So today we got up and went to the beach again. Melissa had learnt from her lesson and as she was still in extreme pain she went to the beach fully cover and lied in the shade all day and not in the sun at all. Tonight was our last night in Ios to party our faces off so that’s what we decided to do. After the usual dinner, shower, siesta (oh and I bought a dress) we went to the hostel bar and just hung around and played some drinking games with Chris, Tom, Stuart, and James. It was really funny because as we were playing Chris had lost and had to chug the beer. He had told us that he didn’t like Amstel beer as it was too gassy but at one point in the game he like turned his head to burp or something and totally threw up on his own shoulder and on the patio. Yes I know totally gross but it was sooo funny!!! James was pretty under the weather from drinking the night before so he didn’t come out with us but we started our going away drinking fest. We started at the blue (?) bar and had flaming lambourginy shots which were pretty tasty. Got some shots and drank some more etc etc. Anyways the night goes on and not gonna lie, don’t really know where we went. Didn’t remember this at all but apparently we stopped at one of those crepe places and Melissa and I got nutella filled crepes. Apparently Melissa wasn’t done hers and left it on the steps of the club to go back for it after. I’m assuming (and hoping!) that she never went back for it later. Like I said I don’t remember any of this but this is what Jamie told us the next morning. All I know is from that day I have never been able to eat nutella again and whenever I think about it, it makes me feel sick. So to finish off that night...we went back to our room at who knows what time to have a siesta. Because we were drunk and it seemed like the thing to do at the time I guess really. Siesta my ass, more like we passed out and didn’t get up again haha. But I thought it would be a good idea to go wake up James for some reason?? Well all I know is that I woke up in Chris’ bed the next morning...oh well he was in mine lol.

Ios:
4/2 hostel
2/2 people
7/2 nightlife
2/2 sites
2/2 weather
+3 for summer solstice party
+1 for Kalan
+2 for midget storey
23/10

I have nothing but good things to say about this place! When we were researching online a place to stay in Ios we were torn between this place and Far Out. I definatley recommend this place over Far Out! Yes Far Out is on the beach which is awesome but Ios is known for partying and when it's 6:30am in the morning and you can't tell your two feet apart let alone stumble your way back to your room you will want something that is in the city and close to all the bars and not "far out" (no pun intended) when there is no buses and maybe about 1 taxi. Well now to get started on my actual review. The staff of this place are just so friendly. They are so accomodating and so nice. When you get into the Port there is someone there from the hostel to pick you up. We got to the reception and it was so hot and the lady working there brought us all glasses of cold water which was so sweet. Then they showed everyone to their seperate rooms. Melissa and I booked a twin room but got a triple and didn't have to pay extra at all. I think we origionally booked for 3 nights but asked if we could stay for 4. The lady said that was fine and to just let them know when we wanted to leave. The beds in our room were fairly comfortable and we had our own bathroom which was very clean. We even had our own little "patio." Every night at the outside lounge which over looks the port and is so beautiful for the sunset there is welcome shots and anyone is free to have them. Everyone comes here to hang out until around midnight when the partying begins. It is a really friendly atmosphere and so easy to meet other travellers. As well in the morning there is a really nice breakfast (which costs extra but isn't expensive) and you can relax and nurse your hangover. There is internet that I think is 1 euro for 20 minutes or something like that. Every day someone would come into our room to clean it and leave new towels. This place is awesome and I cannot stress enough the location. It is so easy to get back after a night of partying (there is no point in going to Ios if you don't want to party) and during the day when it comes to the beach there is buses that come every half an hour and only for 1.10 euro. I highly recommend Francesco's for anyone going to Ios! You will have an amazing time!

Considering I didn’t get to bed until the early a.m., we were actually up pretty early and headed straight to the beach again. Today was a bit more relaxed and honestly didn’t do anything except lay on the beach all day. Me being the smart person that I am regularly applied sunscreen and lied in the shade when I got hot. Melissa wanting the tan that she eventually got, didn’t apply sunscreen and laid in the direct sunlight all day. But before one can achieve such a nice tan, one must get extremely burnt. By the time we got home and had our 2 hour siesta Melissa couldn’t move! As soon as she had been out of the sun for a bit her burn just flared right up. We were planning on going out and partying but she just couldn’t move or do anything. Poor thing!! Anyways so I went down to the little corner store and got some cooling aloe vera gel to put on her burns and got some dinner. When I got back to the hostel I helped her dress and then we had dinner. So she was down for the night but I still wanted to go and party!! So I decided that I would go to the hostel bar for the welcome drinks at 10pm and see if I met anyone there and if not I would just come back and go to bed. While I was there I did meet people. I met some Aussies and an English guyJ James, Chris, and Tom and it was James 20^th birthday and Stuart (English guy). Lost Tom along the way because he met some girl and eventually lost Chris and Stuart because we were drunk?? Haha all I know is that me and James were going from bar to bar and he was getting free shots as it was his birthday so it was pretty sweet. Later ran into Chris who was going to kill Tom because they got in a fight over the girl or something so Chris and James decided to go find him and kill him and I decided to go to bed because I was just like, “uhh ok...” A late night again but not as late as the night before but it was definitely fun. Found out later that day that they didn’t find Tom and they didn’t kill him but found Jamie the guy who worked at the hostel and just continued partying with him lol. Boys...

This is probably one of the best days we had in Europe!! I woke up rather early as I passed out rather early the night before. Melissa and I were soo excited for this part of our trip because it wasn’t intense site seeing, it was just relaxing at the beach. I woke her up with a “Get up, were going to the beach!” And she just popped out of bed as she was also pretty excited to be going to the beach. We stopped at a little corner store and got some food and water and what not. The bus was 1.10 euro to get down to the beach. Only took about 10 minutes but it would have been a much longer and hotter walk. Like I said we were so excited so as soon as we saw beach we got off the bus which we later realised was the wrong choice. We stopped at a little beach store to buy towels as we didn’t have any. For our whole trip we had been using these little quick drying towels which are pretty much the size of tea towels unless the hostels had provided them for us. Melissa bought a Greek flag towel and I bought one with a cat on it which said Ios on it hehe. So anyways were chillin at the beach and what not. Sand was extremely hot and I actually burnt the bottom of my feet which was really uncool. There was an older lady there who wasn’t wearing a top and I’m not gonna lie it wasn’t the coolest thing in the World to see. Anyways after being there for a bit we got really hungry and went to a little restaurant to get some food. While we were eating we heard all these yells and cheers that sounded pretty far off. It was a huge gang of people coming down the side of the mountain cheering and yelling and blowing air horns and stuff. We were like what is going on??? Eventually they got down to us and it was like a huge march of people and they were all covered in paint and drinking and yelling and they even had flares going off and what not. Turns out that today is the Swedish Summer Solstice party which happens every year and a whole bunch of people from Sweden come to party on the island. They were all heading down to the other end of the beach where the Far Out Hostel is. Turns out thats the part of the beach you wanna be. So after lunch Melissa and I walked down there and found new little chairs to lie on. You pay like a euro for the whole day but it’s totally worth it as the sand is just way to hot to lie on. Then you can pay extra for an umbrella if you want it. Anyways while we were down at the beach we met a few random people including a very drunk person who decided he wanted to be in pictures with us while we were taking some of the beach. He was just like, “Come on one more..” Anyways we ran into Jay, Kalan, Moe, Rod, Lane, and all those guys that we were with the night before so we were hanging with them and drinking and what not. It was just a crazy fun atmosphere. Everyone was drunk and laughing and having a good time and by the pool at the hostel it was just crazy. If you went within 10ft of the pool you were going in. Didn’t matter if you had clothes on or if you were carrying a camera or something, if you were by the pool, you were going in the pool. It was actually really fun getting thrown in and pushing people but I’m pretty sure people got thrown on people so it was dangerous haha. We hung around there until 6ish and then we went and got some dinner with the guys at another one of those restaurants along the beach. Then we all took the bus back to the hostel to have a siesta and shower. Melissa and I went back out rather early and sadly we got played by door whores!! Gah. It makes me embarrassed to think about it but oh well lol. Anyways their job is to stand outside of bars and what not and talk to people and try to get them to buy drinks and stuff. Well we thought they were just people and we were chatting to them and what not so we were like yeah lets go get a drink but they were just door whores. And then when we got in the bar we were the ONLY people in there...akward. So we chugged out heineys and booted it out of there. Suprisingly enough we ran into the guys again and we started the bar crawl. This is where the night gets kind of hazy...I remember what happened but I don’t really remember where we went. We went to a lot of bars but what ones I wouldn’t know haha. Looking back at pics I know we went to Flames and Disco 69 but who knows where else we went. It was really sweet though cause the guys wanted the free t-shirt that you get when you buy so many shots or what not so Melissa and I got to do a lot of free shots haha. I remember in one bar there was this little boy (and I mean child) who was trying to sell glow sticks and what not. Well apparently the night before Jay had gotten into an argument with the little boy and was going to fight him. A child! Anyway they made up and got a picture taken together and then the little boy drew a picture of a penis on a napkin and gave it to Jay and then left. Haha wtf I know but every time Jay brought out that napkin we would just laugh. I had a bet going on with Moe to see who could last later in the night...we both were out until daytime and agreed on calling it a night so no one technically lost haha. After leaving the club and getting slapped in the face by the sun we got a gyro for breakfast and then headed back to our rooms. Melissa was already at the room asleep (I don’t know when we separated the night before) and I went to bed around 6:30. I know this because I took a picture of the clock J

I have to tell you about a wonderful Thai restaurant on ios called Ali babas.We were there in august 2007 and spent most of our evenings there.Ruth and Jo were always the perfect hosts and the food was really as it was when we visited thailand.It was soo friendly at ali babas and i would not hesitate to reccomend it to all ios visitors.

So today we got up for our very early boat to Ios. Well it left at 8am but by the time we got up and caught the underground to the port etc etc we were up early. It wasn't too hard to get to the port from our hostel. Directions were pretty easy. We took the underground and it was pretty busy I guess just with early morning commuters. This weird stranger on the train was caressing Melissa's leg which was pretty freaky but it was our stop thankfully right after he did that. Our boat was nice I guess but we wouldn't really know as we had deck tickets!! We paid 35 euros for our tickets and they were deck tickets!! We managed to get two of the metal chairs so that was sweet. Oh by the way did I mention that this was a 10 hour ferry ride?? On metal chairs! It was pretty cold because it was rather windy. After an hour or so I was so uncomfortable that I just layed down on the metal ground and slept on my backpack lol. We just killed time by sleeping, playing cards, and listening to our MP3 players. After about 5 hours or so we were able to move to a different table where it wasn't so windy so that wasn't bad and when the boat stopped at Santorini pretty much the whole ferry got off and there was about 5 people left on deck so we were able to stretch our on the metal benches and sleep which wasn't so bad. We were kind of worried about what we were gonna do to get from the port to our hostel as we hadn't been able to contact them yesterday so we just decided to call them when we arrived. But it turns out that all the hostels and hotels go down to the port for pick up time and hold signs with the hostel name on it so it was easier then we thought. We found the guy holding the "Francescos" sign and he had us down on the paper and we got a ride up to the hostel and it was pretty sweet. We wanted to go to the beach but it was like 6 and the driver told us that no one would be at the beach anymore and everyone would be getting dinner or sleeping. So we checked in and went to our room. It was sooo sweet!! It was a private room and it had 3 beds and our own bathroom and even a little patio thing. It was soo clean and nice. We showered and then we went and sat on the patio and had some beers while watching the sunset. After that we went to Georges for the best gyro in the world and then we went back to the bar for 10 or whatever time for the welcome shot. We met a bunch of Canadians there...Rod and Calan (brothers), Moe, Lane, Chris, and one more that it's killing me I can't remember his name and their token american friend as they called him, Jay. They were all really nice and they invited us to go to sunset with them to do some pre-drinking. It was a hotel and they sold big 2-6's of booze and pop and staff came around giving the tables bowls of ice. So we drank there for a while and then we headed to the clubs and bars around 12:30-1am ish. Anyways in Ios you don't start partying 'till late and you don't stop till early morning which is why it's not a race, it's a marathon. So on the first night I learned this the hardway and was in bed by about 1:30am lol. Before that we went back to Georges pita and the guys got a gyro. Jay was really funny and he measured how good the nights would be by how many Gyros hes ate. "It feels like a 3 gyro night!" Anyways so I went to bed pretty early but I don't think Melissa made it back to the hostel till that morning.

Na Athene zijn wij de eilanden ingegaan. Op Naxos hebben we een heel sympathiek familiehotel gevonden, waarvan het strand goed te bereiken was, en ook het venitiaanse kastro. Verder zijn we per scooter het hele eiland over gecrossed, met bergen en dalen en kloosters en velden.

Na twee dagen hebben we de boot naar Santorini (Thyra) gepakt. Daar aankomen is echt een fantastische ervaring, je bevindt je midden in een vulkaankrater. Midden in het meer staat de vulkaan. Ooit stond de vulkaan in het midden van het eiland, maar in uitbarstingen 1500 en 300 voor christus, versplinterde ' Strongli' in vier kleine eilanden uiteen. Voglens Plato was dit de ineenstorting van atlantis.

We hebben de vulkaan beklommen, een heftige klim in de hitte en rick heeft gezommen in het healing water daar. Het eiland zelf was een beetje te vercommercialiseerd.

Vervolgens zijn we naar IOS gegaan, eerst een hippie kolonie en nu het Salou van de cycladen. Veel jonge blonde scandinaviers. Gisteren op stap geweest. Best grappig, maar ja, nu we niet meer achter de Bjorns en Agnetas aanmochten van elkaar....

Na een dagje is dat eilandje ook weer mooi geweest. We vertrekken vanmiddag naar Falegrandos. Dit is iets heel anders. Tot 74 strafkolonie, vanaf medio jaren 80 pas electriciteit. We logeren in een kasteel uit de 13de eeuw, dus we zijn erg benieuwd,

liefs,
Celine & Rick

We had a tough time choosing between Far Out and here but eventually settled on Francesco's because it was closer to the clubs. I'm so glad we chose here, its a great hostel. We got a private room with our own bathroom and mini patio for only 15 euros! The hostel has internet access and a bar. The people that work here are awesome, we had only booked 2 nights but ended up staying 4. I hear that happens a lot in Ios. The breakfast is soo good too, its not included but it is cheap, we only had it once because we slept past it every other day, but it is delicious and the patio in the morning is a great place to talk to everyone and remember what happened the night before.. The patio here is great and has awesome views of the ocean. On your first night(and every other night) you get a free welcome shot at the bar. The bar shuts down at 12 but after that everyone heads to the other club Francesco's owns. It was great because we were super close to all the awesome clubs in the town but it was still really easy to get to the beach as there is a bus that goes every 15 or 30 minutes for only 1.50. We met some great people here and had some of the best nights of our entire trip thanks to this hostel.

Chora - the main town of Ios is not just a beautiful town where you can simply relax, but during the night it turns into a eventful village full of clubs, discos, restaurants and more.. These are some of the pubs and discos you can find, the most are on the main street that gets across Chora: DISCO 69 CLUB - Bar close to the main square, very popular, nice style, good cocktails BLU NOTE - - Disco bar up the main square attended by sweden people, happy revival music. BULL DOG - Bar close to the main square, very popular, nice style and good cocktails ORANGE - Music-Bar up the main square, rock music and revival 70 and 80 RED BULL - Popular for the energy-drink, this is in the main square and it is usually very crowd SCORPION - The after-club of the island that is open until 9 a.m SWEET IRISH CREAM - Irish pub before 12 p.m. and disco after midnight and more..

Ios is a hilly island with cliffs down to the sea on most sides, situated halfway between Naxos and Santorini.
The Port of Ios is at the head of the Ormos harbor in the northwest. From there the bus or 15-minute walk up the steep donkey path takes you to the village, known as Chora. This is a white and very picturesque cycladic village, full of stairs and narrow walks, that makes it inaccessible for cars of any kind. Today, the main path through this village is completely taken over by tourism in terms of restaurants, boutiques, bars and discotheques. Apart from the port and the village of Chora, Ios has only a few small settlements, just a group of spread out houses in the background of major beaches ( Mylopotas, Theodoti, Kalamos, Manganari).
Ios has left little impression on history. Ancient tradition said that Homer's mother was from Ios, and that he himself was buried there - and indeed the locals will show visitors the site of the ancient town of Plakotos at the northernmost end of the island, where the rocky entrance to a tomb may be seen. There is no physical evidence connecting this with Homer however. There are signs of Mycenaean settlement. The north end of Ios also has a ruined Venetian castle from the 15th century. The island is said to have 365 churches and chapels, like the days of the year.

If you visit Ios, whatever you do at the rest of your travel does not matter but you MUST try the fishsoup of STAVEDO fish tavern at the Ios Port. Small, typical fish tavern with delicious fresh sea food and Unbelievable Fish Soup. Panos (Panagiotis) Valmas is the owner (and will be your waiter and his father makes the fish soup with the daily fish he cought by his small boat. Don't miss it...

So we went down to the beach for a bit and I wore clothes and sat in the shade again. We chilled at the beach for a bit and then moved to the Far Out pool. We had a fast ferry to catch to Santorini so we went back to the hostel and packed up our stuff and got a shuttle to the port. The ferry was so fast I couldn't believe it, it was only half an hour. That was the last of Ios, I was sad to be leaving, but at the same time we were so tired, anyone thats been to Ios knows that it wipes you right out.

city rating number 16

IOS
4/2 Hostel
2/2 People
7/2 Nightlife
2/2 Sites
2/2 Weather
+3 BONUS for Summer Beach Party
+2 BONUS for midget and cancer story
+1 BONUS for abs
23/10

So we went down to the beach for a bit but this time I wore a shirt and a skirt and sat completely in the shade to avoid being burnt any more. We just hung out at the beach for a while, being lazy, before catching the bus back up to the hostel where we had a siesta, showered and ate before heading back to the bar. At the Francesco's bar we met the people Lori hung out with the night before, a bunch of English people. We played some King's Cup for a bit before heading out to the clubs. I don't know why, but it seemed like a good idea at the time, to buy a crepe with nutella. Probably not such a great idea after all, Lori now almost vomits everytime someone mentions the word. But I still thought it was delicious. We stayed out for a bit and then went to my room where we decided to have a siesta before going back out...that didn't turn out so well as we never went back out.

We planned on only staying 2 nights in Ios, ended up staying 4. This was our 3rd day. We woke up and went down to the beach in the afternoon and stayed there for a few hours. This is when I learned a pretty important lesson. Reapplying sunscreen a lot is a very good idea..We had food at the Far Out restaurant and then went and chilled on the beach again. By the time we got back it was too late, I was a tomato. I got so burnt there I could hardly move. Lori went to the store and got me some aloe vera and I just stayed in bed. She went out that night and had a good time I believe. I slept from like 6 or 7pm until 11 the next day. Needless to say I was well rested.

So we woke up and were at the beach at noonish, which apparently is really early. Not many people were there except old topless people. After chilling for a bit we decided to have some food at the restaurant across the street. As we're sitting there a ton of people were walking down the side of the mountain. They all had their faces and bodies painted, they had blow horns and firecrackers, it was crazy! They were so loud, then they walked down the other end of the beach. Thats when we realized we were at the wrong side of the beach. So we walked down to the fun side and it was awesome! There were so many people there and we also ran into the guys from the night before. We went to the Far Out pool and there were so many people there. Someone I don't know picked me up and threw me into the pool with my skirt on. It was so much fun, if you're standing there and not in the water someone will throw you in there guaranteed. After hanging out there for a while we went for some food again with a bunch of people from the beach. Then we headed back up to the hostel where we had a nice siesta. We woke up at 10ish and showered and got ready to go out again. We went out to a few bars and ran into the guys again. All those kids that try and sell you glow bracelets are so annoying! Jay almost got in a fight with one of them after he tricked him..We went to a few bars and I left at 5 something, its a wierd feeling walking out of a bar and its daylight. Lori left a bit after me, at 6ish.