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Helena Paparizou's newest single, Heroes, is the official song of the European Athletics Champtionship in Gothenburg, Sweden. The single is peaked at #1 on the Swedish charts. Thanks for putting Greece on the international map once more, Helena!
Just claiming my blog on Technorati, ignore this post 
Where to start and where to end? Up to this year, the summer of 2003 has been the best summer of my life. But this year, 2006, broke all records, making it the best summer ever. I'm not sure how else it can be topped.
I left on June 27, 2006 to go to Greece, my first time in two years. A month and a half and 900 pictures later, I came back on August 17 full of nostalgia, memories, and a wicked tan. I knew from day 1 that this summer was going to be a blast, as a screwup in our flight seating arrangement got us bumped up to business class for free on the eight hour flight from Chicago to Frankfurt. Never in my life had I been in any section except coach. There I was, sipping champagne, having four course meals, and putting my seat flat so it was a nice, comfortable bed. I even had a personal mini pull-out TV in my arm rest! Getting your ass pampered by gorgeous German stewardess' eases the burned of an eight hour flight tremendously.
The first noteworthy thing I will mention, which other Greeks who have been to Greece can relate to, is the gust of hot air that hit me as I exited the airport in Athens. It is hard to describe the air: hot, dry, fresh, sweet, and…well, it just smells like Greece. It is something you don't experience anywhere else in the world. I took a deep breath and immediately got goosebumps. It is the smell of home. I stayed in Athens with my parents for a couple of days. I had some stuff to take care of, like going to the bank, giving the car a checkup, and getting a new cell phone number. That last bit was the most annoying. If you don't use your SIM card, as in if you don't load it with credits within a one year time period, the number gets fried. So I had to get a new number, and then contact everyone who had my old number to give them my new number. It cost me €8 in text messages (roughly $6.50).
When everything was finally taken care of, we locked up the apartment and drove to our house in Methoni, which is a four hour drive from Athens. But my vacation hadn't begun yet. Of course, I saw my grandmother, aunt, uncle, and cousins at my mom's village, Pidasos, but I quickly started working. One of our vineyards needed some serious cleaning around the fence. I'm not talking about weeds, I'm talking about giant weeds, massive wild shrubs, and huge thornbushes. They were at least three meters tall and two meteres deep. It took three days to cut everything and clean it up, and I ended up getting some massive sunburn on my shoulders.
For the next few days, I took it easy. I went to the beach and hung out with my family daily. It was still early, so none of my friends had come down from Athens yet. My friend from Chicago, Fotis, called me. We had arranged to meet up in Greece and go up to Thessaloniki together. I packed a small suitcase, took the car, and drove up to Delphi to meet up with him, his family, and some other friends (Pete, Angela, Victoria, and Fotis' brother Alex). Delphi is the ancient site where the oracle used to be in ancient times. We spent the night there and the next day we drove up to Thessaloniki. We spent another day there and then went to Sykia, which is in the middle leg of Chalkidiki. Angela and Victoria went to Vourvourou with their parents, so it was just us guys. We had a kick ass time. We'd wake up in the morning, eat breakfast, go to the beach, come home for lunch, smoke some hookah, go to the beach again, shower and get ready, go out to dinner, go to a club or a bar, and then come back and chill on the beach untill the sun rose.
In Sykia we picked up some girls who were also vacationing there and messed around with them for the duration of our stay. Nothing serious or close, just fun and games. The majority ended up being stuck up bitches anyway. I was amazed how nice all the natives up there were. They say that the more north you go in Greece, the nicer the people are. I experienced this for myself in Sykia and Thessaloniki, since I'm from the waaaaaaay south of Greece where everyone is an asshole. I made friends easily, since Fotis's friends were so welcoming, like Billy, the Greek lover with "triha" for a pullover. A day before I was going to leave, my cell phone got jealous of me being in the water all the time so it decided to hop in the shower with me. That was the end of my Sony Ericsson Z600, may it rest in peace. Luckily, the SIM card was fine. The next day I drove to Athens, a whole seven hour drive at 200 kph (about 125mph). I had arranged to go out with friends in Athens that night, but since I had no phone I had no way of contacting them or even finding their numbers. So that night I stayed at my apartment and had a quiet evening with souvlakia, beer, and cigarettes. With those three, I watched the sun set from my balcony.
The next day I drove to my dad's village, Thana, which is outside of Tripoli. I picked up my aunt, my cousin, and his two kids and drove down home to Methoni. That same evening my best friend in Greece, Giorgos, arrived from Athens. My buddies Bobby and Prodromos had also arrived a couple days earlier. The Four Horsemen were together again and ready to raise hell.
Every day we were at the beach in Pylos until the afternoon, in the evenings we'd play soccer, and at night we'd go out. Our first Saturday together we went to a club called O Porto in Pylos. By the end of the night, we had gained VIP status there. The next day the DJ from the club saw us and asked, "Hey, aren't you those guys from Pidasos who know how to party?" By spending money, buying bottles, dancing, and mingling with everyone, we easily became the center of attention. At some points everyone in the club was just standing there staring at us in awe. We brought life to the club.
Unfortunately, I found out that this cute girl, Mantelena, who really liked me was leaving for Poland on Friday for a month. I was leaving the Sunday before to go to my dad's village. I came back just in time to say goodbye to her. However, by then the majority of my friends had arrived, including Telly and Mitsoulian. Thanasis Kouretas, AKA Aroukatos was always there, but he began to come out with us since more people arrived.
From this point on my routine was the same. Beach, soccer, food, and clubbing. Saturday nights were dedicated to O Porto, although we cheated quite often and went there three or four times during the week. We'd always say we'd go to Pylos for some coffee and come home early, but we always ended up at O Porto. On two occasions we danced on the bar, and on one of those two I threw off my shirt because it was so hot. My last week I made sure I didn't come home before 4am on any night. Even the night before our major soccer game with the neighboring village of Kynigou we got home at 7am. We lost the game, obviously, but it was fun nonetheless. The game ended in a fight, but no punches were thrown.
On July 31 it was my 21st birthday. The whole turning 21 business has no meaning in Greece, since there is no drinking age (well, there is, but nobody enforces it. Once, I bought beer for my grandpa when I was five years old.) But cause it was my birthday made it just another reason to get smashed. And what better way to celebrate your 21st with ouzo? Ouzo is my kryptonite. Last time I had drank ouzo was at 14. With one small glass I was shitfaced, and since then, I promised never to drink that poison again. Ouzo fucks you up big time. One small glass can get you drunk. That night I drank half a bottle.
Our last night at O Porto we had promised to set Pylos on fire. As usual, we went in and took up an entire side of the bar and its surrounding area. Everyone knew us and respected us. We bought bottle after bottle, danced on the bar, and went wild. There wasn't a girl in the place that I didn't flirt or dance with. At one point I took Telly home with Antreas because Telly had passed out. When we came back, Kouretas tells me that a fight had broken out between Prodromos and some junkie w
ho was trying to hit on Vasia, Prodromos' sister. I ran back up into the club, but nothing happened. However, we had managed to mess with the four worst people in Pylos…they were ultimate lunatics and junkies. That night we got into three other scuffles with three other cliques, for no reason at all. Everyone was drunk, so wrong looks sparked beef. When we were leaving at 5am, the original four started up again. Before I knew it, it was 10 vs 10, with punches and kicks flying left and right, and chairs whizzing over my head. Flower pots were broken, tables were smashed, but no blood was shed. What is crazy is that this took place outside O Porto, right by the police station. The fire department woke up, which was down the beach, but the police didn't even bother coming out. We ended up breaking up the fight amongst ourselves. The next day we were the talk of Pylos. Everywhere we went people were staring at us. Was this a good thing or a bad thing? Depends on how you look at it. We made a name in Pylos, permanently. We not only gained respect for ourselves, but for our village, Pidasos. By standing up to the wrong crowd, who were all at least five yeras older than us, we lived up to the name that the generation of Pidasos before us had achieved (they managed a 50 vs 75 fight). Our grand finale was grand indeed.
After a tearful goodbye, I headed back to Athens on August 15 and on the 17 I flew back to Chicago. And what a way to end the summer, we got upgraded to business class on both flights for free! Summer 2006 is a summer that is hard to beat. I can give a play-by-play of every single day, because every day was a different adventure. However, I would end up writing 300 pages worth of memories in order to cover everything. I'm just giving a brief taste with highlights. There were so many more moments you had to have experienced for yourself in order to understand why this was the best summer ever. Thank you to everyone who made it possible!
Check out the pictures in the Gallery. Videos are coming soon, once I compress and reduce them in size!
