I’ve just come back from the most fabulous summer holiday in Athens – but not only did I come back with some wonderful memories and of course lots of photos I’ve come back with a KILLER tan. Mission Accomplished. Heh heh. I’m the brownest I’ve ever been though I’m sure with the anticipated lack of an English summer I’ll be back to my usual pale colour in a few weeks time. Best to take advantage of it whilst I can!

Its difficult to know where to start with the recap of the last week and a half. In summary the holiday consisted of going out (clubbing or cafe hoping) into the early hours of the morning or for the last half of the holiday until 7-8am every morning, sleeping in until what would normally be considered lunch time, going to the beach for the afternoon, having some “lunch”, having a nap, before finally starting the cycle again by going out to a beach cafe at about 10pm. Nice huh?

When?	Early July 2008
Weather	Temps ranging from 23 degrees min in the evening to 38 degress max during the day. Absolutely clear cloudless blue skies. In a word – perfect.

The Experience

Mirela made sure to plan an amazing time for me during my stay in Athens. Not only did she plan for where we’d spend our time for the 11/12 days (day and night) she also planned to have lots of family and friends around to keep us company. Pretty cool.

Day 1

Day 1 I guess technically started as soon as I stepped off of the plane Saturday morning at 1.30. Mirela was waiting for me looking very glam and summery in her linen white dress and she whisked us off straight away to a open air club by the beach called Babae. Although she said it wasn’t a favourite of hers (as its clients were mainly of the younger age – 16-17 (strangely there’s no age limit in the clubs in Greece)) she wanted me to check it out to show how different the clubs were in Athens compared with London. Also, Kostas and a heap of his uni friends were at the club waiting for us to join them.

I could see what she means about the quality of the clubs in Greece compared with London. In London they tend to be cramped and if not dirty not exactly welcoming. At Babae the roof top was open (and it was a gorgeous night), it was located by the water so the beach was right at our feet and it was very nicely decorated. We stayed there for a few hours before heading to another club about 5 minutes drive down the road called Güzel where we were hoping to see some more traditional Greek dancing. It definitely had Greek music but not many people were on the dancefloor so we left not too long after arriving. The drive back home was lovely in Mirela’s convertible – definitely taking advantage of the nice summery evening or should I say early morning.

After some shut eye later that afternoon we headed to Anavyssos for the beach. This coastal town was about an hour’s drive from Mirela’s house and apparently is where all the Athenians head when they can’t get away for a proper beach weekend hence it tends to be quite crowded on the weekend, as it was on Day 1 (a Saturday), but especially on a Sunday. The beach we went to had a nice beach bar and loads of sun beds. Unfortunately being as ram-packed as expected we couldn’t get any beds and had to settle for settling on the sand. Still, it was a very nice afternoon.

After the beach we headed to Mirela’s godparent’s house where we had dinner (at nearly midnight!) which consisted of fish caught fresh that day by their friends and cooked over their backyard barbecue. Yummy!

Day 2

Day 2 saw us visiting Mirela’s old workplace Hotel Poseidon which has its own rooftop pool. Thanks to Mirela we got free drinks and free use of the pool. It was very pleasant and had nice views along the Athenian coast line. The location of the hotel in Paleo Faliro is actually famous for its beaches and is Athen’s closest beach.

Dimitra, Mirela’s best friend, also met us at the hotel also to catch some rays. After a few of hours of intense sun and a dip or two in the pool we headed back home to refresh before heading to Flisvos Marina for a sunset coffee meeting up with Dimitra’s cousin.

Finally for the evening’s entertainment Mirela’s mum had organised some tickets to see a music concert at the Herodian Theatre which is located just south of the Acropolis. Its a gorgeous venue with very nice acoustics. The concert was of Nikos Portokaloglou and it seemed to be a kind of best of concert featuring at least eight artists with whom he has collaborated over the years. Even though all the singing was in Greek the music was still enjoyable.

Day 3

Day 3 was a fairly quiet day with us not doing too much but in the evening, after having a dinner to celebrate Mirela’s Mum’s name day, we headed to Mao Club where a friend of Mirela’s, Peny, was launching a new magazine 2morrow. There was all sorts of entertainment in including dancers from Greece’s version of So You Think You Can Dance, a whole host of C class celebs (dancers and singers), plus models strutting the catwalk in body paint. We were seated near some of the celebs including the winner of Miss Playboy in Greece. I swear her legs were longer than I was tall! … okay maybe the top of her legs came to my chest. I’m short yes but her legs were very long.

Days 4-6

Days 4-6 were spent at Methana which is a town/peninsula located in Piraeus in the eastern part of the Peloponnese peninsula and about a 2.5 hour ferry ride from Athens. Its also the home town of Kostas and Dimitra. Here I also met up with a few more of Mirela’s friends including meeting Poppy again (I met her when she came to London with Kostas) and more of Dimitra’s cousins (actually the brothers of Dimitras who I met on my first night at Babae!)

The population of the area is probably a few thousand so its fair to say that we pretty much had the beaches to ourselves! As soon as we got off the boat on our first day at Methana we headed straight to the beach Limniona. On weekends there is also a club on the the nearby cliffs though on a Tuesday it was very quiet and serene. It has the benefit of also having a small beach bar and nice sun beds.

On our second day in Methana we spent a bit of time on another side of the peninsula near Vathi. Here the beach was even more secluded and we were the only ones there. The water was so clear that you didn’t need goggles to see through the water. Mirela then treated Kostas and I to a nice seafood lunch. That evening we headed over to Poros which is a small Greek island about 3 minutes bus taxi from Methana. This is where the locals go, apparently, for the night life – the cafes were pretty busy actually though the bars seemed less busy. I guess it was the middle of the week and at midnight still relatively early for the Greeks to be out partying.

Our final day in Methana was more time on the beach before we headed back to Athens on a 2.5 hour boat ride and then on to Mirela’s other village home at Lykoporia.

Days 7-10

Lykoporia is like the home of Mirela’s family – every second person I met seemed to be her cousin, or a cousin of a cousin, or a cousin of a cousin of a cousin! It must be great to have such an extended family – for so long in Australia it just seemed like my dad, mum and brothers. Not that I’m complaining too much – because my family are great and truth be told I never really missed not having cousins, aunts, uncles, and grandparents in my day to day life.

But moving on!

In Lykoporia the days were so idyllic. Every day, after we finally woke up, we’d spend a few hours on the beach which was directly across the road from the house. Then Mirela’s grandmother, who doesn’t speak a smidgen of English, would cook us up something deliciously Greek for a very late lunch (practically dinner) which along with Mirela’s salads would end up being quite a substantial meal and actually all that we’d really eat all day. Even though Mirela’s grandmother couldn’t speak English and I couldn’t speak Greek we strangely didn’t have too much difficulty communicating. She was great and made sure to always be looking out for me.

Dimitra and a friend of Dimitra’s from work Nora joined us also for a long weekend away from Athens which was great.

Our evenings were then spent experiencing the nightlife that the surrounding villages had to offer – the first night we headed over to Patra where we first stopped at Ammos for a small drink. Ammos is where Mirela has spent a lot of her summers since she was 18 both working and going out. Its funny with these small villages that the locals just never seem to leave – we even saw Mirela’s first boyfriend! After Ammos we spent the rest of the night and most of the next morning until sunrise at a club called Cosmic. It is definitely the most popular club in the area, even if the DJ was pretty rubbish, and actually both Dimitra and Mirela were friends with the owners. The great thing about going out with Mirela is that she attracts a lot of male attention – this meant, by extension, a lot of free drinks for me! ha ha. All the males of the village seem to be in love with her including one of the part-owners of the club, at least two bar men, and of course the local vicitors to the club. Stumbling in to bed at 7am was a bit rough at first but over the next couple of days this got later and later (latest was 8.30 am) and after that my body clock was used to it but very all over the place and confused with the sleeping pattern.

On our second evening one of Mirela’s childhood friends Geli joined us and took us to her local
area Xylokastro which is in the other direction to Patras. Its a very gorgeous area with stretches of beach covered by these beach cafes – great location. We had a drink or two at Rouviera cafe before we turned around and headed back to Patras first stopping in at Medusa where Gelly’s boyfriend was DJing and then finally finishing, of course, at Cosmic. It was a rather interesting evening with Dimitra having to spend time in jail with her boyfriend who had been imprisoned for the night because of the club being too noisy! We ended the morning with some Cheese Pies. I guess Greece’s version of the kebab!

On our final night we spent the whole evening in Xylokastro. We were supposed to meet up with Veni and Ilyas (whom we’d actually spent the day with on the beach) and we did see Ilyas briefly but in the end by about midnight they decided they wanted to go home to sleep! Instead, an old flame, and also cousin to Geli’s boyfriend, Nikos and his friend decided to take us on a tour of a couple of bars before we finally settled at club Flight for the night. Here the music was actually excellent so I ended up having a great time. When Flight closed for the night, or should I say morning, Nikos clearly still wanted the night out to continue (what can I say – he was really keen on Mirela even though he knew she had a boyfriend) that he dragged us into another club down the road, No Se-No Se Verano, where, even though they were also in the process of closing, he still managed to score us some free shots! Oh boy. Ironically outside one of the bouncers was wearing a shirt “Here We Go Again & Again, Again & Again, Again & Again”. Finally with the sun just starting to rise we ended up at a hot food stand where he, much to our amusement, ordered all our food and, the funniest bit was, he ordered us all different things. Here we ate, saw the sun rise properly, and chatted before finally Nikos consented to drive us home (mainly because I think his friend had to go to work after about 30 minutes!)

My final day in Lykoporia was mainly spent sleeping though with my body clock all over the place and with the heat and noise I couldn’t actually sleep much past noon so I spent as much of my time as I could on the beach before early evening when we packed up and headed back to Athens. It was my final evening in Greece and I had seen Mirela’s Dad for about 5 minutes on my first day. He had been on a sailing trip for the rest of the time so I was pleased to hear that we had a bit of time to spend with him once we got back to Athens.

That evening Mirela and I were supposed to grab some sushi and even though her friend had assured us the restaurant would be open he forgot to tell her it had moved about 45 minutes drive away! She was a bit miffed but in the end we ended up in Gazi, the gas district, which was where we were going to meet up with Nora and Dimitra anyway later that evening where we enjoyed some delicious Greek-style tapas food for my last evening.

Day 11

And that was my summer holiday in Athens. My final day in Athen was spending some quiet time with Mirela. As I said from the beginning of this post I really left with some great memories and a great tan. I met so many nice Greek people. It was difficult at times because although many spoke English it was clear it was a lot easier for them to speak in Greek so half the time I hadn’t a clue what was being said. So next time I will have to make sure to pick up some Greek to make my experience even greater if thats possible. Thanks to Mirela and her family and friends once again for hosting me but especially to Mirela really for organising and thinking of a great itinerary. No wonder her career path is taking her down the Event Planner route!