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Published: July 19th 2009
Sunset
that's Lindsay, Rachel, Becca, and I on the first night watching the sunset off of the top of the island of Santorini in the village of OiaBlog Entry: Late Ferries from Santorini = Dock Time in Turkey
“Welcome to Greece!” That’s what the front of the map they gave me says. They’re so hospitable 😊 Greece was AMAZING! The ship docked in Piraeus on Monday the 13th, which is about 15 minutes outside of Athens. My first mission: finding an external hard drive! The Greek hospitality at the Purser’s desk on the ship gave me a few spots to look for and the general direction in which to look. It was quite the journey for Rachel and I, but Mission Accomplished! We’ve decided that some of the port cities are not very good examples of the countries themselves. Piraeus is definitely not a good example... I kinda felt unsafe... Going into Athens later that day made me feel much better! I had an FDP for my Poly Theory class called "Sights of Athens & the Acropolis." We all hopped on a bus and drove through Athens. Our tour guide took us past some sights then we headed up to the Acropolis which is located at the top of Athens. Man it was HOT outside! The Acropolis is way cool though. It’s one of those things where
ATV
we rented ATVs for the day! you get the brief explanation and that’s it! So we got a little of this, a little of that and walked around by ourselves. GREAT photo opps.. And the city of Athens was right below is almost 360 degrees around. I felt so ancient on top of that hill.
Later that night a group of us went out into Athens. A few of my friends here are gay and all of the research books and websites say that the gay scene here is hoppin. It sure was! We went to a strip of gay bars/clubs called “Gazi” and had an awesome time. We didn’t do much other than what we always do... EAT 😊 Okay... so we were all extremely excited to have REAL Gyros from Greece.... um, NOT. You know how we Americanize everything? Well we did it with Gyros too! Lamb Gyros are a myth. We couldn’t find them anywhere in Greece the whole time we were there. The only had chicken, pork, and beef. Mind you, they were scrumptious, but I was ready for some baaah baaah. Oh, and they put french fries on their Gyros... how backwards is that?? The Gyro thing was a big
Athens night out
lindsay, rachel, myself, anthony, and erika enjoying a beautiful night in Athens deal with us.... ha ha PS. Things get interesting when we are from different places across the country... Rachel and Erika from the East thought gyros is pronounced like “ji-roz”... I was not about to let them order “ji-roz” from the Greeks. What are jiroz? .... I told them it’s “yi-ros” and they didn’t’ believe me so we asked our cab driver... They now correct their own pronunciation when I’m around them. ha ha!
The next morning, Rachel, Becca, Lindsay and I hopped on a 4-hour highspeed ferry to the most beautiful island in the world.... Santorini! When we pulled up, it looked nothing like those beautiful pictures online: the pure white, stucco buildings with blue shutters and dome roofs... the island was just huge cliffs and rock. Luckily we got closer and there, tucked away high in the cliffs were the cute little white villages of Santorini. And when we got up there, they got even more beautiful. Anyone seen “Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants”? This is the island where it was filmed... the locals say “Mama Mia” was there too. And you know when things always look ten times more beautiful and colorful in films?? Santorini knocks
Hotel Babis!
us with our hotel host, Babis, on our last day in Santorini.... he was a great man! the movies out of the water! It was everything I expected and more....
Right off the ferry, we were swarmed with business people holding up signs and yelling at us to rent a car or stay at their hotel. But we already had a hotel, Hotel Babis! I’d like to take a break and thank my awesome boyfriend, Kyle, for finding us this place. For only 20 euro a night we got free breakfast, a pool, a huge balcony, free van service 24/7 to anywhere on the island, and the most hospitable/family-oriented owners. My friends all thank you too, Kyle! Right when we stepped foot on the island, he was waiting in the crowds holding up a “Hotel Babis” sign with a huge smile plastered on his face. “I am Babis,” he says and shakes all of our hands. “Come.” And there we were, free van ride up the cliff to his adorable hotel right outside of Fira, the main village on the island. Babis runs the hotel with his dad, wife, and adorable 5-year-old son. He sat a group of us down and took our bags while his wife served us orange juice. He handed all of us maps of the island and offered us excursions. Later, his son handed us of each a drawing... so precious. So we unpacked, and asked Babis’ dad to drive us into town. We sat down for lunch and were yet again blown away by the hospitality of these people. We started it off right with Saganaki, or flaming cheese (and from then on ate it at every meal... sometimes twice). At the end of our meal, they complimented us with watermelon, a tradition at Greek restaurants, and served us a cinnamon, honey, grits dessert on the house. Fira was so cute and the hot spot of shopping! So we walked up into town to do what us girls do best. I have never seen so many beautiful jewelry stores! That was about the time I wish money did not matter. The big symbol we saw everywhere was the “Eye” of Greece. This is the most important symbol to the Greeks because it represents the eye of God and symbolizes protection. The blue eye was everywhere and in all forms! It actually doesn’t look much like an eye at all. It’s simply a light blue/ dark blue/ white circle with a black dot in the center. The views were nice inside but even better outside the shops. The towns in Santorini are built up the cliffs overlooking the water and other islands, just like in the movies. There isn’t a building on the island that isn’t purely white with blue shutters or lightly colored. The colors against the blue Mediterranean made for some gorgeous pictures. I wish they did them justice, though.... pictures only capture about half of the beauty.
The SUNSET in Santorini is supposed to be the most beautiful sunset in the world.... the locals told us to go to the top of the island to the village of Oia (i-a) where the sun sets over the water and behind the mountainous islands. Beyond words... The actual setting of the sun only took about 10 minutes and you could literally see the sun moving inch by inch until it disappeared behind the mountains and bursts of color surrounded it. It looked like a huge flaming ball of fire. The place was very crowded because it is so popular there... everyone started cheering when it completely set. Kinda like fireworks. That night we decided to head back to Fira to stroll around at night and do some more shopping. The shops there don’t close until 1:30 am..... Sounds nice, but it definitely allowed us more time to do some damage....
The second morning we woke up early, ate some yummy complimentary breakfast, and decided to go rent 4-wheelers! They were only 15 Euro for a full 24 hours, helmets included! Lindsay and I got 4-wheelers, and Becca and Rachel got a 2 seater go-cart/buggie type thing. Best decision ever. After a few trial runs, we gassed up, and hit the beaches! Rachel (the driver) and Becca led the way, and poor Becca was on map duty. Our first stop was the Red Sand Beach at the bottom of the island. It looked easy on the map, but because the island is so small and local, the streets wind and have absolutely no signage. No worries though, we’re not men who are too stubborn to stop and ask for directions 😊 Well... we did that a lot. It’s also a good thing that the Greeks on the island are so friendly and helpful. A couple of them saved us many miles of travel. And they pretty much all speak English too. The Red Sand Beach was really cool. The volcano right next to the beach literally produced red sand! We all agreed that this was the best water we have ever swum in. The water was so smooth and clear. And we could see 20 feet beneath us... very relaxing. Our next beach was on the other side of the island and a different color: black! Literally. I’m not sure where this sand came from, but I’m sure it’s some sort of volcanic sediment. The waves were a bit rough and the beach was a bit windy, but nonetheless, beautiful. Unfortunately, we didn’t make it to the White Sand Beach, but it’s okay, we have those in America. This day was one of my favorite days yet on Semester at Sea. Having a unique and cheap form of transportation for a full day with nothing but a map and the island breeze on your face made all of us so happy. Plus we could do whatever we wanted without having to worry about catching a bus or even finding a bus station for that matter. Traveling in a small group of 4 helped a lot too, especially with these girls 😊 We all wanted to do the same types of things, got along great, and had a lot of fun together. (Love you, girls!) We were a great combination and have planned to do more things together in Turkey and Bulgaria.
Our second night there was a lot of fun too. I was on a mission to get a tattoo! I have been wanting one for quite sometime now and we figured out the Greek word for what I want... I would have really liked to get it in Greece, but things just didn’t work out. It will have to wait until I get back home... maybe 😉 Instead, we headed back up to Fira for a nice dinner on a rooftop restaurant overlooking the island just as the sun was setting. After some great food and some good laughs, we made our way back down to have dessert at a creperie (sp?). Katie Cuda recommended the Nutella, banana, and strawberry crepe... My mouth is watering. I want one right now.... We definitely indulged! After we scarfed them down, the 4 of us were all feeling a bit full. Rachel couldn’t breath in her dress anymore, so we decided to head back to the hotel to digest. What a night.
In the morning, we forced ourselves to wake up and use up the last hours we had the 4-wheelers. Of course, we found food.... The breakfast we all ate should be illegal. I ordered crepes or waffles with Nutella, strawberries, and bananas on it all cutely decorated that completely towered on the plate! Mine even had ice cream on it.... hey, when in Greece! We sadly headed back to drop off our vehicles and got a ride back to the hotel. None of us wanted to leave but we had to catch our ferry scheduled to leave at 11:15.................... NOT.
CHAOS for the next 6 hours for the 20 of us who went to Santorini! The ferry was scheduled to roll into Piraeus an hour and a half before we needed to make it back to the ship for the very strict “On-Ship Time” at 6pm. Every day that the ship leaves a port, we need to be back on the ship by 6pm so that we can clear customs and leave by 8pm..... right when we got to the port in Santorini, we learned the ship was about an hour late. This was cutting it close and none of us wanted dock time so we put our heads together, compiled a list of names of the people on the island, and called the ship to inform them that the ferry would be late. They, of course, were not happy... Well long story short, the ferry arrived almost 2 hours late, putting us an hour and half over On Ship Time.... SAS has this thing called “Dock-Time”... it’s kinda like time out. For every 15 minutes you are late to the ship past 6pm on debarking day, you get 3 hours of time out or “Dock Time” at the next port.... Not fun for anyone! This is a hard situation because the ferry being late was out of our control and essentially not our faults, however, back at the ship, they need to clear customs with everyone present and accounted for with passports turned in, in order to allow the ship to debark.... It’s about $10,000 a day to dock the ship at a port and being late leaving can result in some serious fines. Plus, it takes a lot to get customs to stay longer than the time allotted.... So while 50 of us were stuck on islands (the same ferry picked up 30 more students at another island), there was a possibility of us being left in Greece.... okay, I have to admit, this wasn’t a big deal for me... more time in Greece?? I’ll take it! We got word that customs was going to stay a bit longer because the staff captain of the MV Explorer is Greek and has good relations with customs. When the ferry docked in Piraeus, all hell broke loose! Fifty of us were on a mission to get back to the ship first to avoid dock time... basically whoever was there first got the least amount of dock time.... as soon as the ramp hit the dock, everyone was running, shouting, and basically clawing eachother down for near by taxi’s.... Becca, Linsday and I found a taxi, but Rachel was running too far ahead to get in ours ha ha. We raced there and the cab driver goes “6 euro each.” What??!?! 6 Euro a person for literally a 2 minute cab drive?? No way. None of us had enough Euro left.... We basically circled the cab driver who had his hand over the trunk with all of our bags in it yelling at him for over charging us and pleading with him to open the trunk. He eventually gave up, hissed, swore in Greek, and let us go.... I swiped my card in at 7:17, and after calculation, I realized I had 18 hours of dock time.... When all were present and accounted for on the ship, there was a lot of debate between the staff about how to deal with the situation. A lot of students were upset about getting dock time and wanted to some how get out of it, but being late is a very big deal. Someone did the math: 7% of the student population was on that ferry.... Dock time dock time dock time. That’s all we heard about for the next 24 hours until they announced that all of us on that ferry would be getting a set 12 hours of dock time.... It stinks to lose that much time in Turkey, but Santorini was totally worth it!
Santorini is somewhere I will definitely return to....
So today instead of getting off the boat, Becca, Linsday and I had 12 hour dock time (Rachel is taking hers the last day)! It’s okay though, because I had to write a paper…. I also had an FDP on the boat that they allowed me to attend. Last night, I experienced my first Shabbat dinner that they provide for the Jewish community on the ship. My good bud, Rachel, is full fledged Jewish and invited me and wanted me to go. To put it easily, Shabbat is basically a huge Thanksgiving-like feast they have every Friday night with the whole family….. it was delicious….. I’m converting.
Tomorrow I will be taking my first overnight trip through Semester at Sea. We go to the Asia side of Turkey, Troy, Gallipoli…. Everyone coming back into the ship today was talking about Turkey and how amazing the Bazaar is… shopping!
That’s all for now! Sorry about the length, I just have so much to tell you!
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Dad
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Greece up!
We went to Diane's Grecian relatives' 50th wedding anniversary yesterday. The food rocked! I can't wait to go!!! Diane came away with the name of a travel agent that her relatives use who really knows the ropes and can help us plan the trip. We are shooting for next summer. I was bass fishing a lake near Wis. Dells this morning with Nate and caught an unbelievable fish- a 47 inch long muskie that was 21 inches around (fat!) on 8 lb. test line (light!) on my spinning rod!!!! In was a 15 minute war that we were both amazed to have won. We boated the fish for pictures ( I was so tired from the fight I could hardly lift him- about 28 lbs.) and released him live. There was a lot of "hootin' and hollerin' " for the rest of the day! Love you!!! Dad