hellas_chik26

hellas_chik26.

firstly – backstory to hellas_chik26. that was my email for about 15 years. until i hesitantly had to change it for “CV” reasons. pish posh. deep down i will always be hellas_chik26@hotmail.com.

segue.

i’m writing this blog because Greece is fresh. but i have a half written blog that covers the last year of me not writing in this – so that will be posted shortly. i’m getting harassed by a cult following i have now at work. (@Lauren @Anna). (i’ll go deep detail about my followers in a future post, but fyi, think of the iconic movie “The Princess Diaries” feat. Anne Hathaway, if people aren’t familiar with this movie (only 47% on rotten tomatoes which is shocking. i am shocked.) ANYWAY  she goes from real unfortunate looking (bad brows), to real pretty in a space of a really cleverly filmed sequence shots, yeah thats how my street cred quadrupled in a space of 2 hours of my cult reading twentysomethingtravels. (FYI i didn’t get prettier – i’m obv already 11), i literally went from “that weird loud australian girl who codes ” to “that girl that types like she speaks and says humorous stuff sometimes, and her best friend seemed really fun why did she move back to australia?”

anyway. ill talk about that another time. GREECE.

Greece was a “admin” trip for devva. pretty much going to get a  me a european passport out before i get kicked out from my visa in feb (sorry milty. sorry mary) so the places we went to were mainly passport related.

London > Greece. Arrive Stanstead. Beers. wetherspoons (obviously). bets. loosing bets. double tequila shots. more beers. more bet loosing. jager. plane. beers. obnoxious australians (that are based in london) on the plane drinking more beers. i think we provided entertainment obviously for our very well manicured handsome greek flight attendants. #heinekenlyf. see below. (beginning of the end). miltang that nutella was in your honor. obviously.

Thursday.

We arrive in Athens, and get us gyro #1 and mythos #1 of the trip,  check in to our hostel like the backpackers we are. oh yeah this was our view.

Friday.

Things we did.

Went and got my paperwork sorted for passport step #1. but if anyone actually cares about this process (I’m looking at all you greeks in australia who want a laminated police id and passport) ill run it down for you.

• Appointment at greek consulate office in melbourne. 4 month wait. get paperwork. pay for said paperwork in cash moneys because they do not have  eftpos machines. rolled up in hundys obviously.
• realise that your last name is spelt differently to your dads on his paperwork from way back when the devitsakis’ decided to move to straya.  ill blame that one on the drunk people doing the paperwork in greece. FYI i really should be a DEVEZAKIS. i mean, thats straight up not dev. they say its a big deal. whatever lady, just gimme my paperwork.
• take paperwork and guard with your life to athens to get your parents marriage registered in greece.
• realise that last name thing was actually a big deal.
• so many greek words, never heard my last name said so many times. ARE YOU DEVEZAKIS OR ARE YOU DEVITSAKIS WHAT DO YOU WANT TO BE? WHAT ARE YOU? WHO ARE YOU? i obviously start to question my existance. do i even exist? who am i?
• Long story short – they gave me what i needed. not really happy about it ,but i was coming “all the way from australia wow you can (kind of) speak greek,” so they helped

We ended up hitting a few record shops, here is a photo of james looking cool spending all dem euros on limited edition first press type of vinyl.

Saturday

Walking tour. went up to the acropolis. saw the parthenon and compared said columns to the ones out the front of my house. you know the ones. wont bore you with these, you can obviously just google “parthenon” to get proper photos, but heres the proof that we did tourist things.

but i would really like to stop a minute and give you a little taste of the people that were fortunate enough to sleep in our room. 5 oxford students. very very phresh 20 years of age. 3 boys. 2 girls.

some of the most incredibly book smart people we’ve come across. james’ feeling a little insecure about the intelligence surrounding this oxford folk. however this was quickly amended after we actually heard them speak.

their street smarts – not to be admired. they would grime rap everything.  and if they wanted a lyrical fighter: it means they wanted a lighter.

the would come out in “lyrical slaughter” and then rap some really weak lyrics following it, (eg: rob you got dat lyrical slaughter, on the roof in the hostel lyf , (ye ye) sinkin beers all dem mad tings, slaughter lyrical what you gone do what fighter oo yeah) obviously i just made that up then but that probably was very close to what they were doing. and it would go on for 3-4 minutes. now 3-4 minutes is a really long time for these skinny white kids to be grime.

also everything was “mad ting”

it was confronting. i also did ask them if they could grow a beard. they were REALLY butt hurt about that question. fyi. they could not.

anyway we went out. i’m just documenting how bad the place was. it was really bad. we tried. i cant even talk about how bad this place was. it was that bad.

Athens > Thess

5.5 hour train ride

FYI. Thats a long ass time to be on a train.

Hostel lyf #2.

james got stuck in a room with a guy who kept cooking eggs and pretty much shitting himself. i got a dream room. #hostellyf.

im gonna do this in parts (EG: like Kill Bill.)

Part 1

When Dev visits her family.

i take the bus up to where my dad grew up. i meet my uncle – who i had never met before. the only thing mum said was “he looks like phil collins.” she was right.  now this process was REALLY hard. mainly  because the greeks do what they want when they want.

• Went to the council or some sort of building house where people just drank frappes and smoked indoors doing some paperwork whenever suited – FYI this was on Tuesday. They tell me it can take 4-5 days for paperwork to be completed. could even be the following monday. supposed to be at work on that day but ok, lets just play it by ear hey? go back to my uncles house, eat some food, have a nap, 3 hours later, the lady from the council calls. paperwork is done. interesting development. BUT the offices close at 1.30 because you know, long work day of a total of 4 hours.
• Spend the night visiting alot of family, people that i hadnt met before, seeing where dad grew up, listening to stories etc alot of “you look exactly like your dad. you have exactly the same mannerisms, you are so fantastic, how great are you.  alot of that)
• Next morning, pick up paperwork – again issues with the last name thing, really seemed to ruffle some feathers but they ended up giving me what i needed. en route the police station to get my ID. which is necessary to get my passport. (i know this sounds really painful. it was. considering all these places were a 45 minute drive between them)
• i get this (this is actually real greek / vintage cool laminated goodness)
• ok this process is getting annoyingly long.
• i then go get my passport. but its not open on wednesday mornings so have to wait until 2.30 when the police station opens
• do that.
• wait a week
• get this:

Part 2

When James gets the bubonic plague.

While im with family, james hung out. bit of jimmy time – he walks around took photos ate gyro, whatever. Wednesday hits, and ive been told under strict instructions i am not allowed to share any photos that were taken, but essentially james got bed bugs. or spider bites. or mosquito bites. no one actually knows. but it looked like he was hit with the bubonic plague. feat. blisters. heavy welts on his bod. i wont go into too much detail because he will be sad i even said this much, but they were itchy, but he was a trooper and didnt complain at all. just like a defeated im so sad that this has happened to me. which it was. so thessaloniki included hospital trip, pharamacy trip. which was actually not a bad experience. which was suprising.

Part 3

When James gets his phone stolen.

Thursday, we reunite. en route to the beach. 3 minutes into the bus trip, james realises someone pinched his phone. like, come on. zeus was not our friend that day.

Part 4

Helloooo Kitty!

After a rough few days, mainly at james’ expense. hes still being a massive trooper, getting all dem gyro and mythos, our girlfriend (its actually James’ girlfriend, but whatever. #thirdwheel) joins. ready for 4 days of beach villa on the water.

Final Chapter

 

we really didnt do much. we got a car, we ate some amazing food, sat by lots of random secluded beaches etc, this blog has gone on long enough and my ADHD is kicking in so i need to do something different so im wrapping this up.

reminants of photos.