21/06/2010
I just looked at the date and realised that we are half way through the year. It’s a bit scary how much time flies. Yet at the same time I feel like it was years since I was at home. I have done so much and seen so much since I was in my comfortable little Tasmanian home, working and then drinking cups of tea with my friends. I miss all of that comfort and love but to have an adventure is something that everyone needs to do, to experience love, happiness, fear, sadness, anger and pain is all part of life. I sound a little bit like I have had an epiphany or something but I often think about things and how we are all so lucky to have the opportunity to have these experiences (and we all can if we try!) and I appreciate how lucky I am to have received a scholarship but if anyone strives hard enough you can see the things I have seen and have these experiences.
The hardest thing about the experiences that I am having is the goodbyes. They are constant and inevitable, you cannot always stay together. You have different plans and different ideas and things you want to see so eventually you have to depart. I just said goodbye to my new best friend and I feel very sad. The friendship we had formed in just 4 months was quite special. But i have to remember that it is not goodbye, it is a see you later. I think from so much travelling I have become immune to goodbyes, I have had to say so many and sometimes I know that I will probably never see these people again but I have faith that I will see the friends I have made in Greece again. I will make sure I see them even if it costs me thousands of dollars because they are all very special and they are now my family.
So I am alone again, I left Elise and Ben in San Torini and now I am off to Paros. Well what can I say about SanTorini? One word: INCREDIBLE. Or I could say many words; beautiful, stunning, fun, hot, lovely, amazing... the list goes on. When I was in Athens I met some girls from Idaho who had just been island hopping, they recommended that I go to San Torini, they said it was beautiful and their favourite island. I was waiting for Elise to join me in Athens and then we would decide where to go next. We had considered the Pelenopese and then catching a ferry to Kithera but after a bit of research we realised that Kithera would be an expensive thing to do with just two people as there were no buses. After dying of heat exhaustion in Athens I decided I needed to go straight to a beach and an island was a must. So when Elise arrived we discussed our options and then just said, ‘lets go to San Torini!’ it was the best and most spontaneous decision. We booked our ferry for midnight and spent the day wandering and sweating our way around Athens, in museums and shops.
We spent the night on the ferry, we just booked the cheapest tickets we could, its great having a Passo (a Greek student card), we get discounts for everything. Our ferry ticket was only 16€. We set up little beds and slept the whole 6 hours. It was great, I was actually pretty comfortable and a little bit disappointed I had to wake up and get off the boat. But hold on, I’m in San Torini!
epomine stasi, next stop.. paradise!
So I woke up suddenly and we made our way off the boat. Travel advice: try and pack as light as you can, because a big pack is a big pain. But then it is nice to have clothes and outfit options... but try!
We got off the ferry and onto a bus which took us to the main station where we transferred to Perissa which is where most of the hostels are and where my friends in Athens said i should go. We hadn’t booked anything, the night before we had looked at hostels online but we just figured we would find something when we got there. When we arrived it was already getting hot and we wandered around asking at different hotels and villas how much for the night. I found an amazing deal, 14€ for 2 people per night. But listen to me now. Really listen. When you are in a foreign country and they offer you a price too good to be true ask them to write it down, don’t just say ‘wow, thats amazing, we will take it!’ Because when they ask you to pay a bill of 200€ you get a little bit of a shock... but I will talk a little bit more about that. But usually deals like that don’t exist. So be aware! But in saying that as we wandered around there was a lot of very cheap accommodation, we found luxury for 25€ for two people a night so staying in something that wasn’t luxury for that much made sense and also the backpackers was only 8€ per night each so it made sense. But clearly we are rich travellers and we can afford absurd prices or so they thought...
Anyway this amazingly cheap place which ended up being expensive was very cute, painted bright blues and greens and very Greek style, as you walked in a little arch went over a swimming pool and lead to the rooms which had a view of the brilliant volcanic mountains.
The first day was spent lying on Perissa beach, its volcanic so the sand is black and therefore the water doesn’t appear as blue but its still extremely clear and beautiful. we sat at the ‘Beach Bar’ right on the water which had a little buzzer that you pressed for service and next minute down strolls your very own Stavros with a delicious Greek salad in hand. Then when you have filled up you roll into the water and then dry off in the sun. Oh how hard life is on Santorini!
That night we caught the bus into the main town Thira to explore and watch the sunset. Unfortunately the place was swarming with tourists and although I love to travel, I don’t like tourists and I get easily agitated in crowded places. After weaving our way through the tourists we caught the sunset across the horizon, it was beautiful despite the smog that must have made its way across from Athens. After the sunset we had a delicious dinner up on a terrace overlooking the town.
The next day we decided to go on cruise across to the volcano And to the other island Thirassia. We left at 10.30, nearly missing the boat because I went off to get some water. We took the bus down to the port and to our dismay the sail boat that we were about to board was filled to the brim with tourists, I mean it was squirming with them, barely any room at all to move. I almost felt like asking for my money back there and then but I thought, suck it up Ella, you can ignore them. So we ended up getting a spot at the front of the boat, I didn’t have to look at any tourists, just out to the ocean, it almost seemed as though we were the only ones on the boat, apart from the tour guide blaring over the speaker. We got to the volcano after about 20 minutes of sailing without sails and we all hopped off the boat for the little hike up to the summit. The day seemed to be getting hotter by the second so I stocked up on water from the boat... a little annoyed as the water was 1€ for a small bottle, O..M..G.. one euro, what a rip off, listen to me, I have become so accustomed to cheap water!! So we made our way to the top of the volcano, walking amongst volcanic rock and lava. Quite incredible. And the higher we got the better the view got. We could see a 360 degree view across the ocean and over Santorini. Once at the top the tour guide told us that the volcano was still active and the last eruption was in 1955 and a lot of the rock around us was from then which is amazing to think how new the majority of the island is. She also said that we aren’t at much risk of being caught in an eruption because they can usually predict it 100 years in advance.
After the volcano we sailed over to the natural hot springs, its not so much springs but really hot ocean water. The boat left us and we swam about 100 metres into this little bay where the water slowly heated up to around 35 degrees. It actually felt really wierd. Kind of like we were swimming in urine. That sounds really gross but it was like that. At the very end of the cove there was this strange mud that was bright orange, it was like the volcanic rocks were rusting and the orange muck was the rust, nevertheless I rubbed it all over my face and body! It didn’t really wash off and I looked like a bit of a fake tan disaster. Poor Elise got it all over her bathers (sorry Elise, swimmers!!) and she really looks like she has trouble with fake tan. After that we sailed to Therissia where we explored and ate lunch by the water. Pretty special little place, lots of white buildings and blue doors. The cruise left us in Oia which is the town on Santorini famous for its sunsets and all of those famous photos of white houses with blue domes. I had a swim in the beautiful water whilst Elise was a journalist and interviewed someone and then we climbed up to the town. We had coffee at a really cute little cafe and then went to get ouzo and lemonade from a little shop. We perched ourselves on the edge of a building facing a windmill and direct towards the sunset. We easily polished off the first bottle of ouzo so we went to buy some more and easily polished off the second. We met some French boys who proposed to us in the ‘most popular site for proposals in the world’ (apparently). It was a romantic little event and the bus ride home was quite fun, full of song and laughter.
When we got back to Perissa we bought more ouzo and ordered delicious pizza. All this was followed by a fun night at the beach bar full of dancing. And of course, more ouzo. Aaa, ouzo...
The next day seemed to come around too fast and I woke bleary headed to see Ben in our room, he had flown from Istanbul to be with his ladies, Elise and I, how sweeeeettt... I was a little confused but pretty happy to see that young mans face. I soon got over my little hang over and we hired quad bikes and road around the island. We went to the red beach and some other villages close by. I cant remember the name of the village but we ended up finding this old building on top of a hill totally abandoned and in ruins but the inside still had all its possessions and it was set up like it was still being lived in, it would have seemed that way if it wasn’t for the thick layer of dust over everything.

this is red beach that we went to. pretty ah-may-zing babes
Then we made our way back to Perissa and had another delicious dinner and some more beachside ouzo and lemonade. Followed by another night of dancing, ouzo, dancing, beer, dancing, strange scary Albanian men trying to fight Ben, running away from strange men, getting home and sleep.
The next day was very lazy. Woke up late, i took off on the quad bike alone around the back streets of Perissa which was really fun and interesting to just see where people lived, I ended up in the old town but my quad bike wouldn’t go so far so I had to try and manouver it out of a little spot I got stuck in... (not this stuck but stuck) we lay on the beach and then ate and tried to figure out the next few days and what the plan was. We had a delicious dinner at Yazz, on Perissa, recommend going there, really cheap 10€ for a platter for 2 and its huge! Also they do amazing smoothies and a pretty good breakfast.
The next day we had to check out.. thats where the sticky situation was. After a lot of arguments and confusion and anxiety we gave them 150€ and said that was all we could give, eventually they settled on that, realising that we knew we were getting ripped off and they were still making a fair bit of money out of us. we had one last swim at Perissa and the caught the bus to Thira. In Thira we interviewed the environmental consultant For the mayor of Santorini for a story miss Elise Dalley was writing. He was really interested and concerned about the environment and future of Santorini, i felt so inspired to do more journalistic work and do something about the environment, unfortunately I have been to busy lying on beaches... then we went out for one last lunch all together in Thira and then I had to say my goodbyes to my two honey babies. I knew it wasn’t a forever goodbye but I may not see them for some months so it was still pretty sad.
Then I jumped in a taxi, I had half an hour to get to the port, plenty of time. Apparently not. The taxi driver had another passenger who had to go to a village on the opposite end of the island, um, excuseme, I actually have to get a ferry, take me first, she doesn’t have to be somewhere urgently. Soo then the taxi driver asks me why I left it so late to get to the ferry as he’s speeding like a maniac because I’m worried that I will miss it. The cheek! If the hadn’t taken another passenger off the other friggin way he wouldn’t have to speedy Gonzales his way through the bends down to the port. I was actually a little bit frightened, he was going very fast. But i made it, not a minute to spare but still made it on board. Heading to Paros.

Right now I feel like I am a long way from any sort of Greek island, well I am but I can’t believe I was lying on a beach in Ios just yesterday because now I am in Sofia, Bulgaria in my jeans and a cardi inside..
So paros, well I ended up making friends with the two people I sat down next to on the ferry. They were Canadian and I recognised the guy from Saturday night at the beach bar where he had been dancing up a bit of a storm. We got talking and asked me where I was staying, at that point I had now idea and they said I should just follow them to their hostel and see if there were vacancies. So i did. And i ended up sharing a beautiful room with them, no way was it a hostel, with a pretty good breakfast.
It was really nice, we all seemed to hit it off. We went out for dinner that night at a little taverna that had live music. The music was pretty good and the owner of the tavern was really entertaining but by the end of the night a little annoying. He constantly tried to get Niki (my new friend) and I to dance with him, it was good the first two times, even though I really can’t dance and Niki can so I felt like an unco fool whilst she looked like a graceful Greek princess.
Then the next day we hired scooters and explored the island, i almost crashed a few times... scooters take a bit of getting used to, its not so much that you have to steer but more that you have to lean to turn the corners and one really sharp corner i just didn’t go around and ended up on the other side of the road heading straight for a bush. I’m just very lucky there were no cars coming the other direction. Anyway, we went into this old marble quarry where they used to get marble hundreds and even thousands of years ago, we went so far in you couldn’t see anything without a torch and we had to climb through some very tight spaces, lucky I’m not claustrophobic or afraid of the dark but it was really quite exciting. It also made me realise how unsafe it all was, I was leaning against this rock for support and it tumbled down bringing a small landslide with it, i really thought that I had caused something terrible and freaked out for a second. And also there were no lights or steps at all in the whole quarry and it was a tourist distraction, im not complaining about this, I actually think its pretty cool that things are still like this! Then we explored some beaches including golden beach and some other cute beaches that we discovered through walking off track a little bit! It was actually just really fun to drive around the island on a scooter.
The next day my ferry to Ios left at lunch time so I had half a day to kill, we spent it riding around on the scooters again, looking in the little towns and discovering more cute beaches. The only problem was getting the ticket because there was a ferry strike and there was only one ferry for the day running between the islands so it was going to take me twice as long to get to Ios and also it was almost sold out so I had to wait until I got my ticket but all was good in the end. I made it to Ios but I will talk about that in the next update, this one is already way too looooong....
Ciaou!