The Cyclades

A little geography lesson...the Cyclades (ky-clod-ees) are islands to the SE of Greece mainland in the Aegean Sea. They have been absolutely beautiful...but not what I imagined. I imagined lush vegetation coconut trees and passion fruit in plenty. The islands are actually quite dry with very little vegetation. When you get off of the ferry at any of these islands and see dry dry rock...you can't help but wonder..."where the hell am i?!"


Ios has the reputation of being a party island...and it lived up to it. It is basically like the "Cancun" of Europe...tons of ppl come for the beach in the day time (the best place to go is Far Out Beach Hostel for cold drinks and loud [trance] music) and people don't start going to the "discos" until 1:00...Greek Style. Ios is so very picturesque...very much what you see in paintings and postcards...so blue and white against the backdrop of the Mediterranean. We stayed at Franchescos - which is an ABSOLUTE MUST!! But make reservations early...we tried 3 months in advance and it was tight...but well worth it, they treat you like family. Each night there are tons of creperies and bars along the strip playing a variety of [not so great for us] music.

After Ios, we took a ferry into Thira, which is also more well known as Santorini. It wasn't as blue and white as i imagined and definitely not as blue and white as Ios! Thira is very much for romantic couples..and it did live up to its rep We stayed near Parissa - the black beach made of volcanic ash. The first night we went to the northern tip of Thira - Oia, to see the sunset over the water - i have never seen such a fluorescent pink sun! The next day we went on an excursion to Nia Kamini - an active volcano in the middle of the group of islands. We climbed up the black volcano in the scorching heat and peered into the crater -- we could actually see the smoke rising out of it and smell the pungency of the sulpher. Then we swam in some natural hot springs - they were bright red and filled with sediments and "healing" mud - very odd how the water changed from aqua to a bring bubbling red. Then we sailed to Tharissa and had an amazing Greek lunch, and after that we went to the town Fira - absolutely breathtaking views.

Then we got into Mykonos which was nice but a bit too commercialized - it was beautiful and windy and super expensive! We stayed near Paradise beach and had some major monstrosities of mutant bugs in our room that we had to exterminate...not fun!

Can't believe we are back to Canadia so soon!

It's all Greek to me!

So we got into Athens yesterday after a 2 hour flight delay....its so crazy to see the signs here...i know a lot of the greek letters from years and years of ODE's and PDE's (ordinary/partial differential equations) but to string them together with sound is just something else!

After we got in we met up with a "local" (she's from Canada, born in Greece, and spends all her summers here) and we went to a really hype place called Verde...it was like an out door lounge/patio and it was absolutely beautiful. It was, as usual, awesome to be hanging out with locals...you get more of a feel of their culture. So far all i've seen is that everyone is SO in love! People will know eachother for 3 days and act like they've been together for years. The PDA's are a far cry from what is acceptable in North America, but it is still quite cute although almost a bit on the annoying side :) Also, for a tuesday night the place was packed! But its been like this all over Europe...people just enjoy life more generally...they may have to wake up early for work but that doesnt mean that they dont enjoy drinks or dinner with friends every night. Its a great philosophy...really makes you wonder why our culture in North America forces us to work so hard.

Today we did the regular tourist thing...shopped at ZARA. haha well i guess thats all we do, in EVERY country. ZARA, Mango, shoe stores, etc. Its so sad. We are soooo not made for backpacking! We have a backpacking facade but when you zip open our stuffed full bags you will find stillettos, designer purses, and apricot face scrub. Anyways after some much needed air conditioning and our bellies full of an amazing Greek feast (i thought mozzarella and tomatoes were good but Feta and tomatos?? absolutely divine!) we trekked in the 46 degree heat to the Acropolis and saw the ancient ruins. Our last sight-seeing stint...yayy!! Now we are just going to relax on the Cyclades islands -- Ios, Santorini and Mykonos.

We all can't believe its been 5 weeks of travelling! It feels like only yesterday we were looking at London Bridge!!

Yassus (goodbye) till tomorrow!