Bethany, Lydia and I went into the Temple of the Olympian Zeus to see the ancient pillars up close. Today was one of the most beautiful days I could ever possibly imagine. We took no less than 200 photos (in reality, it was less than that, but maybe not much less) around the temple, including this one.
We wanted to make it back to Fresko for Greek yogurt (I got yogurt with wild honey and walnuts there yesterday and it was delicious) before our flight, but we ended up not having time after all of the photos and the fraternizing with packs of wild dogs.
*Wild dogs roam everywhere in Athens in slightly menacing packs, but all of the ones we encountered were very friendly, including the one Kate named Balto, who followed us from our apartment to the restaurant last night, then waited outside to walk us home and the blind bug-eyed one that Bethany petted but the rest of us were too afraid to touch. We knew the blind one was blind because kept tripped over curbs and walking into things, like phone poles and oncoming traffic.
The three of us met the other half of our group back at Athens Studios at 11:30 to collect our bags and go to the airport, where we had a flight to Santorini at 2.
Even though the flight to Santorini was barely half an hour, we flew Lufthansa, so we flew in style. We were greeted on the flight by two smiling hostesses handing out individually wrapped gumdrops. Halfway through the flight we got free pop and pretzels. It was a lovely experience.
Landing in Santorini was much different than landing in Athens. The airport is one room and has one runway.
After we picked up our luggage, we went out to the curb, where a man holding a "Villa Manos" (the hostel we are currently staying in) sign greeted us and directed us to the Villa Manos bus.
He was very nice, like just about everyone we've encountered in Greece, offering to carry our bags and loading the van for us. The ride to our hostel was only about 15 minutes and seemed faster as we drove along gorgeous beachfronts.
Once we got to the hostel, unpacked and checked in, our first plan of action was to lay out by this pool.
(By the way, this "apartment" is tiny. The first room has a double bed and the second room has four beds wall to wall, a four-person table, a tiny desk and chair, and a refrigerator - all about three inches from each other. But at least you can't beat the view.)
This morning we slept in, then caught the 11 a.m. bus to one of the black sand beaches. That was interesting. The "city bus" was a tour bus with cushioned seats and televisions, but the guy taking everyone's money was crazy. When we tried to ask if we were on the right bus, he started repeatedly yelling that the fare was 1.60 Euro. We ended up just paying and having to trust that we were heading in the right direction.
Eventually the bus came to a halt in a neighborhood with no beach in sight (this was about two minutes at after the driver stopped at a convenience store to get a sandwich).
"Get out! Everyone out!" barked the ticket man. We made the mistake of questioning whether we were in the right place, and he gestured us off the bus, still yelling.
Clueless as to where we were, we began wandering around and luckily found the beach within about five minutes, since there was no one around to ask directions.
Once settled on the beach, we laid around all day reading and listening to music. Santorini, we've discovered, is completely dead outside of tourist season, so our group made up more than half the beach-going population.
After a few hours, we left the beach in search of lunch, and found excellent and cheap gyros in the only restaurant that seemed to be open. Then we shopped (there seem to be more boutiques open than restaurants) for another few hours, got ice cream, and took the bus home (well, we took it past home, since the driver was totally oblivious to our standing in the aisle saying, "Hey! We needed to get off there!")
No sooner had we got into our room, than the woman who runs Villa Manos knocked on the door leading out to the pool.
"I have a surprise for you in my office, if you are all here," she told us.
Curious, we dropped off our things from the beach and followed her.
The surprise turned out to be a home cooked meal of pasta, bean salad and fresh bread. The food was delicious and we were thrilled to have it.
Now that we are all fed and the sun has set, we'll be sticking to our room for the rest of the evening. It's too chilly right now to sit outside and we all have blogs to catch up with anyhow. We're currently planning renting Vespas or quads for tomorrow to see the island. Unfortunately, I don't think there's much to see. Since the tourist season here doesn't officially begin until the end of April, nothing is open and there's almost no one around. The place is a ghost town. It's a little bit depressing, I think. Looks like we won't be making friends like we did in Athens.
But there are six of us on a beautiful island in Greece. How hard can it be to find something to do?
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