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!

I'm Walking, Yes Indeed

After going online last night (the internet cafe plays really loud rap music), I went and got some ice cream. The two girls in front of me were from Australia and really cute. They were nice and we talked while we ate our desserts ( my dinner). The usual Gallipoli people. They both said that Istanbul was "intense" which made me laugh because that is the EXACT way I would describe it too. They gave me some tips about Fira. I was supposed to eat at Lucky's (cheap Greek food) and go to a bar named Murphy's once while I was here. Lucky's yes, bar... I don't know. I went back and watched another US movie (the one about marines...) and then fell asleep.

I woke up thinking I might see the sunrise (the terrace at my hotel looking east and probably has stunning sunrises. I forgot to set my stuff so that did not happen. I woke up at 7:45 instead. I got ready and had some fruit and bread for breakfast... Turns out that wasn't necessary. The hotel had breakfast. Sesame seed crusted bread (everywhere in Greece), chocolate bread, orange jam, honey, and orange juice. Pretty good. I had a ton of bread (probably more than my share frankly but I don't care). I got my stuff together and set out on my walking adventure. My first destination was the town of Kamari which has a beach and is at the the southeastern part of the island. I walked from Fira along the roads. That was a little hair-raising but it wasn't that bad. It's not the high season and it was about 9 am so there weren't too many cars. Lots of scooters though. It was nice that it wasn't that warm out yet either. I walked a little off my path to see a couple churches, as I was taking a picture of one I felt something nudge my leg and just about had a heart attack. It was a mangy yellow dog. I walked back through the ghost town that the church was in and to the main road. The dog kept following me. I told it to stop and looked back at it but it kept going. I felt bad for not caring for it but I had nothing to offer it really and I didn't want it following me all day. When I got to Kamari Beach, if finally found someone else to bug.

Kamari Beach is like all the beaches on Santorini, pebbly with volcanic rock. This beach had black rocks. It was pleasant to sit and relax for a while. It was about 4 or 5 miles to Kamari. The town had a road along the beach with tons of shops and palm trees. I got bored sitting on the beach so I got on the trail up to Ancient Thira. It's some ruins on a rock that sticks out about 1000 ft above the water. It took me a little bit to get used to the uphill but I adjusted and it was pretty easy after that (not any worse than Half Dome or Angel's Landing). The ruins were really sweet. Most of the ruins are the walls of the houses that come up to my waist. Good informational panels in English. The views back over Santorini were spectacular. I walked back to the little parking area for Ancient Thira. I hadn't really eaten since lunch and it was 1 pm so I sat and ate a banana and some of the bread I brought with. I had two choices for my next move. The easy choice, heading back down the other side of the ridge to Perissa Beach, or the hard way, up to the highest point of Santorini and a monastery... You can guess which way I took. The walk up to the monastery was so cool. Even better views. I could literally see all of the island laid out in front of me. Stunning. The monastery was closed. The info was in Greek but it looked like it was open from 3-4 on four days a week. Super. The road away from the monastery had a wall with big crosses made out of red volcanic rock and these super amazing little mosaics. There were dolphins, deer, and ships. My favorite was one of the night sky with stars and a crescent moon.

The road down from the monastery was very nice. Great views over the southern part of Santorini. It was tree lined which was nice as well. Lots of vineyards. My final destination was a town called Pyrgos. It is on a little peak so the town has lots of stairs and narrow passages. A tour guide that walked by said the town has 46 (!!!!) churches. Wow. It is a small town so that is insane. I ate some more bread and crackers up on top of a house (there were stairs and I just sort of ended up there) which was fantastic views. Lovely. I headed back down and got on a bus to Fira. I went to my room and met my new roommate. I forgot his name but he is from Cambridge, England. It was nice to hear the English accent again. He is at Santorini for a conference about electronics (weird). I rested up for a while and then walked around Fira again looking at the sunset. I met two people, one from St. Louis and one from Canada and talked to them while the sunset. They were really nice and fun to talk to. Then I went to Luckys' (per those girls's suggestion). It was sooooo good. I had two chicken gyros with lettuce and onion and tomato and some yellow sauce thing. Great. I talked to these two guys from Madison while I ate. They were really nice. They both work for NWA so they travel a lot. Then I came to the internet cafe. I am pretty burned from today. I was in the sun a lot (the whole time from Kamari to Pyrgos basically). It doesn't hurt now but it will tomorrow. I might go get some more ice cream after this.

Phew. What a day.

Till next time!