Sailing, takes me away to where I've always heard it could be...

see all photos »

Written on 5/28/06, 12:30 PM on The Flyingcat IV, the high-speed ferry on the Aegean Sea making its way to the island of Mykonos, weather outside is about 78º http://www.ferries.gr/hfd/

May 27, 2006 Saturday

Not a lot of people can say they swam in the clean and clear blue waters of the Aegean Sea.

I was so tired from yesterday’s activities that I decided to write today instead. Not to mention, we had to pack for Mykonos. The bags are getting harder to pack as the days go by. It’s tough thinking about the remaining days we have in Greece. I’m pretty sure I can also speak for Eric when I say that my experiences over the last six/seven days have been a bit surreal. There was a little culture shock from what we’ve been used to in the US. The language barrier is really tough to manage. You think you can survive by acting out what you’d like to say, but it’s tough to act out certain things like “where is this hotel?” or “how far is this town from that town?” It gets frustrating after a while, but amazingly, we’re getting by. Eric gets t the worst though. He says everything twice thinking it’s gonna get better for them to understand, but I don’t know if he realizes they just nod at everything. Then they tell their friend how stupid tourists are. I keep telling him to just smile, but he wouldn’t be Eric without the extra PR that’s so second nature to him. The streets of Greece are filled with stray cats and dogs. It’s actually pretty sad too, since most of them looked famished and a lot of them with injuries. The other thing I realized was that the taxis here are not that different from the taxis in the US; you are pretty much at their mercy. The taxi ride from the airport to our hotel in Athens was 35 Euros, including toll. When we rode back from the hotel to the airport, it was only 20 Euros. We got ripped off from the first ride & we were not happy. Another tip to take away from this trip is that you ask how much the fare is to where you want to go. If you don’t like how that sounds, there are more cabs behind him. If they all say about the same price, then you’ll have a good feeling about not getting jerked.

see all photos »

So our day started out pretty late. We didn’t end up going to the beach. Our 7 AM wake up call rang and went – we got up around 11. Eric went in to the town of Fira to get us breakfast. Their croissants here are yummy. After the car was taken back, we laid out by the pool until 2. We had to get ready for our catamaran tour of the caldera of Santorini.

The mini-bus picked us up around 3 and took us to a port where we boarded the Blue Lagoon. It is managed, owned and operated by Ted Stathis. We find out later that Ted is originally from New Jersey. He grew up in Jersey City, moved to Cliffside Park, where his parents still live, and still refers to NJ as home. He and his wife moved to Greece in ’92. He speaks very good English and an all-around nice guy. We shared the ride with 3 other couples; Julie from Michigan-she owns and breeds racing snow dogs. She was traveling with a woman who’d broken her leg from slipping on some ice back in Michigan. There were 2 Greek women form Athens who spoke very little English. They smelt a little too. Then there was Chip & Deanna from Virginia. They too, were on their 5th wedding anniversary. Finally, there was Kristian and Kathy, also from Virginia. It turns out Kristian is half Greek and half Filipino from his Mom’s side. He was telling us how he was going to Manila in a few months. He hadn’t been back since he was 5 years old & is now going with his mom to see his Grandmother. I thought that was nice. We were really fortunate to have been in good company. Kathy, I think, is a professional photographer – she was rockin’ a Nikon D70 and was snapping shot like she meant it. We exchanged emails in the end so she can post it on Ofoto or something like that.

see all photos »

This tour was so worth the 320 Euros. Not only were we in good company, but we saw and learned so many things we would not have if left to our own devices. http://www.links2love.com/music/sailing.mid We sailed along the western mountainsides of Santorini. We saw the Black, Red and White Beaches, which are only accessible by boat or walking down from the top of the mountain. The Red Beach is sand and rock derived from the red lava rock on the cliff nearby. We also visited the a few hot springs. Eric dove in the cool waters of the Aegean Sea. Not a lot of people can say they swam in the clean and clear blue waters Aegean Sea. It looked like a lot of fun, but the most I did was wade my feet - I didn’t really wanna sign up for the whole changing, drying, all wet & stuff. Anyway, good for Eric!

Ted & his firs mate, Andreas, cooked us the best meal I’ve had since we got to Greece. For starters, we had bread, something wraped in leaves, feta cheese, salad, Greek salad and tatziki, which is the special white sauce in Gyros – Eric could have that for every meal if he could. Then for the main event, we had (all fresh) baked vegetables, grilled shrimp/squid/pork steak (very much like kilawin) and hot penne pasta. There was this one dish he made which was some kind of grilled sausage with cheese inside. Oh, for the love of Athenia, Eric & I were in heaven! We ate so much food. At his point, the sun was getting ready to set. Gorgeous! I can’t wait for Kathy’s pictures. Eric got to steer and sail for about half an hour – he was petrified. He says the steering is very sensitive and at one point, Ted was gone for like 15 minutes.

It was about 9 PM when we got back to the dock where the mini-bus picked us up to get us back to the hotel. This was a good thing since we would’ve never found this port. There are no street signs in Santorini; in fact, I don’t think I saw them in Athens either?

At 10:30 we decided to go into Fira for some dessert. After walking in an out of the cobblestone alleys, we stopped in one of the many cafes, Selecte Café. Eric had his espresso Bailey’s with whipped cream and I had the cappuccino freddo. In addition to the drinks, we had THEE BEST banana/chocolate/biscuit crepe I’ve EVER had! And by biscuit, I mean cookies. Genius!

So that pretty much was the end of our time in Santorini. Astounding! Right now, we are on the high-speed ferryboat to Mykonos. Pretty cool – Eric hooked us up in business class. Good thing too, because I get a chance to catch up with this journal. It’s about a 3-hour ride with 2 stops to Ios and Paros – two other popular islands in Greece.