Santorini, Syros and Athens

random photo from thirassia i uploaded in the wrong place...

i last left you when it was POURING down with rain in santonrini....

well after i left the internet cafe we ducked into the next cafe for coffee and hot choc. sat down, enjoying ourselves... when who should be sitting on the table next to us, but costas, alex and a bouncer from murphy's. such a small island....

alex, me, rhonda - out at murphy's again that night. just for a change....

wednesday proved much better weather (meanwhile tuesday's storm BROKE my umbrella!!) and we wandered around some more. santorini is really such a nice place.

wednesday night we braved the menu-less restaurant, nick's taverna, and had teh BEST food of the entire trip. White eggplant for entree, then prawn with tomato and feta and also squid with white wine sauce. SOOOOOOOO good. the best. i wish i hadn't been so silly and we'd gone their earlier in the week!!!!!

thurs morning, what else but more shopping before catching the ferry to syros.

friday we had the whole day in syros. we saw the main square and town hall and about a MILLION pigeons (mainly white, its weird). Syros is much more like real greece. no souveneir shops (apart from a few magnets and postcards from santorini!!!), street markets selling meat, fish, fruit and veges, old men in coffee shops all day, lots of marble, lots of bouganvileas, LOTS of cats, and everythign actually shuts during siesta. tried a small restaurant off the main square for dinner. squid stuffed with feta and veges was great. although towards the end of teh night this cat kept coming inside the restaurant. the owners kept shooing it out but it was persistent. eventually i lured it over, scruffed it and threw it outside. that worked for a while, but soon it was back!!!! once more for good luck, with a bit less ceremony and hitting the concrete outside a little harder and it didn't come back. headed to a bar on the water after dinner, everyone was still drinking coffee!!!!! wasn't the same without all the tourists and the bar staff we'd come to know!!!!

sat morning we found ourselves at teh archaeological museum. so small it took us all of.... 10 minutes to view the lot. attempted to climb the stairs to ano syros despite lonely planets tip to catch the bus. who knows how far we made it before almost having heart attacks and turning back. got some pretty photos though!!!!! a speciality of syros is the loucoumi (turkish delight equiv) and halvathopita (nougat with almonds between 2 wafers).... SOOOOOOOO good!!!!! will attempt to bring some home but not sure if it'll last. in fact sweet shops are everywhere in syros.

so back on the ferry again and landed in athens.... with no hostel booking. she'll be right!!!! so we got lost trying to find the hostel... actually we were right where we were trying to be, only we'd misread the map and the hostel wasn't there.... eventually foudn it.... booked out. ok try the hotel on teh next block.... booked out... next hotel? about 200 euro per night. no thanks. FINALLY we made it to a hostel with space. only to find ourselves in a dingy CELL of a room down a narrow ricketty spiral staircase (attempt THAT with 30kg of luggage!!!), no mobile reception, and a toilet door that doesn't close. FUN! oh and we can hear every word spoken in the courtyard up til about 3am... then the early risers start from around 6. no i'm not tired...

today we got up bright and early (get AWAY from the hostel!!). made it to flea markets (junk - although rhonda liked it...) wandered around.

coconut sweet man's cart

then headed to archaeological museum. that was really good. we spent hours and hours there. annoyed though cos there was a sign of a camera with a cross through it and u had to check your bags so i left my camera in it. turns out you ARE allowed to take photos, just without flash. so i dont have any :( and the post cards were bad.

and now i'm in an internet cafe. avoiding the hostel.

tomorrow morning we start a 4 day tour of mainland greece which should be interesting.