Hey all, updating from a lovely little internet cafe in Santorini, listening to a bad (really bad) cover of "Eye of the Tiger," currently very frustrated by SFU's "foundations of academic literacy" department, a department that apparently has decided to kick me in the proverbial balls. But that's another story. For now, as I can do nothing but wait for a response from the institute of higher learning where I will hopefully, and I do say hopefully with sincerity, be studying subjects that hold great interest for me, it is my task to provide insight to the adventures that have absorbed us over the past few days. I feel that before I begin, it is my responsibility to warn you that the tone I have set with this somewhat unimpressed introduction will be fairly consistant as I describe matters concerning Greek transportation and tourism. If you are wearing a hat, clutch it to your breast now, as surely you will empathize with us and our frustrations throughout this web-log (blog) entry.

Santorini, one of the southernmost islands of the cyclades, is the beautiful result of volcanic activity in the Aegean Sea. It's villages, which are built atop cliffs, provide views that are heralded as some of the best in the world. The island has drawn thousands of artists, artists seeking the parrallels and perpendiculars of Cycladic architechture. And yet this past Sunday, Santorini wept. You see, we had promised the island our good company around 4:30 pm, yet due to ferry cancellations (which we were not informed of until two hours before the ship we had chartered was to leave) the island was forced to wait. To wait until 1 am. Yes, we spent a day waiting for and then (without interval) travelling on a Greek ferry. The Mediterranean sun puts sitting at a junky port and then on a junky boat for 12 hours somewhere between lame and punishing. I'll turn the keyboard over to my lovely travel companion to describe the events that occured between our arrival at Santorini and now. Do enjoy, as she is smiled upon by the muse and her writing is most captivating.

*wild applause*

Right-oh.

We arrived in Santorini (cursing under our breath at the bus driver who waited to leave the port for an hour) and FINALLY reached paradise. OUR HOTEL! Dimitrios, the reception dude, waited up (his shift had been over hours earlier) for us to arrive. He kept his voice hushed and escorted us to our wonderous room! It was Greek and blue and big and had a kitchen and cold water and bathroom and tv and air conditioner and BEDS! We were happy as clams. Yawwnnn.....

So, Santorini. We have been here for a few days. Unfortunately, thus far, our impressions have not been as good as expected...

Here's the thing. Greek tourism has tainted these beautiful locales. You cannot wander the cobbled streets without being harrassed by shopkeepers (we now call them beggars) trying to haul your ass into their establishment. "Drink?! You no thirsty? Kalamari! Come on, relax guys..big dealllllsssss! Special price!!!" It isn't bad at first, but then you start taking detours to avoid a line of greasy men trying to lure you into their gyros shop. They physically stand in front of you sometimes and won't let you pass. It's bizarre, much different from Mykonos. We are staying in Fira, and are hoping that other towns won't be as bad.

Sadly, up until this point, we have found Santorini to be very overrated. I curse myself for admitting it, and we are striving to improve our outlook. As far as atmosphere, Mykonos was far more romantic. Even with the boomp boomp music!

Notes on Santorini so far:

- Glass bottom boat (boat with two strips of foggy glass on bottom) tours of the volcano (pile of steaming rocks), therasia (crappy beach with sanitary napkins washed up on the shore), hot spring (*cough* ses pool *cough* murkey tourist soup) are NOT worth it. Ourselves, along with a few other couples, totally fell asleep to disco music blaring out of the pitchy speakers. Gross! Dont' do these tours...opt for a sailing dinner cruise. We guess that if you paid 100 euro or more for this service, you're on the right track. We paid 25.

- Santorini is for the rich. Food is great and not expensive, many of the restuarants have views of the caldera, but if you really want to have a good time, you need a 5 star hotel with a private yacht and helicopter.

- Renting a car or scooter here would suck because the police are CONSTANTLY pulling people over for random checks and traffic violations that don't make any sense. Not that driving here isn't confusing enough already.

OK. Enough complaing. Plans for the future, how to better this situation:

- We purchased a book of "walks". We are going to use this to navigate our way around the island to try and escape to some more isolated areas. On a small island it is difficult, but the trails are fairly far out. The walks are titled,"beachcomber (sunset)", "erosion", and "Akrotiri: Never on a Monday". Akrotiri is an ancient excavation site near a red sand beach that we hope to explore.

It is very difficult to get away from touristy stuff here, but we're up for the challenge. Santorini is very BEAUTIFUL! We jsut want to enjoy it without the hot, sweaty scent of donkey ish and grabby, grubby, greek shopkeepers.

Our plans for our exotic mystery locale may follow through, fingers crossed, its looking pretty good thus far.

Hint: Nicer sand, and our feline friends would be quite content there. Let's just say, the canadian dollar is worth 5.6 units of the local curreny. BAMMMMMMMMM!