Last Days in Greece

Ok back to blogging. So we slept in after the long ferry ride from Santorini. The next day we looked up some bus times, and decided to take the bus to one of our favorite beaches we'd already visited (not Tsigrado, Paleochori) and one we hadn't, Provotas. This time we spent a good couple hours at each beach. Provotas had lots of shallow waters, so we waded around a rock outcropping to a more secluded beach. It was also very... European shall we say. Kristen and I didn't join in, but it was an interesting experience. The shallow water made for a very fun beach to swim around in. Paleochori was a beach we had visited the second day on Milos with the car. It's also the place where I broke my camera, again on the second day. But despite that, it really was a great beach. Lot's of volcanic rock, complete with green sulfur deposits (at least I think that's what they were, that's what they were on Vulcano in Sicily). Again we climbed some rocks and found a beach with less people, but more nudity, which again we didn't join in. But it was nice to have less people around. We also had lunch here at a restaurant that cooks food in the volcanic rock. Very cool, and very delicious. That night we had one last dinner in Adamas. This time at a nice little family restaurant in the boats area. You could one of the older ladies in the family cooking all the meals in the back, and one of the younger kids (12-14) was serving us. Very greek, family, traditional, etc. This time we had fried squid, which was different from calamari in that it wasn't chopped up and was fried less. That was appetizer, for the main course I had a delicious spicy meatballs dish and Kristen had a speghetti with minced meat. So good.

The next day we grudgingly got back on the boat to Athens. This time we stayed at a five star hotel. Not that the Ledra Marriott wasn't nice, but this one definately earned that fifth star. The Intercontinental Athens. It had a pillow menu. We didn't use it, cause the pillows they gave us were great, but still pretty cool. All these high star hotels need to stop charging for internet though. It's just greedy. If a hostel or a McDonalds can do it, why can't you. It doesn't have to be Wifi. Cable works just as good. Anyway, other than that, this place was first class. The view from the terrace at the top overlooked the Acropolis and most of the city. The pool was heated to the perfect temperatures. The concierge helped us find a really good electronics store where I could buy a cheap digital camera. It was awesome. For our last dinner together we braved the tourist trap restaurant one more time, for the chance to dine on a rooftop in Plaka looking up at the Acropolis. We both had a delicious pasta, meat, and cheese lasgana type dish that was amazing. After walking our favorite Athens streets one more time, we headed back to the hotel. It was only the next morning that we learned that someone had sliced Kristens purse! Because it was double layered they didn't get anything, but they came close. Kristen fixed it with some thread so it could make it back to the states. I thought I might have seen the culprit lurking at the bus stop the night before. But I can't be sure. Thank god we didn't lose that camera. Unfortunately Kristen is not quadruple jointed and so could not fit in my backpack. So I had to let her head back to the states. And a few hours later I boarded a flight to Cairo. Olympic Airlines was nice. Meal and everything, roomy seats. They were actually a little better than my Virgin Atlantic flight. Anyway, first day in Cairo is next.

Milos Beachs

Finally got setup with internet in Cairo. So let me continue where I left off before I go on to Egypt. Milos was PERFECT. People throw that word around too much, but it really was everything we wanted. We got to see island life. There weren't too many tourists at all (and when there were they were European tourists). And there was enough tourism that we didn't feel out of place. The absolute perfect balance. The day we got there we found our hotel, a nice little set of hotel rooms and apartments right outside the main port city. The main port city, Adamas, is a quaint little shore town with tons of food, bars, and bakeries. Our hotel was a 2 minute walk from the center of town (and almost out of town by then). We visited our first beach right in town, relaxed, and got breakfast for the rest of the week on the way back. Cereal and fresh fruit. That night we had dinner on the water, mostly seafood. Sepia (squid) in a wine sauce, muscles, and another shot at Souvlaki that wasn't as good.

The next day we rented a little compact car, and explored the island. In total we saw 10 beaches in total. The northern beaches were a little dirty to be honest. We don't know why, they tended to catch garbage in their caves and such. The southern beaches though, were something out of a movie. None of them compared to our favorite beach Tsigrado. It was a little beach cut into cliffs of the island. To get down to it, we had to scramble down a little crevice, not much wider than a person. There were two wooden ladders and a rope, but it was a steep drop. At the end, there is a leap of faith moment almost to get to the last steps. The climb down alone was fun. Then once down there the beach is all caves and clear blue water. You can swim in and out of caves and snorkel around the rocks to your hearts content. It was amazing. Kristen forgot her sandals at the end, and I jumped at the chance just to climb down and back up again. At the end of the day, we still had the car so we went to the northern shore town of Pollonia. This was our favorite meal by far, it was at a new restaurant (10 days old) called Medusa. We got fried calamari to start, Kristen got a mushroom tortellini that was made by a genius chef, and I got a grilled beef dish that almost melted in your mouth. It was amazing. At the end of the meal, after we had paid, they started feeding us a homemade island liquor made with honey and cinammon. Normally I don't like liquor but this stuff was amazing. If I hadn't been driving, I would have just kept drinking till I fell asleep. The next day was Santorini, which will come in the next post...