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Well, we are reaching our last days here in Greece and to be honest, we are both a little homesick. We are having a blast here, but we both think it's time to go home. Time to catch you up on what we've been doing.
After Paros and Naxos we went to Santorini- which was awesome. The place we were staying had a pool, so when we got there in the evening we decided to take a dip before bed. All the Greeks thought we were crazy because the water was cold, but we are Canadians so it didn't phase us! When we arrived at Villa Manos (the place we stayed) they offered us homemade wine... well I should say they 'made' us drink it. It was actually pretty good, I think it was wine mixed with fruit juice. I (Jess) had to give half my glass to Sean because it was a little too hot to be drinking for me!
For our first full day in Santorini we took a full day tour around the island to see all the most important things. We ended up going with an 'older' Dutch couple from Holland, Harry and Hendrike Herbrink... they were pretty sweet. We started out by taking a bus to the top of the highest mountain on the island, Profitis Ilias. There is a monastery on the top, but the monks are too shy so we weren't able to take a peek inside. Anyways, from the top you can see the entire island, which is amazing. It was really really windy up there, and the walk up is through a whole bunch of narrow streets. A stray dog followed us all the way to the top!
After the mountain view we took the bus down again (the bus drivers in Greece are pros... these roads are so narrow and windy). We went down to one of the ports and took a PIRATE SHIP to the volcano in the center of the island. Jess was really scared the entire time because it was really windy that day and the water was pretty rocky. Then entire time the ship was rocking back and forth and every once in a while we would get splashed. It was really scary, but Sean loved it. We got to walk around on the volcano and see all the old craters that had formed over the years. At one point we even saw green sulphur gas coming from one of the cracks in the volcano... pretty spooky, and smelly.
After the volcano we got back on our pirate ship and sailed over to the hot springs which are created by the hot magma coming from the volcano (cool!!!). The boat sets down its anchor a ways away from the hot springs and people are allowed to swim to the hot springs from there. Unfortunately when we got there two other boats were already there, so we ended up stopping quite far away from the hot springs, about 400m or so. Jess didn't think she would be able to swim the distance (plus she is not a fan of fish) so she stayed in the boat. But Sean was brave and swam the entire way! I got pictures of him swimming to prove it. The water was pretty cold until the hot springs.. and when Sean got back he wasn't doing too well. He swallowed a bit too much sea water on the way back and was feeling pretty sick. Unfortunately he didn't get down to the bathroom on the ship until we had started moving again, and the boat was swaying back and forth like crazy. That sent him over the edge and he puked up all his sea water... yuck. But he was better after that!
After the hot springs we went to Thirasia, a small island facing Santorini, where we ate an early dinner with the Dutch couple. We had kalamari on the sea side, right beside the water! It was really... chewy. It was alright, but I don't think we'll be ordering it again any time soon. It was a good experience though. After Thirasia we got back on the pirate ship and headed to Oia to see the sunset. Oia is the richest part of Santorini, and we could tell when we walked through all the shops. We went to a restaurant that had a great view of the water and a clear shot of the sunset, and when we went to order drinks we realized that the sunset is pretty expensive in Oia... We had smoothies for 9 euro!! And apple pie for 9 euro too. Kind of ridiculous.. but the sunset was incredible. We had an amazing view.
After the sunset it was time to head back to the hotel, but before we got on the bus we peeked into a little church in the center of the town. From the outside the church didn't look like anything special, just the same white washed building with the blue dome roof. But when we got inside we saw a whole different picture. It was so ornately decorated with gold and paintings, absolutely beautiful. Even more ornately decorated that some of the rooms in the Vatican! We didn't get any pictures but our friend Harry did, and he said he would send us some later.
We spent the next two days exploring Santorini's famous beaches. THe first day we checked out the black sand beaches, Kamari and Perissa. At Kamari we made friends with what we thought was a stray dog, who took our ball and ended up playing with us for hours. It turns out his owner just lets him play on the beach all day, we were glad to find out that he had a home though. Perissa wasn't as exciting as Kamari, so we didn't stay for as long.
On our last day we went to the Red Sand beach in Akrotiri and it was awesome. We had to take a long bus ride to get there and then we had to do a little hike over a small mountain with lots of slippery rocks, but it was worth it. The waves were incredible, and they picked up tons of rocks so when you went into the water it was a little rough! But very cool, the pictures will speak for themselves.
That evenin we took a ferry to Heraklion, Crete where we spent our first night. Funny story... we somehow ended up having dinner in the middle of a Communist rally. We arrived fairly late and we were both starving so we went out in search of food. We couldn't find anything that served cheap pitas but as we were wandering we began to hear what sounded like chanting. We followed the noise and we came across a HUGE group of people in the middle of a square. There were kids everywhere, and so we thought it was something like K-days in Edmonton. There were tons of little food places open so we sat down in the midst of the action with a great view of some woman on a podium talking to the crowd. There were news cameras everywhere, and everyone was cheering and chanting, so we assumed that she was someone important.
Then Sean noticed the symbol on the flags that everyone was holding.. a hammer and sickle. We sat and pondered for a while, and slowly the gears started turning. We asked the waiter what was going on, and with reluctance he whispered "Communist". It was pretty funny. The woman finished her speach and everyone chanted some more and then they slowly dismantled. While we were eating a little boy and girl came right up to us begging for food... it was our first really close encounter with poverty. It was really unsettling to be eating right in front of them, but at first we didn't even know what they were asking us. Nobody really seemed to take notice of them. We found the poverty to be the most severe in Crete for some reason, when we moved on to Chania there were beggars everywhere.
Anyways, on a lighter note Chania was beautiful. We stayed in a place right on the water overlooking the old Venetian Harbour in a really old building. Our view was incredible and we had a huge room! There were tons of great little shops to explore, but there were also lots of restaurants we had to pass and the waitors were pretty ridiculous. They would try anything to get you into their place, it was like walking the gauntlet everytime we passed them. We did end up eating at one restaurant that had live music, these two Greek guys playing some funky looking guitars and singing. Sean had a blast, and the guys were pretty good. The restaurant was actually an old crumbled building with no roof and trees growing inside, it was really cool.
We took a day trip to Elafonisi Beach in the south of Crete and it was definitely the most beautiful beach we went to the entire trip. It was basically like a giant heated wading pool, and you could walk to little mini islands because the water was so shallow and clear. It was amazing. That evening (last night) we took a night ferry from Chania to Pireaus so that we could get to Athens. Unfortunately they didn't turn the lights off (nor the TV) so we barely got any sleep... and now here we are in Athens. Tired. Sweaty. Slightly Cranky. and Homesick.
It's not all bad though. We got here really really early (6 am) and found out that check in isn't until 1:30... Fine. We wandered the streets for an hour and got to see just how many animals there are in Athens! There are dogs and cats everywhere, unlike any other place we have been. Walking down the street you'll see like five dogs sleeping, it's crazy. A couple dogs decided to be our tour guides and lead us around town for a bit. They were really playful and were constantly distracted by pigeons and cats. We eventually made our way to the Acropolis and checked out the Parthenon, which was awesome. The view from up there is amazing, you can see everything! The Greeks sure know how to pick location... We decided to save the rest of the archeological sights for later because our camera battery was running low, so here we are waiting for it to charge.
This will probably be our last entry, since we only have one full day left of the trip. Tomorrow we are going to take a day trip to Delphi to see the Oracle, we are both pumped! The next morning we depart from Athens pretty early in the morning... and eventually we will be home. For the parents- we can't check our departure time until 24 hours before we leave, you guys can check them too. Hopefully nothing changes. Will we be seeing you all when we arrive in Edmonton? Hope so!
Until then...
Miss you all
Jess & Sean
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jessean
Jessica & Sean
Price of Smoothies
To Chris... the dude who wanted to know about the expensive smoothies. It was a cafe place at the top of Oia, you were basically paying for the view. We didn't see prices that expensive in normal shops etc.