Greece... again_

So I have said it once before.. and I am not afraid to say it again... ahhh Crete... wonderful, sunny, beautiful, naked, gorgeous, amazing, hot, thought-provoking, incredible, inspiring, relaxing, peaceful, spiritual, addictive Crete... I think I love you. Except this time, I can add mainland Greece to the equation too - the naked bit in particular!

I had initially planned to be in Greece for my birthday, but instead decided to spend it with new friends in Novi Sad after my trip to Bosnia, and then make my way down to Greece thunderstorm dodging via Macedonia, after a week or so chilling out and enjoying being 30. Turned out to be a great decision... I had an awesome time partying, and then got away for a couple of weeks of what was intended to be lovely, sun-soaked relaxation...

Hmmm, things didn't quite work out that way!! Certainly it was sun-soaked... but I think I soaked in booze the whole time too!! From Serbia I rode to Nea Anchilios to visit my friend and hotel owner Vasillis for a day or two, after which I planned to head south and ferry across to Crete, with the bike this time. As I arrived at the hotel though, I met a group of super cool guys and girls from all over who were all studying in Germany together and were visiting Greece for a long weekend. I ended up staying a couple of days extra, and we all hung out for the whole weekend, drinking and playing volleyball on the beach and just generally having fun. The first night we were there, after having known these people for only a couple of hours, we even ended up in the Aegean butt-naked after a dare resulted in all 15 of us skinny dipping spontaneously!! Fun times! Somehow I managed to get away with the whole weekend without taking a single photo... possibly a good thing!!

A couple of days, many drinking games, hugs, handshakes and Facebook details swapping later, I was back on the road southbound toward Athens, and the overnight ferry to Crete. I never look forward to the overnight ferry, it's always such a hassle with the bike, and dragging all my stuff up on deck, and then the effort to sleep on the floor.. and this trip was no better!! It was however, well and truly sweetened by the fact that I arrived in Crete at around 5:30am, and was able to ride to Plakias as the sun was coming up. A glorious 90 minute ride with no traffic, and no worries! It was awesome to arrive at the hostel and be welcomed by Chris, and the obligatory shot of Raki... at 7am... ouch! It turned out to be a good start though, as there would be many more after this one...

 

My last time in Plakias was spent sleeping, chilling at One Rock beach, eating gyros, or drinking at Joe's as always... this time was no different, aside from the fact I had to do it keeping up with Sky - the crazy new Egg Princess, and Isabelle, Hillary, Eve, Becky, Holly, Delilah, Kel, the Marshall lads, J and Eddie to mention just a few of the crazy crew I spent my "relaxing" time with... so there was much less of the first three, and much MUCH more of the drinking at Joe's (or anywhere we found ourselves really) component... happily though, it was good good times. And don't worry, there was still enough chilling at One Rock done...

 

Sky and I even threw together The Amazing Race Plakias 2011 (TARP 2011) as a bit of fun... We had awesome fun putting it all together over the couple of days we had, and then the day itself turned out to be a cracker! From Raki laps at pool bar, to climbing the steps to Wolf's, and beach volleyball to a box of mystery (I dare you...).. we had it all... and the event lasted something like 14 hours from when it started at 1pm, til it finished sometime in the wee hours after 3am... of course with an obligatory meal stop at Nikko's where we were looked after like royalty (but I think behaved like... well, travellers!!)... I'll let the photos tell a bit more of the story...

 

One of the favourite activities was the Bomb and Bob.. Apple Bombs (sit down, lean back, open mouth, have 'friend' pour measure of vodka in mouth, fill with apple juice, top with whipped cream and cinnamon, close mouth and swirl - as demonstrated below by the lovely Izzzzzzy), followed by good old school-fete style Apple Bobbing...

 

The apple bobbing champions... scuba divers of course, used to having their heads under water!!

 

And dinner at Nikko's...

 

Followed soon after by award presentations and celebrations at Joe's where we also held an Air Band competition to top off the day's point winning activities... thankfully there's no photos I can find of that!

 

After a couple of days to recover, I was back on the bike, and the ferry back to Vasillis' hotel where I left my bike half way through my epic journey to get to Sweden for Midsummer festivities!!