Sifnos

After Santorini, I traveled semi-alone for the first time. Tally (one of my best friends from Chatham Hall) was staying a few hotels over, but due to my lack of computer it wasn't always easy to get in touch. However, during these few days in Athens I met a slew of very interesting people and I'd be super interested in traveling alone(ish) again in the future. When I did meet up with Tally, we had a great time catching up and hanging out with her study abroad group.

I became extremely familiar with Athens because I was there for so long, and one day I decided I was familiar enough with the area to go on a run. I asked the Russian bartender who I befriended if the National Gardens would be a good place to go on a run. She explained that the gardens were nice, but ALL the Greek people go to the Olympic Stadium to jog. Apparently, it was illegal, but everyone did it and there was a place where you could sneak in. So, the next day I jogged to the place on the map where there was supposed to be a secret entrance into the stadium. After five minutes of just staring at a fence and hoping for an opening to appear I decided I would try to just fit through the bars. It was a tight squeeze, but I somehow made it to the outskirts of the Stadium. The fence hole was so tiny that I was certain that 1. either no one would be in the Stadium and I would get tased or 2. everyone who ran at the stadium would be a smallish woman. Neither of these certainties turned out to be the case. The track was filled with people, almost half of which were giant Greek men. I reasoned that there must be another entrance, but I couldn't find it, so I ended up exiting through the fence once again which I'm sure was very confusing for all onlookers.

Isabelle (our other best friend from boarding school) met up with us in Athens the day before Isabelle and I went to Sifnos. Sifnos, like Santorini, is a Cyclades island with classic blue and white houses and beautiful views. We arrived in Sifnos around 9pm, and since it is not a big tourist destination, it was completely dark. We thought there might be something like a mountain on one side, but it was almost impossible to tell. We were also a bit disoriented because 1. we didn't know what side of the island we were on or 2. what side of the island our hotel was on or 3. the name of our hotel. We were kind of freaking out due to our less than good planning, but luckily there was a tourist office right next to the port with WiFi and we were just a 5 minute walk from our hotel. I was super happy that I had accidentally chosen the port village as our destination.

Our hotel was SUPER nice and we were surrounded by the elderly and honeymooning couples (so we fit in perfectly). When we saw the island in daylight, we were pretty taken aback by its beauty. We were situated on the ocean between two mountains and there were a lot of farmland and animals all around. Sifnos was surprisingly not touristy at all and that made it all the better. While we were there, went on a two hour hike up to a monastery on the mountain, explored around and became regulars at a bar on the beach. The first time we went to the bar, we ordered frozen daiquiris. Isabelle's was notably stronger than mine, so when the flamboyant bartender came to ask how we liked them, I jokingly pointed out the difference between the two drinks. He responded: "Yes, that's because I made hers stronger!" I guess I gave him a pretty confused/irritated look, because then he said: "I bring you another drink on the house, and this time you won't complain." This sparked a beautiful friendship that consisted of us more or less living at his bar and him giving us a ridiculous number of free drinks. As we were pretty much the only customers, I'm not sure how this bar wasn't going bankrupt, but I didn't ask questions.

Good view of Kamares

Another good view from the other side

On top of the monastery 

Sunset at our favorite (perhaps only?) bar on the island

Anyway, Sifnos was great and I'll be happy if my actual honeymoon manages to be even half as romantic. Isabelle and I parted ways when we got back to Athens, as she had to catch a plane back to Prague at 4am and my flight to Paris wasn't until 11am. We arrived at the port a bit after midnight, which meant we had no other choice but to take a taxi, a fact that the taxi drivers loved to yell at you every five seconds once you got off the ferry. I ultimately gave in after trying to find a bus to the center of the city that was still running and got in a taxi with a very large, very Greek cabdriver. He didn't speak English at all, but he still thought that everything I said was just hilarious.

Me: I'm staying at the Backpacker's hostel
Him: *laughs*
Me: So.. you know where that is?
Him: *laughs even louder*
Me: Okay.. well here's the address just in case

I'm not sure what would have happened if I didn't have the hostel's card on me. The cabby continued to laugh at all my hysterical jokes throughout the drive, and at some point picked up something wrapped in aluminum that was on the console and started waving it in front of my face. I had no idea how to handle this social interaction so I just started laughing SUPER loudly, hoping that it was a joke and that it would stop immediately. But it didn't. He started waving the foil even more adamantly until I finally took it from him. He seemed pleased and urged me to open it. I'm not sure what I thought it could have been, but I was extremely relieved when I realized it was cake. It was then very clear that he wanted me to eat this gigantic piece of cake and he started singing what I'm 95% sure was a broken English rendition of Happy Birthday. Still full from the huge dinner we had on the island and moderately nauseated from the ferry ride, the last thing I wanted to do was eat this cake, but I ate half of it out of politeness (and fear that he would kick me out of the taxi if I refused his cake gift). He then started repeating over and over what seemed like the only three words he knew in English: "You, me, bar?" I declined as tactfully as I could and luckily he still took me to my hostel and didn't abandon me on the side of the road (though he did stop laughing at every word that came out of my mouth.) I will now forever be skeptical when a man laughs at my jokes.