Tuesday, June 15, 2010

Ios to Santorini

Ios
I took off for Ios with Ben and Gavin (the two Aussies I met up with at Paradise Beach) about a week ago. Ios is a pretty small island but even given its size it is barely inhabited. Based on what I saw of the rest of the island while I ran one day it is nicely summarized as a barren, goat dotted landscape. We are pretty sure the town exists for the purpose of partying and this was illustrated by the fact that our hostel didn't even consider starting to serve breakfast until 10:30 am and this ran until the music started up again at 1pm. Ios lived up to our expectations for cheap and we stayed for an extra day or two.

A view of Ios

While in Ios I met two girls from Quebec City (Jess and Emma) and they were heading to Santorini the the same time as the Aussies and I. It turned out that us Canadians were able to book into the Pension Rousso together and so I will stay with them in Santorini.


Santorini
Luckily I chose to take the slow ferry to Santorini so that i could go out onto the deck and watch as we came into port. The view of Santorini from the water was stunning. The port is located at the base of what has to be a 500 ft cliff. The various towns are mostly located on the top of the cliffs, overlooking a volcano and the sunset.

Once on the island I was picked up by Mr. Rousso's cousin and driven up the sketchy cliff to the pension. Since we all booked into the same place, and are now a group of five, we were able to easily coordinate a rental car for 6 euro each. We kept the Kia for one day and used it to visit several beaches, one with black sand and the other with red sand, as well as a light-house on the far end of the island.

On our second to last day in Santorini we went out to Oia which is a very famous town to watch the sunset from. Although there were clouds on the horizon the sunset was still great. There was even a newly married couple taking photos right beside us.


Jess, Emma, and I on my first night in Santorini

Gavin, Ben, Jess, Emma, and I by the lighthouse

Athens
The Greek islands were amazing. I'm sitting in my hostel in Athens right now and I am about to go get packed up to head to the airport. I fly into Milan tonight to meet a few friends from Ivey.





Monday, June 7, 2010

Greece

Athens
I arrived in Athens on May 28th with several days worth of work to do. I took on two consulting projects and I am going to be completing those in the next couple days. Athens is a huge city with lots of cool ruins but once you have seen a couple sites they start to seem very similar. On the whole I didn't do a whole lot in Athens. For the most part I did my consulting work at the hostel and hung out with some of the people I met. One person (named Elissa) is working for a travel book publication and her summer job consists of hanging out in Greece and updating the guide book - not to shabby if you ask me.

One of the best memories from Athens was when two others from the hostel and I went to the grocery store and bought a bunch of food to take up to a church on the highest point in Athens. We sat there with our bottle of wine and enjoyed the view for a couple hours.

The Parthenon in Athens, Greece

The View from the dinner lookout


Mykonos
I left Greece after finishing the bulk of my work and headed to the first of the three islands that I plan on visiting. The first day at Mykonos consisted of lying on a beach and by the third day it was pouring rain. The thunder storm was one of the biggest I have ever experienced (although there was no fork lightning) and some of the thunder's actually shook the room I am staying in as if it was an earthquake.

I met-up with an Aussie who I previously met in Istanbul the day after the storm. He is with a friend of his, Ben, and we have spend the past couple days drinking beer on the beach and have had one late night out at the local club. The night club here is only open on certain days when DJ's come to town but the music was fantastic and Gavin and I (The Aussie) ended up swimming in the night club's pool before we left.

Yesterday we lay on the beach and did very little. It has been nice to just relax on a beach. I am heading to Ios in a couple hours with the two Aussies and we are going to stay at another beach resport/hostel on that island. Mykonos has been pretty expensive and it seems like Far Out Camping on Ios will be cheaper; fingers crossed.

Paradise Beach, Mykonos


Sunday, June 6, 2010

Turkey - From Istanbul to Izmir/Cesme/Ephesus

Istanbul
So I am going to try and do Turkey in one go; that way I will start to get a little caught up on my blog posts (my bad).

After leader I flew into Istanbul. I had never been to a Muslim country and, just as Russia was a new experience, Muslim countries are another world entirely. Everything from the sunrise prayer call to the [a little off topic but just as I was writing this sentence a guy I met in Athens who is serving in Afghanistan with the Canadian reserves just walked by my table out of the blue...small world] in-your-face style of street vending was a new experience. I met up with Jimmy (the one who I went to Russia with initially) and several other LEADER project instructors in Istanbul and most of us were staying at the same hostel. In fact, almost all of us were staying in the 30 person cave that the hostel calls a room.

We were staying right by the Blue Mosque and seeing this massive building lit up at night was incredible. All the pillars were lit up and seagulls were constantly circling the structure even into the wee hours of the morning. Other sights of note in Istanbul include Asia (this is one of the points where you can cross a bridge from Europe into Asia), the Grand Bazaar, and the Spice Bazaar.

Of particular interest to me was the Spice Bazaar. This market was incredible. There were all kinds of spices piled up high and many other raw ingredient's and fresh tea's. Unfortunately I don't have any pictures from the market yet because I still have to collect them from one of my friends. Stay tuned for them though.

Blue Mosque, Istanbul

Cesme
Syed and I decided that we had exhausted all that Istanbul had to offer and we flew down to Izmir where we hopped onto a mini-bus for the hour long ride to the beach town of Cesme. Unfortunately I haven't gotten many photo's from Syed (my camera has been lost at this point since Moscow...did I forget to mention that?) but they are on the way. Anyways...the beach was amazing. Just out from this sandy paradise was a rocky outcropping which had naturally heated hot springs flowing into it. We sat among the rocks with local fisherman for a solid 45 minutes just enjoying the hot-tub like water.

After enjoying the beach for a day we decided to ditch the sun a little bit and absorb some culture instead. We headed to an old city called Ephesus.

Ephesus
This old city was Greek in origin (I believe) but has been controlled by Greece (obviously), Rome, Persia, and even fell under the rule of Cleopatra and Egypt at one point. There are many influences in the city but the highlights were definitely an old library and the wealthy's houses which were located on the hillside

Ancient homes at the Ephesus

Ephesus city library

Thankfully I was able to get to a decent electronics store in Izmir and these last two photos are the first couple I took with my new camera (a Samsung).

Tuesday, June 1, 2010

Wrapping up Moldova

Cricova Winery
On our last Friday in Moldova our students took us to the Cricova Winery just outside Chisinau. Once inside the winery we descended 60 meters underground into the massive cellar. The winery was amazing. There were several dining halls that were richly decorated and we saw a storage area where people can rent out space for their private collections. some of these collections dated back to 1902 and Putin himself had a section of the cellar. Unfortunately our tour did not include tasting but we did try a bottle of Champaign later on at a cafe (pretty good actually).

With the students at Cricova

The end of LEADER
And so leader has come to and end for me, at least as far as teaching is concerned. I am really happy I had the opportunity to teach in Moldova. The students were fantastic and the business plans which were presented as final projects were all fantastic. I have high hopes for these students and hopefully I am able to help some of them out down the road. At the end of this project Melanie, Syed, Lauren and I became close friends and I couldn't have asked for a better group of Ivey students to teach with. Looking back on both this year in Moldova as well as last years experience in Ukraine, I can safely say that LEADER has been one of the most influential experiences of my life.

On to Turkey...

Some students at the Chisinau City Sign