It's all Greek (salad) to me!

…To continue our international vacation, Betty and I headed to Athens, Greece on Thursday September 24^th. Everyone had told me one day in Athens would be enough, so we were ready to explore as much as possible. Our hotel was on a street that seemed like a one-stop-Catholic church-stop! Each store sold items like robes and other miscellaneous gear for the various orthodox churches. We walked down the street to eat lunch before going to see the Acropolis, and stumbled upon some cute outdoor cafes near the flea market, so I got my first delicious Greek salad and Freddo coffee in Greece! Love at first bite! Feta will never taste as delicious as in Greece! After lunch, we started walking towards the Acropolis. You enter into this huge park site, and it’s just filled with ruins…theaters, buildings, statues, all dating back to way before the world of air conditioning! I found it really relaxing and interesting to just wander around on our own, stopping at all the different sites.

The Parthenon looked so far away, up on the hill…we didn’t know if we’d make it, but it turned out to be easier than expected. I still don’t know how those little old ladies or girls in high heels walked up the slippery rock paths though.

The Parthenon

I found it fascinating to see that the Crusaders (who seem to have made their mark on every country I’ve been to) had cut the heads off all the statue monuments…we saw this again later in Israel, even! Those damn Crusaders! One night in Athens…eating a salmon dinner that seemed WAY too inexpensive to me…until I bought internet at a café, and Googled the exchange rate: Oops! We got it backwards! At least it was only for one day; math is not my strongest suit. Just in time to catch the ferry to Mykonos! I have never been on a ferry like this before! It was HUGE with big comfy seats, a coffee bar, fast food restaurant, and a whole lounge area. Imagine my surprise when I see a tall, dark-haired young guy who looks like a grown up version of a friend I had in college…and he’s wearing a UC Irvine Rugby shirt! Sure enough, it WAS him, my friend, Steven, journeying around with a five-week Contiki trip around Europe. If you aren’t familiar with Contiki, they provide college-age trips for Spring Break and other occasions. This European trip meant travelling (aka binge drinking) everywhere they went, leaving dozens of sniffling, coughing college-age ferry passengers…all surrounding the wannabe Israeli girl with the weak immune system (me).

On a happier note, Betty and I arrived safely in Mykonos, and after dropping our stuff off at the hotel, went into the little city. We sat right on the water and did some people watching while I ate the most authentic calamari still shaped like the squid it actually is! But don’t tell the kids at Mama D’s that’s what calamari is! We then wandered the beautifully white neighborhood with accents of bright blues and other colors on the window shutters and stairs. We even got to the see the famous windmills, and watch something filming in the streets below. Lots of pictures, lots of cute little houses, and all we could think about was, “how do they move their furniture in there?” We watched the sunset from our own little spot on a hill, watching a cruise ship come in for the night. What a beautiful little town!
The next day, Betty and I had our first relaxing beach day of the vacation at the Paranga beach. It was pretty quiet, but we loved the chairs and atmosphere, and it was a great day despite the ten minutes it rained while we laid out. The water was so clear and beautiful, and nice to just lie in for a while. First “hot guy” sighting occurred at this beach, but of course it was a beautiful English dad with his toddler son, playing around in the water, and not a descendent of the Greek Gods. It was adorable. Mykonos was great, but I was pretty anxious for our last stop in Santorini the following day. We had a high speed ferry to Santorini, which I’m pretty sure is supposed to be a positive thing, but I don’t think either of us preferred it to the monster ferry that brought us to Mykonos. I found it to be a little too bumpy for me, but I was also still feeling sick from my Contiki cold, so maybe that’s why. Getting off the ferry might be the worst part of taking a ferry. There’s NO order to the chaos, and trying to get your suitcase is nearly impossible. But how can you really get upset when you’ve just arrived in Santorini, at quite possibly the most gorgeous hotel overlooking the water and volcano? I would DEFINITELY recommend everyone to stay at the Volcano View Villas just outside Fira on Santorini. The hotel was amazing, with a great pool area and restaurant, a free shuttle to the city, and lots of helpful employees, including my favorite guy, who looked rather like Mr. Bean. I don’t even know his name, but the moment we walked in to get something for dinner after our long ferry journey, he sensed I wasn’t feeling well and made it his mission to help me. I ate a delicious seafood risotto and drank some hot tea, but on my way back from the restroom, he showed me a label-less bottle of alcohol, and insisted I’d be “no more sick” after a shot of that. Oh, the ouzo! He advised us not to do the volcano and hot springs tour, as the hot springs aren’t even hot and we can see the volcano from our hotel. Good point.

The next morning, after eating yogurt and granola for breakfast for the 8^th consecutive day, we went in search of the glorious black sand beaches. We took Mr. Bean’s advice and went to Perivolos via the local bus system. This beach was also pretty secluded, but again…we liked it this way! I worked on my ever-bronzing tan, listened to Hebrew on my ipod as a last effort in holding onto what I’ve learned in the last months, and also continued to read the novel version of my favorite film studied at Omanoot, Someone to Run With, by David Grossman. It was a very relaxing day, on a beautiful beach. I think Betty would agree it was our favorite of all the pretty beaches we saw. We still had a couple hours before our hotel shuttle picked us up from the town, so it was time to explore! I was on a hunt to see the donkeys, and finally saw an old man riding one down the steep, windy path. Just as Betty and I began snapping pics, the man yelled at us in Greek. Shortly after, he beat his donkey with a stick for hesitating down the steps. Oy. Where’s PETA when you need them?? I was still determined to see the donkeys. So using my camera as a telescope, I spotted where the group was gathered for the evening and ventured over to get a closer look. On my way I passed a few gorgeous little restaurants on the cliff, all with great sunset views. And here’s the money shot: the donkeys! Aww! Poor little guys; doomed to a life of captivity and tourists riding them up and down a hill. (Secretly I kinda wanted to do it, though!) After heading back from a full day of peace and viewing a fantastic sunset, we continued a nightly ritual of watching Dexter on our travel DVD player…I am officially hooked, thanks to Betty! On the last beach day, Betty and I went to the red and white sand beaches. We were told you could just take the local bus to the red sand beach, and go from there to the white sand beach. Did someone mention there was a boat involved?? The buses have a driver, but also a worker, someone to come sell the tickets and shout out each stop. When we got to “RED BEACH,” everyone got out of the bus and found ourselves next to a random coffee stop and a cliff. Hmm…now what? Luckily, I heard shouts from a little boat nearby, “Red Beach…White beach!” Turns out, AFTER you get off the bus, you then must pay 5 Euros to take a boat to each beach…yet another tourist trap! We passed the red beach first, with its impressive red cliffs, but decided to go on to the white beach, which sounded much more luxurious. The Greek worker on the boat, who was the only man to hit on me throughout the trip, whispered in my ear as we got closer saying, “You should take off your clothes now.” WHAT?? Well, what he meant was they planned to drop the passengers off about 20 ft away from shore, so we had to walk through the water to arrive at the beach! I’m glad he warned me! It was ridiculous…and I couldn’t help but laugh as we pulled up to the completely desolate “beach” and carried our bags over our heads. As the boat sailed off, they claimed they’d be back around in an hour, but the group laughed uneasily at the thought we might never see them again. One of the guys said someone would probably jump out from behind the cliffs to charge us for the chairs, and sure enough…my Greek boyfriend went around collecting money! Oh, Greece! Well, we laughed it off, but it was a sight to see. Got my tan on some more, and after a little over an hour, the boat came back as promised, but we decided to stay another hour, instead of going to the red beach just to get charged again for another chair. After heading back to Fira on the bus, we decided to be ambitious and try to make it to Oia for what I’d heard was the best place in Santorini to see the sunset. Unfortunately, on the way there I started to feel horribly sick with my cold, so I don’t think I appreciated it enough. I mean, really…I must not be a real girl, because I’m not THAT wowed by any sunset.

Nonetheless, I had a great time in Santorini, and enjoyed everything the island has to offer! But, inside, I couldn’t wait to get back to my home in Israel! …If we could only get there!

Travelling back was most definitely a 24-hour mission. I decided I should put, “private jet” up there on my list of things to acquire once I’m rich, along with a personal driver. We took an 8 hour ferry from Santorini to Athens, which got us back in Athens at about 1am, only to wake up and be picked up at 5am to catch an 8am flight to Istanbul, and then switch planes to a flight to Tel Aviv. WHOA. It even sounds crazy! At least there was plenty of absurd entertainment along the way, like the crazy lady who sat next to me on the ferry, then moved a bunch of times until I finally moved over to Betty’s side. She then ate a croissant, flaky goodness dropping EVERYWHERE, and her perfume made me want to hurl. Don’t people know ferries are for sleepytime? Then there’s the weird guy who made a scene about someone sitting in his seat, but then refused to sit in it, and just came back every so many hours to scoff at the group. Then, there was our cab driver and Fantasy Travel representative who talked SO loudly the whole way to the hotel in Greek, while Betty and I were exhausted knowing we’d only have a couple hours to nap. There was even a huge brigade of police cars and motorcycles going around that night in Athens…who knows what was going on! Waking up that morning was pretty painful, but we hoped to rest in the airport and on the planes. Without too much trouble, we arrived in Istanbul and transferred to our new gate. The line, which was more like a mob scene through security to the gate, was so long, the workers had to open a new section for the Tel Aviv flight in order to get us checked in on time. To top off the journey, as we lined up for boarding, someone had left their belongings behind in the waiting area, which is a big airport no-no. It seemed as though every airport employee came to see, but no one did anything. In the end, some random employee opened up the backpack and went through it without gloves or anything! I’ll tell you, we were glad to see my tiny little studio on Bograshov. Home sweet home!

Things I learned in Greece:

1. 1 Euro = 1.4875 USD (not the other way around)

2. The people who lay naked on European beaches are the people you do NOT want to see naked!

3. Be careful of bones in your fish dinner.

4. Sunsets are pretty…if you like that sort of thing.

5. You can get a workout climbing the steep paths of Santorini’s, Fira.

6. When anyone says it’s a black, red, or white sand beach…it might just be rocks.

7. Every Greek song sounds the same.

8. My skin  gets very tanned in Greece…woo hoo!