Sunday, June 12, 2005

Almost Done!

Well I made it to London and I'm going to try to meet up with Jack's sister today and possibly go kite surfing... speaking of which, Jeff and I went for a kite surfing lesson on the coast of the Netherlands in Noordwijk. We basically spent 4 hours being dragged around like rag dolls and being thrown upon the sand and surf (for those of you who don't know kitesurfing, its basically wakeboard (waterskiing with a snowboardish type board) except you're being pulled by a huge kite rather than a boat, so theres alot to think about while you're doing it!). Beyond that Amsterdam was a blast and like last year, we enjoyed the local specialties.

Til next time!

Friday, June 10, 2005

The home stretch

Hey Guys,

This'll be quick, I've got to eat breakfast and make my way out of here (can you believe I'm up at 9am??).

Well after Mykonos we went to Santorini in Greece, its a island formed by the blast of a volcano a few thousand years ago, anyways you can see from the pics that the landscape is pretty crazy (pics in my previous post).

I ended up changing my plans and instead of leisurely making my way back up the Greek islands from Crete, I went straight to Athens from Crete, and caught a flight to Berlin. From there, I went straight away to Amsterdam to meet up with Jeff and Anne again and finish off the trip just chillin out and cruising through the red light district. More details to follow.

As for pics, I forgot to make links to these:

Pompei (Roman ruins near Naples): http://jarema.smugmug.com/gallery/577639
Sort trip to Tuscany (with the Tontini's): http://jarema.smugmug.com/gallery/577619
Capri (with Anny and her friends): http://jarema.smugmug.com/gallery/577622
Rome (with Nathan, Peter, Magda): http://jarema.smugmug.com/gallery/560484
Venice (all my pics are there now): http://jarema.smugmug.com/gallery/546081
Palermo (my mountain climbing :) http://jarema.smugmug.com/gallery/577623
Athens (Jeff and Anne, just a few pics): http://jarema.smugmug.com/gallery/577644

See you guys soon!

Monday, June 06, 2005

Corfu, Athens, Mykonos, Santorini, Heraklion

Hello again!

It's been awhile and I've been travelling with Jeff and his girlfriend Anne for the past week. I'll start where I left off... with all of my pics uploaded.

Corfu (http://jarema.smugmug.com/gallery/577640)
Partying was a blast, like I said, this place must really pick up during the summer (note to the boys, if your going to travel come here to party).

We went on the quad safari and it was a blast. Those things get going up to 50 clicks, and the tour basically went around the whole island. We went up two hills/mountains with some crazy views of the sea, islands, Greek mainland and Albania... defintely worth the 15 euros. Apparently a girl on one of the quad safaris a couple of days earlier fell off her bike and a tree is all that saved her bike from falling down a cliff. Lesson learned: be careful if you're a girl or don't trust your abilities to ride one of those things. No close calls for me, don't worry mom!

The next day we tried to go on the pink palace's booze cruise, but it was cancelled due to lack of interest by the backpackers staying at the hostel (who all suck because of this), so I rented a sea kayak with the Regina boys and cruised the bay around the hostel. You can check out the pics. It was great, we stopped and jumped in for a swim and brought some snokelling gear (decent views, but doesn't compare with the carribean). That was my last day, I took a bus to Athens overnight and it was almost as bad a night as the train ride I took from Rome-Nice 5 years ago when I slept in the overhead baggage compartment. I can't complain though, it got me to Athens.

Athens (http://jarema.smugmug.com/gallery/577644)
Here I met up with Jeff and his girlfriend. I think all of us were pretty touristed-out, so we decided to catch a movie (I know, come all the way to Athens to catch a movie, and we watched Star Wars III, so we're pretty bad). The theatre was the best I've ever been in, not because of crazy sound or a huge screen, but because it is actually a theatre (as in opera-theatre type place). The seating was luxurious, and it was also assigned seating. There were private balconies to the left and right of the screen, and get this... an intermission half way through. Overall an interesting movie experience. Oh and the movie was good too, go see it.

Of course we went to the Acropolis that night as well to see the Parthenon and the other ruins that are there (theatre of dionysis, etc.). Then we took the ferry to Mykonos.

Mykonos (http://jarema.smugmug.com/gallery/577645)
This is apparently the most touristy island in Greece, so of course we went there. We arrived late in the evening and caught a ride to Paradise Beach Camping... whose motto is "Many Happenings"?? Anyways, we got a tent for three and immediately decided to upgrade to a room above the reception, which was a solid choice considering our tent was already occupied by bugs (not too many, but definitely some) when we checked it out. Plus camping is kinda ghetto, when rooms are right there.

We basically just chilled the whole time on Mykonos, catching some rays at the nude beach our resort (in a very loose sense of the word) was on. There was a beach club right there (see pics) with a pool in it, and it starts to blast beats at noon, with drinks flowing all day. They close down after sunset though, but I imagine during the high season they keep on going all night. We went into Hora (I think thats the main town) for a night, and ended up at Scandinavian Bar for a night of drinks and dancing (we is still me Jeff and Anne).

Needless to say, by the end of the two days here we were all roasted (not burnt!) and made our way to Santorini.

My hands are getting tired, I'll post more later on, but here the rest of my pics up to the ones I took yesterday (ruins at Knossos, where the minotaur myth started):

Santorini - http://jarema.smugmug.com/gallery/577646
Heraklion, Crete - http://jarema.smugmug.com/gallery/577647

Only a week to go, I'm not exactly sure what I'll be doing... maybe some hiking around Crete (oh yeah, Jeff and Anne are gone now), or I'm thinking of hitting central europe if I can change my flight. We'll see!