Opa!

The heat swarmed me as I stepped off of the plane in Athens, well in the sticks really- the airport is miles away from the city. Anyhoo, the heat felt great, even though it was 3am. Anna and I rode the train into the city, and decided that we should immediately head to the islands, so we got ferry tickets to Paros. 
Mmmm, the warm turquoise water and smell of the ocean! It is postcard beautiful every direction you look on Paros. We stayed in an adorable hotel with all the typical Greek decor- white with vibrant blue accents, quaint, balconies, flowers and vines growing all over. I'm gonna throw out a big judgmental stereotype here, but Greek people are super bossy, big bellied, HAIRY, loving creatures, that you just can't help but feel such an affection for. I very much enjoyed being bossed around and cared for by them. And oh my my the food!! Souvlaki, gyro, tzatziki, pita, hummus, and that eggplant casserole (can't think of the name). Mind you, Kokaros in west Seattle still has my heart in the Greek food dept- yup, even after eating it in the native land, it's that good. 
I spent five days of just relaxing on the gorgeous beach, reading, swimming, writing, taking siestas, watching the sailboats and jet skiis and swimmers, drifting on my floaty- it was truly magical. I was brown and refreshed by the end of the week. The beaches are all topless, and I decided to participate one day- not gonna lie, it felt pretty freeing. 
After all that beach action, we decides to rent a quad and check out the inland. We cruised around the entire island, stopping off at beaches along the way, and for crepe snacks. We got back into town right at sunset- wow! If I need to go to a happy place, I will close my eyes and go back to sitting at the waters edge watching that sky- not a care in the world. We also lucked out and got a private tour of an art gallery one night- the paintings were all ancient greek themed, painted by a woman living there, and were amazing, but way outside of my price range.
We switched from our hotel to camping for a few nights- beach camping? Yes please. Then we decided to island hop, and headed to Ios. Big mistake. Ios is actually a frat house in the shape of an island. There is club music in your ear no matter where you are or what time it is, and drunken 18 yr olds always within view. I am certain that I was the oldest person on the island, and by far the most clothed; I think my days of clubbing in a bikini and heels have sailed (cause that's how I used to always go out in Boise). One of the bars put a helmet on fore-mentioned totally awesome 18 yr old customer, hits them over the helmeted head with the nearest object (chair, paddle, etc.), then throws a shot of alcohol down their throat, while bar next door is having competition to drink 10 shots for a free tshirt- we high tailed it to the ferry for tickets to Santorini. 
Excellent choice! Santorini is stunning. There's a large volcano just off the island, and black sand beaches (very neat and very hot on the feet!). We had a fresh seafood feast at this little restaurant where we sat right at the water front. Afterwards we went to a place that had fantastic live music by a three person band from Australia (sorry didn't write down the name). While we were there, these two dorky man from the states came up to our table and wouldn't take the hint that we'd rather not be talking to them, and after a bit, the owner of the restaurant came over with two glasses of wine, handed them to us, and said, "you look like you could use these" and winked. Haha. The two dudes then left and we enjoyed our vino :) On the way back to our hotel, we found an adorable puppy without a collar, so we were naughty and brought it back to our hotel room. I miss my doggies soo much, so it was really nice cuddling for the night. As much as we wanted to give it a go smuggling the pooch back to the states, he still resides in Santorini, probably wooing a new set of travelers. 
After the islands, we went back to Athens, thankfully only for one night- it is a huge, dirty dirty city! Graffiti everywhere, we saws homeless people shooting up on the sidewalk, prostitutes...it's really quite a yucky city in my opinion. The thing it does have going for it though, are the ruins on top of the hill overlooking the city. We hiked up to the top in the evening and absorbed the lights and view. I wanted to just sleep there, rather than go back to our super sketchy crackhouse hostel, but for all my complaining, we survived, didn't get robbed, and were on our way out shortly. 
Greece was a great, relaxing leg of the trip, and i would love to vacation on the islands again- still several that I didn't check out, especially Crete.