Mykanos and a bit of Ios

So I fell into a little free internet on Ios, so I figured I'd write a quick update and save you all the inevitable exhausting post at the end of the trip.

Bus ride to Athens was nice, seven hours and I slept through most of it. Walked about two miles around the entire port of Piraeus to get from where the subway dropped us off to our actual gate -- then found out that a different (free) bus would have taken us there.

Ferry ride itself was fun. Took about 8 hours, and we arrived in Mykanos almost an hour and a half late. Everything was ridiculously expensive on the ferry, I guess they kind of had a captive audience. Read, played backgammon, and talked to a longwinded Grecian about everything from religion to politics. Actually, I listened (or pretended two after about three hours into his monologue) and he talked.

Mykanos was allright -- the weather was not exactly cooperative. The place we were staying wasn't really busy at all so they upgraded my group from bungalows to actual rooms for free. Paradise Beach hotel was far from town, and the bus didn't run very often (or very fast for the price). Quickly, we figured out that splitting ATV rentals throughout the group was the best way to go for daily travel. Saved a bunch of money on taxi / bus rides overall, and had a great time on them. Without the quads we couldn't have gone off the beaten path and seen a lot of the things we did see. Plus, for how much we were able to explore the island on a quarter tank of gas, it would have cost an arm and a leg in a taxi -- and we would have just driven past them. Last night we were there we sat around eating an enormous greek salad of our own making and playing rainy day games. That is, until the power went out for a little while.

Easter was wild. Everybody goes out and parties hard around three a.m., after midnight mass.

Took a much faster ferry from Mykanos to Ios. Met some girls from New York studying in Paris and swapped Birthright Israel stories with them.

Staying at a place called the "Far Out Beach Club" in Ios. It's great (sunny). Everything here is really relaxed. Also the island's motto is "Twice as much fun as Mykanos for half of the price." Very, very true. Our place has a (semi)private beach, a great patio area with a restaurant and bar. It's a flat fee 2 euro per person cab ride into town, and the 1 euro bus runs every other hour on the even hours. There is one main road around town, which is very easy to walk coming home at night, because it is downhill on the way home. In retrospect, we could have skipped Mykanos with all its jetsetting honeymooner types (and prices), but it was good to see.

That's all for now, hopefully there will be another update from Santorini, but if not pictures, videos, and stories to come when I get back to Ioannina.