July 9th

Today was INSANE! We were planning to leave our hostel and go camping with Kostas, but he canceled on us the night before, so this morning we had to leave our hostel and go somewhere. All the hostels in Athens were booked up for the weekend, even ours, so we headed to the ferry port. When the metro train was pulling up to the loading place, some short old lady hit Ryan's side pocket pretty hard and the wallet inside it swung enough to get Ryan's attention. In the crowd to get onto the metro, the lady put her arm under a jacket and Ryan saw her little hand going toward his wallet. He swatted her hand away hard and moved his wallet to his upper pocket and held it with his hand on the metro. The little pick pocket lady stood right beside him, acting like nothing happened. BWAHAHA. Pickpocket thwarted. There was a really nice 77 yr old man (he liked to tell us this fact) who absolutely REFUSED to sit in the seat he already had and made me sit down. We tried to get him to sit down, but he kept trying to get Ryan to sit in a seat (though he was stubborn too) so Ryan and the old dude talked some and it was cool.

We got to Piraeus, the ferry port, and because we didn't want to wait for 6 hours for the first ferry to Santorini, we caught one to Aggistri, to try to find the camping place we were supposed to go with Kostas on our own. It was beautiful there and we stopped for lunch. We asked the lady how to get to the camping, and apparently it's just illegal beachside camping, but there's not really any enforcement of those rules. She told us it was down the main road about 4 km. That's a REALLY far distance with our packs on and in the bright sun and heat on the island, but we went anyway. On the way, we saw a hotel and asked how much, but it was too expensive, however the guy there who knew English helped point us in the right direction. We were dumb and took a wrong turn and then came back to the hotel. At the hotel was a group of three Greeks and a Dutch guy who were heading to the camping also. We waited at the bus stop with them for the bus that never came. On the island, the buses only run when a ferry drops people off and they do a loop and then end. The next bus was coming in 4 hours or so. :( One of the Greek girls called a taxi, but apparently there's only one taxi for the island and they were busy for the next 3 hours, so we all started walking. Somewhere along the way, the group had fallen somewhat behind us, and when we turned around, they were gone. We walked back trying to find them, because they knew where they were going, just to see one of the girls riding off in the back of a motorcycle. UGH. So we were lost, it was excruciatingly hot and we were very tired of carrying our packs. I saw a lot of woodsy places to camp that sounded just like what the waitress at lunch had told us about, but Ryan was too afraid of camping on someone's property and us going to jail, so we ended up going back to the ferry dock. Luckily, we could exchange the ticket we'd already bought for the next day's ferry to the next ferry out. We got back to Piraeus, Athens and waited for the midnight ferry to Santorini. Because we already had our Santorini ticket for the next day, we lost half our money paid to cancellation cost, but did get two more tickets. UGH.

So stressed out, very tired and irritated, we waited. I got my hopes up that the rest of the journey would be better. We used an internet cafe to book a hostel in Perissa, Santorini and waited for the midnight ferry. Once on the ship, we were introduced to the fact that our tickets said "D" and that meant deck. There were these two, three-person benches facing a small table set-ups all over the deck and people were literally running to grab them. All the interior couches had been taken, as well as the boxes that the lifevests were stored in (they were flat and had lids about human sleeping size). We were lucky and got two benches and covered them with our stuff so no one would try to take them. It started to sink in that we would get to sleep here for our 10 hour overnight ferry all the way to Santorini. YAY. Luckily, we spread out our camping mats and pillows on the ground between the bench and somewhat under the table, used our travel blanket and our towels as blankets, and locked up our bags tight - wedging them under the bench beside our heads so we could hear if anyone tried to mess with them. The mats were comfortable, but the night sea air got COLD and my warm clothes were buried in my pack under many many locks and ties, so I slept for about an hour at a time. Around 5:00am, the ship made an announcement that we had docked in Mykonos (a stop on the trip). I didn't have my glasses on, but I could see lights from buildings and the beginnings of a gorgeous sunrise, so I got excited and jumped out of bed to the railing and took lots of pictures. I woke Ryan up too and it was really nice to see such a beautiful sight, even though it was 5am and we hadn't slept. After the sun was up and we were cruisin again, Ryan went back to sleep, but most everyone else on the deck decided it was time to wake up and be loud. I packed up my stuff and then had nothing to do for 5 more hours. There was a little cafe place inside, but we couldn't take bags in there and we didn't want to leave our bags, so we couldn't go in and play cards or yahtzee. I tried to sit in the sun to stay a little warmer, but the breeze made that impossible.

July 10th

We eventually docked in Santorini and once there, we called Villa Dimitri to get our complimentary shuttle from the port to the hotel. When we arrived at Villa Dimitri, we were pleasantly surprised to see a gorgeous place! Our room was at the top of a courtyard staircase that had nice flowering trees growing everywhere, and inside we had a double bed and a twin bed, our own clean shower and a little closet to put our bags in, plus a fridge and hot water maker! AWESOME. The view from our window was of the village church and the ocean and it was really great. Suddenly I was energized and just dying to get out to that beach! We donned some swim suits, sunscreen and beach wear and headed out to the beach. Santorini is a volcanic island, which means the sand was tiny black lava pebbles and most anything else found on the beach was a rock. It was really clean and super nice, though the black sand is very hot in the sun. After relaxing and walking up and down the beach, we rinsed off and headed to dinner. We went to a traditional Greek restaurant where they had music, dancing and plate breaking! The music was cool, but the dancing was awful because two of the four dancers were scowling the entire time and you could tell they did NOT want to be there. They did do a cool dance where the guy stood on a chair (on two legs only) inside a ring of fire! They made the fire on the floor using a flammable liquid in a bottle. Before this dance, they were trying to open the bottles up and one cap flew off and the stuff went all over some Australian couple. They were very very angry, and no one (dancers or restaurant people) seemed to give a crap. Once the dance started, the guy realized that the stuff on him that smelled so bad was flammable and was even more disgusted and concerned. We left after the last of the dancing since the plate breaking cost 2 euro per plate that you wanted to break, and the atmosphere sucked. We went back to the villa and had a great night's rest in our comfy bed (with BIG fluffy pillows).

July 11th

We woke up late today because we were so tired from all the ferry travel and really needed the rest. We headed out to the beach to lay out a little. We grabbed some lunch and did more beach and swimming in the ocean. The ocean water was very clear, and the bottom, just past where the waves break, is just a solid piece of rock! There's an algae type plant growing in places that makes it very slippery, so it's hard to walk out into the ocean. The water was a great temperature and really nice to get into to get relief from the sun. We went back to the room and picked up some homemade wine on the way. We played cards and had "shade time" until the sun went mostly down. Then we ventured back onto the beach and walked along it more until we had dinner. We ate at a bar type place and watched the world cup. All of the restaurants are open to the ocean and are really nice. I got to have banana and nutella crepes for dessert and they were great. We were stuffed and headed back to the villa for sleep.

July 12th

This morning we headed out to the beach early to try to lay out for a little bit before it got really hot. We played in the ocean, Ryan body surfed the tiny waves, and collected rocks and shells and really enjoyed relaxing. We had decided not to try to explore Santorini since it would cost more money and we really needed a "vacation" from our trip, so relaxing was really nice. For dinner, we ate at an Indian food restaurant and FINALLY got our fix of spicy food! It was a nice change from pizza, pasta and gyros!

July 13th

We woke up pretty sunburned today, so we didn't go to the beach to lay out. We walked along the main road a bit to buy our ferry tickets, toothpaste and do some souvenir shopping. We had a nice lazy day in the room playing games and getting everything packed up and organized for the trip back to Athens. I copied our initial draft of daily expenses into my nice journal and then asked Ryan (who had the computer at the time) to use Excel to calculate our grand total so far. Well, being a nerd, he put everything in, converted to dollars, separated everything by souvenirs, travel and daily expenses, calculated daily averages for each city for each item and our average daily spending. We estimated a sort of high daily spending for all our remaining days, and all in all, we're doing really well and should have a pretty good chunk for a down payment when we get back!! YAY!!!

July 14th

This morning, we caught the shuttle back to the port and hopped on the ferry back to Piraeus port in Athens. In fact, it's the exact same boat we came over on, so the upper deck freaks me out. We are traveling during the day this time though, so we have been hanging out in the lounge area and inside mostly. We arrive in the port at 9:45pm and will head to Zorbas Hotel, where we had initially wanted to stay in Athens. We already know where it is and it's very close to a metro stop, so we won't have to walk far in the dark. We're spending two nights there so that tomorrow we can go to Cape Sounio and see the temples and the sunset. After Athens, the plan is to take a bus to Delphi and spend the 16th and 17th there and get to Thessaloniki sometime on the 18th. We fly out of Thessaloniki so we'll have some time to explore the city before we head out.

** We're checked in and settling in at Zorbas Hotel in Athens now!