The Boat Tour: Up and outside waiting for the shuttle to take us to our boat tour. Down to the ferry docks, where we got onto the beautiful sailboat. Sure enough it started out raining….” it doesn’t rain here, very little” even the man from the boat, said rains in Santorini 5 times a year….but of course, I’m here. On and off the big part of our trip….winds pushing the sailboat back and forth and kicking up the waves. Our first stop was the volcano crater….well, we heard “need comfortable shoes”…we chose not to walk to the top, for one we all had sandals on, and second, we were all just wanting to enjoy the boat, Hiking to the beach was enough. The second stop of the tour was the thermal springs. Julie can’t swim so she opted out of swimming, however when they stated that you must be excellent swimmers, and you will jump off the side of the huge boat, swim from the cold green water to the brown iron thermal water. Also, it was announced that the brown iron will remain and stain your clothes. So again we opted just to watch many of the other boat riders jump off the boat, and swim toward the brown. While we were there looking up seeing several goats on the side of the mountain, made it a unique site. Also, the Asian tour group that was on the boat with us opted out also. They had brought their noodles and in their adorable cute swimming clothes…so swimming in the iron, just didn’t appeal to them either. The next stop was Thirasia. We were told good places to eat and advised not to take the 30-minute walk up the mountain to the town of 150 people with only one restaurant. However, along with the ferry shore, there were several shops and restaurants. Very nice beach restaurants, I decided to eat by myself, I had enough sandwiches for a while. I wanted protein. After spending a small time there, we loaded back on the boat to go to the town of Oia..to watch the sunset. The weather was starting to improve and all was looking great. Oia is famous among the travel magazines and tourist destinations. The white painted building,blue-domed roof churches look like a place from heaven. However when the boat landed on the beach, we looked up the mountain, and déjà vu of “Path of Gods” came back to our minds. The steps went to the top of the cliff. We were given the option to riding a donkey, but I don’t see myself crawling onto the back of that poor donkey. I am not into animal cruelty, and that is what it would be if I had gotten on its back, that what it would’ve been. So the climbing of the steps again, with slip-on sandals did not make it easy. Pushing close to the 1000 steps of the Path, however, these steps were spaced far apart and steep. Very difficult for short legged people. However, the donkey’s passing on the same steps left several unwanted souvenirs, One of the tourists, who had been so rude, and obnoxious on the tour decided she wasn’t going to sweat so she climbed on the donkey. When seeing the donkey leaving its souvenirs on the path, the lady started sliding off back and forth. Everyone around started laughing. She was yelling, the donkey guide started telling her there was no problem. She was chewing him out, so he told her if there was a problem, she could get off…She stayed on. According to Julie and Cherrie, that’s when she got off the donkey it decided to pee on her…That’s what they call Karma. I crawled up the steps, rested, pictures…crawled up the steps, rested, pictures….two thirds up the steps, off came the shoes, and I trudged on. Huffing and puffing I made it to the top.To shop, look, and find out where the bus will pick us up later in the evening. Seeing a traditional Greek wedding (of course) Eating cherries, and Santorini nuts, we made it to a rooftop bar, where we waited on the bus to take us back to the villa. From there we had a spectacular view of the beautiful sunset. Tomorrow plans were to catch the fast ferry to Athens for a leisure sunbath while we ride the Aegean Sea….We will see….
Day 14 Ferry ride: Packing our stuff to head to Athens. Thank goodness we could carry several bags of luggage on the ferry and we didn’t have to compress everything. The more we were here, of course, the more we shopped.. Making the packing more difficult. Being a little disappointed that the top deck of the ferry was not open because of the high winds of the ferry. The ferry itself was very nice and looked luxurious. It took 7 hours to get to Athens. Seeing the size of Athens from the ferry was spectacular. The massiveness of the site took my breath. I emailed and confirmed our apartment in Athens, and they sent a shuttle to pick us up at the ferry. When our boat arrived at the Marina a man named Panos loaded us up in a Mercedes SUV, Very much like the driver from Positano. Panos told us he was going to take us for coffee before the room because room not ready. The companions, of course, had heard many awful things about Athens, and this made for us to be a little wary. I silently texted the hotel to see if it was legit and if it was safe to go to coffee with this cab driver. He stated he was going to take us to different places. I told him that we just wanted to go to room and rest. He said will take you for coffee first. He asked if we liked city or beach, and he headed to somewhere way off the path. He seemed very nice, however, he talked about much political stuff and made us a little uncomfortable. He talked about his wife. He looked at me and said I think you are gorgeous,(how nice, until he said:) I love big women, my wife love of my wife weighs 260 lbs…Ok… Panos talked about how he lived in on an Island and seeing the refugee children coming to that area, the children would be raped, and he couldn’t stand seeing this and he moved to Athens. He loves Athens. Panos made sure to mention how Greece loved US, and how not to trust Turkey people or Russian…As stated before he did get political. When Panos stopped at the water area, I made sure I was documenting everything and took a casual picture. Casually letting people know where we were. No one having service and I only one having data, I sent messages to several friends saying if we were not heard from, the shuttle guy has us…..Some of my friends responded back thinking I was just being silly until I explained I was serious. I stated that either he was going to push to get money from us, or going to sell us off. If selling us was his plan, I hate to break it to him that I would not bring a good price unless selling by the pound. He ended up at the water’s edge at a bar that was playing funky music, very creepy. We sat on the bench and talked about water, while I continued to document. Taking a picture for anyone to see to send to the embassy if we are not heard from. He brought us all a soft drink and when I asked where we were, he showed on google maps, how the area we were at had no name….Great that is what I want to hear. We told Panos that we were ready to go because we were hungry and tired. Where I had texted the host before our side trip, she called him and must have spoken to him about our paranoia and in his native tongue, he sounded like a discussion, that when he got off he stated our room was ready. I suspected our room host had called him stating that we were paranoid about him wanting to take us for coffee. He did take us to the front of the parliament and through the historic district. He also showed us where the flea market was, and how it was overrun by drug dealers. He talked about how there were no guns in Greece, and he also showed us the doors where there were lights outside. He stated do not go in there because if the light is on, it is not a store. This is a signal for the prostitutes, that are free to have visitors…I told the girls, to make sure that our lights were off tonight. However, it was getting dark and we were ready to go into the room. Julie told him was only going to get something to go. He was insistent that we have a sit-down. We all explained too tired now to eat we were ready to go back. When he took us to our room, it was centrally located, however very rough. Graffiti on walls and a lot of trash. The place was barred up over the glass, and graffiti covered the walls. Of course, the girls freaked out. I, on the other hand, was a little nervous, but after Naples two years ago, I knew not to judge the book by its cover. Like the place in Naples, the outside was horrible, however, when she took us to our apartment it was pretty nice. It was not as nice as the pictures, but it was nice. The beds were very comfortable, very nice bedding, and very comfortable pillows and such, living room, kitchen, and everything looked fairly new and well decorated. So like in Naples, the inside was much better than the outside. The host showed us around, had drinks in the refrigerator for us, and was so helpful. She stated there were books if we were interested in our pleasure. Reading the titles of the books, was very familiar to Panos political speech. All the books seemed politically motivated. Julies reaction: We are in a cult!
travelingwithkim 