So the evening on the Catamaran boat I met 2 other travelers around my age. They were a couple— him being from Australia and her being from England but they both live in England now. In fact they are getting married in July and I’ve now been invited to their wedding! We immediately clicked on the boat because we were the only English speaking folks other than the employees of the boat. I will tell you that for someone who has a strong extroverted personality, traveling alone can be tough because part of how I gain and receive energy is simply talking to others. FaceTime has been great for this but nothing beats shooting the shit with some strangers who are also being immersed into a foreign culture at the same time you are.
These two were awesome and they were staying in a place out 15 minutes away from me but asked if it would be ok to come to my town and hang for the night. I was all about it and now it had been 3 days so of course I was a local and knew all the great places to take them to 🙂 One of the places I took them to was Two Brothers Bar. The cool thing I’ve noticed in Greece is that they have legit bars. They serve no food. Their sole purpose is to serve alcohol. Given that it was an all you can eat/drink on the boat the three of us had a good buzz going on. It was the first time the whole vacation I got, what I would consider drunk. I don’t generally like drinking too much in another country, it affects me differently and I always have a strong need to be “on.” But with these guys, I let that go and had such a fun night!
Two Brothers Bar
This bar is so cool. When one of the bartenders asked me how I found them I said, “Oh in my travel book on Greece,” and he goes to his coworker- “Did you hear that? We’re in a book,” (cue the less than impressed tone which actually was refreshing to me). When I asked how late they were open they said 4 or 5 am every night or “until we stop partying.”
The bartenders killer tattoo!
One of the things I’ve truly learned to love about Greece is that there are some rules, but most rules are adjusted according to the day, the attitude, the weather or the stars. They drive in the breakdown lane when there’s traffic, they drink a little too much, they stay open when there’s business and close when there isn’t, there are dogs and cats everywhere including restaurants, pedestrian crosswalks have no real purpose- people stop or they don’t, they have ferries/fights on some days and some days they don’t and they sort of do whatever the fuck they want — all while respecting their neighbor which seems to come natural to them. Can you imagine any of this in the US? Oh the horror! In America if you are at a bar all of this will be the opposite. Everyone is forced out at the same time of night (all while making sure they get all the their last, unnecessary, call in) and you, and everyone else who is drunk goes out on the road at the time in hopes of 1. Not killing anyone and 2. Not getting a DUI. How about you make your own rules and try not to kill anyone that way?
Maybe we would all be happier and want to be better people if this was our view every night 😉
I’ve never been good at following the rules and as long as I can remember I’ve been asking why. I’ve been questioning the man and his whole goddamn family because if something doesn’t make sense to me I’m going to find out why it is that way. I’m finding that the way of life here is so much more refreshing when it comes to laws and rules. Imagine living in a place with fewer rules and more just straight up good people. Greece is one of the safest places on earth and that proves the point I’ve been trying to make all along, live and let live.
Now that my angry teenage years rant is over, I’ll continue with our night. We went to a few places and found that we were old. A few bars had Contiki tourist in them and that made me laugh because when I was in my early 20’s I did the whole Contiki thing and I thought I was old then. For those of you not familiar, Contiki tours run all around the world and are geared towards young 20 somethings but giving them a killer experience of traveling all while taking out the headache of room, board and transportation. I still remember those days like they were yesterday. I went all across Europe and it was absolutely awesome.
Anyway after we realized we were old we went our separate ways to go home before the normal 4 or 5 am train came to a stop. All in all it was a fantastic day. The catamaran experience (see previous blog), plus a night out with new friends in a reckless city that was anything but- made for one of the best days of my life!
Everything teen related brings me back to this song, so teenage anger here is your shoutout. Post brought to you by:
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