Travelblog 1: The Greek cyclades

Dear blog readers,

If you read my first post since ages, then you will definitely know that I have been travelling a lot. Instead of starting with the first (model)trip, to Istanbul, I will start with my last trip at the end of May, to the Cyclades, Greece. Just because maybe some reader will go there on summer holiday and do not really know what to do on which island or maybe they do not even know yet to which island they want to go. That is what my boyfriend and I were wondering in the first place before we booked nothing else then a plane ticket to Santorini, one of the most famous Greek islands. In total we have been to five islands in ten days. We wanted to see many different islands in actually a very short time frame. That was the main reason why we did research on the internet for things to do on different islands. Over here I will give you a (hopefully) fun overview of where we went, why we went there and what we did. 

Instead of flying to Athens and go by boat to the Cylcades, we flew to Santorini from Amsterdam. This was the cheapest and fastest option. Next to that we saved time by not going on a boat immediately. We booked a retourticket and all our boattickets we looked up on go-ferry.com where you can see which transfer is cheapest and then we went to the right boat company's website to buy the ticket there. We collected tall tickets in Santorini, Fira at an boat ticket office for all companies. Once we arrived on Santorini we found out that we should have asked the first hotel we stayed in to shuttle us from the airport to the hotel, because taxi's from the airport are quite expensive. Nevertheless it all went well and we got to Kamari really quick. Kamari is a wonderfull place, we immediately fell in love with. The boulevard has many great restaurants and if you pass by all of them a bit too early for dinner, they sometimes make you an offer like free wine. Since we planned to stay here one full day we arranged on the day of arrival to do a boat & hot springs & volcano/Kameni tour in one with a guide the next day. That has been a good choice! We loved Kamari because this place is not as busy/touristic as Fira and Oia, but the atmosphere is amazing and relaxed to start off your holiday and cheap local busses to Fira continuing to Oia will go from here too. That is what we did after the boat tour day, we went to Oia. This is probably the most famous village on Santorini with the picturesque white little houses on an hill. We had a wonderful sea view during dinner. After all we also wanted to see ancient Fira, but we snoozed for too long... In any case we would have had enough time to explore Santorini since we booked a stay in Fira before we went home on day ten. We stayed 54 hours on Santorini, Kamari & Oia which was more than enough for that moment. 

On day three we went to Naxos, the biggest island of the Cyclades. Most of our boattransfers took approximately 2 hours. Most of the hotels we booked were close to the haven to save time and also practically with our hand luggage and sunny weather we were happy we did. Naxos has an amazing coastline, not only because the wild water and wind (see pictures), but also because the long busy boulevard where everyone relaxes after a day of work. This island did not seem touristic at all to us. Only at the Portára, the not finished temple of Apollo, you saw some tourists, but that was mostly it. We also went to the archeological museum, which was pretty hard to find because there were many small streets that form a labyrint. A nice and cheap museum though with lots of pottery, from before Christ. Naxos has wonderful beaches too, so we chose one of the prettiest according to our host, Plaka beach, which you should definitely go to. We stayed 29,5 hours on Naxos, which could be more if you want to go inland or see more beaches.  

Next stop for day number five was Koufounisia, one of the Small Cyclades. This was the most expensive boattransfer for only a short time on the island. But mennn, this was absolutely beautiful and worth it. Such a tiny island, whith lovely and chilled people. We could have rent bikes to go around the island in one day. But we decided to go by foot, staying close to the seashore all time and finding hidden paradises/private beaches. I think we walked one thirth of the coast, where we saw Piscine which is a natural pool and also many beautiful private beaches. The most beautiful ones we have seen during this holiday (see pictures). The water was super clear. We stayed 13 hours on Koufonisia, which could have been a bit more to see the whole island by bike for example. There is not much more to do than relax.  

Actually the same day as we arrived on Koufonisia, we also went by boat to Paros, Naoussa. This island I remember because of it's cute white haven and old fort (see pictures). On this island are many clothing shops, even a very nice outlet called VENTO. There is also a white church in the middle that might be worth visiting (see picture)… It was closed when we passed by. Firstly, we wanted to plan a canoe tour, but after all we rent kayaks on Chrisi Akti beach, where you could also rent windsurf sets, SUP's and more. We stayed 44,5 hours on Paros, which was perfect. 

Day 7 we arrived on Ios. We chose for Ios instead of Myokonos. Both are party islands, but Ios is less known by tourists and this made our night out so so good. Partying starts late though. We walked up into the village around 11.30 PM but we sat on a typical Greek terrasse under leave trees with live music until 2 AM I guess. Luckily all clubs are close together and the party season just started. In the end we stayed all night long in the silenct disco where we met new friends from Brazil and other places. The day after we walked, with 30 degrees Celsius and a severe hangover, to an amphitheatre mentioned on the internet. We thought it would be a historical one, but in fact it had the same age as me, hahaha anticlimax. The view was amazing though (see picture) and it was worth suffering for. On our last morning here we got on a snorkeling excursion to three locations: a ship wreck, private beach and caves. This was awesome, and I would definitely recommend this to anyone. We stayed 48,5 hours on Ios, which was perfect for us as well. 

One day before the last we arrived back on Santorini again. This time we slept in Fira, the central village of Santorini. We wanted to do some wine tasting with dinner, but we did not really find an option for this. Although there should have been a good one inland. Nevertheless we chose a restaurant with sea view again and had our last great Greek plate for dinner. We stayed 30 hours again on Santorini, Fira, which was enough time for Santorini in total. 

Mmm I planned on making a shorter blog, but I guess I am still too excited about this holiday destination. It was a vacation with lots to see, to do and to eat. But also a great one to relax from the busy city lives and get tanned on lonely places. See you on the next!

ps. Without a doubt, Greek food is amaaaazing!

@kvanantwerpen for more pics

THE LIFE

Hello beautiful readers,

How many Fringe bikini’s did you see this summer?! If you don’t include the Facebook advertisings haha.

I hope you all have/had a wonderful vacation and got a beautiful tan.

Well I had! Now I’m already home for more than two weeks.

This post will be about (little) things that makes you happy:

Flowers, smiling people, start saying yes, spontaneous actions, the sun, the shimmering in the water

I will tell something about my vacation as well, because I can’t let it.

First I really need to share these beautiful pics I found. 

Right above is a garden in the Japanese city Kitakyushu. Right beneath are cherry blossoms along Meguro River, Nakameguro, Tokyo. Mother nature is beautiful <3

I planned a surf holiday in Zarautz. It’s half an hour from San Sebastian, which is the surf capital of Spain. After a 17 hour bus ride with stinky Belgium guys behind us we arrived at the Surfblend camp. HOT the weather was!

Three nights out, visiting San Sebastian and Bilbao, having a nice bicyle ride, three days surf lessons and lots of walking and great food during the week. Walking on slippers as well, ouchh from the beginning.

You can really have a good night out in Zarautz, 0,5l cocktails for 5 euro and a beer for 1 euro! Also the lights on the boulevard are beautiful by night.

Bilbao wasn’t that special, it’s the capital of Basque country, but it was National First Vacation Day or someting so all shops were closed and there isn’t that much history about the city we found. Ofcourse you need to eat some tapas and chocolate churros in Spain as well, really delicious!

Such a great experience. It was my first time on a surfplank, but it wasn’t as difficult as I thought. First time standing on it, such a great feeling J

Oh and a tip : do not smear yourself with sun oil before..  Only if you need more challenge.

The sun makes us feel so happy and what I can really enjoy is the shimmering in the sea. Can look at it for hours. After the shimmering there was another little village called Getaria, we went there by bike. You can rent bicycles in Zarautz for 12 euros for 4 hours. Getaria is a really nice and small village. What we noticed first was the smell of fish. Fish was freshly grilled outside the restaurant.

Well I came home on 28th of June, Sunday.

Yeah and now a good story. Monday I texted a good friend to ask if he still wanted to go on cycling holiday with me. I didn’t really mind that I was exhausted, but I really was. He still wanted to! Saying YES on more questions can be something which will change your life. Watch the movie Yes Man for more information. So mondayevening we booked our boottickets and hotel near Londen in a place called Ilford.

Well I’ve been on cycling holiday before from Rotterdam to Paris to London back to Rotterdam again. But this one was anything but prepared haha. Tuesday evening we went on our bikes through storm and heavy rain to Hook of Holland, 10 minutes left to check in. Yes we stressed out on our way.

But we made it and that is all that counts.

People tell me I’m insane, but believe me everyone can do this. Just don’t think and do! If you go for it and through everything you make it, well that feeling is just addicting. Wednesday we went from Harwich to London. 6 and an half hour on a bike, google maps said… But with the wind in front, biking through (little) villages as Colchester, Braintree and Chelmsford we were on our bikes for 12 hours! 135 km in total. The most kilometres I ever made on one day! Insane I do agree. I was thinking: why the hell am I doing this!? The last 15 kilometres every minute. My Achilles tendons hurt really bad and I was changing my ass’position every 5 minutes to feel a bit comfortable, which didn’t help at all ofcourse. Sometimes we needed to ask the right direction because we didn’t had a map or something, and a funny fact is that (English) people constantly tell you that it’s a long long way from where we were at that moment, but they are very friendly and helpful.

My body was really broken, after that week Spain and I had a cold as well. But I kept telling myself: if your body tells you to stop, your mind is only half way left. You can make it as far as you want. However it was hard. But when you’re about to quit, remember why you started. And pain is nothing compared to what it feels like to quit.

But we survived and after having a not so nice dinner we noticed we only could have a cold shower, brrrrr. Little note: I went to sleep with the song: you gonna keep your head up!!!!

Ilford is a overdue city, not very special.

Thursday, first LONDON DAYYYY! Seen so much and walked our leggs off:

London eye, Tower of London, Tower bridge, Big Ben, House of Parliaments, Oxford street, Leicester square, Trafalgar square, Piccadilly circus, Buckingham palace, Hamleys, The shard, City hall, Victoria Station, Knightsbridge, Harrods (big big department store where I bought some bonbons and tea for 10 pounds, where we touched new fake snow, where I saw the most beautiful dresses from top designers and where I hold an incredible realistic baby born) and Westminster Abbey. So just in case you wanna visit London, these are must-sees haha.

Friday, last day LONDON! Not as hot as the day before. Little children playing in the water at the courtyard of the Victoria and Albert museum, really made me smile. Also the squirrels in High Park who ate walnuts out of my hand were cute. This day we planned to see the rest: Saint Pauls cathedral, Milennium bridge, London Bridge Experience where I got hurt by a chainsaw. LBE is number one’s scariest attraction in London, well it was! Mennnnn.. Borough Market, The Monument, Southwark cathedral, Kings Cross, Kensington Gardens are must-sees too and at the Leadenhall market you can have a great dinner a friend of mine told me and you can!

After cramming our stuff into our panniers again we made up for our trip back to Harwich on Saturday. Well we did this in 6 hours, 3 hours too early to check in. Better too early than too late right. Wind in the back helped a lot and we drove on the left side of the A12 highway… This highway is one straight line from Harwich to London. Scary it was sometimes! Especially honking drivers.

Lovely hot shower on the Stenaline boat and it has tasty muffins as well. Yeahhh my addiction for muffins, ice creams, mcflurrys, stroopwafels and tea got fulfilled this summer.

I also went to Loveland with my boyfriend and great people. On techno partys as these I really feel the love. When you smile to someone, he/she will smile back. Happiness inside you’ll feel J

I hope we get the opportunity to enjoy the sun once again on the beach ! Ofcourse everyone wants to be called ‘tanned’ at school, work and university when normal life gets started again.

Lots of love ,

XOXOX Kirsten