Change O' Plans and Notes

I flew into Athens and took a bus east to the port city of Rafina instead of the more traditional bus west to Athens. I decided to do Athens at the end of my time in Greece to avoid going into the city twice. Once in Rafina had to kill 6 hours because I missed the ferry by about 15 minutes. Rafina is nice, but there is not much to do.

Once on the ferry I was on my way to the lesser-visited Greek island of Andros. Apparently this island is such a infrequent tourist destination that there are no hostels, which forced me to pay 30 Euros a night for a room (I got him down from 80 Euros). I rented a motorbike/scooter thing the first full day I was there and explored the island going no faster than 80 kph (about 50 mph), done going down hill with the wind at my back. Andros is beautiful and I took more pictures than I think I have ever taken before.

I decided to come to Greece now instead of the summer 2010 because it is low season now compared to what would be high season and because Greece is kind of out of the way when visiting the rest of Europe (look at a map). Though less expensive than high season, Greece is still expensive, especially when I compare it to the country I was prior, Egypt. For example, my first accommodation in Greece was 30 Euros a night ($44ish), and he wanted 80 Euros, as written above. In Cairo, the hostel was 40 Egyptian pounds (less than $8). Yes, the room in Greece was far nicer, but I am not looking for nice places. I am looking for cheap places that I feel safe and trust the lock to protect my luggage. That is it. No frills, just a simple lock.

The next day it was off to Samos, another less-traveled island. In order to get there I had to stop off at the tourist destination of Mykonos. I ended up having to spend the night there and the entire following day because the first ferry to Samos did not leave until 12:50AM the following night. Mykonos is beautiful as well, but it was at this time that I realized it was the same views as Andros. It different in that is was full of drunken tourists. Also, I went rock climbing with a 20-year-old artist from Cape Town that has not been home for more than a year. He gave me tons of advice about traveling in South Africa, which (at the time was) is my next destination.

I took the ferry to Samos, which is supposed to take 6 hours but actually took 8. On the ferry I meet 4 Australians stopping in Samos for a day en route to Turkey (at one point Turkey is less than 1km from Samos, Greece). I told them that I intended on doing the same thing but then read how crazy expensive it was to take that ferry. Upon arrival in Samos the Aussies and myself went to the same ferry-booking store to book our respective ferries; them to Turkey, my returning to Mykonos in a couple of days. Apparently what I read was wrong and the ferry to and from Turkey is only 45 Euros, not the hundreds that I read. So, instead of seeing another island (probably would have been Syros) I am going to spend a short week in Turkey.

Right now I am in Samos waiting for a bit longer until the ferry to Turkey leaves.

This worked perfectly for me. As gorgeous as the Greek islands are I was getting kind of sick of them. And, I wanted to go to Turkey but the supposed cost created a barrier. I will be traveling with them until 9/4/09 when the get on a week-long ferry around Turkey and I will head back to Greece, via Samos, where I will spend the day exploring, before heading to Athens for a couple of days before catching my 9/9/09 flight to Johannesburg, South Africa.

NOTES:

1. Sorry about the lack of pictures. The pictures I take are big files (12M) and uploading them takes time. And, when you are paying for time on the Internet in 1-15 minute intervals, you tend to not want to take the time to upload. I can re-size them to make them smaller and easier to upload, but I cannot download and install the software to do so in Internet cafes. I will definitely upload a ton in early October.

2. I plan on a post at some point that will be updates frequently keeping track of certain things like ferries taken, miles flown, bouts of constipation, etc. I think it will be interesting any funny, for me, anyway.

3. I also have been meaning to post an inventory of the items I brought, but I keep forgetting and do not want to do so when the Internet is as expensive as it is in Greece. I hope to get one posted soon-ish.