Day Two Just as Great

This morning we ran some errands and as soon as those were done we hit the road. We started off by going to Vlichada Beach, another beautiful black sand beach located pretty close to Perissa. After an hour or two of blissful nothingness we left the beach and headed a take-away gyro place we saw yesterday. Just as great as the one’s we had in Athens, but even bigger and heavier…yummm. From there we headed to the lighthouse located at the southwest tip of the island stopping to take in all the scenery along the way. Our final beach today was Mesa Pigadia, which was a little bit harder to find, but definitely a good spot to be at. After another couple hours of fantastic nothingness with the occasional dip in the sea we headed back to get washed up for the night. Once we had changed we took the quad to a bar on the edge of the Caldera to take watch the sunset. It was really pretty and worth the drive. After the sun went down we headed back to Perissa and got take-away from Pepitos, I got another gyro and Erica got baked feta and bread…mmm. Hard to tell that coming into this week that Erica was worried about Greek food.

Waking Up In Paradise

We woke up this morning in a place much different than those we’ve traversed thus far. The first 29 days of our journey have included places of history, with landmarks and sites that many, if not all, can easily recognize…places like Big Ben & Parliament in London, the Eiffel Tower in Paris, Dachau Concentration Camp near Munich, the Colosseum and the Vatican in Rome, and the Acropolis in Athens. I don’t know if there is anything recognizable about where we are now, and maybe that’s what we like about it. Today was our first full day in Santorini, Greece and it was a great day. We started the day by renting a 4-wheel ATV, or “quad” as they’re referred to here, which we quickly found out was definitely the way to go. We’re staying in Perissa located on the southeast corner of Santorini. The great thing about Santorini is that there are beaches all arount the island and from Perissa we’re able to take the quad all the way to the other side of the island to the town of Oia (eeh-uh) in around 45 minutes. The unique thing about most of Santorini is the black sand beaches, which are a result of one of the Earth’s biggest volcanic eruptions that occurred around 3600 years ago (so I’m told).

We started the day off by going the Red Sand Beach. It took us a while to get there since we’re still getting use to the island and the road system (or lack there of). Once we parked the quad it still required about a 5 minute hike to get to the beach, but it was definitely worth it. There wasn’t a cloud in the sky and the sun was blazing hot. After Red Sand Beach we drove north through Thira, the capital of Santorini, and then to Oia. By Oia we found Katharos beach, there was a much smaller crowd there and the scenery was pretty great. We stayed there for a couple of hours before making the trek back to Perissa. Once we got back to our hostel we got ready and went out to dinner at The Volcano, a family ran, authentic Greek restaurant close to where we’re staying. I don’t know if it was due to being halfway-delusional from all the sun I got or what, but the meal was incredible. Erica and I split “Feta from the Oven” with bread to start and then split the Gyro Platter and the Fried Squid (calamari) Platter. By the end of the meal we could hardly move and couldn’t have been happier. Somehow we managed to pry ourselves from our chairs and made it home eventually…great first day!

A Bird in the Hand is Worth Two in the Bush

Well I’ll start off by saying I’m definitely not disappointed with today…however things could have gone better. We arrived in Nice yesterday and today we set out for the beach. The hostel we’re staying at right now is a ways away from the coast so it takes a long time to get to anywhere where you can see the Mediterranean. We hear about a great beach a little ways from Nice at Cape d’Ail, so that’s where we headed first. It took forever to actually get into Nice to take the bus to the beach so we didn’t end up getting to Cape d’Ail until around 1 pm. And even once we got off the bus it took about 20 minutes to walk down the winding streets to the little cove where the beach, called Plaga Mala, was located. The area was very pretty but not as good as advertised by some others (it was still pretty awesome don’t get me wrong). We were there for probably 2 or 3 hours…then we saw a guy who had arrived at the hostel the same time as us yesterday and he told us we should go to Monaco because the beach there was awesome and so much better…so we went. Well Monaco was a little bit of a nightmare. The city is built for driving, not for walking…which I suppose is why their Grand Prix is such a big deal. It took forever to get to the beach, which is cool but no better than where we were before. We got back to Nice around 7:30 pm or so and were exhausted from all the run around…what we should’ve done, instead of hunting for beaches outside of Nice, is just stay put and be content. Nice is a very cool city and we wish we had more time here to take it all in. Tonight we grabbed a pizza from a take-away stand and headed to the beach where we ate our pizza on a bench. After that Erica got an ice cream cone and I had my last French crepe, this time cinnamon…which, by the way, was fantastic!