Wrong....Again!

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Once we stood in the ticket line at the train station, it was confirmed that the train ride to Port Ancona we thought was 45 minutes long was actually four hours and that we would indeed miss our ferry. We contacted the Anek lines ferry people and changed our ferry ride to the 16th of July. After much debate, we hopped on the 2 o clock train to Ancona and hoped and prayed we would find somewhere to stay for the night. We got on the train and unknowingly sat in the 1st class car. A few minutes later, an old Italian man came by and started shouting "Go to the second class, Go to the second class." And after he saw we had our feet propped on the seat, he shouted, "You have no class, you have no class!!" Oh well. We still laughed, played, sang, and ate all the train ride there.

"She waved at all the people on the trains & later, when she saw they didn't wave back, she started singing songs to herself & it went that way the whole day & she couldn't remember having a better time in her life."

We rode through the beautiful Italy countryside with breathtaking mountians and streams. We moved forward to the open window car and stood with the breeze in our face taking in the view for a while. The first sight of Adriatic, Tija's sea, was an emotional experience and we studied the beautiful water for the rest of the ride as Tija told stories of growing up on the sea and her intense craving for Croatian sea food began.

We arrived at Ancona Port, and stepped off the train. We decided to try the first hotel we saw, named the Dorian Inn. Good Pick as it was 30 Euros! We thanked the Lord and trecked to our #21 room. Hey Daddy! After a little rest we headed out to explore the town. We enjoyed walking around this quiant little port city and had our usual exploration of the local grocery store.

We arrived back to our hotel and enjoyed our dinner. Tija got extremely excited about the figs we purchased and captured James' first fig photo. We attempted to relax by watching Italian TV, but just ended up crashing quickly.

We arose to our 7am wake up call, took showers ,and packed up our gear. The morning was spent at a local cafe sipping coffee and journaling. We caught a city bus to the port and with the help of the entire bus, entire bus, we managed to get off at the port station. After James asked one man for directions, literally the whole bus chimmed in to direct us, saying, "Stop 4, Get off now, Hurry, This is the Port!!"

We picked up our ferry tickets and decided to have lunch on the port dock. With our feet hanging off over the Adriatic we enjoyed our lunch. We decided we needed some more crackers for our 20 hour ferry ride, so Tija decided to go across the street for 15 minutes to get them while James waited with the bags. WOW! One and a half hours later Tija returned with a huge bag of crackers and Kinder egg for James. James was worried and standing on top of the huge concrete slab scanning the massive crowd for Tija. Tija was just as frustrated that her trip had turned out so long and that her ice cream had melted. We vowed not to seperate again despite our heavy bags.

We boarded the ferry and found what we believed was the best spot on the ferry. We grabbed some lawn furniture and marked the spot with our bags. We began to notice that EVERY single other person boarding this ship had a sleeping bag and a pillow. HUMM

We enjoyed the night by exploring the ferry, watching people, seeing the sunset, and snacking from our bookbag. People always look at us like we are wacked in the head when we pull out our canned vegetables and peas and start eating them out of the can.

When it got about 930pm and we started getting tired, we didn't love the spot we had picked out so much after all. On a trip to the restroom we discovered people sleeping in the hallway. We decided to join them. We made our bed between two large house plants and bordered ourselves in with our luggage. We actually slept pretty well. There was a sweet Turkish family sleeping beside us. Tija managed to communicate with the sweet lady in French. We arose, purchased some coffee, and secured some pretty sweet seats on the deck for our morning cruise. The scenery throughout the ferry ride was beautiful. We cruised through the Adriatic seated between georgeous mountains, cliffs, and ridges.

We arrived at Patra Port ready for our 45 minute bus ride to Athens. We ordered an ice cappuchino to kill an hour before boarding the bus. We put the bags in the baggage compartment and boarded in our usual fashion- loud, confused, American fashion. We settled, conversed, and admired the scenery. As James cracked open a case of crackers with Nutella, Tija turned toward a guy sitting next to us and asked him if he speaks English. Yep, He actually said that the "45" minute bus ride was in fact a three hour bus ride. Wrong Again!! At this point, tired, exausted from the journey, our brain cells just sorda began commiting suicide which translated into hysterical laugher and once agian going with the flow. The guy on the bus said we was going to the same port we were looking for and offered to have us follow him. God sends us angels all the time.

We got off the bus and followed the dude to a nearby bus stop that will take us yet another port to take us to yet another ferry to take us to yet another place. This guy ended up being really nice and our friend for the night. When we purchased the tickets for the ferry to take us to Santorini, we both went into complete shock. At this point, we had taken a four hour train ride to Ancona port, a 22 hour ferry from Ancona to Patras Port, a 3 hour bus ride to Athens, and we had just found out that it takes 11 hours to get to Santorini. We thought it only took 4! Wrong Again! We were freaking out becuase we hardly slept and knew we were going to miss our hotel reservations. Armed with faith and a couple of crackers to keep us energized we took off.

The guy we met on the bus earlier that day helped us and we spent most of the 11 hour ferry ride talking to him. His name is Niko and he's probably in his late forties, early fifties. A rebel as a youngster, he had much wisdom to offer us and lots of cool stories. He mentioned several times he could look at our eyes and see we are nice girls. He also asked Tija to take special care of James and to protect her from all the "shit" becuase she is too nice. Tija promised she would. He ended up buying us dinner on the ferry that we could have never ever afforded. A REAL greek salad! He got off at the first of three islands where we bid him goodbye and promised we would never forget him or the wisdom he shared.

37 hours later, on July 18th, we arrived to Santorini! Beauty, no words can describe!

Upon arrival at the port we wondered around debating what attempts we should make to acquire transpotation to our hotel. We saw lots of people holding signs with names of individuals and names of hotels. A kind gentleman asked us where we were staying. We looked up at the sign in his hand, "Villa Dimitris," our hostel! "This one!" we exclaimed. He asked if we were supposed to be here yesterday and we replied "yes!" He said no worries and that he would transport us to the villas and wewould work out the accomodation. Amazing provisions! We thankfully hopped into his white van.

We arrived at the villa around 9 am. He asked us to explore the town for about 2 hrs. while they finished preparing the rooms. We discovered this fun, family owned cafe that would become a favorite and daily revisit. We had coffees and a vegetable crepe. We spend the rest of our time in the internet cafe. We arrived back at our villa to meet the gentleman's wife who owned the hostel. She said we could have our reservation for the next four nights instead and finished preparing our room. This place was lovely, homey, beautiful, and a 2 minute walkfrom the beach.

We went swimming, rested up in a hostel until about 7 pm. We dressed and exlpored the Perissa village of Santorini island. We dined in a lovely, little Greek restaurant where James had her first lamb chops. Then we sat on the wall of the sea and watched the moon rise. Very unique and beautiful expeience. The traditional Greek music in the background sealed a perfect evening.

July 19th
The next morning, we arose early. The night before, we had met "Nick the Greek", a jolly, Grecian, curly headed man we rented our ATV from. Everyone explored the island with scooters and ATVs. We had to opt for the latter, since neither of us had driven a mo-ped before. We had so much fun driving around the island on our 4 wheeler. We climbed cliffs, visited beautiful bays, coves, and beaches. We found one beautiful, private beach at the bottom of a massive cliff. We layed in a shade for a while and dipped in the beautiful Adriatic. We got lunch from the local grocery store and had our picnic at this lovely port, then headed home for naps.

Santorini is famous for their sunsets and we set out to see our first one. We were too late for the famous one, so we had to settle for one actually labeled "unique sunset view." It was lovely. There was a light house and we climbed down the cliff and secured a perfect sunset seat. We sang praise songs as the sun sank and it was another perfect evening. We drove back and returned the 4 wheeler. Side note/ the 4 wheeler did not have a reverse so the whole day we had to push it back out odf the parking spots and on tight turns. Our 4 wheeler was also extremly slow. The entire day busses, cars, tansport truck, mopeds and other 4 wheeres were honking and passing us by. The biggest laugh, what a joyride. We just started waving them around. The funnest 4 wheeler day ever.

We dedicated July 20th as our official day of rest. We slept in, showered, and pampered ourselves. James went out to the beach while Tija chilled at the hostel and went exploring and walking around the town. James was not completly aware you had to pay for the back umbrella and the beach chair. She plopped down. When Jimmy came around collecting money, she told him "No thanks," and moved her Little Mermaid towel to the sand. About 10 minutes later, he invited her to an umbrella for free. James and Jimmy made friends and he said she brought him luck. He ended up buying her a fresh squeezed OJ which she loved. Tija and James met back at the hostel for a lovely patio lunch and then went for an afternoon swim. We chilled in front of "Moda" tv, which is a 24/7 Italian modeling show that plaqys US music. Lovely, restful day.

The next day, we arose ready for the long awaited donkey ride. We visited the breakfast cafe. The owners are adorable and recognized us and helped us with out daily plans. We caught the bus to Thira, the capital village of the island. We asked around for donkey rides. Now we have been excited about this donkey ride for weeks and people often look at us like we are crazy or just not well informed when we inquire about it. Although we had been warned about it twice, we decided it was a must experience. We also discovered that a cable car ride down a cliff was involved, which made our quest all the more thrilling. The cable car was quick but beautiful. The port we arrived on was also beautiful and the village men who ran the donkey rides were precious. We chilled with our feet over the port and then it was time for the long awaited donkey ride. We mounted our donkeys and the village men pretty much sent the two of us up the mountain without guidance. These donkeys were crazy running arounf the cliffs. Everyone was laughing and screaming. It was great fun and also a pretty good scare. James kept seeing families coming down the mountain for the donkey ride and gave the dads a classic "This is not a safe family activity" look. Haha! Tija and James' donkeys kept competing to be the leaders and slamming them against the rocks. It was great, we were so glad that we went.

We used the phone card we had purchased to call James' mom for her birthday. Happy birthday Ms. Kathy, we love you! And Tija's mama for love and directions to Bosnia, since our original Balkan pass plan failed. We got ourselves a delicious chicked gyro, so good, and caught the bus to Oia, where the famous sunset is. We chilled with the coffee we had to purchase in order to use the bathroom in a little cafe. Oia village is beautiful and hundreds of people were gathered for this sunset, but we got the best seat. It was a little lover's lookout carved into a platform everyone watched the sunset from. Everyone kept commenting all night that we had the best seats. A greek father and child serenaded us with traditional music as the sun sank. We boarded the Thira bus, then the Perissa village bus, visited the 24 hr. bakery, and purchased groceries for the next day's journey.

We arrived back at the hotel eager to eat the watermelon that had been chilling in the fridge all day. Since we didn't have a knife James threw it on the floor to split it. The stupid thing was spoiled, so we settled for our other goodies and crashed for our last night on Santorini.

We arose at 6 30 am hoping to find transportation for our 8 30 ferry. We showered and packed all our junk. We were sad to leave because we loved our little stay on this lovely island, but so excited that this leg of the journey brings reunion of Tija and her daddy. About 7 10 am, James runs down to the sir who owns the villa saying, "We need a ride to the ferry at 8 30, please take us." He agreed, and we were off again. Making sure that we had everything, James says " 2 purses, 2 duffle bags, a nalogene, and a bookbag. Check." We baorded the van for the port. When we arrived at the port at 7 50, Tija asked James if she got her passport. "Nope". James had left it at the hotel desk to insure we pay at the end of our stay. We freaked out a little and told the sweet hostel owner. He got his friend to bring it in time for the ferry. We boarded the ferry and secured sweet seats on the deck. Off again!

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Comments

[marianne]

vawow
oh my goodness, Im in love with your trip to Santorini, i've never heard of anything so perfect in all my life. I love you girls and missed you so much while i read this it made me want to cry. I wish I could have viewed this donkey ride and met all the charming people who fell in love with you and helped you. You are amazing, so proud of you.