Here it is, the long awaited post…
On June 12, 2004 I got on a plane with my mom, dad, aunt, and uncle and flew to overseas to Zurich, Switzerland, where we boarded another flight to Athens, Greece. And so begins my summer vacation. We chilled at our apartment in Melissia, Athens for the night. The next day, we hopped in the car and drove to the village of Thana, just outside of the city of Tripoli, This was my father’s birthtown. Here I would be taking part in one of the mysteries of church known as a baptism. Just a few years ago, I was here again, around the same date, standing in the church as the koumbaro, or best man, to my cousin Nick and his beautiful wife Sara. The next day, about 30 people gather at the tiny church and I baptize little Zoe. We had a small party afterwords at the house. So now its time to relax, right? WRONG.
The next morning my friend Dimitri drives by, and picks me up. We drive to Athens and crash at his place for a few hours. Around 9pm, we shower up, get dressed, freshen up, and hit the town. We go pick up our friend Despina, and hit a nice little bar where we take our time sipping on our Martini-7Ups. After that, we hit Frangelico, one of the best Bouzouki clubs in all of Greece. We drank a bottle of Martini Dry (mixing it with 7Up of course 
). We got home at around 6am and crashed. At 9am, Dimitri and I woke up, packed anything we hadn’t packed, and hit the airport. We boarded an airplane and flew to Larnaka, Cyprus, where we got picked up by our friend Tony and driven to his bar/hotel in Protaras (a few kilometers outside Agia Napa). Well, it was the beginning of the Euro 2004 season, so this place was packed with people: English, Scandinavians, Czechs, and Greeks. Right away we hit the beach. And right away we got burned. Regardless of us putting on suntan lotion, the sun there is so hot and intense, we came back to the bar looking like lobsters. So for the next three days, we would hit the beaches, go to clubs, meet some gorgeous ladies, and eat. I mean, really eat…at least 5 times a day. In the afternoons we’d watch the soccer games at the bar, wearing our Greek flag, raising hell among the masses. Cyprus also has this Water Park in Agia Napa that we went to. It’s a theme park that’s water based. It was soooo fun! It had all these crazy water slides and pools and stuff. So after three days in Cyprus, we headed back to Greece. Dimitri dropped me off at my apartment and I drove down to Methoni to our beach house to meet up with my parents.
So for the next two weeks I chilled with friends and family, going to the beach every day, playing soccer in the evenings, and hitting a club or a bar at night. It was still June, so not many people had come down yet. My parents and I went on a two day excursion to Ioanaina. It was all right. We went to the Zagarohoria, which are these hidden villages in the mountains. During wintertime when it snows, the only way to get to those villages is by helicopter. Food and supplies are airlifted to the villages. But in the summertime, it’s very beautiful. The first night there Greece beat France in the Euro 2004 Quarterfinals, so the entire town was chaotic . People were partying in the streets, singing, chanting, lighting firecrackers, waving Greek flags, blaring their car horns. After two days there, we headed back home. And again, for the next few weeks, my days consisted of beach, soccer, and clubbing, with the once-a-week Euro 2004 match. The night Greece won the Euro was insane. All my friends piled into my car and we drove as fast as I could maneuver the curvy road without falling over the cliffs (180kph) to the main town of Pylos, where all hell had broken loose. The entire town was flooded with people, red smoke from fireworks was lighting the sky and the down square, flags were everywhere, people were dressed in blue and white, it was literally anarchy. Even the police were in on the fun, shooting off their guns in the air. People were on balconies waving at the line of cars going by, blaring their horns, waving Greek flags. The entire country had never been so united, so joyful, and so wild in its history. It was a national day of glorious chaos. Think of it as acceptable anarchy. It is indescribable.
Well, the days went by quickly, and eventually I had to come back to the U.S. for work. So we went to a quick baptism on the beautiful island of Lefkada and the next day we drove to Athens, where I boarded the plane and came here. So from July 12 till August 25, I was living alone in my house. Well, I never really was at home. I was working all day, every day at the restaurant. It was all right, made decent pay. On the few days off I had, I went to a Cubs game, went to the movies with some friends, and hit GreekTown for a little fun. Aside from that, this portion of the summer consisted of work.
And on August 30, 2004, I bought a new car, a 2004 Honda Civic LX, manual transmission of course. It isn’t the greatest car ever, but at least it gets me to school and work. It’s still slow though. When I start making more money, I’ll get a better car :p. I work Friday nights, and if I don’t have much schoolwork, Saturday nights as well. That my friends, was my summer. Not much fun, yet not too crappy.
. The guestbook is still on the old layout, but don’t worry, I’ll change that soon. I have finally figured out enough javascript to continue the Xanga archive as well, so I’ll be hacking away at that piece by piece. Thank you to everyone who has visited this site over the past year, and a special thanks to those who continue to visit!
. All the posts have been preserved, along with everyone’s comments too, so nothing will go missing. Scheduled release date is September 24, or, the 1 year anniversary of this site! The URL for the beta is: http://www.cryocreations.com/beta. Tell me what you think of the new layout. All comments and feedback are appreciated!