Kiev to the Balkans

Even though I enjoyed my 2 month long trip, I was definitely ready to come back home and be in one place for awhile.  I managed to get about 5 hours of sleep before I had to pack up my things to catch the hotel shuttle to the airport.  I was through the airline check-in, immigration, and security in just 25 minutes, so I had 1.5 hours to kill before they started boarding my 11 hour flight from Athens to Philadelphia.  I had an aisle seat on the 2 seat section of the plane, so it was somewhat comfortable for the long flight.  However, there seems to be a requirement that at least one crying baby has to be on these long flights and that the person in front of you must see how far back they can recline their seat even if they are only 5 feet tall!! The food was decent on the flight and I managed to watch 3 movies that were all pretty good.  The flight arrived on time and eventually I cleared immigration and security to wait for my 2 hour flight to Charlesto...

I got a ride to the port from the hotel to catch my ferry to Santorini, where I will be spending 3 nights. The ferry boat was huge and there were a lot of passengers getting on the boat in Paros.  The 3 hour ferry ride was pretty smooth and when it came time to depart for the island of Santorini, there was a very large crowd getting off the boat.  The hotel shuttle was waiting for me when I got off the boat which was very nice especially on a warm day. Santorini is a very popular island and hotels can be very expensive there, so I had to book far in advance to find an inexpensive hotel ($33/night) that was in a decent location.  The hotel is a small family owned place that is a 15 minute walk to Fira (the main town on Santorini).  It is an older place, but the room was clean and quiet with air conditioning.  I didn't come to Santorini to spend a lot of time in my room, so I didn't need a fancy expensive hotel that overlooked the water. Fira (or Thira), the n...

I received a ride from the hotel down to the port to catch the early afternoon catamaran to Paros.  The catamaran arrived 30 minutes late, but the 45 minute trip to Paros was smooth since the seas were calm that day.  I was picked by the hotel at the port in Paros.  The hotel is a small family run place just outside the town of Parika.  My room was fairly large & had a nice view of the sea, it is a good deal at just over $30 per night for a 3 night stay. Paros has plenty of tourists that visit the island, but it has a more relaxed atmosphere compared to Mykonos and Santorini which always have multiple cruise ships docked nearby.  I had a nice dinner my first night in town and found a good place for gelato afterwards.  The next day, I spent a half day at a nearby beach & then took a local bus to a town called Naoussa.  Naoussa was an interesting place to visit for a few hours, but there was not a whole lot to see there. I visited a differen...