Lydia and I got up at 7 Friday to meet Erika and Kelsey in the Villa Manos parking lot. The four of us drove to the red beach (which was only about ten minutes from where Bethany and I almost drove over a cliff looking for the beach Wednesday) and parked in a church parking lot near the entrance to the trail down to the beach.
The trail was much longer and more treacherous than we had anticipated. There was a lot of sliding down gravel hills and climbing over potentially loose boulders.
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| Beware of falling rocks and abrupt drops into the Aegean Sea. |
When we got to the beach, the three of us sat in the lava rocks for a while and just watched the waves rolling in. Then we explored.
There were four doors resting along the beach and built into the side of the cliff. I went up to the first door to test if it was open (it wasn't) and to peek in through the broken window.
There was a dwelling inside the mountain.
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| Exterior. |
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| Interior. |
I also found a house around the bend of the cliff, out of sight from where we had originally been sitting on the beach.
The house was rectangular and half carved into the mountain/half built up with cinderblocks. There were stairs leading to the roof, which I climbed, and found there was an entrance to the house from the roof as well as from the beach. Both doors were locked, however, so I crossed the roof to stairs on the other side of the house, climbed down, and found myself in a little garden. Behind the garden, a boat sat covered for the winter and an outhouse stood just beyond that.
On the side of the house facing the garden, I found a door covered with Greek writing. If you can read this, let me know, because I'm very curious about these beach dwellings.
Erika and Lydia didn't join me in exploring this building. Instead, they sat on the beach and waited patiently until it was time for us to get Kelsey and make our way back to Fira. Their loss.
In Fira, Kelsey and Erika showed us their hotel room (nicer than ours, but ours had a better location), then Lydia and I shared a chocolate strawberry crepe for breakfast at a little crepe stand across from where we rented the quads. We returned the quads after breakfast, then sat in the main square until our four roommates arrived.
The six of us walked down the donkey trail from the other day to the port below. There we found a ship docked and ready to take us on the volcano tour we booked earlier in the week.
I felt like we were on the moon. Everything in front of us was hills and craters of red and black volcanic rock. We just started walking, climbing up hills and sliding down into gullies, being careful not to fall over the edge of anything because there would be no getting out once one of us was down a volcano hole.
The next stop on the tour was at the volcanic hot springs about ten minutes cruise from the volcano. Here we were given half an hour to either lounge on the boat and enjoy the day, or jump into the icy water to swim twenty meters to the hot springs.
I chose to stay on the boat, laying on the bow listening to the waves and seagulls while I soaked up some sun.
The other girls chose to jump in and swim for it.
I watched Lydia, Bethany, Caitlin, Kate, Jess, and an assortment of Asian tourists (everyone on the cruise except us and a couple who looked and sounded like Kitty and Red Forman was Asian) flail around in the water with their teeth chattering until they were out of sight around the bend, then I laid back and read "Bridget Jones's Diary."
The boat honked again just as I neared the end of a chapter and everyone who had gone swimming returned.
"How was it?" I asked as the other girls were pulled into the boat by one of the tour guides. I heard "miserable" and "never again" muttered while everyone glared at me and shivered as I handed each of my friends her towel.
I loved the ride home. I sat on the prow of the boat with my feet hanging out over the water. It was chilly, but not nearly as bad for me (the only dry one) as for my friends who huddled together on a bench behind me, picking gunk off of their bathing suits and complaining about how disgusting the hot springs had been. They were all covered in mud and slime and Bethany broke a comb trying to untangle her hair.
I don't feel like I missed out on anything at all.
When we got to shore, we spent some time shopping, then walked home in time for the sunset. I read on the deck while my roommates showered. Lydia was the first ready, so she and I went to Poppy's office to order room service baklava for everyone's dessert. Lydia and I both ordered dinner as well (moussaka for me, some vegetarian dish with vine leaves for Lydia).
The food arrived quickly and was delicious. We spent the rest of the evening talking and packing before another early bedtime.
Saturday morning, we met Vangelis in the parking lot at 7:30 for a ride to the airport. He packed all of our things in his van, then shook our hands and wished us a safe flight before leaving us at the tiny airport's main door.
It took us about half an hour to get through security since their was only one man working in the entire airport (remember how I said the Santorini airport is essentially one room?). Luckily, we were on the only flight leaving that morning, so there was no rush and we were about ten feet away from our departure gate.
The flight back to Athens was smooth and took less time than going through security. We had a five hour layover in the Athens airport, so we looked around at the shops, ate lunch, then played Simon Says and Never Have I Ever outside in the parking lot until our next flight (we got a lot of very strange looks...).
From Athens, we went to Zurich, Switzerland to catch a connecting flight to Firenze. I feel like I belong in Switzerland.
Standing in line for the ladies' room, I noticed that five of the other women in line were taller than I was and the only two women shorter were other Americans.
Walking from the W.C. back to our gate, I noticed that I was surrounded by people my height or taller. All of the men were taller than I was. Most of the women were taller than I was. I felt like an average height. There were women in heels who towered over me, walking with men who were still taller than the women. I turned to Lydia (who is just about my height) as we walked through a souvenir shop.
"I never want to leave," I told her. "These are our people."
Lydia laughed. She spent a weekend in Interlaken, Switzerland in February and so had already had one of these awakenings.
The entire time we were in the airport, I kept looking at the women's pants and shoes. They all had feet my size! Or bigger! They all had legs as long as mine! Many of them had longer legs! I could buy shoes here with no problem! I could find jeans that cover my ankles without digging through every pair in the store for something marked "long" or "tall."
I looked at the men, too. They were all definitely over six feet tall. No exception (except for tourists). If I lived in Switzerland, I could meet a guy taller than me who isn't a basketball player. Success! We could buy shoes together in the normal part of a store and live happily ever after.
I am moving to Switzerland.
Sadly, not yet though. We touched down in Firenze around 8 p.m. then took a taxi home. After unpacking, Bethany and I both went right to bed. This morning, we slept in and went grocery shopping, and have just been hanging out this afternoon. Erika still isn't home since she's taking boats and buses back from Greece rather than a plane. Apparently, she won't be home until midnight. Good thing we didn't do that. Also, there's laundry hanging on every available surface of the house since Bethany and I both washed a week and a half's worth of clothes today. I wish we had a dryer. Study abroad problems.
So that's it. That was my Grecian adventure. No riots (except for the one James went to our last night in Athens); just lots of sun, fun, friends, photos, gyros, and ouzo, and the greatest week of my life.
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