Lingering on Ios

I can’t seem to find work. It’s strange; because I’ve seen others just arrive and find work like that, but not me. I got out of Francesco’s hostel and am now living in an apartment down the street from the main square. Everyone living with me here in the building has found work, but not me. Twice now I’ve had bartending jobs lined up, and both times I was robbed by people who’ve apparently worked for said employer in the past. I won’t give up. I’ll take anything at this point, because if I don’t find something soon I’m done. Done.

On another note- I’m still having fun and loving my apartment. I’ve been here for the last few weeks and have made some good friends. We have barbeques and get drunk by the sunset every other night. There’s also a hot spot in my neighbors room, which saves us money for internet. My place is a double that’s so cheap and so small I haven’t been looking very hard for a roommate. The shower is sometimes warm, and even then, only for a few minutes. But at least I’ve got a toilet seat! And I’ve got a great balcony with a bitchin view all to myself, or I can go downstairs and hang with everyone else on their balcony; it’s a great set up.

Pic’s of the new pad below~

There it is: my apartment on the left and the bathroom on the right.
Miniscule bedroom. Can you imagine why I might not be too enthusiastic about finding a roommate?
Inside the bathroom I've got me a toilet, shower without curtain and occasionally hot water.
My balcony.
A typical view from my balcony.
A better yet still typical view from my balcony, at just a few euros a night I'd like to add...
There's the party balcony, where we hold our BBQ's and drinking sessions.
Too many Canadians- hanging out and enjoying our hot spot. That's Jake with Andrea, and Connie. We're missing one: a cool Kiwi named Howard- funny bloke (we mess with him a lot).
Good food. I made us all some bitchin' pasta with bacon, bell pepper and all kinds of good stuff. Envy it.
Good wine. Or, well, bountiful wine that comes in large 2 liter water bottles or however big that other thing is... We've got our two Aussie's here and one Canadian named Andrea in the background there.
Heading out of my apartment now...
Ohhhhh, this hill is a bitch walking up everyday! My lordy... and then you're in town! And thus concludes my virtual tour, I hope you enjoyed it!

Ios

I’m on the isle of Ios and oh how I love it. Of all the 6,000 islands here, and the two I’ve visited, this one is my favorite! It’s the tiniest island with only one village, called Chora. Homer was buried here, well, he’s got a tomb.. I’m a little pre season, but in the summer Ios is like the ‘Cancun’ of Europe; it’s THE party island, where the streets are swimming with people and it takes 45 minutes to walk down the road. My guidebook actually used the word ‘debauchery’ to describe a typical Ios experience and I can already picture it! But right now everything is quiet, much like the calm before a storm.

Our ‘Fucked Up Family’ spent its last days here before finally parting, but in that time we met some cool Colombians with whom we partied at night and spent the days laying out on the beach. Trevor and Rachel have since gone back to Seattle, and Ariel has gone off to Italy. I got to spend a few days just with Ariel and man it’s so good to hang with a guy from back home. We clicked perfectly and really hit the town (the only town), SoCal style. I’ll miss you, homie.

Alone again. I inquired around town for work and ended up finding a job at my hostel bartending. I was supposed to start the following week, but a day before I was replaced by a woman with bigger boobs. SOL, man, that was the shortest job I’ve ever had… but, I spent about a week at the hostel as ‘part of the staff’ and really got to experience Greek Easter, hanging with the family (dancing with the cute daughter). We went to church with candles and then had a meal at midnight (after they’d all been fasting) where we ate a lot of weird authentic Greek stuff like: liver soup, souvlaki and a weird honey-tasting alcohol that was homemade.

It’s a bummer, man. I thought I had work but it was snatched away. I really like this island though, and I think if I’m gonna find work it’s gotta be here. So I’m not giving up. Money is tight but I’ll make it. Keep your fingers crossed.

Greek Easter Celebration

A little bit of Greek culture..

This was the view from our hostel called 'Francesco's.' Ariel and I were a little competitive over who could get the best sunset shot. What do you think of this one, yo? Haaaa!
'The Family' and our Colombian friends.
Chora.
Old school windmills up in the hills behind the town.
I just love the Greek flag. It's so cool.
Homer's Tomb. Had to rent an ATV and ride way up the mountain, doing some off roading to reach it.
That's the Greek Orthodox church on the left there, where we celebrated Greek Easter.
This is the only Greek wine I've had so far that I like, everything else tastes like crap (my opinion).
Mmmmm, lamb.....

Santorini

I met up with some people back in Athens, named: Ariel (arry-el) from Del Mar, Rachel and Trevor (the funniest guy on the planet) from Seattle. The four of us quickly became a tight unit and traveled together for a bit now. Quick side note- of all the places I’ve been in Europe, I have met the most Americans here in Greece.

From Athens we took an overnight ferry to Santorini, playing hearts all through the night. We came into Fira, one of two or three towns on the island and met Mr. and Mrs. Poppy. Mr.s Poppy (short for some long ass Greek name) is a lovely, short, eccentric woman who went out of her way to make us all comfortable. Mr. Poppy is a laid back dude who pretty much just drives to and from the port all day, picking up new arrivals or dropping off. Mrs. Poppy definitely runs the show, and she’s a sly one that one, definitely a shrewd business woman in my opinion.

God there’s so much to say on Santorini. This will be a long post. On the first day, we rented ATV’s and cruised all over the island. I’d never ridden a four wheeler before and had to lie to get the guy to sign off, but it was coolest shit ever! I got that baby up to 40 miles per hour, homey! We explored up and down the island. At one point, we stopped and trespassed through some construction and stumbled upon a spot with THE perfect view, and watched the sunset. Santorini is famous for its sunsets, but by now they all seem the same to me. Afterwards, we hit up some seafood and enjoyed free alcohol. Upon coming to Greece, I think that I’ve been given free alcohol every single night… not bad. And ouzo is all over the place, man, cheap as hell too… I’ve yet to try anything Greek that I don’t really love.

On the second day, we booked a boat tour to see the local volcanic area. It was a whole lot different from Vesuvius. This area had 3 or 4 craters and at some point during the tour I learned that there’s speculation about the area being a possible location for Atlantis. There’s a lot of detail behind it and they showed us pictures of what the island would’ve looked like back at that time; it was a haven man, guarded by an island ring with a volcanic island in the center. There is definitive proof of an advanced civilization that utilized the volcanic spring water for baths and such, as Plato mentions in one of his dialogues. So, I’ve been to Atlantis man! How cool is that shit? Then, we went to some hot mud springs that weren’t so hot and stained the hell out of my board shorts. Rachel drank too much the night before and spent the day puking, sometimes overboard on the ship and God knows where else! I had own experience relating all the way back to Egypt- but you gotta ask me in person, maybe then I’ll share the fun that was my own volcanic activity.. At then end of our tour they dropped us off and we missed what should’ve been the best sunset in Europe, but I hear it was cloudy anyway and we caught our own the day before.

Aside from the tour and bitchin’ ATV’s, we spent our time drinking and enjoying the night life. It’s still pre-season so much of what I experienced was straight-up Greek culture- but I’ll delve into that next post. There was an amazing bakery on Santorini where I had THE BEST spanakopita (sorry Mom & Sis, apparently Spanakopita is served without tzatziki). I also had some Moussaka and Godlike Baklava, stuff that makes shit in states taste like utter crap… God I could eat that forever. Ariel connected me with ‘The True’ Greek yogurt: plain stuff that is all texture but oh so divine! Man, the five of us- ‘The Fucked up Family’ as we liked to call ourselves (due to all the unmentionable disasters that we braved together) had an amazing time. Well I guess I’ll mention one: Back in Athens Trevor came back drunk and then left again at 4 or 5 in the morning. He awoke around noon the following day, sitting up on some steps on some street corner in the middle of nowhere. He didn’t have any money and couldn’t find a cab or an ATM for at least two hours…… LOL, yeah Trev dawg!!! Trevman35!! Pllllzz don’t post shit about me… PLLLLLZZZZ forget my blog address… that goes for you too Ariel, Rachel…

This was taken from the secret Spot we found.
I love riding so much!

Here we are: The Crew.
Or- 'The Fucked Up Family,' whichever you prefer. We was soulja's tho, bore through some tough times, mang. Poor Rachel. As you can see, we were very sympathetic..

Mmmmmmm, spanakopita.



Oh Mrs. Poppy, how I will miss you..