Maybe because it is Friday after a long week or that I’ve been starting to pack for our family vacation to Utah next week, regardless I have been seriously jonesing to get out of dodge. Like fill up my passport kind of get out dodge. Don’t get me wrong, I’m excited for our trip next week, but I have this deep love affair with traveling to a foreign land, sitting down to a meal and closing my eyes and hearing all the different sounds of that city and their accents and smells. Ahhh………
When was the last time you went out of the country? Our last trip was to Atlantis.
Yep, I’m feeling quite nostalgic lately and even pulled down my travel journals to read through a few of them.
Want to hear about the story of the Grecian Ghost?
For our 1st year anniversary we took a trip to Paris and Greece. We had the most spectacular time in both countries. and now that I’m realizing most of these (journal) trips were sans children and before Diapers-n-Heels even existed and so I haven’t shared these adventures with you all. Well as I make my way through these journals, I promise to definitely share some of the funny adventures around the world.
We hit Paris during the first part of our trip and spent a good part of the trip in Greece. We flew into Santorini, and then used the water taxi to island hop and ultimately end in Athens and then flew home from there.
After spending some quality time in Santorini, we hoped on the water taxi and headed to the island of Ios (pronounced E-OS). Our trip was in the beginning of October which is considered their off season. A few friends of ours had told us about the island of Ios and how it was a “party island” full of beach fun during the summer season and lots of people and fruity cocktails, etc. When we asked where they stayed they told us about this fancy hotel and at first research it appeared to be out of our budget. We were flying by the seat of our pants on this trip and would decide that day where we were going and where we were going to stay. We got to the island and decided to just inquire about the hotel prices. With it being off-season, the timing appeared to work in our favor and we ended up getting the room for about 1/3 of the price. SCORE! We were so giddy with excitement to be in a nice hotel. Our trip up to this point was of accommodations more of a young couple on a budget 🙂
I can’t for the life of me remember the name. I’ll look to see if I can find the name, although….
Once we checked in, we admired our room, but then it was off to the beach.
I remember the beach was beautiful and we talked about how packed and crazy it must be during the height of the season, but we were the only ones on this gorgeous beach and we were feeling both thankful to get to enjoy it, but a piece of us was missing the hussle and bussle.
After the beach for a few hours it was up to the pool for a little more fun and then into town for some exploring and dinner. 
ahhh… we were such babies. 🙂
After a marvelous evening exploring a virtually empty island, a great dinner along a cobble stone path somewhere in the middle of the Aegean Sea, we settled into our lavish hotel room. The room itself was quite modern and all white (like most of the architecture in Greece) with marble tile flooring and clean crisp lines. As we start to drift off to sleep, we both reflect on how beautiful the island was but that it was kind of eerie without tourist. About an hour into the night, I awake to a soft banging sound. It was as if the wind was blowing a shutter against a wall kind of sound. I turn to DNH Dad and whisper “Do you hear that?” He turns and says. “Yeah, kind of a weird sound. Maybe its outside.” He jumps up and checks outside and doesn’t see anything that could be making that sound. He crawls into bed and says, “It must have been the closet creaking or something.” About 15 minutes goes by and we hear the soft thump. Hmmm… so many thoughts are flying through our heads and so it seems every 15 minutes we start to hear the sound. Which in the middle of the night could just as well been every 30 seconds. Something was making a sound and neither of us were sleeping. We thought about calling down to the front desk, but it was so vacant, I’m not even sure there was anyone there. We grab the towels and try wedging it by the closet door to eliminate any sounds coming from there. 15 minutes later… THUMP. OH MY GOSH. Seriously, where is this sound coming from? “Maybe its the toilet seat” Grab the towels and wrap them around the toilet seat…. “THUMP”
After we exhausted every possible door, lever, piece of furniture, we give up and try to put it out of our minds. We both maybe got a few hours sleep and woke up to silence…. WHAT THE????
Yes, the view was spectacular. The visual of the room was delightful, but I’m telling you, we couldn’t pack our stuff up fast enough and get out of there. We never figured out what the heck the sound was, although in the morning we noticed an air conditioning unit on the neighbor’s balcony that might have been the culprit. We liked to think it was he ghost of all those partying people from the summer rubbing it in our faces that we missed the party.
I’m not sure I will ever make it back to IOS in my lifetime, but I will always have the best memories of a breathtaking beach and wrapping the toilet bowl lid with towels.
Where are you going to get your passport stamped next?
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