In the Greek Isles...

Well, after waking up at 5:00 am the other day, everything has been pretty good. We caught the ferry at 7, and took the 7 hour ride to the Greek island of Santorini. Greece ranks third in the list of countries primarily made up of islands. As the ferry was approaching the land we immediately noticed that every city was up at the top of huge mountains. When we arrived, the person from our hostel actually came to the port and picked us up (as did most of the other hostels), and took us to the top. We stayed the night in Fira, which is the largest city on the largest island (Thira) of the Santorini island group. We walked around a bit, and saw the city, but didn't do too much on the day we arrived. The following day though was our big tour day. We reserved our spot on one of the many boats that goes to the different islands of Santorini. The history of the island group is that a volcano split it from one island to many islands. During our boat "tour", we went to the volcano island "Nea Kameni". We climbed to the top, and had a wonderful view. In the pictures, it looks like a black rock island. After that, we went to some hot springs by "Palea Kameni" where we just jumped off the boat and swam to the springs and swam back. The water here is really cold, so your heart almost stops when you jump in, and when you get to the springs, I think they really are just "warm"springs, but they feel hot in comparison to the water. From there, we got back on the boat with horrible brain freeze headaches, but managed, and went to the next island, called Thirassia, which we climbed to the top and had lunch with an incredible view. To get to the top of each of these islands or cities, you go up a zigzag cobblestone step road, which is quite steep, and difficult on the body. For your "convenience", there are scores of donkeys, that for "just 4 Euros" will take you to the top. We opted against paying it a few times, but going up and down those steps does a toll on your body, and the concentration required to avoid all that donkey poo is exhausting. So, upon arrival at Ia, the fourth stop before the boat's return to Fira, we opted to take the donkeys once. It was worth it. Ia is known for its beautiful sunsets, and though the night before, we'd seen the sunset in Fira, we decided to get off the boat in Ia rather than taking it back to Fira, so that we could stay for the sunset. We didn't really have anything to do for the four hours we had to kill in Ia, but we relaxed and met some other travelers, etc. We waited and waited, and by the time the sunset had come around, the skies were cloudy, and they didn't quite live up to our expectations. We took a bus back to Fira, and instead of going out to dinner, we went to the market by our room and got some pasta and cheese and spinach pies, and made our own dinner. It was quite good. Jacob was the chef this evening.

On 5/25 we left Fira to go to the southern part of the island, Perissa. for 1.60E we caught a bus to go to the beach there. The ride was generally pleasant, except sitting behind me was a group of Grecian teenagers who decided that a busride was the perfect time to select a new ringtone for their cellphone. This consisted of playing every tone on her phone over and over for most of the ride to the beach. I was only slightly annoyed...once we arrieved at the beach we walked to our room, which was pretty nice. I'd say we've had pretty good luck in the sleeping department so far this trip. Since we were going to be here for two days, we figured we'd go to the beach one day, and tour the sites the other day. It was a beautiful day out, so we decided it would be the designated beach day. (Good thing too, because the reason I'm updating at 10:30 am is because it is pouring rain out on day two) The unique thing about the beach here is it's sand. Perissa is known to have a black beach, and a red beach. We went to the black beach, where the sand is a dark grey. We relaxed for pretty much the first time in a week. The sand, as expected was quite hot, but the weather was perfect - breezy and warm. We hadn't eaten a real meal all day, so we splurged at dinner at 10E each. for that, totalling 30E we got a plate of brushetta, a huge greek salad or thick stew, for the main dish we split a mushroom chicken, a pasta dish, and mousaka, and then once we were done, they topped it off with a shot of Ouzo for everyone. During dinner, after the salad, we were already pretty full having eaten only half the dish, so Jacob asked if he could take the rest of the salad home with him (we have a fridge in the room).They sent over three different waiters just to make sure they understood that ideed, we did want to take it home. They finally came back with a plastic container with no lid, and said that was all they could find. I guess they don't get too many take-home requests there.

This morning we got up planning to tour ancient Thira, and a monestary, and the red beach here, but it is raining, so we found cover at an internet cafe. The perfect place for three techies to stay dry...

until the next time it rains, take care! (publish time is greek time)
Bela