Opa! Welcome to Greece

It took us two over night ferries, one very long train ride and a two-night stay in Athens but we made it to Santorini! Our travells were fairly eventful, both good and bad. On the first overnight ferry from Italy to Greece, we decided to splurge the extra 10 Euros for what they call "airplane seats". They are exactly what they sound like...a room full of airplane seats with a little more the usual space. Well by the time we made it back to our airplane seats there was some old man snoozing away in mine, so being the friendly citizen I am I decided to just camp out on the floor anyways. When I woke this man had gotten off his chair, snuggled up to me and was snoring in my face. He was louder then the ferry horns I swear to god. Needless to say...I spent the entire night poking him in the back until he stopped snoring long enough for me to sleep (which wasnt a lot). Im pretty sure he hated me but I wasnt really the biggest fan of him either. Anyway we eventually landed at 11:30 after about 2 hours of sleep and got on a 5 hour train to Athens. The only interesting thing about the trains was that these HUGE june beetle looking things kept hitting the open windows and flying inside the compartment. A few of them landed on some Asian toursits which was hilarious!They almost tried to jump from the train.

When we eventually got to Athens we hit a bit of a brick wall...we were supposed to be staying with two of Bens friends but they didnt answer the phone! So we were stuck in the train station, with no idea where we were or where we were going. That was one of those "you should have planned this better" moments. This was where we met the first of many amazingly nice greek people. According to greek people, we've just been lucky because most people (greek people) are not that nice, especially for foreign people. But we were blown away with greek hospitality...including... Amazing greek women number
1. Lady on the train who offered to help us find our stop and explained how Athens transport system works. Amazing Greek women number...
2. This lady at the train station who not only helped us work the greek pay phone card BUT stayed and called with us (helped us leave a message in greek) and gave us her cell phone number in case we didnt get through to our friends.
3. Asked a women where a payphone was, and not only did she help us search but when we couldnt find one, went into a store and asked the manager if we could use his phone. Last was...
4. A women who saw us waiting outside the train station with our packs on, stopped and asked if she could give us a lift somewhere.

We eventually got through to Stef and Con and made it out to their house. Talking about amazing greek people...I cant even begin to describe how wonderful these boys were to us. They cooked us food, bought us drinks, gave us their room, helped us organize our travel plans and ferries, plus took us out and showed us around Athens. We spent two days with them and loved it. One of the nicest things was taking a break from feeling like the tourist. We didnt even bother going to see the acropolis or the parthenon and I couldnt have cared less. Instead we drank warm wine with honey and warm liquor with honey, ate amazing greek food, learned some greek words (the most important being Malaka:wanker), listened to greek hiphop and watched the sunrise from a beach bar at 6:30 in the morning. First and only time I think I will be kicked out of a club at closing: 8:30am. Also I have to go on a little tangent about greek food here....its delicious. Feta soaked in olive oil and oregano, fried eggplant, calamari, octopus in vinigar, fried cheese, greek salad...all washed down with ouzo. Stef and Con swear that greek oilve oil is the best in the world and that Italian olive oil is actually Greek anyways. So far I agree. I could drink bottles of it. But then again anything other then pasta and pizza is tasting pretty amazing right now. Oh to eat meat and veggies again! Dont get me wrong...they had meat and veggies in italy but they were always twice the cost of pizza and pasta.

O.k so onto Santorini! We took another 12 hour night ferry to get here...and thought we would be smart this time by buying "deck" tickets (then our plan was to sleep on the floor in the airplane carrier room. However, deck on this ferry ment "deck" as in outdoor deck. It wasnt too bad until a wind kicked up at 3:30 in the morning. I think I put on every piece of clothing I owned...which wasnt much consider I dont even have long pants. All the other back packers out there had hardcore sleeping bags and tents...and then there was Carolyn and I wrapped up in our little sheets. Un-prepared to say the least! I think I got 20 minutes of sleep but saw a beautiful sunrise and finished an entire novel. Santorni itself is beautiful. We are paying 10 Euro a night to stay in the "holiday beach resort" and it literally is a beach resort. Theres a beautiful pool, gardens and beach bar. Plus they decided to upgrade us to a privet room for free! That means for the first time in 2 months Im not sharing a room with at least 6 other individules. The room is pretty average but for us it feels like pure luxery. We have our own shower (although its only 50cm across) and its clean enough that we dont need to wear flipflips. Plus new towels every day and they make the beds. unreal. The resort is on Perissa beach, which is the famous black sand beach...and the sand is actually black. It gets so hot that if you stand on it with bare feet your skin will blister. Its really busy too...the whole thing is lined with lawn chairs and umbrellas that you pay 7 Euros to rent for the day.

Yesterday we rented an ATV and explored the entire island...which was very impressive. We went all the way up to Oia, which has the most dramatic sunsets and scenery. This place perfectly embodies the white washed, blue topped image that people have of the greek islands. It was almost surreal to look at. We also drove along wine roads past a super windy beach called paradise beach, went to the bigger town of Fira and checked out the red and white sand beaches. Theres a ton more to tell but Im getting tired of typing and Carolyn is getting impatient for dinner! She says shes not but she is :)

Oh important other note! We sang kareoke last night...famous rendition of our Greece lightening days. Lets just say we should let memories be memories BUT we got a free pina colada!