friendly and quick, and although we ordered some slightly different appetizers this time around, we were pleasantly surprised for sure. We got a plate of tomato balls, which although they may sound slightly odd, turned out to be our new favorite appetizer. They were fried and filled with some kind of cheese (a home run in Megan's book). We also got a dish called Dakos, which sounded awesome and intricate but it really turned out to be a Greek salad with bread so hard underneath it, that I was sure I was going to break a tooth like Ma Ma did on Aunt Rachelle's brownies. For my main course I decided to be a little adventurous and ordered the stuffed kalimari
while Megan, completely obsessed with Spaghetti nowadays, got the spaghetti bologonese. My meal was interesting to say the least, it came out with the little slices of fried potatoes that looked with chips but tasted like fries, and some really delicious rice. When I finished those two little dishes I knew I couldn't hold it off any longer. The squid was just chilling there on my plate, apparently kalimari doesn't mean it comes fried but I guess I should have known that. So instead I had the cap of the squid, you know the part of the body just above the eyes and all, that was grilled and filled with sundried tomatoes, cheese, and some herbs. The filling was delicious. The squid? Like I said before, it was interesting...but Santorini is known for its seafood and I knew I couldn't live with myself if I didn't get something from the sea. So I did my best to deal with that spongy, springy texture, and when I got to the part of the squid where it still had those little fins, I called it quits and helped Megan finish her spaghetti. All in all the meal was really delicious, and after we paid and set out we hoped we would be able to find another place that great to eat again.
The last part of our night wasn't very adventurous, we ended up at the bar called Tropical, talked with Helen for a little bit exchanging life stories and family history (we were told on numerous occasions that our two heritages were an awesome mix lol) and had a glass of ouzo. The funny thing was that although I've come to really like the drink, Megan couldn't stand it. And they served it to us in a big glass which made Megan feel even worse about just leaving it sitting there. So we devised a plan where she would get up to go to the bathroom slyly grab her glass off the table, and taking it with her pour a little bit out so it looked like she actually enjoyed it. After hanging around for another hour we started our walk back to the ATV and got home a little before midnight to get ready for the following day.
Oh and to top the night off guess what I completely forgot?
Curren's gift. I left it at the taverna and didn't even remember until we got into bed that night.
Santorini, to be continued!! Dun, dun, dun...
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jhdavis/1/1226683260/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jhdavis/1/1226683260/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jhdavis/1/1226683260/tpod.html Thu, 04 Dec 2008 12:35:41 -0500 Thessaloniki Travels and Beyond!

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Thessaloniki, Macedonia Region, Greece

Thessaloniki is cool, don't get me wrong. But for a long time I wondered why it and Athens competed for the title of the place to visit in Greece. The Roman architecture here is cool, and the city itself does have a lot of history, but compare that to the Acropolis and Thess seems a little behind. That is until you hear about the Film Festival. With my previous misconception about Thess I seriously thought it was going to a small get together of Greek actors and what not, kind of like the ones we have in Tally. Wrong! Turns out that Thessaloniki actually has a BIG Film Festival and tons of people turn out for it. We had Oliver Stone (director), Diablo Cody (screenwriter), Willem Dafoe (actor), Guillermo Navarro(cinematographer) and so many more people but I don't know who they are lol. But the really cool thing is that several theatres open up all around Thessaloniki and they basically play movies from 11 AM to midnight for an entire week. Some movies are amateur, but the majority have been backed by real actors and were half-decent! Megan and I saw one called AmericanEast and it was, interesting...but it still was really cool to go see a movie, and the tickets were cheaper than they would have been if we had seen a recent movie.
But the really awesome thing is, is that those same people I named before all held a "Masterclass" where they sit around and talk with an interviewer for 30 minutes in a small room and then when the inital interview is over, they allow the audience to ask questions! I went to Diablo Cody's class and she was really funny. It was cool to see someone so young and down-to-earth talk about her success with writing "Juno" and her future projects.
The best part is that Diablo Cody actually published a book before going into screenwriting, and although she said the process is hard (getting recognized as a writer) there are opportunities everywhere if you look hard enough.
It made for a really great weekend all in all, defnitely worth staying in Thessaloniki for.
Adio sas!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jhdavis/1/1224577260/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jhdavis/1/1224577260/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jhdavis/1/1224577260/tpod.html Thu, 23 Oct 2008 15:09:38 -0400 Thessaloniki Travels and Beyond!

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Santorini, Cyclades, Greece

Ya Sas!
So we did it. We took the trip to the infamous Santorini and man that was a memorable weekend in many good and bad ways.
So we bought our train tickets ahead of time so we could just get to the station a couple minutes before and just board the train. On the way over we took a cab with two other people since the fare is usually only 2.80 and split it among us. Our driver spoke English (which we decided isn't always a great thing) as he started talking about how people work too hard in America and the Greek way of life is better. I admit I do like the relaxing but working hard builds character and I have to admit I'd rather be a hard worker than a bum. Kids here whine in our classes when were assigned papers or given writing assignments in class. It's a bit ridiculous, but anyways. So after he finished his little thought of the day he started talking about places we should visit and last on his list was Santorini. He wasn't impressed apparently because he said the black sand beaches were overrated and he'd rather be at the beach close to Thessaloniki anyday. Shortly after this he asked us where we were heading and we laughed and said, "Santorini." Slightly embarassed he said have fun and we paid and got out.
Our train was at 11:33 and Megan and I headed to the platform with about 30 min to spare. We elected to get sleeper cars this time and as our train pulled up we laughed as we realized that this wasn't going to be anything like we imagined. The beds were stacked 3 high on each side, inside a small cabin. The Harry Potter booths we had before simply converted into this by folding the back on the seats down and putting a sheet with a pillow and a blanket on the "bed". We shared our room with an old man, a Japanese guy, and one more person. Luckily we got the bottom beds, but that luck turned as two of the men took off their shoes and Megan and I had to throw the sheets over our faces to keep from gagging. The ride was interesting, it was much easier to fall asleep lying down of course, but the train stopped in so many places and the lights flashing through our window made it hard to really fall alseep. So when we arrived we were slightly rested, grabbed our bags and headed to the Advanced Booking Office to get our tickets for the return trip home. If we only knew then what was going to happen we would have waited.
We got our return tickets for Monday on the 9:21 train and headed down to the metro to head to the airport. The metro ticket costs a little more if you go all the way out to the airport, but you can buy a discount ticket for 10 euro for two people rather than paying 6 each. Before we turned to go I noticed a small little sign that warned passengers about the Metro strike that was going on that afternoon. Megan and I breathed a sigh of relief as the times weren't going to affect us in anyway. Yeah luck would turn that around on us later too.
When we finally made it to the Athens airport Megan was hungry for some real breakfast so we headed upstairs to where the food was and started scavenging around. Megan stopped at a little eatery and almost got a muffin but I saw McDonald's around the corner and we decided to see if they served the pancakes there for breakfast too. I grabbed a seat by the window overlooking the air lanes and Megan came over and sat with me a minute later after ordering with a sad look on her face. I was going to ask why but then I looked down to the tray and saw that she got a McMuffin instead and knew that she was sad she didn't just say no thanks and got the muffin she was craving. So as we sat there waiting for our plane Megan ate her muffin slowly and reluctantly, while I read some more of my Stephen King book. 30 min later we headed down to our security checkpoint (I'm gonna get the hang of it one day) and sat waiting for our plane out to Santorini!
We boarded at 10:35 and arrived in Santorini around 11:15. Megan and I had heard that to get a hotel you could wait til you got to the port in Fira and much like the tavernas you could bargain on hotel prices until you found an offer you wanted. But that's if you come in by ferry...apparently they don't do the same thing at the airport and when we arrived and stepped outside we were greeted with nothing but an empty stretch of road and not a taxi in sight. We found a bus stop there though and decided to wait to try and catch one. So we sat there and waited, and waited, and waited...until finally...a woman dropped off a Chinese/Japanese couple (the first of many we saw) and asked us where we were going. When we explained our situation she told us that the buses and taxis know the plane schedules as well and don't stop by the route after awhile. We would have doubted her but it was already past noon, and so far we had yet to see either taxi or bus. She offered to take us to her hotel next, and Megan tried bargaining with her but got shot down immediately (which would also not be the first time we tried something everyone told us about and saw that it was completely different). But the price of the hotel wasn't that bad. Kinda. It was 25 euros a night, which came out to 35 euros for the both of us, and it was pretty nice. However, it was also smack dab in the middle of the island, which is not a good place to be because all of the nightlife and tavernas are closer to the shore.
After we settled in and put on some deodorant (between the train and plane we were quite stinky) we headed back to the reception area and called a scooter rental place to rent a scooter for the day. The lady called them for us and told us to wait outside by the entrance for him to come and pick us up. So for the second time that day we played the waiting game hoping each car that drove by (for an island it had A LOT of cars) would be him. Around 2:00 he finally showed up and drove us into Fira where his shop was located. We also found out that we had a choice of either renting a scooter or ATV, and well the Pappy side in me was very, very happy lol. Plus I reasoned with Megan that four wheels were safer than two wheels, which may or may not be true. But the scooter and ATV were the same price and we rented it for a 24 hour period and named it Ol' Yellar.
Jared and I had a blast riding up and down the hilly roads of Santorini in it, passing by all the other tourists on similar ATVs and scooters. I soon realized after getting the ATV that it feels a lot colder when you are flying down a road with no kind of protection or covering, so our first stop was back to the hotel where I could pick up a jacket. Outside the rooms and in front of the pool we decided to have a quick photo shoot with our new ride. It wasn't just our mode of transportation that was funny, but the part that kept Jared cracking up the entire time was the size of my helmet. We all know that I have a slightly smaller head than average and of course the motor rental shop did not carry small helmets, so I was stuck with the smallest one they had which had two inches of padding on the inside. At least I would be safe! On our way out of the photo shoot area, Jared noticed a dirt road behind our hotel and wanted to explore. We didn't get very far before our ATV gave up on the sandy hill and Jared had to get off and push us out of the rough and head back for the road. Unfortunately, there really wasn't a great view (which we were hoping for) from the dirt road, so we didn't feel bad heading back so soon. Jared let me drive on the way back and I was excited to finally take the wheel. I hopped in front and Jared showed me how to turn it on and give it some gas. Well, it turns out an ATV is much harder to drive than I thought it would be. I was too afraid to give it a lot of gas so we ended up getting stuck in the sand and couldn't even make it up a three inch bump. We went sliding back down the bump when Jared grabbed the gas and forced it up the bump (Jared won't let me call it a hill). After that, I gave up on driving and gladly handed the wheel back over to Jared.
After that little adventure we headed back into the main square of Fira. By that time it was 3:00 and we were starved for some lunch. We stopped at one of the first tavernas down the street and they led us up to their garden terrace area. We had the balcony and entire upstairs area to ourselves and it was so pretty. We decided to follow the Greek tradition and just order a bunch of appetizers to share. Our lunch consisted of cheese saganaki, grape leaves, fried zuchinni balls, and tzatziki. They served us all of this along with warm toasted pita bread and a big bottle of water. It was all so good, but surprisingly the grape leaves were especially good! I don't know what they added to them, but Jared and I could not get enough of them. We enjoyed lunch for an hour and then headed further down the street into the shopping areas. Stores lined every street exploding with souveniers of all kinds. A lot of the gifts they had were very cute, but every single one of them had "Santorini" handwritten on it in black magic marker. It made everything look every tacky and the words were scraping off and many times not even written very well. It was still nice to go through all the stores to see what they had to offer though. We continued on through the square and eventually made it to wear we could see the coast. It was a breathtaking sight. Massive rocky cliffs led up to the city from the port and sea below. The stores, restaurants, and homes looked as if they were stacked in layers up the mountain in impossible ways. From there we had an amazing view of the caldera and volcano out right in front of us. It seemed unreal to be standing in front of such an amazing sight. We followed the sidewalk that led up to the top of the city--we knew that from there the view would be even better. On the way we passed several tavernas that have balconies right on the edge of the cliff. It looks as if you are floating over the water hundreds of feet above from the way it was designed. At that moment we promised to come back that night to one of these restaurants to see the sunset (which sets right over the volcano). At the top of the city we could see everything and took so many photos. This place really is unbelievable. We headed back down towards our ATV after a bit because we wanted to have time to clean up and come back in time for the sunset. On our way, we were stopped by a man standing outside of one of the tavernas which the beautiful balcony view. He tried to convince us to come to his taverna to eat, but we told him that we had just eaten lunch and were not ready for another meal yet. He kept trying, but when he realized that we weren't budging he began to ask us about where we were from and how we were liking Santorini. We told him that we were students in Thessaloniki and were just here for the weekend. He turned out to be a really nice guy and we talked for a while about school and living in America. We promised him that we would come back to his restaurant later that night and then said goodbye.
Jared and I made our way back to the ATV, hopped on, and headed back to the hotel. There, we got ready and changed for the night. Santorini has beautiful warm weather during the day, but in the evening it gets quite cold and windy. We both put on pants and jackets and jumped back on the ATV. We took the five minute drive back into the city of Fira and parked our ATV at the bottom of the square. As promised we went back to the restaurant where we had met the man ealier in the day. He was very excited to see us when we walked up. He told me how beautiful I looked and how he thought we were so cute for changing and dressing up to come back for dinner. He laughed at Jared a bit because he had on nice black pin stripe pants, a button-up shirt, and completed the outfit with tennis shoes. We talked a little while longer and then he brought us down to one of the balconies and sat us down at one of the tables that had a wide open view of the caldera. It was so beautiful watching the water sparkle and the back of the volcano light up from the setting sun. Our new friend brought us two menus and before we even had a chance to look inside he began telling us the specials for the night. They catch all of their fish fresh each day and then grill it right there above the balcony area on a large coal grill. He suggested three appetizers to start: a shimp saganaki, grilled octopus, and a seafood platter. I could see Jared's mouth watering already as the man explained how each was made in tantalizing terms (even I was getting a bit interested--he was that good). He then went on to propose that we order their fish of the night--a black snapper--which they grill and then cut off the meat from the bones right there at your table for you (ok, that part did not sound very good to me). We thanked him for the explainations and then he left us with the menus. We opened them up and almost fell out of our chairs. To give him credit he did forewarn us I guess, by saying that he understands that we are students, but wanted to make his suggestion. One appetizer was 30 euro! He had suggested three! One of which was 34 euro, another at 40 euro and the last was 30 euro. We were afraid to flip to the main dish section, but went for it and realized that their fish of the night would set us back 60 euro! Jared and I looked at each other wondering what we were going to do now and how we were going to explain this situation when the man returned. We began looking into just getting dessert or wine, but even those were very expensive. When he came back to our table ready to take our order, we put on our best "about that..." face and told him that since we are college students there was no way we could afford any of this food. Thankfully he understood and asked if maybe we would like to see the drink menu. We felt really bad, so agreed to take a look at it. We went for the cheapest thing on the menu and ordered two frappes at 4 euro a piece. They were actually the best frappes we have ever had in Greece, and they literally have these at every coffee shop and restaurant in Greece. We watched the sunset while we drank our frappes, unfortunately, it was too cloudy to really see the sun set, but the sky did turn a beautiful orange and then purple color. We stayed at the restaurant for two hours just talking and listening to a group of Asian tourists sitting next to us. The reason we stayed so long is because no one would come bring us the check and we couldn't see to get their attention every time they walked down to serve other guests. We eventually just walked up to the top of the taverna and gave money to the man standing up there at the time. While we were up there we asked him what the man's name was who we had become friends with. He told us it was Nikos and we decided to wait up there for him so we could take a picture before we left. Nikos was very excited when we asked for a picture and thanked us over and over again for coming back, even if it was just to order a frappe. He said we could come back anytime to have another frappe on the balcony and we told him we would.
We headed back down to the square and ate dinner at a taverna there. I got chicken souvlaki and Jared had paithaikia (lamb ribs). The food was pretty good and we tried a garlic dip to go with our bread which was very delicious. We stayed there for another couple of hours and then made our way back down to the ATV. We passed by an amazing looking dessert shop on the way and couldn't help but stop in. We got a chocolate mousse and a mini chocolate eclair cookie type thing. We saved them to eat when we got back to the hotel because we were still pretty full at the time. We were so excited to eat them by the time we got back though. We threw open the box and went to grab a spoon, but then realized there wasn't one. I guess we were going to eat this one with our fingers. It didn't make a difference though because it was all so good. After we devoured the desserts, Jared and I were exhausted and hit the sack for the night so that we could take full advantage of the next day.
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