Saturday, June 6, 2009

Greece

Flight over to Germany from Portland was pretty mellow, it might even have been the nicest flight I have ever been on. I had a window seat and sat next to a British man, in which I kept trying to talk to him to have a friendly conversation, but he wanted nothing to do with my tight pants, long black hair, lip ring, and bright colored T. Arrived at 8:30 AM local time and got ready to explore the Frankfurt airport, so on my 10 hour layover I would know where I could go. I had planned on having a few beers in one of the airports outdoor beer garden, but I decided I would save my money. I stayed up the entire time in the airport, first few hours flew by then I felt like I was being followed by irresponsible parents and their annoying screaming children. I think I heard "I want a kid's meal" or "wheres my Lolly?" in about ten different language's. Exhaustion set in, but sleep did not come. Finally it was four so I went to check in for my flight and as I went through security, a German lady checked my ticket and I heard her say "Your flight has changed to 8:35." So I asked to make sure exhaustion wasn't tricking me... and she said yes. I thought it was a cruel joke. Well I was rather frustrated because now I have four hours to wait instead of two. So I continued to my gate... no one was there, CRAP! So it was true. I then walked the mile back to the customer service booth where I waited ten minutes to simply find out the flight was still scheduled for 6:35 PM, but the gate had changed from A30 to A35! I misunderstood what she had said and her German accent did not help. Fifteen minutes before boarding my flight to Athens it starts POURING RAIN! Right as I got on my tiny little plane, it stopped raining. It was unassigned seating in which I hate, but I sat down at the window so I would be able to see Athens. A German Rastafarian sat down next to me, at first I thought... cool! No! This guy was so inconsiderate! His wife a very hefty and rather manly white German lady sat behind me and would not stop kicking my chair which I believe is because she wanted to sit next to her husband, so I offered and she declined. She thought it would be much more fun for the both of us, if she sat behind me and continued to kick my seat. The other man I was sitting next to was the most immature and bitter old man I ever had the pleasure to sit next to. I had to pee, so I asked nicely if I could get by and they obliged. When I returned to my seat, the man called me an asshole. Here's what was said; "Your an Asshole!" As I stared at him confused why I am being called an asshole, he then say's "There is only twenty minutes left in the flight!" Still in shock about this mans immaturity, I look up at the in-flight information, it showed that there was 49 minutes left until landing. I was very tempted to say "Thank you... (pause for effect) for showing me that a twenty year old can be more mature than a man in his fifties..." But I decided I did not want to sit next to this jerk for the next 45 minutes after I pissed him off even more. After landing I got very lost in Athens, but I hopped in a cab and found my way really quickly. Got to the hostel and didn't sleep again! Got up at break of dawn, got a weak but free breakfast, hiked to see the Acropolis - Amazing, I wish I could see it in it's day and age and it's peak age. Got trampled by tourist from far and wide, got overrun in a stampede by hundreds of five year olds, got lots of pictures, then hopped onto a ferry to make it to Ios. Arrived on the island of Santorini at 1:30 AM! Kari and I ended up throwing a couple towels and blankets on the ground of the ferry waiting room and fell asleep, or at least I did, Kari didn't get any sleep because the hard ground was not comfortable. We finally got a ferry to the island of Ios around noon, Finally I started my summer. It was horribly hot and I could not wait to get to the beach! We went to the beach had a nice day and then toke me out for the night to explore Ios. Every day we spent at the beach, and went out for almost every night, minus a few nights we just were pooped. Time does not exist on Ios, and apparently neither does customer service. Greeks do what they want and when they want. It is extremely relaxing - more so than Tahoe and Welches, which is saying a lot! Eventually Greg, one of Kari's friends from New Zealand she had met 2 years ago on Ios. Greg introduced us to a few awesome bands, and an awesome english sitcom called "Black Books" Go look up a few clips on youtube.

My 2 weeks ended in Ios, so I hopped on my ferry to take me back to Athens. It was an hour late, and on the way to Santorini, I felt like I was in a Giant Winter storm. The boat felt like it was going to sink at every wave! We stopped at almost every island on the way back to Athens, and arrived in the port around 1:30 Am once again. I found a cab and asked to take me to Athens Backpackers Hostel, and it cost me 25 Euros to take a cab at 2 Am in the morning. Backpackers was all filled up, so they gave me directions to Travelers and Students Hostel. I walked around for about 15 minutes through the bad part of town, and walked through some sketchy dark streets, that I thought I was going to get jumped. Eventually found it and checked it, spent my last 27 euros on the hostel and met two Canadians that actually were cool. Hung out with them the next day for a bit before I decided to head to the airport to fly to Frankfurt. Spent the night in Frankfurt in an awesome hotel just outside of Frankfurt. I watched the German version of Jackass and went down to the restaurant and hand the best meal of my life; giant bacon wrapped steak, and a giant German beer! Got on my plane early in the morning and finally arrived in the states.

Now I am bummed that I am no longer in Europe! But I am excited to snowboard tomorrow!

Here are some pictures through out the trip.












































































Ios Beach from dwesleymann on Vimeo.


Broken Camera from dwesleymann on Vimeo.


This video was put on here to show you how stupid I can be. I bought a digital camera before I went to Greece so I could take pictures on the trip. It was broken, and made a funny noise when it records videos as you can hear. I figured I would return it to get money for rent, however I toke it out to the bars and ended up smashing the LCD screen. The ironic part about this is that when i bought the camera Best Buy offered me a protection plan for like an extra 20 bucks, but I denied this because I thought to myself, NO WAY I'M BREAKING THIS CAMERA!

Annoying Canadian from dwesleymann on Vimeo.


Kari Singing from dwesleymann on Vimeo.

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