Santorini, part one

Our hostel, Stelio's Place

Santorini. It has got to be one of the most beautiful places I have ever been. And I have been some beautiful places. The light is just stunning, which I tried to capture in my pictures.

We got to the island around midnight, and already we could tell it was beautiful. Stelio, the owner of our hostel, came and picked us up at the ferry himself. He pointed out a few things as we drove back to the hostel, which was on the far side of the island, let us into our room, and went to bed. Our room was simple but not spartan, and the bed was very comfortable. The shower was really the only bad part, because it was literally two feet by two feet, with a handheld nozzle. This meant that none of us could shower without getting the entire bathroom soaked. But the family that owns the hostel was amazing and so helpful, which is not common in the hostel scene.

Our first day in Santorini was speant exploring the close areas of the island. Santorini is shaped like a donut with a bite out of it, and we were on the ouside of the round part. The towns are all on the inside of the donut, which is the picturesque part of the island. Our side has the black sand beaches, though, which we spent quality time walking - only along the wooden paths, though, because the sand is HOT. There was very little tidal swing at our beach, Perissa, and the moment that the land turns into water, the ground becomes stone instead of sand. Which is cool, but very slippery. We had an awful time trying to walk back to shore on the slimy rock!

That night, we took the bus (which is notoriously late) to the island's capital, Fira. Fira is in the exact center of the inside of the donut, if you can picture that. It's the largest town on the island, but not nearly as picturesque as Oia. Still, it's Santorini; nothing is UNpicturesque, just less jaw-dropping than other parts of the island. We followed the shoreline for a while, which is really the edge of a cliff right along the water. All of the restaurant owners shout to you: "OUR FISH IS THE FRESHEST! I HAVE THE PERFECT TABLE FOR YOU!!" It's exhausting after a while, but all part of the experience I guess. I brought my Lonely Planet, which told us that this restaurant Nikolas was the best. And of course, it was. It was full of locals and tourists, and the service was the most efficient we experienced in Greece, and the food the most delicous. We had fried cheese, stuffed peppers, pork kabob, local wine (Santorini is known for wine, apparently), and baklava. I'm getting hungry just thinking about it! The flavors are incredible, and there is nothing like fresh olive oil.

Perissa, the black sand beach that was literally steps from our hostel

Waiting for the bus to Fira

Fira sunset

Fira

Fira

Fira by night

Our second day we signed up to go on a volcano tour, followed by a trip to Oia to watch the sun set. Santorini is, actually, a volcano, with the center being the island in the middle of the 'donut'. It has cycles where it erupts, rebuilds the land around the center, and collapses. Our tour took us to the island in the center, then to the hot springs - which meant we jumped out of the boat into the hot water - and then to a small island called Therissa (I think) where we ate lunch. Kiersten and I also got a donkey ride to the top of the island, because we figured it was one of those things that you need to do. Bryce ran ahead the entire time to try and take pictures. For future referene, riding a donkey DOWN is actually better, because the stairs are so slick with donkey poop that the going is incredibly slow. Finally, after our donkey ride, we were ferried back to the mainland for an Oia sunset.

On the volcano

Bryce, me, Kiersten

Feeling the steam from the volcano. It smelled like eggs.

Kiersten and me (the two people in the center) swimming into the hot springs. People got crazy and coated themselves with the volcanic mud - which looked disgusting, but is apparently very good for your skin.

My lunch. A little chewy, and more than a little scary looking.

My donkey

You can see Bryce running ahead of us on the left.

View from the top of Thiressa. So worth it.

On our way up to Oia (pronounced ee-ah)

More donkeys!

The view from a cafe. Spectacular.

When people picture Santorini, they usually picture Oia. It's where Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2 wias filmed, in case you were wondering.

People sitting and watching the sunset. I think everyone sitting on that thing was Australian

People gather everywhere to watch the sun go down each night.

Piraeus

The water in Piraeus

Piraeus is the ferry-town in Athens. We left our hotel in Paris at 3 am (after veeery little sleep) to catch a bus to the airport. I'm surprised it ended well, because very little sleep + unknown cities is usually a recipe for disaster. We found our first bus alright, and all sat together in the back because someone had vomited on the floor of the front. We even got off at the right stop. Unfortunately, we missed our connecting bus because we could not find the right bus stop. So we took a 25 euro taxi to the airport, which got us there on time.

When we landed, we took the bus straight to Piraeus. Piraeus is not the nicest part of town. Actually, all of Athens is a bit seedy, but Piraeus is pretty gross in a few places. My first impression was set while driving through the marketplaces, where the vendors were selling assorted bras and hats that looked like they were used. Directly after that, we went to go find somewhere to store our luggage. Whereupon we saw a kitten die right in frot of us. There are so many strays all over Greece! Anyway, our luggage ended up safe, which was good.

By this point in the day we were all starving. We tried to ask the lady at the ferry office what was good, and her eyes lit up when we asked for a 'taverna'. She was so excited that the tourists wanted to eat greek food! We went toward a nicer part of town (by taxi, and back by bus), which was right on the waterfront and had good-looking seafood. We had shrimp, tzadziki, bread, and more, but the shrimp was the most memorable because the heads were still attached and had eyes.

After wandering the city for a while, completely exhausted, we finally embarked on our 5 hour ferry ride into the sunset, toward Santorini.

Fishing boats in Piraeus

The shrimp

Oranges were everywhere, on all the trees. They were also pretty bad.

Candid by Bryce on the ferry

Piraeus from the water

We were never really in open water, because we were always surrounded by islands

Part of the ferry. I spent some quality time on these benches

Bryce trying one of the oranges. He promptly spit it out.

Bryce journaling, which he did all trip long

Listening to music and watching the water. I took this myself with a self-timer, which I had just figured out how to use. We had lots of time on the ferry.

The sunset over the ocean

My life has been fairly entertaining for the past few days

In the past few days, I managed to:

1. Accidentally get caught in the middle of a demonstration, twice. The students were demonstrating against paying 500 euro per semester for college. But really, everyone pays for the students through taxes (even if you have not gone and will not be going to college). And because students currently don't have to pay, some of them take as long as they want to finish their studies, which means the state might pay for them to goof off for 6 years. (Can you tell that I think this is a little silly?)

2. Miss my tram because it was physically too full for me to get on. There were people literally squished against the windows, because the places were all taken. Including the places in the aisles, on the stairs, etc. So I walked to school.

3. Get stuck without a seat on a bus driving back from a wine festival in a neighboring town. We sat on the steps, which was alright until the bus driver forgot to close the door at a stop, and drove on the autobahn with it open and us literally inches from the door. It was terrifying and secretly thrilling. The rest of the passengers were incredibly concerned that we would fall out and die, but we didn't. The bus driver was incredibly apologetic.

4. Have my bike stolen. But, after half an hour of panic, one phone call home, and mentally preparing myself to go out and buy a cheap klunker bike, I decided to sweep the area one last time. Whereupon I found my bike, still locked, about a hundred meters away from my dorm. Someone had tried to ride it off, not realizing that the lock was through the tire. They got to the end of the street before completely tangling the lock in the tire, and knocking the chain and kickstand off. I found it, put the chain back on (which left me with beautifully stained hands before I went off to work), and locked it properly to a bike rack. Lesson learned: always lock your bike to something.

5. Be mistaken for a Dane. Because clearly, having an accent and being blonde makes you Danish. The lady didn't know what I was asking for (a swimsuit, but I didn't know the word so I asked for 'swimming clothes'), and told me to say the word in Danish. I told her I didn't know Danish, and she was surprised. But then she said (in German) 'so are there a lot of blondes in the US?' At least I don't sound American!