The Top Floor Flat

If Mykonos had the best mythology, Santorini – which was already winning hands down on beauty points – definitely was a close second. Home to two massive volcanoes, Santorini used to be a round island but is now a crescent moon shaped bit of land enclosing the volcanoes that are now islands in their own right. The massive eruption that caused this change in scenery is not only credited with causing the downfall of the mighty civiliasation of Crete when tidal waves rocked their island, but some also say that Santorini or a nearby island was home to the lost city of Atlantis which disappeared beneath the waves.

Lost civilisations aside, the volcanoes were also responsible for an incredibly unique island formation and Santorini’s landscape alternates between sheer cliffs on one side and long sloping beaches on the other. Although I didn’t have a chance to explore the famous red, black and white beaches, instead opting for the volcano tour, it was quite clear that I could easily spend a week on Santorini and not run out of things to see.

Because we had arrived and checked into our hotel relatively early, I was able to spend the afternoon exploring the town of Thira (also the official Greek name for the island) on my own. It was absolutely gorgeous and even after a few minutes of window shopping, also obvious that this was the place to go for unique jewelry and emptying your wallet. I met up with the group for dinner at a stunning restaurant practically jutting out over the water where we managed to order about twice as much food as necessary and take more pictures of the view than was probably strictly necessary.

The next day, and our one full day in Santorini, the majority of the group made our way down the donkey trail that navigated the cliff face to board a boat from the old port. The short boat ride took us first to the larger of the two volcanoes which is currently dormant. Although there were no boiling pits of lava, we did notice numerous sulfur chimneys releasing the gas into the air – according to some sources, the Oracle at Delphi sat on a sulfur chimney, breathing the fumes and inciting her prophecies. Although we didn’t have any babbling Cassandras in our midst, we weren’t ready to give up entirely on organic remedies from the volcanoes as the next stop on the boat was the hotsprings at the base of the second, and active, volcano. While the ‘hot’ springs were certainly more of a lukewarm, the rich mud in the water became a natural exfoliate and, a fact we didn’t realise until later, a brown dye for everything we were wearing. Oops.

On the boat ride back to the old port, the skies, which had been somewhat overcast for the first time in the trip, opened with a vengeance. Any plans to walk back up the donkey trail to town were quickly scrapped in favour of the gondola that would speed us and our now sopping belongings, to the top of the cliff. A hot shower and change of clothes later, we were all feeling much more comfortable but less than optimistic about the plans for the sunset dinner at the other end of the island. It was still a bit overcast and damp throughout the remainder of the afternoon – as I returned to the shopping streets of Thira – but by dinner time it had cleared enough for us to risk the trip to Oia, the town on the northern most tip of the island.

Oia was, if possible, even more gorgeous than Thira and whatever bad weather we had suffered during the day seemed to have cleared the air for a stunning sunset. We were completely in awe of the sky show and followed the natural fireworks with a lovely dinner in Oia and, after a bus ride back to Thira, an evening of drinking and dancing in town. Although we were all energised and ready to dance until dawn, the very large Aussie contingent on our trip set the tone for an early night – with the intention of getting up at 6:30am the next day to head back to the pub where they would be screening the Australian Football final. While I couldn’t be bothered to get up that early, at around halftime I joined in the fun and, despite still being rather unclear on the rules, had a fantastic time.

Our time on Santorini was way too short and I would have happily stayed another week but with my health improved and only a few days left of Greece we were off to Ios, the party capital of the Greek islands for some more hedonistic entertainment to finish off the trip.

After the busy streets of Mykonos, the myriad of bars, clubs and pubs and the party island feel; Paros was another world entirely. Our Busabout group arrived at our lovely accommodations, just a short walk away from the quiet main street in Paros, and settled in to home for the next two nights. The first night, Dax took us on a walking tour of Paros with the major highlight being the Church of 100 Doors.  Although the significance of the church seemed to be a bit of a mystery all around, the legend says that, of the original 100 doors, only 99 remain, the final door having been stolen by the Turks.  It is said that if the final door is ever returned, Istanbul will fall.  With that bit of pseudohistory to entertain us, Dax led us to a great seafood restaurant where I indulged in some swordfish kebabs but unfortunately by that point I had realised that lack of sleep, the stress of planning a trip and the ability to relax in Greece had all combined to slam me with a rather nasty cold. Instead of join the group for an evening of partying in Paros, I instead returned to the hotel for an incredibly early night in the hopes that the cold would clear by the next morning for our boat ride.

Since we met in Athens, Dax had been talking up the Paros excursion, a day-long boat ride from Paros around the neighboring island of Andiparos as one of the highlights of the entire Greece trip. Not only did we spend the day at sea on a boat, but lunch saw us stopping off at a small, isolated beach where our boat captain would grill up fresh octopus, sea urchins and crab along with pork and chicken skewers. This would be served alongside Greek salad, fresh bread and as much Ouzo as we could be convinced to drink (Ouzo is the local alcoholic beverage of choice, tasting a bit like sambuca crossed with motor oil). Of course the boat would be well stocked as well with an endless supply of red and white wine to take the edge of the sea breeze and cliff jumping.

Despite my still rather stuffy nasal passages, with all of that in mind I had no intention of having anything other than a fantastic time so, sunscreen, tissues and camera in hand, I boarded our sailboat.

It was without a doubt, one of the best experiences I’ve ever had, and the sea air definitely had a positive impact on my cold. Between dancing on the deck, lounging on the beach, tasting octopus and sea urchin and managing to get red wine all over EVERYTHING in sight, we even managed to take a few rolls of pictures and videos which were converted into the following music video for the day’s theme song (note, if you’re offended by bad language, this song is about as bad as it gets. The song, ‘I’m on a Boat’ is done by musical comedy troupe Lonely Island known for their funny yet rather graphic songs that have appeared on SNL).

After a day on the boat, our return to Paros was marked by most with another night of partying but still nursing a cold, I decided to take another night in, hoping I would feel better the next day for our early transfer to the island I had been most looking forward to seeing – Santorini.

While I saw very little of Paros, between our boat trip, the amazing food and lovely hotel I have some of the best memories from that little island. However with my health returning and Santorini ahead, I had plenty more to look forward to….

So, having had a few days to recoup from the epic adventure that was my Greek Island tour, I suppose it’s about time to start recaping what exactly went down in the Aegean. I’ll break this up into different posts based on the islands we visited and what we saw there but first a recap of the trip overall.

I travelled to Greece to meet up with the Busabout Adventures Greek Island Hopper group. Busabout is another tour group under the umbrella of Radical Travel so this now marks my third trip with them (previously I travelled to Ireland with Shamrocker and Wales with Haggis Adventures). I met up with the group and guide to get all of our transportation details and itinerary for the trip at the port in Athens at 6:30am, approximately seven hours after I had arrived the night before so I wasn’t exactly bright eyed and bushy tailed. Because we were one of the last tours, and just squeezing into the end of the off-season, there were only nine of us in the group but the people on my trip ended up being so much fun that it was hard to imagine that an increase in group size would have done anything except make our transports more crowded.

The ten of us, including our guide, got to know each other on the first boat – a five and a half hour ferry ride to Mykonos, our first port of call. Along the way, the ferry stopped off at Syros and Tinos. Anyone who had been napping was given a forceful wakeup call at Syros where local vendors selling the island specialty, homemade nougat, boarded to sell their wares – a process that involved shouting in Greek at the top of their lungs about the quality of their goods, the price, the nougatiness of the nougat and possibly a wide variety of other things we couldn’t understand.

Upon our arrival at Mykonos, we got some of the local history and mythology from Dax, our Busabout guide. With the most interesting mythology of any of the islands we visited, Mykonos is famous for being the battleground of the Olympians and the Titans (the precursors and parents of the Olympian gods including Zeus, Apollo, Athena and all the rest) where they fought for control of the world. Mythologically speaking, this explains the barren, rocky, wind-swept landscape of Mykonos; supposedly it is still scarred from the epic, godly battle. Mykonos is also the point of departure for any tours of Delos, one of the most sacred places in Greek mythology and the birth place of the twin gods Apollo and Artemis. In more recent and verifiable history, Mykonos was also subject to repeated pirate attacks which explains the maze-like streets and impossible-to-navigate city centre.

I was disappointed to learn that Monday, the only full day we’d spend on the island, was the one day tours didn’t run to Delos so I would miss out on the chance to visit that particular historical site but my disappointment was quickly driven from my mind when I saw the beach where we would be staying. In a set up highly reminiscent of my trip to Cancun, beach chairs, a nearby bar, clear waters and sunny skies characterised the landscape and although our basic sleeping conditions certainly weren’t any five star accommodations, the beach more than made up for it.

After getting settled, Dax took our group into the town of Mykonos for a brief tour. We started out at the famous windmills which previously covered the island, working quite effectively in the high island winds, but now remain just for tourist photos; then followed Dax into the maze of the town. A particularly beautiful part of the city was known as Little Venice for it’s seaside dining and beautiful buildings. After a traditional Greek dinner and some cocktails in a bar overlooking the Aegean, I turned in early to catch up on my sleep and prepare for my own tour of Mykonos the next day.

As Delos was unavailable, myself, a the other girls on my trip, decided to head back into town for exploration, shopping and lunch before relaxing on the beach the next afternoon. We had an amazing morning wandering through the streets, getting entirely lost and, to our amazement, beginning to figure out how to navigate the maze by the time we were ready to return to the beach.

It seemed like far too short a time on Mykonos before we were loading our bags onto the less than affectionately named “vomit comet” or high speed ferry that would take us to Paros, the second island in our tour, but we had a fantastic first island experience and were all looking forward to part two!