{"id":77,"date":"2011-05-04T03:49:25","date_gmt":"2011-05-03T15:49:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.hailes.co.nz\/blog\/?p=77"},"modified":"2011-05-04T03:57:41","modified_gmt":"2011-05-03T15:57:41","slug":"the-greek-islands","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hailes.co.nz\/blog\/2011\/05\/04\/the-greek-islands\/","title":{"rendered":"The Greek Islands"},"content":{"rendered":"

Thursday 28th \u2013 Off to Mykonos<\/strong><\/p>\n

Up at 5.15am, although somebody did ring me from NZ at \u00a02 am, I hadn\u2019t worked out how to keep my alarm on and the phone silent.\u00a0 Maybe flight mode would have done it.\u00a0 Our transfer\u00a0 cab, was there as we went into the lobby but we rushed up to the breakfast bar, \u00a0grabbed some food in our hands and back down to be whisked away, each couple in our own shiny yellow Mercedes to the Hydrofoil waiting for us at Piraeus.\u00a0 It took about 15 minutes so it was a pity we never had more time for breakfast as what we had grabbed was great, our ferry departure time was 7.25am. Not a lot of folk travelling, a few Aussies, Japanese in travel groups etc, we had been allocated seats but were able to move to a better table with a view.\u00a0 The port was huge and a very large number of ferries, cruise ships and other boats, quite amazing.\u00a0 A large number of islands and all the houses were the same off white colour and at first glance looked like cliffs.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Doug was reading out about Mykonos and said was famous for loud music, English breakfasts and over priced merchandise.\u00a0 Oh and is also the gay capital of the world. \u00a0Sounds \u00a0like we are going to have some fun.<\/p>\n

Two stop offs for the ferry on the way, Syros and Tinos.\u00a0 Both quaint \u00a0looking places.\u00a0 We arrived at Mykonos to quite chilly weather and the promise of rain, no one to pick us up and all the Taxi\u2019s full.\u00a0 We were dropped down at the old port but managed to find a Bus that took us to the new port much closer where we were able to walk into the town square and catch a cab up the hill to the New Aeolos Hotel, our home for the next two nights.\u00a0 Anita made us a coffee and very welcome.\u00a0 It was raining by now so we headed to our rooms for a bit of a rest.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Renee your points go back up.\u00a0 Our hotel was a lovely friendly place up on the hill. Ten minutes down a track to the Square and slightly longer back up (every one told us we would need a taxi back up but we were hardy Kiwis so it was no problem to us).\u00a0 I forgot to mention Renee that our ferry tickets were waiting for us at our hotel in Athens and again here in Mykonos for the next leg.<\/p>\n

We spent the afternoon walking around the town in the rain although it did clear up a bit later.\u00a0 All white with little narrow streets and alleys.\u00a0 Amazing what you found behind the white walls. A real butchers shop, a green grocer but as it was good and even with all the good stuff we saw we spent money only on food.\u00a0 Maybe that was because everything was so expensive.\u00a0 Opps I lied then as Margaret brought an umbrella for E12 which we could have brought in Athens the day before for E3.\u00a0 We had dinner at Madoupas on the waterfront.\u00a0 I had the Mykonos sausage, Margaret an omelette, Doug salmon and Ngaire pasta.\u00a0 With bellies full of really nice food we walked back up the hill to our hotel.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

29TH April \u2013 The day William & Katherine got married<\/strong><\/p>\n

The day dawned cold and windy.\u00a0 We could have easily been at home and in fact when I checked the temperatures Mykonos was only going to 1 degree warmer than home at 14.\u00a0 However it did not rain.\u00a0 Margaret & I had decided to take the boat to Delsos, a nearby uninhabited Island with an ancient Greek City on it that once used to house 30,000 people.\u00a0 It was a little like Pompei but more run down.\u00a0 Very surprisingly it was not run like a big tourist attraction and it was great just to be able to mosey around checking stuff out.\u00a0 There was a museum on site where they had a lot of the treasures from the place and some explanations as to what had gone on there. \u00a0\u00a0We were still going to have to do some research to get more information on its history. Strange but most things here are written in Greek.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Doug and Ngaire spent most of the day out at the only inland town, \u00a0Ano Mera where a monastery was the biggest thing in town.\u00a0 They got there on the local bus.\u00a0 It was an adventure for them but not worth the visit as they could not even get in.\u00a0 A lovely new school but no kids. Good coffee sitting in the sun, lots of eating places around a square but no people to use them\u2026..<\/p>\n

We ended up back at the hotel where the girls were able to watch re runs of the wedding.\u00a0 We decided on a late meal down in town and then we would see what night life was around.\u00a0 We chose Maria\u2019s for dinner, a really nice place where we were able to sit outside.\u00a0 Meat balls for me which were fantastic and just melted in your mouth, Margaret had beef burger stuffed with yellow cheese, she avoided the feta..Doug had lamb cutlets and Ngaire Mousaka..delicious and coffee to follow< Rusty & Ngaire pigged out with an extra\u2026local icecreams in a waffle cone.\u00a0 We then went wandering but we were still far too early.\u00a0 Some of the bars had light music going and all the coloured lights but there was nobody in them.\u00a0 You could tell we are getting old when we headed off home up that dammed hill AGAIN.<\/p>\n

30th April –\u00a0 Mykonos to Santorini<\/strong><\/p>\n

A perfect day bloomed.\u00a0 No wind, not a cloud in the sky, but still a coolish feel to it.\u00a0 Summer was close.\u00a0 The hotel had provided us with pretty light continental breakfast of Greek yogurt, cornflakes, fruit, boiled eggs, bread,\u00a0 thin sliced ham & cheese, fruit juice plus tea or coffee and that sort of stuff.\u00a0 Apparently if you paid more they would make toast.\u00a0 We had restudied our map and worked out there was a part of town we hadn\u2019t really explored so off we went.\u00a0 We were catching the ferry at 2.55 so decided we needed to be back at the hotel to pick up our bags by 2pm. And a taxi to the port which we fear ripped us off big time as it was E8 plus\u2026. The day had really warmed up and it was very enjoyable exploring again the narrow streets and alleys.\u00a0 Margaret ended up buying a shirt.\u00a0 Looks nice too. Lunch at Opa\u2019s of beef balls and local made tomato sauce plus a beef sausage on kebab bread and then our last time up THAT hill to the hotel.<\/p>\n

The ferry this time was full and we were really stuck to our allocated seats.\u00a0 Quite chaotic really to get on with all the tour groups etc and of course our cases. stopping at Pyros, Eos and then our port Santorini..oh what delight awaits us here for our two night stay we wonder????<\/p>\n

Off the boat and we are sitting at the bottom of the gigantic cliff,\u00a0 very impressive with a zig zag road making its way up the side.\u00a0 We decide to grab a cab (E17) to the Albatross Hotel at Katerados. 6 out of 10 for the Hotel Renee. \u00a0In fact we have re evaluated our rating system based on the Shanghai hotel being a 10,\u00a0 King Jason would be a 5 and the New Aeolos being a 7.\u00a0 The Albatross was not flash but does the job, it also had these mini showers where when you drop the soap it\u2019s a mission to retrieve it with a wet curtain sticking to half your body, actually in Ngaire\u2019s case she reckoned the curtain stuck to the crack of her ass..\u00a0 No WiFi is also a pain in that part of your body.\u00a0 We had to muck around a bit as Sandy our agent in Santorini had to sort out our ferry tickets to Rhodes.\u00a0 First of all our ferry was not going to be running and then it was again.\u00a0 We have some tickets for it but have yet to get aboard.\u00a0 Sandy was really helpful and we arranged through her a rental car for the next day.\u00a0 E30 a day including insurance.\u00a0 While I had been sorting the tickets the others went out to explore the local surroundings and came back with a bottle of wine and some nibbles.\u00a0 That didn\u2019t last long so we headed off to find somewhere to eat.\u00a0 Kypa-Nikh\u2019s, another traditional Greek place. \u00a0Doug and I had pork fillets which were beautiful but too big to finish.\u00a0 Ngaire had a lamb dish while Margaret a Moussaka.\u00a0 We had our left over pork put into doggy bags to be our lunch the next day and headed back for a reasonably early night.<\/p>\n

Playing the tourist is very very tiring.<\/p>\n

1st May \u2013 Santorini in a Hyundai i10<\/strong><\/p>\n

We were told it was only a 10 minute walk to the town centre but after walking for nearly thee quarters of an hour knew we had gone the wrong way. The weather wasn\u2019t that flash so we headed back to the hotel to ring for our rental.\u00a0 We were going to have the car for 24 hours from when we picked it up and thought we would be smart and explore the main town first and get the car later.\u00a0 Silly us, we got the car at 11.30 and we were off.\u00a0 Doug described the Hyundi i10 as 10 inches from front to back, well it was a little bigger than that but not by much and we all fitted in comfortably.\u00a0 Driving on the right hand side of the road caused us a bit of fun every now and again.\u00a0 Bike was misheard as right but we managed without any serious mishaps.\u00a0 Having our own motor was fantastic and we covered the whole island at least twice.\u00a0 Our navigator was a bit shit or was it the map and the street signs but he ended up chucking the map over the back seat so in the end we just drove.\u00a0 We had lunch at Perissa,\u00a0 a nice beach on the south west side of the island.\u00a0 It was still a bit fresh so there was nothing much to see on the beach and nobody swimming at all.\u00a0 We had picked up a couple of rolls and our lunch was pork roll from our doggy bag of the night before.\u00a0 However we did have the best coffee there since leaving home.\u00a0 We headed off and found an ancient village with narrow roads tracks and alley ways similar to Mykonos.\u00a0 Back in the car and we headed up a road on the side of the hill to the monastery and radar station at Pyrgos, the highest point on the island.\u00a0 They had a sign up there taking no responsibility for uncontrollable cancer carcegenics from the radar. A really great view although it was restricted quite a bit by the haze. Back in the car and this time we found the main town Fira but as we could not find a parking space we ended up driving right through so we kept going to Oia at the northern end of the island.\u00a0 Again we ended up driving right through because we didn\u2019t get a park and at the northern end drove down this steep road to a quaint little port sitting under these high cliffs with rocks, some of them quite huge just sitting there waiting to come loose and drop on the restaurants and people below, scary. The road was less than 10 years old and prior to that the donkey and a steep track was the means of transport.<\/p>\n

We headed back to Fira and found a park this time. Fira was perched on the side of the cliff above the old port.\u00a0 The port had no road to it, just a donkey track and the cable car.\u00a0 You could see the donkeys walking up the track.\u00a0 We didn\u2019t test it but there were 589 steps according to the numbers we saw at the top. But this was certainly where a lot of the pictures come from.\u00a0 Nice white houses attached to the side of the hill and little windy paths between them.\u00a0 This place is renowned for having the best sunsets in the world.\u00a0 Of course Doug would never agree with this and the West Coast of NZ has much better.\u00a0 We were not going to prove it either way as the haze (or cloud) was still about.\u00a0 We had dinner where we could sit and watch the sunset.\u00a0 I had Garlic Spaghetti,\u00a0 Margaret a Shish Kabab, Doug & Ngaire shared a hot spicy mussel dish and salad. Margaret had her Gin and tonic for TA with her feet up. \u00a0As mentioned the sunset was disappointing and we headed back home for an early night.<\/p>\n

Pottering around is very tiring.\u00a0\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/strong><\/p>\n

Monday 2nd<\/sup> May – More driving around Santorini<\/strong><\/p>\n

We were not catching our ferry until 10pm tonight so had a full day to fill in.\u00a0 We decided to keep our car for another day so headed off early for the furtherest point on the island.\u00a0 A lighthouse which we were able to drive right too.\u00a0 We wandered around there and then set off to see if we could see an archaeological site called Akrotiri that had been closed since 2005 because of an accident.\u00a0 The was nothing to see except Red Beach.\u00a0 Not really exciting, very rocky but some red rock formations of interest.\u00a0 We then headed back to Perissa for the good coffee.\u00a0 While there saw a postcard for a beach called Kamrai which was over by the archaeological town of Ancient Thirasia past the airport.\u00a0 It was a lovely beach and you could start to see how nice it would be to book into one of the hotels across the road and live there as a beach bum.\u00a0 According to every one we were still a week early but there was some eye candy on the beach.\u00a0 We spent probably 3 or 4 hours here wandering and had a nice lunch before heading to a wine museum.\u00a0 We bulked at the E7 fee here and my vote didn\u2019t count as I was driving and not allowed to sample the wares.\u00a0 Apparently they had a 300m tunnel and tape players in English.\u00a0 When we got out we could sample 4 wines.\u00a0 Well could have.\u00a0 We drove through to Oia again which was a reasonable distance only to be told when we couldn\u2019t find an easy park to go back to Fira.\u00a0 We had been looking for a particular restaurant on that road called Akropolis but couldn\u2019t find it.\u00a0 As said my navigators were not up to it.\u00a0 We ended up at some little place where I had a Cod fillet, Margaret and Doug Greek sausage and Noddy, salad with spinach pie.\u00a0 We didn\u2019t mark it high but my cod was good.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

It was then we put some petrol in the car and down to the port.\u00a0 We ended up using E30 of gas.\u00a0 The port was very quiet when we got there as we were an hour and a half early but we made good friends with a caf\u00e9 worker from Albania and time went quickly drinking coffee and ouzo.\u00a0 We watched a 9.15pm ferry come and go.\u00a0 Quite an interesting operation as the boat backs in to the wharf, drops the ramp, cars trucks and people stream out.\u00a0 The new lot walk on in a rush, cabs pull up within minutes to go and the boat leaves.\u00a0 The port almost closes down until the next one, ours The Blue Star Line\u2019s Diagoras.\u00a0 What a fantastic ship\/ferry.\u00a0 It was huge, palatial and very clean with only a handful of people on.\u00a0 It even had escalators.\u00a0 It was easy to find a row of seats to coil up on and go to sleep which is exactly what I did. We had breakfast of eggs, bacon etc etc in the dining room all by ourselves\u2026..<\/p>\n

PS: I have to tell all that \u201cGarson\u201d our car driver was real good, he only scared Nods once and that was more the road than the driver and the view from the top was well worth it. Our navigator did get poxy a couple of times and he was the only other male in our group.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Being a tourist is harder than working<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Thursday 28th \u2013 Off to Mykonos Up at 5.15am, although somebody did ring me from NZ at \u00a02 am, I hadn\u2019t worked out how to keep my alarm on and the phone silent.\u00a0 Maybe flight mode would have done it.\u00a0 … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-77","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hailes.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hailes.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hailes.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hailes.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hailes.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=77"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.hailes.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":80,"href":"https:\/\/www.hailes.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77\/revisions\/80"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hailes.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=77"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hailes.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=77"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hailes.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=77"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}