Santorini: Day 2

I’m writing the beginning of this blog at 10:30 AM, sitting on our balcony. I am surrounded by the Mediterranean Sea, mountains, and little white buildings. The sun is shining and it’s warm with a cool breeze. The weather here is perfect. It gets hot during the day but there is so much breeze that it’s never stifling heat. Last night it actually got chilly, but that was so refreshing. It’s just amazing.

I got up at 9:25 and went to breakfast in my pajamas. Whereas Sarah was hung over and wouldn’t get out of bed, my sober night finally paid off and I ran off to eat. Breakfast was disappointing, despite Katula calling it “great.” Now I am going to get ready for the day ahead. We are getting on a bus at 11 AM, wearing sneakers and a bathing suit. We’re taking a pirate ship around the islands, walking on the volcano, and then swimming in the sulfur springs!

A private bus picked us up and drove us down to the port to catch our “pirate ship”. Apparently we were late because it was so full we had to sit on benches along the side, which didn’t last too long because the water came splashing over the edges. Our first stop was the volcano. It’s explosion in the 1600s destroyed the ancient Minoan civilizations and it hasn’t erupted since 1956. According to Katula, that was the most recent volcanic eruption in the world. We climbed the black lava rocks all the way to the top to find a pretty nice view of the islands.

Our ship then took us around to the other side of the volcano to swim in the hot sulfur springs. We jumped off the boat into the freezing, clear Mediterranean water and then the water gradually became warmer and muddier looking. We made our way into the brown sulfur water, which smelled pretty bad, and scrubbed the mud onto our bodies because it’s supposed to be good for the skin. The ship sounded it’s horn and everyone set off swimming for it. It was like something out of Titanic; everyone fighting their way out of the cold water.

Our final stop was a village on the island of Thirassa. We had lunch at a seaside taverna with excellent seafood. I had octopus souvlaka, which is basically a shish kabob of octopus, with rice and potatoes. I really like the octopus, but I think I still prefer squid; the octopus is a little tougher to chew. I had some crème chocolate gelato afterwards while sitting along the water. It was a very nice day! But when I was getting back on the boat, I hit my head while going up the steps (because I’m tall) and that hurt.

We stopped at the ports of Oia and Thira before arriving at Santorini’s primary port. That gave us our first glimpse of Oia – I cannot wait to go tomorrow! We sat at tables on top of the ship and enjoyed the waves. It got pretty rocky and at some points felt like that ride at theme parks where the ship swings back and forth.

We finally got back to the hotel about 7 PM, so I showered and then took a nap until Sarah woke me up at 9:15 for dinner. Tonight we decided to just grab gyros to save some money. I got the lamb for the first time, but it wasn’t as good as Sebastian’s at home! In Greece, I like the chicken gyros best. A prime example of typical Greek men (notice I omit the “gentle”): the only seating at the gyro place was a bar with maybe 8 stools. We had to eat standing up because a group of four guys was just sitting at the bar with no food in front of them. They didn’t even flinch to offer up seats.

The big beer here in Greece is Mythos and they always serve it in big glasses with the name on it. Some of my friends were determined to acquire these glasses, either by theft or money. We set off and ended up in Murphy’s Irish Pub, which is just your average American bar. They had a 2 for 1 deal that Katula told us was a joke because they would make one drink and split it into two glasses. I just wanted one “Sex on the Bar” – orange juice, vodka, grenadine – but they gave me two! There was so much vodka in it, I barely finished the first one and gave the second away. Yuck.

As American as Murphy’s was, it was a pretty good time. There was dancing and we met a cool guy from South Africa who sounded Australian. Once we tired of that, we set off again in search of the Mythos glasses. The girls found a restaurant owner who said they could have the glasses if they sat down and bought a beer. So we all had a seat and the guy brought out three of the biggest beers I’ve ever seen in my life. We sat and talked over the beers for a solid hour, which was funny because usually you drink and talk before you go out to bars, but we had done it just the opposite.

The night ended with crepes. I had cinnamon/sugar and it was so delicious; just melted in my mouth. We got home about 2:30 AM and hit the sack.