Just got back yesterday from a very long vacation in one of the most beautiful places I've ever been. Chris, I saw your post while I was in Greece. Thank you. I just didn't have time to respond.
I had a great time. I flew into Athens and stayed for a couple days to check out the Parthenon, museums, Olympion, aereopagus, pnyx.. etc. I rented a car form Hertz. BTW be aware of their hidden charges!!! They say the car is one price and it is nearly double. While in Athens I stayed at a hostel called Athens Backpackers. You can get a decent hotel for around 50 euro but the hostel was 20 bucks for me after I met an American, Walter, who worked there. Walter is an awesome guy. Be sure if you go to say hello to him.
After Athens I checked out the ancient battle sites of Plataea and tried to make it to Leuctra but don't think I found it. I then went to delphi, thermopylae, marathon, sounio, Piraeus, Elefsina, Nafplio, Tolos, Sparta (where I got a tattoo!!!
) , Pylos - definitely spend a day here. They say Nafplio is beautiful but pylos is very nice. After that I headed up to Olympia, then back to mycenae, corinth (skip corinth - nothing really there of interest), then to glyfada beach where my camera, gps, money, and a bunch of my clothes were stolen. hahaha. I parked the rent a car behind a guard shack, in a marina, next to a bus stop... wow. The Hertz people were so helpful by adding extra fees and forgetting to credit me for the gas in the tank - they were really awesome. They were so friendly as they charged me an extra 200 bucks. I will never forget them.Anyway, after that small bummer I needed to partyyyyyyyyy. So I went down to mykonos for a couple days of extreme partying - some of the most attractive people I've ever seen in my life. It was a skin show. I must have looked retarded with my mouth open the whole time. There were topless models everywhere. I must have seen 1000000 pairs of you know what. You know how they say that line about too much of a good thing??? I clearly did not reach that limit. I don't think I have a limit when it comes to that. I'd grab a cold Mythos (local beer) and stroll down the beach like the disgusting pervert that I am. hahaha. What a good time at night, too. The clubs there go ALLLL night and way into the morning. To tell you how long they go - I partied - passed out - woke up - and kept partying. I had to leave again before it closed and it was daylight outside. WOW.
I didn't hit Santorini like I planned to because of what the single travelers were telling me. It's pretty there but it's really for couples and not so much for single people. It's also pretty expensive and with my stuff getting stolen, I felt obliged to cut some corners unfortunately.
After Mykonos I went back to Athens to recoup for a night and then I decided to go to Crete. While in Crete I hit Heraklion, rethymno, and xania. My advice for crete, for a single guy on a budget, is ferry in to Heraklion and hit knossos. That same day, after you're done, go to Rethymno and spend like 3 days there. You're going to love it. The hostel there is amazing and only costs 11 euros a day. The streets are those tiny little paved ones with shops all over that open up into court yards or atriums. Very awesome. The beach and night life there is super, too. The last day you're there hit Xania and the Samarian gorge - which I wasn't able to do because my shoes got stolen. hahaha. oh well, maybe next time.
Then I cam back to Athens.
For anyone going to greece, I'll definitely give advice for ferries, destinations, tour groups, etc. Most of the time you want to stay as far away from the guided tours as you possibly can. The information they provide isn't worth the time spent mooing along with idiots.
Alright just gotta sneak this in... taking a shower in Greece sucks. It is torture and I'm talking ALL the hotels and hostels. The greeks can build the parthenon but showers are a mystery to them. The normal set up is one unmounted hand shower. You know what I mean? They usually just rest it on top of the cold and hot water handles. This means that in order to turn the shower on you must be holding this thing... for an American that likes to have the hot water blasting while he soaps up - is IMPOSSIBLE. Showering in that country is torture. I was so happy to have a normal shower last night. Also, they build their showers super small and believe exclusively (when there is one) in shower curtains. This means that the curtain is ALWAYS touching you when you shower. Nasty. They also make their curtains too small but they solve this problem by building two drains - one in and one out of the shower. No bath mats - they would get soaked - so you just walk out onto wet dirty tile. Once in the island of mykonos there was just one drain and the shower was right next to the toilet and the sink. The room was smaller than a closet and there was only salt-water to bathe in.... arg!!!!
