The first five minutes of earth-shakingly loud techno music BLASTING into our Patras hotel room at 11:00 AM was kind of fun. (OOH DANCE PARTY!) After the five minute mark the novelty had worn off and we began to wonder who was making such a racket and why. Numerous elderly folk looking out disapprovingly from their balconies across the street seemed to be wondering as well.

Several hours of blasting music later, Tyler went to investigate while I looked out from the balcony. He discovered that our hotel was next to a "room-turned-club". The place was completely empty save for the one or two people acting as DJs. The giant speakers from which their top choices emanated were placed outside, facing into the street. Looking up at me with a devious smile, Tyler yanked the speaker cable out and disappeared back into our hotel.

For a good five seconds, there was heavenly quiet. Of course, the cord was soon reattached, and those DJs' precious gift to the surrounding area kept on giving. All of the songs were pretty simple, so after a minute or two of each, we were able to sing along. Here are the lyrics to some of our "favorites" which were repeated throughout the day:

"SEX SEX SEX ON THE BEACH, SEX SEX SEX ON THE BEACH"

"UP DOWN UP DOWN UP DOWN UP UP AND DOWN"

"SEXY LOVE SEXY LOVE SEXY LOVE" (This particular gem was very popular in Tunisia!)

"LOVE SEX LOVE SEX LOVE SEX LOVE SEX LOVE SEX"

"PUT YOUR HANDS UP PUT YOUR HANDS UP PUT YOUR HANDS UP"

"I GOT THAT BOOM BOOM BOOM, GOTTA GET THAT BOOM BOOM BOOM"

When music wasn't blaring, we were usually trying to figure out the intentions of our neighbor, who we affectionately dubbed The Yeller due to his or her uncanny ability to scream for longer than we thought was humanly possible.

During our three night stay in Patras, The Yeller would reliably go at it every day, long before the music started at 11 AM and long after it ended around 9:00 PM. Honestly, it was really impressive. In this clip, which we foolishly didn't think of taking until the last minute, The Yeller is actually pretty tame. Most of the time he or she seemed to be a lot more infuriated:

When we weren't working, we tried to escape the noise for a walk around town. To our surprise, we discovered several other clubs like the one next to our hotel! All empty, all blaring music into the streets. Weird. It wasn't all techno:

There are costume/party shops everywhere! The Greeks don't mess around when it comes to celebrating things.

During one of our walks, we went up to the fort of Patras, climbing hundreds of stairs to reach the top. There, we sat on park benches and ate an orange which turned out to be more sour than a lemon! I guess it wasn't ripe yet?

Back at sea level, we bought delicious pastries for a snack. Mine was a savory, flakey crust filled with cheese. YUM!

We also visited a little Greek Orthodox chapel, where many candles were burning. I loved the sounds of the church bells tolling every half an hour.

Tomorrow we start heading east towards Corinth!