Strange Encounters

Last night after I got done at the internet cafe, I went over to the same place as the night before to get some dessert. Those same two guys from Madison were there! Haha, crazy. I talked to them some more. They were really nice and we ended up talking until 11. I was really tired so I went back and fell asleep immediately. My roommate was already asleep. I woke up at 7:45 again and ate breakfast. My plan was to take a bus to Akrotiri and I thought it left Fira at 9:05 so I showed up at 8:50. Turns out the bus leaves Akrotiri at 9:05 and Fira at 8:45. The next bus wasn't for 2 hours. Ugh. I walked over to the Prehistoric Thira Museum instead. As I happened to go in at the same time as a cruise ship tour. I hung out with their group while the guide talked through the museum. He was SOOO good. I hope the people knew how good their guide was. He was younger and Greek but he was funny and incredibly smart. I was so glad they were when I went to the museum. The museum basically shows a bunch of stuff from the archaeological site of Akrotiri on the southern part of the island. It is still closed so I can't go see it. The roof collapsed in 2005 and hasn't been open since. That sucks. The museum was good though. The highlight was frescoes from the site.

I went inside a few churches in Fira after that. Very pretty. Lots of paintings and stuff. There were two cruise ships docked today. Fira was PACKED. I could barely walk in the streets. I hated them a little bit. The line for the cable car back down to the water was about a mile long because the people were too lazy to walk down. Oh well. It was cloudy in the morning for the first time since Istanbul. I went back to my room and rested a little. I got some crackers and fruit and stuff for lunch and brought them with me. I walked from Fira to Imerovigli, a town a couple km north of Fira. From there I walked down to Skaros. That's a rock outcrop that juts out from Imerovigli. There is a church on it. The only noise there was the wind. It was awesome. Kind of tiring going down to it and then back up after all the walking I did yesterday (I forgot to say but I think I walked over 12 miles yesterday and that's with all the uphill I did). I ate lunch down at the church. Awesome. I walked back up to the town and then along the rim to Oia. Great vistas and lots of cool and rocks and random churches. Every single person except 3 that I passed or were going the other direction on the trail spoke French. Kos had a lot of Germans, while Mykonos and Santorini have a lot of Americans and a lot of French. Yesterday, while I was walking up to Ancient Thira, I passed by a couple from Germany. I saw them again last night at the sunset. Guess what? I saw them AGAIN (!!) on the way to Oia. What a freaking coincedence.

Oia (ee-yah) is at the northern tip of the island. Very pretty. I liked Fira better though. Oia had windmills though which were really sweet in the afternoon sun. I thought about waiting in Oia for the sunset but I was tired and it was only 5 so I would have had to wait about 3 hours. No thanks. I took the bus back to Fira. I forgot to mention this yesterday too, at Ancient Thira I ran into those two New Zealand girls I met while waiting for the ferry. I mention this now because as I was getting on the bus I saw the guy I met while waiting for the ferry walk by. He saw me and we waved at each other. Santorini is small enough where stuff like this happens I guess. On the bus ride, I talked to a woman from Northern California. She told me about Crete which was nice since I am going there tomorrow. I went to Lucky's for dinner again. I am a creature of habit. It was just as delicious. Then I went and watched the sunset and the Canadian woman and St. Louis guy were there again as well. We talked some more and then I came here.

That's why I titled the post the way I did. I saw a whole bunch of people randomly. I love that sort of thing. I am going to miss Santorini when I leave tomorrow afternoon. I am looking forward to Crete though. Hope everyone had a good Wednesday!

I haven't added pictures because the computers here won't let me download them. Maybe if I get some free internet in Crete I will be able to add them. We'll see. I have so many good pictures. I can't wait to share them.

Au revoir!

Island Hopping

Hello again. I am reporting from the beautiful island of Santorini today. It turns out that the stupid hostel that I reserved lied about a few things on their hostelworld.com account thing. They do not have free internet and the "five person dorm room" is actually a three bed room that I have to myself. I am not really complaining about the room thing but it would be nice to actually have a hostel so I could meet some more people. It's almost impossible to meet people when you all have your own rooms. Anyway, back to what happened today.

Last night, I wandered around after going to the internet cafe soaking up the atmostphere and looking at how amazing all the houses in Mykonos look. There was a nice buzz around the town as well. There were locals and tourists walking around. It was awesome. I came to Mykonos at the perfect time. Still some locals and low season prices but warm weather. So I went back to my hotel and watched Day After Tomorrow on the tv. Then I fell asleep. I set my alarm to maybe go check out the sunrise again but I was too tired so I just fell asleep again. I woke up at 9 and got ready and left. I ate breakfast (mini croissants and juice) at the windmills. It was windy but fabulous. I love the windmills and I loved the view from there. I spent the rest of the morning walking up into the island for a little bit, just exploring and seeing more of the town. Then I wandered through the town looking at the stores that were in my Frommer's Greece book. Everything in the town was worth a picture. It was awesome to see how the sun moving in the sky changed the colors of the buildings and the shade. All the buildings are white with all sorts of colored accents. The windows, doors, and stairs are painted blues and greens and reds. It was perfect. I can't even imagine living in a place like that. I didn't take a ton of pictures only because I could have taken a picture of everything so it was hard to choose.

My mom told me in an email that she ate pizza at a place in Mykonos when she and Greg visited 12 years ago. I found a place called Casa di Girogio which seemed to fit the bill of what she was talking about. I don't know if it was the same place or not but it doesn't really matter. The restaurant is located right behind the Catholic church. I had a chicken and green pepper pizza. It was delicious. Kind of expensive but totally worth it. I only ate half of it and saved the rest. It was about time to catch the ferry so I went back to Suite Eleni (my hotel) and the same woman who picked me up from the ferry dropped me off. We talked a little bit about nothing really on the way. I was an hour early so I sat and chatted with a guy from Chicago and two girls from New Zealand who live in London. It was fun. I took a fast-ferry and the ride only lasted 3 hours and we stopped at Paros and Ios before arriving at Santorini. I talked to the guy across the aisle (we had assigned seats). He was from San Francisco (he was middle aged and with his wife). We ended up taking the same bus up to Fira. They went on to Oia (pronounced EE-ya). I walked around looking for my hostel. I got kind of (more like totally) lost and some people pulled over and helped me find my way. I still got a little lost and another guy helped me. I like people sometimes.

My hostel has a name like Kalaminia or something that I can't remember. I checked in and was shown my room. I was feeling kind of down (tired, hungry, sad about where I was staying, etc.) and it was another kind of bad moment. I ate my leftovers and got over it. I have had very few low moments so far (the main one being before I left Istanbul). There are have been so many high ones. Like after I checked in, I walked around Fira starting at the north and walking around the rim of the cliffs Fira is perched on. I watched the sunset again. FANTASTIC. It reminded me a lot of the sunset on Crater Lake because Santorini is part of an ancient volcanic caldera, just like Crater Lake. The company was better for that sunset though. Then I came here to this internet cafe. Now it is walking around a little bit more and then back to the hotel and sleep. Tomorrow I think I might walk to Oia or go to Antoriki, an archaeological site. We'll see. I am so lucky and miss everyone a ton...

Talk to ya soon!