It's all Greek to me!

This is too good to be true. Here I am, alone, young, an enthusiastic explorer with no real specific expectations where my travels will take me. I was asked most recently whether this trip has been what I thought it would be. Had it lived up to my expectations? Was I disappointed at all? Was I surprised at my attitudes along the way? I replied that I didn't have any expectations - after all, the few months before departing Melbourne I was petrified and in absolute denial that I was leaving home, family, friends, and a city I am so proud to call home. I fell in love with Melbourne as soon as I discovered that I would be away from it for a year. And what a year it was.

Perhaps I did have expectations of some nature - that I was throwing myself in the deep end, going to study in America alone, and then travelling the world (sometimes alone, sometimes not) but this was something I have done before, when I participated in Marva (Army program) in Israel. Socially, emotionally, intellectually challenging myself along the way around the UNited States, Europe, Israel and India.

But then, my friend inquired, if you don't have any expectations, what do you have to look forward to? I look forward to the day I'm living, and tomorrow. I look forward, let's say, right now, to have an incredible time in Greece. What I'll be doing there, I hadn't set out until I arrived in the island of Mykonos. I look forward to meeting Greeks and talking with the locals. I look forward to tasting as many Greek tasty healthy dishes before I get sick of the cuisine and revert back to the ol trustworthy asian/italian food (unfortunately I think I have already arrived at that point). If I don't have any expectations, certain situations end up surprising me and I have a most fantastic experience.

Let's take last night for example. Dean and Elliot left Mykonos at lunchtime, and so had my friends from Penn. I had one last night on this island, and I hadn't done any shopping at all. Most stores were either overpriced American/European designerwear that didn't appeal to me, or tacky souvenir stores that sell the same trinkets and postcards by the hundreds. But I wanted to make my way through the winding whitewashed streets and explore little boutiques of copied antiquities and handwoven linen products and handmade jewellery. Since I hadn't slept so long the night before (Dean, Elliot and I were trying to catch the Australia vs. Croatia game, which wasn't aired live since the Brasil game was on at the same time. After a couple bottles of wine, the owner of a portside restuarant granted our wishes and kept his cafe open until the halftime. We managed to catch the entire game, not however before we were told of the result - we were actually told of the result ten minutes before the Brasil game ended. Some people just enjoy ruining the fun. By the time we finished watching the game, we headed off to bed - but Dean and I wanted crepes, and Elliot wanted a gyro. The boys were regulars at this gyro joint and whenenver they walked inside, the guy who served up the gyros knew their orders before they could say it themselves. But on Thursday night, he had something special for us - a riddle. And if we worked it out, he would give us a beer from the fridge. We were staring at the riddle for a littlle bit, and after our bottles of wine, we culdn't really make out what it meant. "I'll give you the entire fridge!" he said. But if not, and he had to tell us, we would then buy him a beer. Sure. No problem. The riddle went like this
I-T-U-I-U-B-M-A-B
What does it mean?
Somehow, I figured it out, "I'll tell you if you buy me a beer." Not the smartest of riddles, but entertaining nonethless. This left us going to sleep on Thursday night at around 4 or 4 30 perhaps... In the morning. And I had to get up early to go over to my friends hotel on the other side of the island to say goodbye to her and to pick up a lonely planet guide she leant me for the rest of the greek islands.)

What a paragraph and all in brackets! And so, the conclusion was, for all of you that couldn't be bothered reading what was INSIDE the parentheses, i just described why I hadnt slept much.

And so, I was planning to have an early night last night, my last night in Mykonos, for during the past week, I hadn't slept much at all. Fending off sleazy Greek men during dinner ( I swear, they all came out of the woodwork once I started walking the streets alone, without the cousins. Funny.) I decided to explore the shops until they close - midnight. Then bed. Very early night in Mykonos, but I had to wake up early the next morning to pack and leave for Naxos, where I am now.

So. In the last store, I bought myself a beautiful necklace, my first nice present for myself, and the store assistants and I started chatting. They were a brother and sister duo, around my age, and this was their family-owned business. I bought the necklace, thanked them and went next door to the cafe the boys and I had been the previous night (to watch the soccer) to have a cup of coffee and do some more people-watching. (And boy, is the people-watching absolutely fascinating on Mykonos. Wow. Fashionable Italians, scruffy Australian backpackers, club promoters decked out in slutty angel/demon outfits promoting a Ministry of Sound party held on the beach that night - I love it.) I'm on my way home, and I bump into the brother from the last store I visited, and he invited me to join his sisters and their friends for some dinner at, what they believed, was the best pizza place on the island. Already full from the coffee and dinner that I finished only an hour before, I said sure and I'll have some more coffee. There were six of us in the end, and they were mostly Mykonians, except for me and a friend visiting from Madrid. Even the guy from the internet place I used during the week turned up to hang out. I would say its a small world - but its a pretty small island. After some coffee and tasty tiramisu we went to a bar to dance the night away. And I thought I was having an early night. Yeah right. I had such a fun night with these people, and I wish I could stay longer in Mykonos, it would have been great for them to show me round the Mykonian way.

So, right now I am in an island called Naxos, in the Cyclades. It's between Mykonos and Santorini, an island to which I'm heading on Monday to meet Amma. We'll be there for two days, and then onto Crete. Naxos, I was warned in Mykonos, would be VERY quiet. I have not found it so dead, its a Saturday night, and the people (mainly Greek/Italian and Swedish tourists) are out in force. This afternoon I sat on the beach outside my hotel, and got deliciously burnt - I was attempting to even out my sunbaking, as I was very brown on the front of me, but white on the back. A little like the time I went to get a Mystic spray on tan, and I forgot to turn around so they could make it even (it was a terrifying machine). Just like what happened to Ross on Friends, the tv show. If anyone remembers that episode. I hadn't seen it until after my Mystic tan situation, and it depicted my results quite accurately. Anyway, the trouble with travelling alone in the fact that you don't have someone to rub the sunscreen onto your back. Now, I don't think it's so appropriate to go up to a complete stranger on the beach and ask them to sunscreen your back. Nah uh. Not for Sarah. But, silly girl that I am, I decided to lie on my tummy and get brown regardless. I hardly get anything - tan or burn, so a little colour wouldn't be so bad. Well, I was an idiot and forgot that sunbaking in THE MIDDLE OF THE DAY is BAD no matter what you do. People BURN in the middle of the day. And I had been sunbaking in the late afternoon sun anyway, where it wasn't so harsh. So, this lovely writer now has a SUNBURNT back (OUCH!) and nobody else to rub on aloe vera (my aloe can only cover when I could cover when I first applied sunscreen. Damn.) I usually am SO careful - spf 30+, tee shirts, hats, I used to sit on the beach looking like a wrapped up granny I was fearful of getting burnt. Haha, now it bites me on the bum. Or on my back. Ow.

This evening I strolled through the streets of the Hora, the main town, and was invited to have some Ouza (liquer) with a fisherman/restaurant owner for he loved that I was from Australia. I didn't know if it was rude to refuse such an invitation, but I didn't feel like eating at his restaurant, and I didn't want to feel that I had to buy dinner there, and as much as I like conversing in difficult english with an eighty yr old fisherman, I wanted to find a cute place to eat and read my book as the sun set over the port. And that I did. I'm reading Hilary McPhee's "Other People's Words", an account of the McPhee Gribble publishing company and the state of publishing in Australia during the 60s and 70s. Loving it. It also makes me very excited for the upcoming course at RMIT that I'm doing when I return to Melbourne.

Ok, the lady from this net cafe is ready to close,and I need to go to sleep now anyway for I am waking early tomorrow to go on a tour of Naxos. I think Ive had enough beach burning for the weekend. I hope you all have a great week, and that you are addicted to the World Cup as much as I am. I know it's easier to follow it for the time differences aren't as bad, but it's great tellie veiwing. Oh, to be in Fed Square to watch the Japanese or Croatia match. Man.

Goodnight.