Welcome to Greece! OPAH!

Epic Novel: Part Deux

Let’s just start this one off with a bang, right? (And don’t go nasty on me just because I said the word bang) I don’t mean, 5th grade science class gone wrong bang, I mean like I may have blown up my bird in the microwave bang. In order to fully understand what I am talking about, I will need to provide a few more intimate details. A few days prior to arriving in Greece, Sophie, Nicole and I had made exquisite plans in order to maximize our time on the islands of Greece. We had spoken to all of our cohorts in order to find the BEST mode of transportation, living quarters, and timing for the next few days. (Laura Harmon you are my beacon star) Once my people (the boat people) were done talking to your people (the land people) we decided it would behoove us to take a flight to our first destination surrounded by water. Santorini is the name of the island, and we had planned to spend 2 nights there. Our administrators on the ship had told us that we would have our passports by 10am when we could get off the ship. There was a flight at noon, and we decided that we must be on it.

Well the big day came and it sure was exciting, all bright eyed and bushy tailed, we headed up the stairs to eat breakfast. We had already heard once that the passports were going to be delayed until about 10:15, this was not going to spoil our day; we were going to be on that flight. It was about this time, that we heard some devastating news that folded our ears back, bowed our heads and put our tails between our legs. The passports were not going to be ready until 2pm. And, if you have not yet put two-and-two together, I’ll make it easy for you. Day: ruined. Flight: missed. Greece: sad day. At the time, it seemed as thought the world was coming to an end. Now I look back and think that we may have been slightly dramatic. After speaking to some administrators and doing some negotiating that the Alexanders are so famous for, I found myself sitting at the grown-up desk in the office of the Executive Dean, with Sophie, Nicole, and the Executive Dean himself. I spoke on the phone doing more negotiations with Expedia while sitting in the cushiony office chair, as they sipped on coffee and orange juice and had croissants and crumpets with Mr. Dean.
Long story no-so-short, we changed our flight to that evening at 9pm with no fee and our Greek adventure wasn’t quite ruined. We spent the day in the booming down of Piraeus (I wouldn’t suggest it) and wasted some time before our flight that evening.
We finally arrived in Santorini after a cab ride from an awesome guy named Nikolas and a short 45 minute plane ride on which we were provided with a triple-decker ham and cheese sandwich. Once we got off the plane, we still had nowhere to stay and had banked on the fact that we were going to sleep on the beach. Fortunately, we were flagged down by a plump lady who gave us a great deal on a place to stay for two nights. It was a little villa owned by a couple who quickly became our parents for the duration of our stay. Our new friend told us to wait in these seats at the airport until Costas, the husband, came to pick us up to take us there. After she gave us very clear, broken English directions, we watched her hop on her vespa, and drive away. It was about 11:00pm and Costas rolls up in his nice SUV to pick us up. Now, I know I was told to never get in the car with strangers and I know this SOUNDS mildly sketchy, but for some reason we felt safer than ever. Sophie, Nicole, and I got in his car and before we knew it we were at his little villa where he showed us to our room, gave us the run-down, then said goodnight.

We had a plethora of activities planned for the next day. We hastily got out of our beds, out of our PJs and into our bathing suits. Breakfast included fresh peach juice, a lamb gyro, Greek coffee (ew), and with a quick head turn to the left we saw the dark grey pebble beach and clear blue water with which we would soon make our acquaintance. After a relaxing few hours at the beach we snagged a taxi to take us to a different city on the island called Fira. Here, we enveloped ourselves in the handmade local treasures and the extremely kind people to go along with them. We made many friends with local shop owners, learned about olives, olive oil, and olive wood and other such things. We ate lunch at Restaurant Nikolas, which was recommended to us by our cab driver and it was fantastic. A gargantuan leg of savory lamb, some Greek salad and a little taste of home. After our shopping excursion, we caught a bus that took us to ANOTHER city on the island called Oia. This was obviously the part of the island that is meant for the lovers, as it provided a sappy reminder every three feet. We walked around the island to find the perfect spot to watch the famous sunset. It was SO famous, it apparently requires applause afterwards. We got a little lost in finding the bus stop, but eventually did and made our way back to Perissa where we bedded down for the night.

This was a day meant for travel. However, it has been made completely obvious that a day without beach is nearly unacceptable, therefore, before we departed from our little town of Perissa we ate once more at our quaint breakfast location and laid out on the beach and swam in the ocean for a short time. Just enough to add a single shade to our golden tan, but not enough to squelch us from our energy for the rest of the day. We caught our 11am ferry to Mykonos and for three hours we watched as other ferry travelers became green with sea sickness due to the fact that our ferry more closely resembled a ride at Disneyland, though more unpredictable. The ride came to a stop on the island of Mykonos where we were immediately bombarded by people who wanted to sell us there “accommodations.” The three of us were quick to scoff at this, turn our heads and keep walking on to our destination. We simply wanted to buy a ferry ticket for our return the next day. However, when it came to finally finding our own “accommodations” for the night, we all wanted to shoot ourselves in the foot. Countless times we were told hotels were full, but that it would be a good idea to check with all the people trying to sell accommodations at the port. Great. All of our scoffing definitely had the potential to leave on the streets for this night. Finally, after about 3 hours of walking the city of Mykonos, and a new friend named Takis (adopted dad for the evening) who we met on our searches, our options were looking grim but we were provided with one final location to look. Luckily it was a success. It went by the name Hotel Marina and simply entailed a small room with three beds and a bathroom. It was owned by a little old lady named Marina, surprise surprise. Feeling severely, haggard, weathered, and malnourished we decided to grab a bit to eat and then sit in the hotel room and chill for some hours before the partying hour. Once the partying hour finally arrived at about midnight, we went out, did our thing, and were in bed by 4am. What a day.

The next day consisted of paradise beach. I really could end it there. But it is necessary that I mention how difficult it was to get to paradise beach. We hiked once again for about an hour in the blistering hot sun, up a treacherous hill, ran after a cab screaming what more likely than not sounded like gibberish, and finally convinced him to take us to our destination. He was just 1 of the mere 26 taxi cabs in the island. Needless to say, they are in high demand, with no hope for the future as they are government regulated. After spending the whole day in (or at) Paradise, we bused it back to the center of town for dinner, got some free drinks, ouzo, and the most delicious food we had eaten yet. We were simply trying to waste time as our ferry back to Piraeus was at 9pm. Finally, we were on the ferry with about 40 other SAS students on our way back. The ship never looked so appealing and our air conditioned rooms with our own beds never felt so good.

Our final day: (Yes, I swear, I’m almost done)
This was the day devoted to sightseeing. The acropolis was huge, and is a definite must see. Interesting thing happened at the acropolis. Walking up the slippery marble staircase, all of the sudden I hear my full name coming from someone walking in my direction. I look up to see my high school senior year Language Arts professor and high school admissions director, Mr. Quillin and Mrs. Zadra. Right there, on the steps of the acropolis, talk about a miniscule world we live in. I was in shock for about 20 minutes before I finally snapped out of it. After, we had taken plenty of pictures up on the big hill; we headed to the New Acropolis Museum then to the Plaka for some shopping. After this, with the last cents we had in our pockets we haggled a ride back to the port in a cab and were on our way to TURKEY.