One of my closest friends just returned from a three month adventure across Europe. I asked her to write a memoir of her best experiences to share
Life is what you make of it, and so is Ios! When my travel buddy and I hopped off the ferry and stepped head into the blazing Grecian sun; us and 2000 of our closest friends squeezing out behind us trying to get their first glimpse of the island of Ios. Before our arrival I was told over and over again that Ios is the Ibiza of Greece, a crazy party hub for young Australian alcoholics who don’t care what country they’re in as long as there is beer. This sounded like everything we never wanted, travelling thousands of miles to hang out with the same group of people we left Australia to avoid, but it was so cheap that we couldn’t resist!
The “Francesco’s Hostel” shuttle bus collected us from the port and as we crawled our way up the spectacular rocky hillside the young Australian driver informed all 20 young Australian passengers (and one lonesome American) of the cheapest place to buy alcohol, the morning after pill and many other illicit substances. After a charming tale of an Irish girl defecating on a boys floor during a wild one night stand, I started seriously considering that this was not the place for me. Little did I know that the next 4 days would be spent leisurely strolling the endless crooked, beautiful ally ways, treating on delectably addictive gyros at painfully cheap prices and sleeping the days away on serene shores with no Southern Cross tattoos in sight.
It goes to show that you can have whatever kind of holiday you please, wherever you are in the world, based on your own choices and ideas! If you don’t want the welcome shot, don’t take it, if you don’t want to be surrounded by culturally deficient sex addicts, do some research and find a less explored area that isn’t highlighted as ‘the place to be’. By no means do I suggest skipping the main attractions all together, but sometimes you’ll find that the places you hadn’t heard of will be the ones you never forget.
Life is what you make of it, and so is Ios! When my travel buddy and I hopped off the ferry and stepped head into the blazing Grecian sun; us and 2000 of our closest friends squeezing out behind us trying to get their first glimpse of the island of Ios. Before our arrival I was told over and over again that Ios is the Ibiza of Greece, a crazy party hub for young Australian alcoholics who don’t care what country they’re in as long as there is beer. This sounded like everything we never wanted, travelling thousands of miles to hang out with the same group of people we left Australia to avoid, but it was so cheap that we couldn’t resist!
The “Francesco’s Hostel” shuttle bus collected us from the port and as we crawled our way up the spectacular rocky hillside the young Australian driver informed all 20 young Australian passengers (and one lonesome American) of the cheapest place to buy alcohol, the morning after pill and many other illicit substances. After a charming tale of an Irish girl defecating on a boys floor during a wild one night stand, I started seriously considering that this was not the place for me. Little did I know that the next 4 days would be spent leisurely strolling the endless crooked, beautiful ally ways, treating on delectably addictive gyros at painfully cheap prices and sleeping the days away on serene shores with no Southern Cross tattoos in sight.
It goes to show that you can have whatever kind of holiday you please, wherever you are in the world, based on your own choices and ideas! If you don’t want the welcome shot, don’t take it, if you don’t want to be surrounded by culturally deficient sex addicts, do some research and find a less explored area that isn’t highlighted as ‘the place to be’. By no means do I suggest skipping the main attractions all together, but sometimes you’ll find that the places you hadn’t heard of will be the ones you never forget.
