Kythnos, Greece

Of the Greek Cyclades, Kythnos is not among the popular tourist destinations. During our three days there, it seemed that we were among the only non-greek tourists on the island. Luckily, some of the locals spoke a bit of English and once we were off the boat, we were approached by a woman who, by the looks of us could tell that we weren't from around those parts, and simply asked "Rooms?". We spent our three nights in Merichas, the main port town.

Merichas

The day we arrived we were pretty tired from our day of traveling, so we stuck to the cliffs near the town.

On the second day we slept in late and then walked to a beach about a mile away from the town and went for a swim. We came back to Merichas for dinner near the beach.

We got up early on the third day and rented a moped ("The Admiral") from a shop in Merichas. This let us cover some serious ground, more than the bus service, which only runs twice a day, could have.

One of several wind turbines on the island. Apparently, the island gets all its power from wind and solar energy.

First, Ben admirably guided The Admiral over some rocky terrain and to a small spit a few miles from Merichas.

We took a short swim and had some feta with bread and sausage (our staple foods for the past week) and headed farther north to another main town called Loutra. The town is famous for its hot springs which are said to have special healing powers and attract many visitors. While most of the baths require private access, there is a stream near a public beach that runs off into the ocean.

Loutra

After getting healed by the springs at Loutra, we went back to Merichas and took a brief siesta before exploring the southern portion of the island.

Our first stop was a town called Driopis. Unlike Loutra and Merichas, both port towns, Driopis is built into a hillside near the highest point on Kythnos. All of the buildings are connected by a maze of narrow streets just wide enough to walk through and it seemed as if there was another church around every corner.

The main church in Driopis

We came across this arcade game while walking through Driopis. It seemed very out of place to say the least.

With no main roads within the town itself, an thus no traffic, it is a very tranquil spot. I felt like we were disturbing the peace when we started up our noisy moped to leave.

Driopis

Next we drove to what looked like the highest point on the island, checked out some old abandoned windmills and made friends with some pigs.

We continued south, with no destination in particular in mind, except to reach the end of the island.

Sadly, we found that no roads reached the absolute tip of the island, so we headed back north again, stopping by a town called Kanala, (which I regret not taking any pictures of) located on the cliffs of a small peninsula.

That brings us to today.

When we purchased our return tickets the travel agent told us that there was a good chance that the ferry companies would be going on strike that day, so there may be no boats. We decided to be on the safe side and bought our tickets a day ahead of schedule.

Now we're back in Athens. We have one full day left before our flight to Rome, so our plan is to figure out something to do here that doesn't involve a visit to the Acropolis. Maybe we'll brush up on our Italian, or join a protest ;)

Andio.

UPDATE: We changed the comment settings on the blog so anyone is free to comment, even without a blogger account.

Athens

Hey everyone, Lars here.

So today did not go exactly as planned but it was very productive nonetheless.

We left our hostel in the morning and headed for Piraeus, the main port in Greece, about a 30 minute train ride from Athens.

Ben stealing WiFi from a nearby hotel

The port at Piraeus

Once we made it to the harbor, we found out that there were no boats that day going to Kythnos, (the island we were planning on going to) so we bought tickets for tomorrow and headed back into town.

We wandered around a market district not to far from the Acropolis, looking for an internet cafe. We eventually found one, looked up a new hostel to go to, grabbed a bite to eat at a Gyro stand, and took a taxi to our new hostel.

After dropping our things off, we began the long walk back into town towards the Acropolis.

We passed by these riot police on our way. While we did not see any protests, we heard from other travelers that they disrupted traffic in the center of town.

We spent the rest of the day at the Acropolis and the surrounding areas, like Agora and the Temple of Hephaestus.

We then had dinner at a restaurant nearby where we ran into four other Americans, two of whom were from Washington State, one was from Camano Island and the other used to live on Orcas Island!

Pretty Small World.

Here are some of the pictures I took throughout our journey today.

Our plan for tomorrow is to head back to Piraeus and catch a boat in the afternoon.

We'll update you all on our adventures as soon as we can.

Please leave a comment on the blog, it's nice to know who's reading.

Andio.

London

As most of you know, Lars and I (Ben) have embarked on a month-long adventure through Europe. Our tentative itinerary includes a week in the following places: Greece, Italy, Germany and the Netherlands with a short stop in Belgium. We are currently flying over greece on our way to Athens from London. Two days ago, Lars and I met in Heathrow Airport after tow relatively uneventful flights. We attempted to ride the tube to some family friends but a key section was closed for repairs. We were forced to figure out the bus route to their house, and managed to take the correct line going in the wrong direction. However, the view from the top of the double-decker bus was a good way to see more of London.

Once we arrived at the house, we dropped off our bags and decided to explore London. Our first stop was Buckingham Palace.

Lars managed to tame and ride an enormous lion that was prowling near the castle grounds.

We spotted the London Eye and made our way towards it, stopping by the National Gallery on the way. There were many babies and dolphins…and they weren't feeling very well.

Next we crossed the Thames and passed by the London Eye.

Big Ben

We were feeling pretty hungry at this time so we decided to find somewhere to eat. This, as everything else that we had done that day, took longer than expected.

But we eventually made it to Soho and ate at an Indian restaurant called Masala Zone. We figured out the train for the journey back to our beds and fell asleep promptly.

After a refreshing twelve hours of sleep we returned towards the city center and visited Shakespeare's Globe Theater.

We then spent a couple of hours in the Tate Gallery of Modern Art.

View from a park near the Tate Gallery

After crossing the Millennium Bridge we took the tube up to Abbey Road and Lars got his mandatory picture dodging traffic on the famous crosswalk.

We returned to for a delicious dinner with our hosts, attempted to write a blog entry, and fell asleep.

We didn't do a whole lot today except fail at finding fish and chips for lunch and make our way back to Heathrow for our flight to Athens.

We'll be in Athens until the 1st of June. Our plan is to catch a ferry to a small island in the Cyclades and spend a few days there. We will post a new entry when we have time, energy and internet access.

Until then, Andio!