Milos - an Island on the Moon

A little sneak peek of some Milos action:

Milos Island in Greece feels like you can't possibly be on Earth.  Everything feels like another planet, the beaches there were so unlike anything I had ever seen!  Due to the fact that it was even moreso non-tourists season now, Milos was even more desolate than Santorini. There were no cruise stops here and the island was much smaller and felt even more private! Robby must have called ahead and rented out the entire island for us...what a guy!!! seriously though we felt like ballers even though once again our cute hotel only cost us $25 a night.

On this island we totally felt like explorers discovering new land, partially because we were all alone at every place we went, but also because every single beach on this island was entirely different than the other.  Every corner we turned it was like experiencing something totally different, which was so exciting!  We spent days hiking around and exploring the beaches and we got around in a red convertible jeep- one of my favorite cars ever and perfect for this setting!

Jeep commercial

The proper way to drive a convertible jeep on a deserted island

First beach we went to I thought was the most amazing beach I had ever seen...but I quickly found that I felt that way about all the next ones too! This one was incredible though.  The rock cliffs on the beach were red, peach, green, yellow and white colors- unlike anything I've seen!! We frolicked on the sand and jumped in the waters and explored this cave area that had natural hot springs in it!! Totally alone. Apparently during tourist season there's a restaurant that cooks all their food on volcanic rock!  This beach had areas of hot volcanic rock which is where the hot springs come from too. Amazing! We never wanted to leave.

The colors were amazing and the water was a clear green!

Little mermaid rock - has to be where it was filmed!

In the caves

It's a merman!

Freeeedom!

The next beach we hit, you had to climb down a cliff using a rope! Everything an adventure.  Once down, you were all alone in this beautiful cove with amazingly clear teal water and white sand.  Could've stayed here for days.

View from the top of the cliff

roping down!

Welcome To Inside the cove - the water was ridiculous!

Another beach had beautiful rock cliffs and greenish water.  The cliffs were a pink, red and white color and we hiked around and then watched the sunset from the cliff.

Apparently saving the best for last...this beach blew us away!!! It literally felt like you were walking on the moon.  The amazing blue water next to bright white cliffs and rocks is something we've never seen before.  The cliffs went on forever, we explored them for hours finding caves people used to live in and awesome little coves of water.  We even made a music video, ok maybe a few music videos.  Look for them on MTV or at least MTV2. We are putting all our eggs in the MTV basket for making money when we get home.

We landed on the moon!

One giant leap for mankind?

Sooo beautiful!

The color of the water up close!

No gravity!

Cute boy!

What is this place?!

Last stop was this super cute and tiny fishermans village.  It definitely was no tourist stop, people looked at us wondering what we were doing there, but we sat, read books and watched the sunset and just enjoyed the simple life with the fishermen and their cats.

We were so sad when it was time to go.  Greece has been my all around favorite of the trip.  From the cheap everything, amazing food and unique scenery and even ancient history you really can't beat it.  Milos is a world of it's own and I look forward to Robby and I purchasing the entire island one day soon when we make it big on MTV. We will invite you all to come stay with us from time to time. 

Part of our MTV audition tape:

Santorini Sunsets...with an Indian Man

Everyone knows that the Greek Island, Santorini, is known for their sunsets.  In the words of Ben Franklin "if you don't know, now you know!" Sunsets are one of Roberto's favorite things and so this was a paradise for him! It definitely lived up to it's reputation.  I would givestyle sunsets of Santorini a 10 out of 10 and a standing ovation.

Tourist season was basically over and the whole city begins to shut down.  This had some pros and cons.  The negative was that ferrys weren't running very often and lots of stores were closed which limited our options while on the island..but the pros totally outweighed the cons!  First of all it was much, much cheaper than usual...check out the view from our hotel room that we got for $25 a night!

Our bedroom window!

View from our balcony - daytime and sunset!

Another perk is that we basically had a whole island to ourselves! Beaches were pretty much empty. Roaming the streets we would see tourists every now and then, mainly due to cruise ships dropping herds off for a few hours during the day - but other than that we felt like we had rented a private island and had it all to ourselves. Very Brad and Angelina of us.

The first day there we hiked to the other side of the island which is probably only 4km away but lots of hills make it seem like much further.  Oia is known to have the best view for sunsets so we wanted to get there for that.  We were alone on the trail until a middle-aged Indian tourist caught up to us and walked with us the rest of the way.  We got there just in time to see the sunset over the beautiful city!  Just me, Robby, and this Indian guy soaking in the romantic scenery.   And it wasn't just the romantic sunset that we shared together...he wandered with us through the city of Oia for the rest of the night. No invitation necessary, Earwig (i think that was his name I can't remember!) was making himself comfortable.

Our hike on the way over 

Sun setting over the city Oia

The city lights up at night and looks so cool! Check out the moon!

The next day we checked out a beautiful red sand beach via an awesome scooter!  We drove the perimeter of the island on that baby and got at least 40 Miles to the gallon on that hog.  The beach was way on the other side - once there you have to hike in and then you see this beautiful blue water crashing into red sand, the colors were amazing! Unbenounced to us clothing was optional...so we got some surprises while walking along the shores.

After that we rode the hog all the way back to the other side of the island to Oia so we could see the sunset again.  And GUESS WHO we ran into?!? Oh yeah, Our man Earwig! Was he following us? Maybe.  But yet another sunset was enjoyed with him not too far away.  Luckily we snuck away to grab an awesome dinner at the most amazing restaurant we have ever been to with an Increible view.  Seriously the food there is probably the best meal either us have ever had.

More sunset!

Beautiful delicious nutritious 

No editing! All natural!

Earwig! He was easy to spot because he was wearing the exact same outfit he had on the day before 

Our ferry left that night at midnight for Milos, the next island on our agenda.  And the ride wouldn't have been complete without Earwig.  Yep, he rode the ferry with us although his stop was Athens and ours was Milos, we still got a solid four hours together on the ferry.  Robby and I found a comfortable sleeping spot under one of the stairways and as we were setting up shop Earwig comes in and decides to camp out right next to us.  Hahah he kept popping up out of nowhere and I have no idea why he was so attached to us, but the rest of our entire trip, even after we left Greece, we half expected to run into him.

Oh and in case you were still wondering, our love for gyros is still going strong and we did continue to have a gyro for every meal! (except that one in oia)

I just hope I'm able to love my future children this much. Without wanting to eat them.

Greece Me Up with a Gryo Please!

Greece has it all.  Well maybe not right now due to the financial crisis (which one of our hotel managers told us has caused 4,000 suicides in the last three years) which is really sad because it is an amazing country.  They are right there with Italy in that they have some of the most ancient history right in your face which is so interesting to see and learn about, but then they have an amazing coastline with the most incredible and out of this world islands that you could ever imagine, and then to top it off they have the best food ever!! Literally within the first 48 hours of being in Greece Robby and I had consumed five gyros....each.  Breakfast lunch and dinner? We had to get em while we could and besides that they were cheap! The best thing that 2.5 Euros could ever buy!

Our flight from Rome was uneventful meaning that we didn't almost miss it like virtually every other flight we've had.  But it was pretty cool because sitting on our flight was another young couple from New York we had met in Venice the week prior!!  Traveling like this really does make the world seem small...we met them in Venice, then ended up staying in the same campsite as them outside of Venice that night and found out that they we're leaving for Florence the next day just like us. Apparently the whole rest of their trip had the same agenda as ours taking them through Italy and then to Greece.  Even after seeing them on the plane we ran into them the next day roaming around Athens! Could Athens really be that small?? Or should we have taken it as a hint that we were supposed to be couple-best-friends with them and maybe move into a duplex together half way between California and new York? I guess now we will never know....unless we run into them in Turkey in which case I will buy friendship bracelets for all of us right then and there!

Anyway...Athens...was awesome.  My expectations were low due to many people telling me it was dirty, boring, not worth much time. Maybe I loved it because it best my expectations but I thought it was really clean (at least the parts that I saw which may not have been much) definjrelt the nicest metro system i have ever seen- they even had artifacts and museum type stuff in the metro station!  The while city that i saw was cute with lots of cool shops, restaurants, etc. and had some awesome history that I think is underrated!  How come everyone raves on Italy but you don't hear much about the Acropolis or the Agora in greece? Italy is soo cool and there's probably a lot more visible history there, but the ancient parts of Greece date so far back! We saw a temple in the Agora looking extremely well in tact that dated back to 450 BC! It blew my mind. So I'll just get right to Day 2 in Athens when we explored the Acropolis and the Agora because day #1 was only a half day and consisted of us trying to figure out how to get to our hotel using maps only in Greek, and then upon finding our cute hotel figuring out where the nearest Gyro shop was.  Mission accomplished and we found the most amazing gyro stop around the corner from our hotel which we nicknamed fondly "Old Faithful" because we never were able to go anywhere else once we found this spot, it kept reeling us in!

Old faithful gyros.  This is becoming more of a food blog isn't it

This entire trip we've had incredibly lucky weather. It's supposed to be rainy season but it hadn't really rained at all allowing us to enjoy some discounted hostel rates without having to be drenched for it.  But Day 2 in Athens it poured!! But don't worry our luck quickly returned because while we hung out at the gyro place to stay out of the rain (a great excuse to go In and eat more gyros) the sun came out and we were able to do The Acropolis!  In my own words, which are probably extremely elementary to what should really be used to explain this place - the Acropolis is this area on a hill where ancient Greeks built temples to worship their gods back in the BC times.  It was also a place where a lot of political actions and decisions were made. 

On top of the acropolis 

The Parthenon - so old - built in 450 BC!!! and still (partially) standing!

They also have a couple outdoor theaters, one that has been renovated and is still used for plays and performances, and another theater that is much older and looks it.  The older one is the actual theater where ancient Greeks would go watch the comedies and tragedies on stage that were conceived there! How cool is that - "The Odyssey" for the first time ever in stage?! I couldn't get over it.  Being able to sit and walk where I know that people gathered over 2,000 years ago is so cool to me.  I loved seeing the old temples, but maybe it's the social person in me, but I loooove knowing that this was where people came to be entertained, everyone- not just political leaders or kings or the extremely wealthy, but people like me came to hang out.  So cool.  You could still see the stones that were chiseled to be chairs and you could tell where the highly esteemed people would sit by the bigger, nicer chairs versus the benches.

The old theater dating back to BC times!

Oh ya know Just enjoying the theater

In the acropolis - another old important building.  They think some of them had giant statues of the gods in them for people to come and worship. Luckily that rain cloud was going, not coming 

The Agora is below the Acropolis.  Agora means "gathering place" or "downtown" which is exactly what it was thousands of years ago.  It was "downtown" Ancient Greece where the markets and hustle and bustle was. Not a ton remains in tact but there is a very well preserved temple, some columns, and other pieces of rocks and statues that are sort of the skeletal remains of the place.  It was crazy to see it and think that this is where Socrates hung out philosophizing.  I wish for two seconds I could see a snapshot of what had been going on exactly 2,500 years ago in the very place I stood! We also climbed on these nearby rocks where Paul taught the Corinthians!

This is the rock where Paul was...it's pretty huge but you can't see it all. Behind us s the acropolis!

Standing on the rock - directly below is where the Agora was 

Unfortunately most everything closed by 5 so we didn't have as much time to explore as we wanted.  After that We went to one of the main shopping and entertainment areas called Syntagma Square and discovered some rad clothing stores that we wished we had in the US.  Either that or I wish my bag was a lot bigger so I could've bought an entire new wardrobe!  Good thing it wasn't  ;)

The next morning-probably the earliest morning we've seen on this trip-we made our way to the ferry port to take a ferry to the island of Santarini.  The island famous for their beautiful sunsets!! We were sad to leave Athens so soon and our beloved "Old Faithful."