We have spent the last 9 days in the Cyclades or Greek islands. We visited 4 islands, all of them very different and individual. We had plenty of fun in the sun and met quite a few people along the way. The best part about the trip has to be swimming in the clear blue waters and eating plenty of Gyros (silent G). We were also the idiots who came to the Greek islands and forgot to bring a beach towel. D'oh.

We made good use of our time and did loads of different things. But unfortunately the one phrase that kept on cropping up our conversation was "if we were only coming here". It was difficult to keep on budget in such a place but we did our best. Here's how our trip went...

Mykonos (overpriced and over-rated)

Mykonos is just a tourist trap and they can get away with it. The town was nice enough although very busy. It is also extremely overpriced. Since coming from the land of 1 Euro beers we just couldn't bring ourselves to buy the 5 Euro beers. We stayed in a beach type resort and for the most part it was quite a nice location right next to the beach. Unfortunately both of our watches broke when here, so figuring out the time has been interesting for the past week and a half. We spent our days exploring the town and lying on the beach. We probably wouldn't make the trip back to this island.

Paros (the "Real" Greece)

A very small island where the locals go on holiday. The complete opposite to Mykonos. We liked it immediately. Very chilled out and relaxed. We did a group dinner our first night next to the water and watched the sun go down. On our full day we made our way to Anti-Paros (not Paros, but the island next to it). On Anti-Paros we went to what is simply know as "the Cave" we were able to explore the cave by taking the steps all the way to the bottom. That night we were pretty proud of our money saving skills as we found some Ouzo for cheap and mixed it with a bottle of pop each. All in all a night out for 3.50 each. We went down to the beach and had a night with the group.

Santorini (Beautiful!!!)

By far the best island. We had such a great time on Santorini and wished we had stayed longer. Our first evening we explored the city of Fira and watched the sunset. We also found the best Gyros place in all of Greece. The following day we got the bus to Perissia to check out the Black Beach. Yes that is right the beach is actually black sand, and very HOT. We then hopped on a boat to Red Beach (Guess what? It's Red) and saw these big cliffs that just seem to drop into the ocean. It was a sight to be seen, but very busy. That night we went with the group to have a sunset picnic in Oia. I was so busy chatting, drinking and eating that I almost missed it. Good thing Del was on the ball with the camera. This is the island that shows exactly how I had always pictured the Greek islands to be. It is an amazing sight to see the city's on the top of cliffs in the distance, because they look like snow capped peaks, but it's really just all the white houses. Well worth coming back to Santorini.

Ios (Beaches and cheap as chips)

We didn't really expect much from Ios (as we were told it was a lot like Mykonos but less expensive), but we ended up really enjoying it. The Beaches are beautiful. We did a Kayak Safari and had a great day. Our safari included loads of activities too. First we paddled to a cove and were told to jump/fall out of the boat and swim over to part of the rock shelf. When there we had to climb out of the water and up the rock face. Didn't look possible but it was in fact pretty easy. Once at a point the guide told us different hieghts at which we could jump off from and into the water. Ranged from 1-19m. I got up my nerve and the want to do it overtook my fear of doing it and I cliff jumped from 12m. Very happy about that. Del's fear of hieghts overtook him, but he did manage 4m. Yay. After our jumping we got a mask and snorkel to explore with. Del swam under a little cave. We also swam into a lagoon full of sea life. Climbed back into the boats and paddled to a private beach to relax in the sun well lunch was cooked on an open fire. Our paddle back was a challenge. We were going into the wind. Thankfully we had a double kayak and made it back safely. There were moments when we weren't actually going anywhere. Some others had to be rescued because they were going backwards or even capsized.

The islands have been good fun. We would love to come back sometime simply for the beauty and the laid back atmosphere.