Matts Meanderings

/the wind whistles softly, as a tumbleweed slowly bounces by

Sorry, this has absolutely nothing to do with anything, i just thought it'd be something fun to write...

Wonderful Santorini... Well, as I'm sure you can tell, I absolutely hated Santorini - it was such a hardship to go there :)

We were met at the ferry (at something like 6am), by the hostel owner, Stalio. Anna had gotten organised and booked a place to stay, so the rest of us decided to tag along. Very glad we did, cos Stalio's place is very cool, especially for €10 a night. Headed down to the beach to watch the beautiful sunrise, and then after a snooze, did not a lot for the rest of the day (sunbaking on the black beach mainly), got rained on (apparently the first rain in 8 months), then sat on the beach for a few hours talking. A good day all up, nice and relaxing - just what I needed after a bad nights sleep.

One of the other good things about the place we stayed was the bacon and eggs I had for breaky! Scrumptious. (if you ever end up in Santorini, definitely go to Stalio's place.)

Feeling adventurous, we hired a few scooters between us, and headed off to explore the island. Very cool way to explore a place like that, even if we had to go 2 to a bike. Much preferred driving to being the passenger (there's a surprise ). We managed to find:

• the red beach (pretty cool)
• the lighthouse (great views back on the island, with the volcano and stuff)
• managed to miss the white beach (well, seen white beaches before anyway)
• Pyrgos (which had a cool old castle, with heaps of winding alleyways)
• the highest hill on the island (which had a monastery, but it had been taken over by the military, and you couldn't take photos there )
• Oia (an extremely picturesque village - photo opportunity overload!) for the sunset and dinner.

Even though the bike wouldn't start when we wanted to go back, and when we finally got it going (after phoning for help), it was freezing without a jacket, it was still a great day.

On our last day in Santorini, Amy and I climbed up the mountain/hill, and saw the ruins of ancient Thera (Greek, Roman, Egyptian, and a few others as well). We also went to a church that was in an extremely inaccessible spot in an indent on the side of the mountain - would've been a real pain to build. Cool though.

And just to round it off, we sat on the beach some more. All in all, a great place to be. Its definitely on the list of places to go next summer. As it was off season, lots of places were closed, and very few people there. Also, the dive shop was closed, so I couldn't go scuba diving . I think in about September, it'll be great - no hordes of tourists, but enough to ensure everything is still open.

I believe that leaves us on the 30th of October. The next installment... Paros Island!

Its raining outside, its cold, and i'm drinking coffee in a french café... Sounds like its a good time to write a bit more about the whole travelling thang.

And the next location on the list is Athens. Well, where do I start? I left Paul and Lydias house on the 25th of October at something like 4am (ouch ), and jumped on a plane at 6.30am. Not much fun, really. Managed to find the hostel, which charged a whole €8.16 a night, for a 'dorm' room with only 4 beds, and an ensuite. Was a bit of a dump, but who cares. Also managed to find Amy, which was a good thing. Amy is a girl I met in Rome, who was travelling alone, and was looking for a travel buddy. For those who are asking questions about Amy (you know who you are!), no, its not like that (Sorry ).

Anyway, on our first day there, we did the random wandering thing, just exploring and getting to know the place. We managed to see the Acropolis (from a distance) by night (very cool) and wandered through Plaka (Athens version of Chapel St), which was cool. Also saw lots of little bars and cafés that looked really cool. Could've spent a while there.

The next day, we got all organised and went on the tourist trail, and managed to see:

• the Acropolis (including the Parthenon, the temple of Athena Nike and the Erechitheion (with the pillars carved in the form of maidens). Very cool all up. It was quite something to see the structure that i've heard and learnt so much about. Also learnt that the 'Elgin marbles' that are in the British museum were actually bought, not stolen, so its a lot more understandable that they don't want to return them (i still think they should, but...)
• the Temple of Olympian Zeus (only a few columns left, so not that exciting, but still cool)
• the Roman Stadium (built in the 4th century BC, but restored in 1895 for the first modern olympic games in 1896), which was alright, but not that exciting
• the Roman and Ancient Agoras (both mostly ruins, and not that exciting)
• the Temple of Hephaestus (really well preserved - pretty cool)

After our wandering round, having seen the majority of what Athens has to offer, we headed down to the port to catch the ferry to Santorini Island, but, we ran into the whole 'assuming issue', and found that there wasn't a ferry that night. So, back to the hostel, which although we weren't to happy about it, turned out to be a good thing, as we met up with a few Belgians (Anya and Lievin), and a bunch of Frence Canadian girls, and had a really good night (involving a fair bit of vodka ) .

So, on our extra, unplanned day in Athens, we headed down to the National Archaeological Museum, which is apparently the most important in the country. Had some pretty cool stuff, but I found that I was looking at it from an art perspective, rather than a historical perspective, so it was a bit of a let down. We did a bit more wandering, then checked out a bit of 'local' food, and had a gyros pita, which was a bit different to back home, but still damn good, especially for €1.50 .

Then, it was attempt number 2 for getting out to Santorini. We managed to meet an American (Vanessa), and a Canadian (Anna) at the train station, who were heading the same direction (at one point it was a regular backpackers convention - we had a corner with 6 backpackers in it ). Then, it was on the overnight ferry to Santorini (with an uncomfortable seat to sleep in, and a very loud rattling roof - so not much sleep...)

And seeing I enjoyed Santorini so much, and i've got a fair bit to write about, that can be done later.

Warning - This is not a travel entry - its more a “get stuff of the brain“ type of thing.

I'm currently back in Athens, for a brief stopover - all of 5 hours or so, between returning from Nafplio, and heading up to Meteora. The train out leaves about 4 minutes to midnight, so i dont think there'll be much sleep tonight. Journey takes about 6 hours, with a changeover half way through. Painful.

Anyway, I just thought I'd take the time to put down a bit thats a bit lot deeper than usual.

I'm not entirely sure, but i'm not enjoying the whole traveling thing that much at the moment. I think its due to a few reasons:

• The hostels we've been staying in haven't really had the whole common room thing happening properly. Where they have had a proper common room, its been pretty crappy, and not really condusive to meeting people
• There's been very few kitchens to make dinner in.
• Amy is running on a budget thats a lot tighter than mine - so that sort of limits how often we eat out/go out for a few drinks
• It seems to be past the backpacking season here - there's relatively few people around.
• Amy and I are getting along fine - but we just dont have the connection that means we can sit there and talk about crap for hours. So, it means that i'm not quite getting the interaction that makes up a really good trip.
• I think i'm missing the structure that work forces on you... Aggghhh! i'm missing having a job. Not good.
• I'm missing having a home. A place that i can go back to and have my stuff all there, and setup and a proper bed, and proper meals...

So, i'm not sure if this is coming out deep, or more just a whinge. Probably the second option i'm thinking, but who cares. Its my blog, so i can say what i want . 

By the look of it, when i get back to london, i'll try and find a place to live, and look for a job. Gonna be painful (especially with the whole making new friends thing), but i'll get there. I think i'll pass on the travelling for a while, and see how it goes. Get myself back into normal society for a while.

Anyway, thats enough of a ramble for now - feel free to drop me an email...

Just thought i'd post a really quick update (knowing full well that i've got a novel about the size of war and peace to write when i get a chance to sit down properly...)

Anyway, currently on the island of Paros, in the Greek Islands, doing not a lot. Just spent some time on Santorini Island, which was a lot of fun. I've met up with Amy, and now we're wandering around randomly. Checked out Athens too, which was pretty cool. Heading back to Athens to explore more of mainland Greece tomorrow night. We're just to go and hire some scooters for the day, and explore this island. Lots of fun!

Just booked the flights onwards - we fly to Nice (France) on the 7th (with a night sleeping at the airport - yay...)

I've taken excessive numbers of photos too - I took about 180 the other day in Santorini - there's just so many things there that are cool. Architecture there is amazing. Got to get the photos up soon.

Doh - run out of time at the internet cafe...