(111) is Tuesday, 27 April 2010.
You know what sucks? Okay, well, yes—burnt popcorn sucks, too. And having to pay for wi-fi. And the SAT.
But the more relevant thing, the one I was going to add, is this: having on-deck seats on ferry rides. Kirill+Liz (henceforth “Kirizabeth”) and I had booked the cheapest tickets we could. Which makes sense, until you’re facing ripping sea winds and cold, wet temperatures while on little sleep and a boat that rocks like… something really, really rocky.
Yeah.
Kirizabeth were pretty glad when we finally snuck onto a row of indoor seats (about 6 hours into the 8-hour ride). I do okay with boats, though… especially when blazing my way through Nick Hornby’s hilarious character study, High Fidelity.
Anyway, for those of you who’ve never been there, you should know that Santorini is pretty awesome. I will post photos VERY soon to make my case. We were picked up at the port by a van from our hostel—Stelio’s Place—and drove up the zigzag cliffs to our newest abode. And for those of you who’ve never been there, you should know that Stelio’s Place is pretty awesome, too. First of all, Aaron was waiting for us by the pool. There WAS a pool, the rooms were basically hotel rooms (spacious and cleaned every day), and it was a stone’s throw from the black sand beach.*
After swimming for a bit and meeting up with Izzy and Carryn (who happened to overlap with Aaron’s itinerary), we strolled the black sand beach before dinner. I loved this beach. It may be my favorite one ever. First of all, it’s beautiful, and secondly, black sand beaches aren’t actually composed of sand. They’re made of lots of little rocks (bigger than grains of sand), so walking on them feels really cool and getting them out of your socks and shoes is painless. It was here we threw a Frisbee briefly and met GhostDog, a pale white dog that appeared and disappeared seemingly at will. Aaron decided GhostDog was our guardian spirit (or whatever the word is from those silly Harry Potter books).
We had dinner at Ntomatini, a beautiful restaurant (family-run, which you might not guess from how classy the place looks) right on the shoreline. I had a delicious plate of shrimp spaghetti, a strawberry daiquiri (perfectly made)**, and a chocolate lava cake. We traded stories, went back to the hostel, and went to bed. I read more of High Fidelity on our deck. Yup. Deck. Stay at Stelio’s Place when you go to Santorini.
(112) is Wednesday, 28 April 2010.
This is the day Iron Man 2 came out in France. Ten days before it premiered in the states. Love it. I didn’t see it today, but still: it rocks like… something that’s still really, really rocky.
Damn it… I’ll get it… I’ll get it…
For today, we had scheduled a day trip through the hostel that would take us around the island. We dashed to the bus with breakfast from a nearby bakery and climbed onto the glass-bottom boat. Everything I’m about to explain will make a lot more sense after you look at this map of the island.
Our first stop was the center rock formation, which was the volcano. It’s dormant, so no worries: your flight schedules are safe. We had a guide who seemed to be both a geology professor and six years old at the same time. He would explain how volcanoes work and how this one formed the island with piles of rocks on the ground and with the speed and fascination with rocks you might expect of one of my campers.
Essentially, to recap what he explained, volcanoes form by molten lava (rock so hot it’s a liquid) building up pressure just under the earth’s surface. When there’s enough lava, it forces the rock to protrude a bit (the familiar mountain shape of a volcano) before eventually bursting through and destroying the mountain it had created. These mountain fragments settle and the rock all cools and a fragmented-looking island like Santorini is formed. Boom.
After the walk, we got on the boat and jumped off at one point to swim in the hot springs near one rocky coast. The springs were warm at best, and even when they were comfortable, there were these sub-surface breezes of chilly water to bring you back down from your warm-water euphoria. Oh, well. It’s not every day I jump off a boat. They then dropped us off on another part of the island for about two hours to get lunch. We found a restaurant at the end of the (sparsely populated***) shore where I had a seafood kebab loaded with deliciously grilled shrimp and lobster (which I had never tasted).
Back on the boat, where they guided us downstairs to look at sub-surface goings-on. Kinda' cool, but not that many fish. Mostly rocks. I found the frantic movement of air bubbles against the glass infinitely more entertaining.
The next stop was Ia, a hilltop town at the end of a VERY long set of stairs up the [verify that it was the west] mountainside of Santorini. This may have been my favorite part of Santorini: the town was essentially situated on a cliff and made of all white buildings linked by sidewalks, all of which was graced with breathtaking views of the sea and where it met the arc of the island. Aaron, Kirizabeth, and I window shopped and even bought a few souvenirs at this charming little store with hand-made furniture, puzzles, and jewelry. I also found a delicious chocolate tart somewhere around this time.
We got surrounded by dogs. There was no real threat, but the visual of Aaron and Kirill clinging to each other atop a bench in the clearing was really funny. To be fair, there were even dogs on a nearby roof barking at us: “sniper dogs,” according to Aaron, who of course called out for GhostDog to come save us.
GhostDog didn’t come to save us.
After walking some more, we found a restaurant to sit, order drinks and appetizers (pan-fried meatballs for the win), and take tons of pictures of a beautiful sunset.
On the daytrip-sponsored bus ride back to the hostel, Aaron and I listened to the Allman Brothers on his iPod. I hadn’t heard 'Midnight Rider' in far too long, and unless you've listened to it while reading this, then the same goes for you.
(113) is Thursday, 29 April 2010.
I want to tell you about a restaurant called Yazz, which also takes up a piece of real estate on the black sand beach and is thus a Kirill’s throw from Stelio’s Place. I would not get a breakfast this comprehensive until Dublin (Spoiler! Spoiler!). Fried eggs that bleed all over the plate (which is wonderful), bacon, sausage, baked beans, and mushrooms. We also decided that— in preparation for the party island of Ios— Mimosas were in order. I decided they aren’t really my favorite drink, but it was a nice sentiment. The coolest part was the gazebo we ate under. We had a private gazebo with an ocean view where we ate a delicious breakfast. This is why we came to the islands.
Well, also to sit on the beach for the next two hours listening to a restaurant play “Feel That Conga Beat.” Spring break rocks. Like something...
Oh, forget it.
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Deck the halls with lots of footnotes! Fa la la la la, la la la la!
* That last clause is borrowed from a review we read of Stelio’s Place while planning. To quote Kirill: “You hear that?! A stone’s throw from the beach! I want to be a stone now…”
** Don’t give me that look.
*** This note’s actually pretty important. I should note that, in late April, we were a tad before the busy season in Santorini (and Ios a few days later). That’s why our accommodation was such a steal and why not that many things were open. That, and Greece’s deficit was in the process of bringing the Euro down to near-dollar levels BUT THE POINT IS there weren’t always a lot of people around on these beautiful islands. Which was kind of nice, actually.
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