I have no doubt I could have easily spent weeks there exploring the island or even just the main town without
getting bored. This brief depression was over soon enough though, coinciding roughly with our arrival at our third
and final island, Ios.
Ios
Ios had been hyped up from the start of the trip from friends and tour managers alike to be the party island of the
trip, and that is exactly what it was. A day in Ios for us consisted of breakfast and lunch at our hotel or one of the
small beachfront restaurants nearby, lounging on the beach or poolside for the afternoon, then getting our Contiki
bus into town for a quick dinner then a massive pub crawl. You would imagine that at a place where the average
drink is about ¾ spirits and costs less than five euros, it would be hard to overspend. However my spending about
100 euros the first night we were there was one of the least amounts spent of the group, with rounds being bought,
kebabs being eaten, bartenders being tipped so they gave you a completely unnecessary little bit more vodka in your
drink each time, and shot challenges (buying seven shots of whatever you like gives you a free singlet allowing you to
flaunt your drinking ability to everyone, although 99% of people would buy the shots and give them out amongst
friends, and repeat to get a new singlet at each of the countless bars in the town) being completed all contributing to
what later led to us agreeing not to take more than 50 euros out with us each night from now on. We all loved our
time spent at Ios as we did all of the islands, but we agreed that the island and its bars would definitely be a bit
better if we were given a bit more of a free roam as opposed to being forced to follow our tour leaders around the
whole night, and that having a bigger group of friends to depart from the group and still have fun would have been a
bit better.
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