While the room is large and clean, the beds were small and springy. Woke up with a sore back from a not-so-great night of sleep. Probably would have been more comfortable to sleep on the couch. The showering is an experience, too. To avoid having to touch the shower curtain, we had to shower with the curtain open. This led to a flooding of the bathroom floor. I think I may have sprayed down the entire bathroom. However, what it lacked in comfort, the Aegean View made up for in service. We had our complimentary pool-side breakfast, which consisted of ham and cheese, scrambled eggs, pastries, coffee, juice, pound cake and bread. No fresh fruit like Adamis, but not bad. They also arranged for a rental car to be delivered to our hotel in the morning.
We got the call that the car was delivered and were happy with the delivery - a Smartcar Cabrio. Although we requested an automatic, their concept of an automatic is different from ours. The gears include 1, 2, N and R. No P or D. We had a hard time starting the car at first. A nice Brit helped us out - apparently, somehow we had demobilized the car. Anyhow, after a good 10 minutes, we finally got the car started and were on our way for a day of beach hopping and sun bathing!
Driving around Santorini is interesting. The map has no street names, just symbols for gas stations and some churches. So my navigating consisted of "If you see a gas station on the left, make a right!" Somehow, we managed to not get lost. Our first stop was Red Beach on the southeast side of the isle. At the parking lot at the beach, there is this cute white church built up against the rocks. The contrast of the pristine white building against the dark red rock was very pretty. They even painted crosses into the rock wall. (on a side note, there appear to be churches in the most random places - at the beach, in the middle of the hot springs, etc.). Eric read somewhere that it was a hike to red beach, so we were sporting sneakers. That was a good idea cause we had to walk up and down some rocky paths to get to the beach. It was worth it. You come down this path and are instantly greeted with one of the prettiest beaches. Red rock and calm crystal clear water. It almost looked like a lake. Having not really gone to a beach in about 6 years, I instantly dove in. It was a bit cold at first, not like the gulf, but it actually was very refreshing.
After spending about 30 minutes at red rock beach, we packed up and moved on to our next spot - Perissa Beach. We had heard that this was where most people went to the beach. Turns out it's because it's a really large beach, goes on for a long while. It definitely was not as cozy or calm as red beach, but it had its own character and very slippery rocks! The beaches here are not sandy, but are either rocky (Kamari/Red Beach) or pebbly (Perissa). At first we weren't crazy about it cause it hurt to walk on, but then we found the benefit...it doesn't stick to you when you're wet! We spent about an hour there and then made our way to Vilchyda Marina to take our semi-private Catamaran tour of the isle (Ted's Tour).
We hopped on the Catamaran and were met by Captain Thios and first mate Andy. Both were extremely friendly and provided great service. Our group was half Americans and half European. We met two other couples, one from NY (via Fresno) and another from Houston. We had a good time chatting with them, with the women giving me wedding planning advice. One of the husbands kept cracking MIT jokes, which was not cool, but whatever.
Our first stop was back at red beach, then to white beach, which is a beach that is only accessible by boat. We then stopped in a small bay to do some snorkeling. I think we were the only two really interested in swimming - we were the first two in and the last two out. Next stop were the hot spings at the volcano. Apparently, sulphur emissions turn this certain swimming hole orange and warms up the water. It looked a bit weird to me and having smelled sulphur before, I opted not to swim in it for fear I'd smell like it for the rest of the day. We then headed to Ammoudi Bay (which was the one place that we regretted not swimming in when we were in Oia). Of course, this time, we jumped right in. There were various types of fish, but nothing too colorful or large. Eric got to jump off the big rock. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to take a real action shot. I got the before and after pictures. Oops.
After another nice swim, we got back to the boat to be greeted with a dinner spead consisting of grilled shrimp, calamari, pork chops, chicken, pasta, greek salad, baked eggplant and potatoes, yogurt, eggplant spread, and bread and all the soda, wine and Mythos beer you can drink. We started back once the sun was setting. Although pricier than the other boat tour options available, we enjoyed the semi private nature of ours and the other passengers on the tour.
After an interesting trip of navigating in the dark, we found our way back to the hotel, washed some clothes, and got ready for bed. We had a 7am ferry to catch in the morning!
To see the rest of our pictures of the day, go to http://picasaweb.google.com/
Wow, it looks like you're having a great time, guys! EZ, that's a nice look rolling around Greece without a shirt. It's not Kentucky. Keep sending the updates, they are great. Plus you'll have a journal to look back on a few years from now and the memories will spark up again. It works great for us with our Italy blog. Keep up the fun! --Matty
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