Day 11

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Day 11

This morning I skyped my family and boyfriend at about 7am my time and got ready for the day. We met at the docks at 9am and Vasili drove us to Assos. It was about an hour drive. Once we got there, our prof showed us where the restaurants, bathrooms and souvenir shops were, and also motioned to us where approximately the Venetian castle was. We all first took bathroom breaks, then 5 of us decided to venture out to see the castle. Apparently it has only recently been opened to the public, so admission was free. The only catch was that it was about a 2.8km walk up to get to the fortress walls! (which we didn’t know until we came back down.) On our way up some Austrians ran past us; all shirtless and one shoeless. And so once we got to the castle walls and entered, we all decided that since we were all dressed for the beach later, that because of the heat it was absolutely necessary to take off our shirts and reveal our bikini tops underneath for the rest of our hike around and down the mountain. (Damn! I just saw another mosquito out of the corner of my eye!) So we hiked around, took some pictures at a caved in tower, the Austrians met up with us and struck up a little bit of conversation, then we made our way down the mountain along the backside of the castle walls. It was a beautiful hike down; you could see the blue waters below that stretched out to oblivion, some hidden caves leading from the water, and other mountains beside ours. The hike down was a lot faster than the hike up, but it was still a tough day to choose to wear flipflops! Regardless, I still had fun and the view was worth all our sweat.

We met up with the group at 12:15pm with 5 minutes to spare. We ran back onto the bus, because the next stop was Miritos Beach, which is suppose to be one of the most beautiful beaches in the world; and boy was that true! The path to get there was windy and steep, but even from the top of the cliff we could tell that it was beautiful! Even whiter beaches and deeper blue seas! Vasili carefully drove us down and we had an hour to spend there. We quickly set up our towels on the beach, which was more pebbly than sandy, lathered on our sunscreen, then we hit the water! It was so refreshing (almost more so than the frozen water bottle I had packed for the day) and well-needed, that the water even started to feel warm. We took a group picture in the water, then a few of us decided to go back up on land and have lunch. I ate the rest of my souvlaki sticks with pita from last night’s dinner, that was kept cold by my frozen water bottle, digested for a little bit, and dove back into the water. It was SO blue and pristine that we couldn’t pass up another dip before we had to leave. We packed up at 2:30pm, got changed from our wet swim suits and headed back into the bus for Argostoli. (eww I just killed, yet another, mosquito!!) It took just over an hour to get there, and it turns out that all the clothing shops had closed for the day already!! Everyone was pretty disappointed, because lots of people are running out of clothing already, luckily I packed tons, but I’m still looking for a clothing souvenir from Greece! So instead we spent some time at the English bookstore, souvenir shopping and checking out the stationary store. At 5:20pm, our prof found us and brought us back to the bus. Apparently we were suppose to meet at 5pm, so 3 of us were a little late, but our prof wasn’t upset about it since it was one of our last stops of the day. The last stop was at the big box grocery store, about a 10 minute drive away from the shopping stores. He gave us an hour to shop, but I only needed about 20-30; I got 2 big bottles of water because they were even cheaper there, thought about getting yogurt but I figured it would spoil during the bus ride home, got some All Bran cereal, soda crackers, a carton of juice and a small package of rice (I’m hoping to make fried rice one of these days for a small group of us). At 6:30pm we left the supermarket on time and headed home for Poros. It was, again, about an hour drive (we’ve pretty much driven around the entire island by now), Vasili dropped us off with our groceries, and Penny (our stray program dog) was there waiting to greet us.

We went back to our own rooms, unpacked our groceries and I went over to my neighbor Lisa’s for dinner. No one was really hungry so I made a small cheese and tomato toastie (all items in bread and grilled like grilled cheese sandwiches at home) for me and Isabelle to share. I brought some of my crackers and my last apple to share with the group. There was about 6 of us; Joe made frappes, Isabelle brought cucumber, Lisa supplied grapes, the bread and cheese, Jenn brought the tomato, Steph brought some baklava, and Sarah brought some chocolate cookies she bought that day. We ate and talked for a little while, but I was still sticky from the beach and got quite a few mosquito bites either from last night’s dinner or today’s time at the beach, that I got paranoid about hanging out outside and decided to leave and take a shower. Since the gathering was happening just outside/beside my door, I think the party ended about the same time as when I got out of my shower. I’ve killed 2 mosquitoes tonight, so I’m hoping that that was it and that my place is now mosquito-free! I have been spraying citronella in my room, but I guess it doesn’t affect them (either way the spray deters form the cleaning-lady’s detergent smell ). My internet’s not working again tonight, I suppose it’s because everyone else is using it now (considering it’s only 10:20pm) but I’ll try to restart my computer and hope for the best. Tomorrow should be a more relaxing day, but there are talks for a glass-floor boat expedition happening this Sunday!

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