To Milos

We had breakfast at our hotel in Oia and then took an (overpriced) taxi down to the new port to catch our ferry. Of course we were early and the ferry was late. 

We hung around the port a little and I bought a veggie sub for us to share on the boat. Once we finally boarded we realized our seats were separated. I sat next to Ryan anyway when he has an open seat next to him. We share the sub and soon the boat stopped to pick up other people from an island on the way. Someone came up to claim the seat I was in, so I moved back over. Between watching people looking green and staggering to the bathroom and watching the inappropriate sexy music videos streaming on the televisions I started to feel a little ill myself. 

Luckily Milos was the next stop and I felt much better as soon as we were on dry land. 

We went to a rental car office and were told they were sold out. We walked down a few yards and found a shop that had one car left. We told him we'd take it. He immediately asked for a drivers license. We handed over our passports. "Drivers license!" He repeated. 

Ryan and I had a discussion in my mom's kitchen in Canfield on whether or not we needed to bring our licenses. When we were robbed in Quito they took our licenses and we had to get new ones at home, and we really didn't need then on the trip. We decided not to bring them to Greece. 

"We are from the United States, we didn't bring them," I told him. 

"Well, heh, it's pretty important!" He said with a shrug that said "duh."

I pulled out my phone, I remember taking a picture of my license and emailing it to the Pennsylvania Board of Nursing to get my PA license. I pulled up the photo and zoomed in so he could see it. It worked!  He copied some numbers down and drove us in his car full of groceries to a tiny parking lot with one car - ours- parked in it. A stick shift Fiat Panda. 

The gas tank was empty. We drove it to a gas station and we shocked at our bill after the guy filled it up. Gas ain't cheap in Milos!  

After stalling out a few times and some choice words from Ryan, we were off in search of our hotel (the term is used loosely in this case). We drove around the narrow streets of Plaka. It was Sunday and pretty dead. We found a very small cafe with some guys smoking at a table outside. Ryan dropped me off and I asked directions. The guys were so nice to pull out a phone and call the hotel for us. Turns out we were only about 100 meters away. The lady came out and waved us over. We would never have found it as there was really no sign. 

She spoke very little English but was friendly and led us to our room at "Anastasia's Rooms". 

To be continued...

Santorini cont

Our last full day in Santorini started with breakfast at the hotel and some souvenir shopping in the town. We came back to the hotel and sat by the pool for a while and read our books. We took a quick dip, dried our swimsuits on a clothes line, and again had lunch in the hotel restaurant. We had "tomato balls" tzatziki and greenbeans. We ordered two glasses of white wine because it was cheaper than soda or coffee.  After some watermelon for dessert we decided to take the bus back down to Fira. 

We went to the bus stop right across from our hotel. After about 10 or  15 minutes the bus came...and blew right by us without stopping. Confused, we walked the 15 minute walk back to the main bus terminal and got a bus there. That bus took us out of the town square, and then stopped in front of our hotel - right at the stop we had been standing at a half hour earlier!  

We made it to Fira and did a little more shopping and got a baklava flavored ice cream to share. We decided to go back to Oia for dinner. 

We got a bus back, and after some back and forth to our hotel, we ordered two chicken gyros at what we though was a walk up place with a few tables on the street. We walked in and ordered and the guy told us there were more tables in the back. He told us to tell the server if we wanted a drink and he would it one for us. We didn't understand all he said. It looked like a self serve fridge to us so we helped ourselves to a big water. 

We went to the back and it looked more like a legitimate restaurant with menus and servers. The prices on the menu were more than the sign we saw, so we got up and went back in to make sure we weren't spending $25 on two gyros. 

He assured us it was the price on the sign. 

We went back to our seats and a guy brought our food out. The gyros were really good as was the Greek salad we ordered. After a while the server took our plates. "You have no glasses, I'm sorry!" He apparently brings glasses out with the water for customers, but since we basically took it right out of the kitchen ourselves and brought it to the table, we'd just been taking swigs from it during dinner. 

As is usually the case outside of America, our check didn't come. We always have to ask for it. Since we didn't order at the table we figured we would go in to pay. 

We go back in and the guy looks at us like "what now?"  We are ready to pay, we tell him. "Yes but I can't remember what I make for you" he tells us. It's this point that we realize we are pretty much trying to pay the cook directly. 

"We've never been to a restaurant before!" I said with a laugh. He took our payment and off we went. 

Since the moon was so full and bright we finished the evening trying to get some night time shots of the town. 

Sail boat cruise

After eating breakfast at our little hotel buffet, our first full day in Oia was spent walking up and down the main marble walkway and having lunch at our hotel restaurant. We had moussaka, boiled greens, and stuffed tomato and pepper. The food was really good and we ended up eating at the hotel again the second day. 

We took the bus to Fira, the old port, so we could catch our boat for out sunset boat tour. We roamed around Fira a bit before taking the long hot staircase all the way to the port from the town above. There were many donkeys passing us, we could have rode them for 5 euros each, but we felt bad for the donkeys and didn't care to ride one anyway.   

The stairs were cobblestoned and slippery, interspersed with piles of donkey droppings baking in the sun. By the time we reached the bottom I was stuffed up with itchy eyes. Luckily it went away pretty fast. 

Soon, with a crowd, we were shuffled into a large sailboat and off we went to the active volcanic island in the middle of the caldera. We hiked to the top with the group and learned a little about how the islands were formed. We felt the hot steam coming up out of one of the vents. We had a nice panoramic view of the caldera at the top. 

Back on the boat we sailed to another island in the caldera and docked offshore about 100 meters.  We had to climb down a ladder (Ryan jumped!) into the sea and swim to the shore. Good thing we brought our on goggles!  Eventually we made it to the warmer water and swam up close to the rocks where we could touch. We scraped the "therapeutic" mud from the bottom and rubbed it on our bodies. We played around a while taking pictures and such before swimming back across to the boat. 

We sailed on to another area with very clear deep water. Ryan say this one out, but I went in just for a minute or two. We share a fear of "the abyss". The water was clear, but too deep to see the bottom. Sometimes that freaks us out. I climbed back on board just in time to be one of the first in line for our dinner of Greek mezze (appetizers). 

We had grapeleaves, tzatziki, an eggplant dip, mini phyllo dough spinach pies, tomatoes, cucumbers, feta, and some bread pockets filled with cheese. All served with local white wine. 

After we ate we changed into dry clothes and put our sweaters on as the air cooled down. We floated by Oia to see the town lit up in the sunset while a saxophone player serenaded the group. It was really beautiful. 

Last but not least, just before reaching the port, the guide led several of us in the "Zorba dance". Ryan and I joined in, trying to keep up with the guide but mostly just hopping up and down. It was fun and warmed us up. 

We took the cable car up to the town and caught a bus back to Oia. We got dessert of halva and "spoon sweets" which were pretty much pruned cherries in syrup. Ryan ordered a Greek coffee. We finished up and headed back to our room for bed. 

Rhodes to Santorini

This morning we had yogurt and honey for breakfast again, but at a different spot in old town. We used the ATM, bought a few small souvenirs, and had gyros for lunch. We checked out of our hotel and headed to the airport for our flight to Santorini. 

The flight was a short 45 minutes and the aerial views of the surrounding island were really neat. On landing we took a bus from the airport to Oia to find our hotel, Anemomilos. 

Of course we barely had an address let alone any directions on how to get there. With our packs on our back we roamed the whole town asking shopkeepers for directions. We finally found it. We were soaked in sweat by the time we got to our room. It's a nice place, but too much effort to find. 

We changed our clothes and headed out to find some dinner. All the people here are dresses really nice. We felt a little out of element, being so used to the backpacker crows. Women with expensive jewelry, full make up, and blown out hair, wearing brand new flowing colorful gowns purchased in the expensive seaside boutiques. Their men doused in cologne with slicked hair and deep tans. I put on the one dress I brought along that doesn't double as a bathing suit cover up, powdered my nose and Ryan re-pomaded his hair. 

We had pizza and wine at Nocturna- arooftop cafe with a stunning view of the city. We walked around for a bit afterwards and enjoyed the full moon. 

Lindos

Our second full day in Rhodes we decided to go to Lindos Town. I had seen pictures of St. Paul's Bay and wanted to make sure to get there before we left the island. We slept in and had a really slow morning. We couldn't decide whether to rent a car or take the bus. We decided to get a car. 

Of course since we wasted so much of the morning there were no more cars left in our price range. Bus it is. 

We walked down to the bus station and bought two tickets to Lindos on the 1pm bus. It was about an hour and 15 minutes later and we got off the bus to make the short walk to the bay. The water and surrounding rocks were stunning. We took a bunch of pictures and then rented an umbrella and lounge chairs for 8 euros while we went for a swim. The water was pretty warm once we were in. After our swim we ate spinach pies on the beach, read a little, and walked into Lindos. 

The streets were narrow like in old town, but instead of crumbling ancient bricks, the buildings were made of cement and painted white. It's a pretty pretty village and we had some iced coffee and a crepe before walking to an overlook. 

Right before leaving we decided to go in the water one more time, this time from Lindos Beach. It was a great view looking up at the town from the water and just what we needed to cool off. 

Once we were back in Rhodes Town we showered and went to dinner at the same place as night one. 

Greece!

After waking up bright and early from Stef and Dan's wedding, we grabbed oatmeal and coffee from our hotel and headed to Canfield. After a quick shower at home and packing some last minute items, mom and Greg drove us to the Pittsburg airport. 

We hopped over to Toronto pretty fast and after a little looking around, ordered mediocre burgers when we couldn't find anything else. Right after we finished we found a really great place serving some of our favorite Indian dishes (go figure!). We will eat there on the way home. 

Next was our flight to Munich. This was our first time flying Lufthansa. As the drink cart rolled by we noticed lots of people ordering wine and not paying for it. We realized that it's complimentary!  Every time they gave us a snack or a drink they would say "anything else". It threw us off as usually we get 1/3 can of Sprite and off they go. We toyed with the idea of getting wine, but didn't want to dehydrate ourselves on the plane. After dinner, an attendant came around with cognac and Baylies. We ordered a Baylies to share. It had an ice cube in it and we've decided to buy a bottle of it as soon as we get home!

We watched some movies on the seatback TVs. The guy next to Ryan kept hitting Ryan's control panel inadvertently with his elbows. His movies kept getting paused and turned off. Elbows over there also called an attendant twice without realizing it. 

Arriving in Munich we made our way to our gate and found a coffee and tea station free for Lufthansa customers. We took advantage and soon it was time for our last flight to Rhodes. 

Most surprising was that we didn't go through customs in Rhodes. In Munich we had to prove that we were not staying in the country by showing a boarding pass. We were expecting customs in Greece but there was nothing. We just walked into the airport and got at a taxi. 

The taxi dropped us off just outside of one of the gates to old town. The town is walled off and inside is a labrynth of narrow cobbled streets. We roamed a while looking for "Minos Pension" and finally asked for directions at a cafe. 

We found our place, unpacked a bit, and went to that same cafe, Anakota Cafe, for a big Greek salad, fresh bread with olives, and a "cold plate" with a bunch of appetizers on it. It was delicious. We walked around a bit and then ended up napping for a couple hours in the room. We got some dinner down the street. Grape leaves and moussaka at Kostas Taverna. 

The next morning we had breakfast of toast, yogurt with honey, juice and coffee on the roof of Minos Pension. We were meeting a tour outside one of the old town gates. 

Mark from "Rhodes Land Rover Safari" picked us up and we headed south to gather the rest of our group. We went to the southern tip of the island where the Agean Sea meets the Mediterranean. There were a lot of wind and kite surfers down there. 

We headed on to a secluded beach were we hung around the water a bit (to rough to swim) and collected some pretty rocks while Mark fixed lunch in a little shack. Lunch was great and we both gorged ourselves with feta cheese, tzatziki sauce, bread and fruit. Mark poured everyone a giant cup of Ouzo and water. After a sip or two I was done - I'm not a fan of much liquor. Totally by accident I spilled mine in the sand, but I was happy I wouldn't have to drink it all. Ryan choked his down and pretty much never wants ouzo again. 

After lunch we stopped at a little shack for a wine and olive tasting. We tried a few wines along with bread, olives, honey and some local greens. One more stop had us at a small church with cicadas screeching loudly from the trees and then on to a small town for a drink and some dessert. 

The tour was lots of fun and got us oriented to the island. My favorite part was lunch. :)