Four Wheeling

Today we rented quads. I have a feeling this will have been the best decision of the entire trip.

Santorini might be an island, but it's too big to walk and our hostel - though very. very nice - is off a highway and not close to anything.

Poppy, the lovely woman who runs this place, and her husband Vangelis made us coffee this morning when we stopped in the main office to ask about renting quads for the day. As we drank our coffee outside in the garden, Poppy made a few phone calls and arranged for the manager of a local vehicle rental company to pick us up from Villa Manos and drive us to his shop.

The two guys at the rental place were very nice, recommending things to see and do this week while they fitted all six of us for helmets and had us fill out the paperwork for renting three of the quads.

A brief driving lesson lasting all of two minutes and we were good to go for the afternoon.

We spent the rest of the day zooming around the island (Bethany driving our quad while I rode behind), stopping when we saw something interesting, and off-roading wherever we thought we could chance it. If you ever go to Santorini yourself, keep in mind that this is the way to travel.

Me driving out of Fira.

Our first stop was back at the beach we went to yesterday just to make sure we could read the map and get our bearings properly. Then we rode off in search of a restaurant in Fira recommended to us by the woman Bethany and I met on the plane to Athens.

Fira was up a very high, winding pathway with a gorgeous ocean view. In this case, getting there was more than half the fun. When we got to Fira, we stopped in a grocery store to ask directions to the restaurant, only to find that it's closed weekdays. Instead, the cashier and her only customer consulted and sent us down the road to Mythos Taverna, which they said was the best of the few open restaurants in the area.

Mythos was fantastic. I love everything about the food I've had in Greece. We ordered a plate of tomato balls (again recommended by our friend from the plane) to split among the six of us. They were interesting, but in a good way. I feel like they may have just been mushed up tomatoes fried with various seasonings. They had a very strong tomato taste and were crunchy and delicious. Our main course was gyros again, followed by halva for dessert.

When our waiter first brought out the halva, I had no idea what it was. I had to Google it when we got home because when we asked the name of the dessert, the waiter just kept repeating that it was traditional.

It was served in a brick and looked somewhat like a used bar of yellowing soap, topped with cinnamon. The consistency was strange as well. As much as we poked at it, it kept springing back into its original shape. We couldn't really chew it, but it dissolved in our mouths into a bunch of little beads. It had a flavor that reminded me of pound cake, honey, lemons, and oranges all at once, and - once I got more used to the consistency - I decided that I liked it.

Not everyone shared my opinion of this unidentified dessert. We were split right down the middle with who enjoyed it and who hated it. Oh well. More for those of us who enjoyed it (or were at least intrigued enough not to hate it).

After lunch, we went looking for a red beach that we thought was nearby. We found only one sign pointing in the direction of the beach, and it lead down a dirt trail.

Since we had our quads, we followed the trail - me driving this time and Bethany riding - until I suddenly found myself caught in a little ravine that had sprung out of nowhere in the middle of the increasingly steep and dangerous hill. Our quad lurched to the side and turned quickly toward the edge of the cliff. I stood up and put all my weight into holding onto the break lever, and we stopped about a foot short of going over the edge.

Bethany and I had been last in our little caravan, and by the time we got off the quad and pulled it back into the road, we realized no one had seen us nearly die. The four other girls had gone on without us.

We got everything together and made it around the next bend when we saw Caitlin and Lydia driving toward us. The road ahead was getting too dangerous to continue, so the pair of them and Kate and Jess were turning around.

Once we were all turned around and back on the main road, we stopped to check the map again and try to find out where we had gone wrong in searching for the red beach. We couldn't figure it out, so instead we made a new plan: to find a lighthouse.

Surprisingly, this was much easier than finding a marked beach. Not only did we find a lovely lighthouse and spend the next hour or two climbing the rocks all around it, but we also ran into Melanie and Simone from our St. Patty's Day adventure in Athens and spent some time catching up with them.

We continued riding around until dinnertime, when we went back to Villa Manos to eat. After dinner, Caitlin, Lydia and I drove to Hotel Antonia in Fira to pick up Erika, Yelena and Kelsey, who arrived today with Bus2Alps. Since they were tired from traveling and we were tired from riding all day, the nine of us hung out by the pool and just talked until we couldn't stay awake much longer and took the other girls back to their hotel with plans to meet up again in the morning.