Advertisement
Published: July 27th 2006
Edit Blog Post
Didn't have a brilliant night's sleep, so we were both pretty tired this morning. We weren't 100% certain what we were going to do today, particularly when we walked into town and it was sooooo windy. I was constantly getting grit and dust in my eyes, so it was hell for Beck with her contacts in.
Over another gyros we decided to stick to our original plan and head to Perissa. We had to wait a little while for the bus to Perissa, but it must be said that the buses in Greece are very reliable and comfortable. Each bus has a driver (obviously) and an attendant who collects the money. We originally had the idea of going to Akrotiri as well as Perissa to see the museum/archaelogical site, but we had reliably been informed that it was closed. Apparently there had been a collapse, and since it wasn't high season it was staying closed for now. Akrotiri is advertised as a Minoan-era city, rumoured to be the lost Atlantis, but for us it was not to be. Oh well.
The bus actually took us around most of the island where we hadn't been so far, before we got out at
Perissa which was good. I'm glad I wasn't driving the bus as some of the cliffs were sheer with hundreds of metres for a drop.
The main idea in Perissa was to swim in the black volcano sand beach, but I wasn't so sure. After putting it off, I saw some other hardy souls swimming further along the beach, so I bit the bullet and dived in. The sand was fairly coarse on the beach, but in the water the ocean floor was like smooth bitumen. Weird.
There were loose round boulders that I also discovered when I banged into them. I didn't stay in the water long enough to get cold, and I actually found it quite invigorating. After having the obligatory photos taken and catching a wave I got out.
After getting changed and using our travel towel (slightly overrated) we chilled out by walking around the town, rang people back home and grabbed an ice cream. The ice cream was poor and there wasn't a lot to see in Perissa from our viewpoint, so we decided to catch the next bus back to Fira. We decided against walking to Ancient Thira.
On the bus back we went
past Boutari Winery which would have been interesting to see. The grapes here are grown differently to Australia, the vines are very low to the ground (almost circular), and they don't look like they would produce much fruit, but I'm sure the locals know what they're doing (might not be season either).
Walking from the bus stop in Fira back to the hotel we bumped into Chris and Matt again, and we planned to meet up with them at five in Murphy's. We grabbed some chips to nibble on, and coke to drink and before long we dozed off back at the hotel. It was a very light sleep, so we felt worse when we got up again.
When we got down to Murphy's Chris and Matt were already in there, and soon, with the whole bar to ourselves, Anna our bartender was entertaining us. She had a few card and straw tricks that either impressed or confused us, but Anna will definitely have to go to finishing school and work on her presentation if she's going to captivate live audiences.
We left Murphy's after a couple of beers. It's a good bar, but a bit pricy and we'd spent
a bit of time in there. We went looking for a bar with a view, and settled on a cafe that had brilliant views and was out of the wind. Chris and Matt shared with us the special aspect of their trip to the pyramids and Gallipoli which was very moving. They are great guys and we get along with them really well. After their stories on Gallipoli we can't wait to go there ourselves for Anzac Day.
After a couple more pricy beers we headed outside to take some more photos of the sunset. It was still very windy, but the sunset was impressive and it would have been good to see it in Oia, but it couldn't have been much better than Fira.
Once the sun had gone down we headed to the Koutouri Friendly Greek Taverna for dinner. We ordered an array of different Greek food to share, and talked non-stop over our meal which was washed down with some Greek wine.
When we came to paying the bill we were low on cash, but we thought we could pay with our credit card, but after a drawn out affair where the guy tried using it we
had no luck. The boys covered it for us and we fixed them up when we got cash out straight after.
Chris has a theory on their cash economy in Greece, and why next to no one pays tax. That is why the roads look like they need an upgrade, because the government doesn't get much revenue (comparatively) from tax. Everyone avoids paying tax but it impacts on the services the Government provides. It is amazing how many places have an EFTPOS machine, but they can't or wont use it.
After dinner we wished the boys all the best, said our goodbyes, and called it a night.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.055s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 10; qc: 18; dbt: 0.035s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb