Marius & Gina (+Tascha)

Aha! We took a small ride in Barcelona, visiting our dear friend Claudiu and his girl Alona who live in a very nice flat near park Guell on a small street where there is room only for one car to pass.

The idea was to spend New Year in the city and then head south to Gibraltar to see the monkeys and come back. Tascha never saw a monkey, so it was a good trip for her.

But bad planning prevented us from reaching the goal (we had to make 2400 km in under 2 days) and we only managed to reach Valencia despite Gina's optimism and hope (there is no God!).
Valencia is a nice city which looks very much like London in the center and like Sydney in the port. That was our impression. Because there was no time to actually go to Gibraltar, we planned to spend the night there and go back to Barcelona the next day, and we looked for a hotel which allowed pets for almost 3 hours... BUT with no success. So, we just decided to return the same night and make the holiday about more of Barcelona.

Ramblas, the Wax Museum, the Aquarium did a great job in making us fall in love one more time .

Thank you Clau and Alona !!!

Happy New Year !!!

here is what we did, maybe you get some travel ideas from here.

Day 1

We went to the Black Beach (also known as Perivolos beach) where the sand is actually a huge mix of very small black volcanic stones and some white ones. Thus the appearance of a black sand. Also had lunch there for about 60 euros (greek-cooked seafood is highly recommended everywhere across Greece by the way). Discovered a new deadly combination: tzatziki (goat youghurt with cucumbers and garlic) with french fries.

Later in the evening we went to visit Oia, the north-most city of the island. Nice cozy place to catch the sunset and take pictures with the Caldera view and the other cities as they get their lights on in the evening. Also had a blast with some incredible cakes in the center.

Day 2

We spent most of the day in the hotel pool and at the terrace enjoying the sun and the view. Around 4PM we walked to the center of Fira city, and after having lunch we started descending about 500m altitude to sea level (around 1.5km of stairs), exactly in the path of the donkeys. They use donkeys as a traditional alternative to going up/down with telecabins. They're slow, nevrotic, powerful and most importantly - fun. Do not miss climbing on a donkey. We did that last time and it was SO nice.
This time, we walked the distance, somehow stepping in donkey shit and surrounded by its smell. "shit therapy" as we called it. Fun though, but kinda scary (Gina was always getting Tascha in her arms and hide whenever donkeys approached us.


Reached the port, where we realized that all Volcano trip ships finished their program for the day and got a bit pissed. BUT, we found a cool greek guy having a 6 persons boat who said he'll take us to the volcano center for 25 euro / each (also saving the 2 euro entrance pass as the program finished there too). Got embarked on the small boat, and discovered that it's actually worth every penny to go like this compared to the big boats with many tourists. There were just the 5 of us and the boatmen, had a blast with showers (small boat - very sensitive to waves from other boats) and made it there.

Catched the sunset exactly on the volcano, only with us there. Brilliant ! There's not much vegetation growing there, as there is only black/red stone and a lot of dust. Call it "the moon" or "Mars" if you want, this is what you get.

Ended the day with a night walk in Fira. Streets are totally quiet as Santorini is mostly a lovers / relaxation / photographer-heaven type of island.

Day 3

Headed in the morning to the Red Beach. There is a mountain with red stone that's falling into the sea so all the "sand" is made of tiny fragments of this massive rock. Crystal-clear water, plenty of fish (snorkeling is a must here), all sort of underwater relief forms (rifts, hills, stones, holes, etc) and one of the most salty water we've seen/tasted ever

Then, visited the ancient city of Akrotiri (southern area of the island) and took some great pictures of Fira, Oia and the whole crater. Also did a bit of offroading towards another small beach very well hidden in the mountains. There is one beach we didn't visit : the white beach (only accessible by boat). There was simply not enough time.

Day 4 (today)
We're getting ready to go to the harbor.
We want to reach Athens while there is still light, but it seems that speedboats (4 hours trip to Athens) need 1 month in advance to buy tickets on economy class. They have VIP tickets for ~100 euros, but ....

Well.. this is how this trip to santorini ends.
Only sorrow, is that we didn't get a camera to worth the views.
Next time perhaps..

As you've probably seen already, "travel" is one of the big words in our tagcloud This time we've teamed up with Marius & Andreea and went by car to Greece. 3 main reasons : It's close, it's nice, and we know our way around there already.

First stop in Greece: Sidirokastro
A small, non-touristict village right after the Greek border at Promachonas, where we always stop in order to get a glimpse of Greek life (the true one, and not the one shown in tourist resorts). People don't know English, and in general it's quite tough to order some food under these conditions, but the experience is very nice and authentic. This time was impossible, as all Sidirokastro inhabitants were at .. church. It was Sunday morning Anyway, we managed to eat some appetizers, and off we went towards Serres, and then to Thessaloniki.

First days spent at: City of East Olympos / Platamonas.
Right in the middle of the road from Thessaloniki and Larissa, there is an incredible sight: mountain on the right, houses built on the mountain in perfect balance with the nature, then a nice big castle on the left and the Aegean Sea. These guys have it all: landmark, mountain (Olympus!!), beach, tourist resorts (Panteleimon and Platamonas), etc.
Found a great hotel right on the beach (40euro / 4 persons), with incredible view over the Aegean with a nice, cozy room.
Spent there from Sunday to Tuesday noon, mostly sleeping on the balcony, bathing in the sea and doing what tourists do: spend money on ... not much

Then starts the adventure: reaching Santorini
Left the nice City of East Olympos behind, passed Larissa, Volos, reached Athens at around 7PM and moved directly to Pireas harbor. First thing: looked for a boat trip to Santorini (our desired destination) and got extremely lucky : there was a boat leaving at 10PM. a SLOW boat. VERY slow, we'd say.
Fine! Got some food right there and parked the car in Piraeus underground parking (god damn machine costs 200 euro to transport to Santorini and then back)
The lady at the desk said "I recommend econonmy tickets" (25 eur/person), and we did. What she didn't mention is that we would have to sleep OUTSIDE and ON the boat whole 12 hours of this ride to Santorini. Lucky it wasn't too cold, but we slept tried to sleep on a ... refrigerator
Anyway, as the morning came, we forgot about sleeping and took tonz of pictures while passing Paros, Naxos and Ios islands. Got some spirits back

10AM - entering the Thira / Santorini island.

There are not many words to explain this, but try to imagine why Greeks call this their most beautiful island (out of about 200). Used to be a big island. Volcano turned it into 3 islands with a HUGE whole/crater (now full of sea water) and then gave something back after 150 years (another eruption made a small island in the middle. Cities are located 400 - 500 m above sea level, on the crater's edges and are made only with white houses. If you can't imagine... check out the pictures (Priceless)

Maybe you didn't know but a nice guy aka Florin Grozea from HiQ, managed to make possible the launching of the first website with free Romanian music. DND I'm already there checking out stuff...