Santorini--Greek for "buns of steel"

Forget Austria because the hills are truly alive on
Santorini. Holy cow. And I haven't even done the
volcano hike organized by our tour guides yet. That's
tomorrow (Sunday) and it starts with a casual walk
down 582 steps. We have the option of walking back up
(yeah, right), taking a donkey (too mean... the ass I
save could be my own), or riding in a little
gondola/skyride thing. I have a feeling I'll have to
put aside my growing fear of ascending over sheer
cliffs otherwise live at the port and beg someone to
bring my luggage to the boat the day after. But why
am I spending so much time writing about something I
haven't even done yet?? I don't know either.

Last you heard, I was on Paros, and I had made the
choice to stay with my group instead of hanging back.
So far (and I know I haven't been traveling THAT long)
it's been the best decision I've made. We got to Ios
after another long ferry ride, and checked into our
campsite around 5 p.m. We were supposed to spend the
afternoon on the water (our guides had arranged for us
to rent kayaks and be pulled around on tubes behind
ski boats), but we were all too wiped out for that.
My little 8euro bungalow was great. Three of us
shared it, and it was kind of like living in a sugar
bowl. Pure white on the inside (it's the Greek
island-way it seems) and completely round. We rested
up, took "disco naps" and then headed over to the
restaurant next door for our group dinner. We stayed
at a place called Far Out camping, which is basically
a daytime crash pad for all the people who go out and
live it up at night. Ios has earned its reputation as
a party island, that's for sure.

Our first night out was a blast. We started out at a
place called The Fun Pub (appropriate) and then
migrated up to the square for a little barhopping and
(for some) bar dancing. The rest of us were content
to keep our feet on the totally packed dancefloor. I
can't imagine Ios at the peak of the travel season.
It was hard enough to walk through the narrow streets
(two people walking side by side would struggle) at
this point. Matty, one of the doormen I met told me
that sometimes it takes over half an hour to walk
across the square (which is probably about 50 yards).
It was nuts, but so incredibly fun. Night #1 ended at
5 a.m., which I didn't think I could possibly top, but
I managed when I got home at 6 a.m. the next morning.
Time stops on Ios, and (as one of the older, wiser
travelers in our group) I knew enough to make the fun
out of dancing, not drinking. I'm not getting
preachy, but let's just say that on the second night,
one of the guys spent 150Eu on drinks, while I managed
to have as much fun (and remember it) with a 2Eu beer
and a few free shots. :) Still, it was fun to tell
that 6'5" aussie guy what a dork he'd been.

The days on Ios were spent belly up at the pool or on
the beach (except for the second day when we finally
got our tube ride). That afternoon was spent hanging
on for dear life. I crashed and burned a few times,
and had to bail out intentionally at one point when I
felt the bottom of my swim suit somewhere down by my
knees. Whoops. ;)

Our happy group finally disbanded on the third day in
Ios. Some had only signed on for the three island
tour (a three island tour... thank you, I'll be here
all week) and so we lost a few who were heading back
to Athens that morning. A bit later, all but six of
us headed for the ferry to Santorini. I think that
was my favorite day, not because we lost the people,
but because about 85% of our group just spent the day
sitting around talking to each other, grazing on meals
at times, reliving some memories (and being reminded
of others better left unremembered). At that point,
after too much singing and dancing, I had no voice,
but I wasn't the only one. Our guide Renee lost hers
as well (natch, we were the only ones to last until 6
a.m.). We were quite a pair.

But they left, and I think I went to bed at 10 that
night and slept straight through until 10 the next
morning. The next group arrived that day, and it was
time to start all over again. But I only lasted until
3. My lost voice evolved into a sore throat which got
pretty cozy with my already bad cough, and by the time
I got here to Santorini four days ago, I was in pretty
bad shape. So while the new group went on their
volcano hike, I went to a pharmacy to get another
bottle of the syrup I'd gotten on Mykonos (even though
it didn't do the trick). But the pharmacist heard me
cough and sent me to the doctor. Bronchitis. Yippe.
Greek drugs and a day in bed with a really good book
helped.

Santorini. I don't even really know where to begin.
When I stepped off the boat, I thought I was going to
get vertigo from looking up at the cliff wall
(rememeber the donkey option from earlier?). At the
port, it feels like being at the bottom of the grand
canyon. And all along the cliffs, almost like snow
caps, are these tiny little villages. It's beautiful.
On our second night, we set out for Oia on the
western tip of the island and watched a pretty amazing
sunset. We all stocked up on picnic supplies, and
just sat there eating and watching the sun go down and
the moon come up. It was great, but we spent a little
too much time hanging out afterwards and literally had
to do a 100-yard dash to catch the bus back. (Thanks
to our new guide, Belinda, who chased the bus down and
got the driver to stop while the rest of us raced to
catch up.) I opted for a quiet night (way too into
the book at that point) while the others went out for
a much tamer night on the town than Ios offered.

The next day (Thursday), the four of us from the
original group moved hotels when the second group
departed for their fifth island. (The group thing:
every Sunday and Thursday a tour group leaves Athens
for 2 nights on each of the 3 or 5 islands. When you
opt to stay longer, as I did on both Santorini and
Ios, you can wait for the next group to come through
or catch the ferry on your own.) Anyhoo, our
"organized" hotel was a bit pricey, so we moved into
the center of town to a place that was half the price
of the other. Location, location, location... a few
less hills to climb. Our now-foursome set out in
different directions, exploring on our own. Lots of
cool jewelry, crafts, leather, and other random art
shops. We gathered back again intime for dinner, but
it wound up being a quiet night as the rest of them
were still trying to recover from the night before.

Yesterday, we all kicked in 7Eu and rented a car for
the day and went all over the place. But not before a
hearty breakfast at Mama's Place. Whoa, Mama. Mama's
a little 70-something grandmother who actually used to
live in San Jose and work at SFO. But she's here now
and she is a kick in the pants. She's a spitfire with
a potty mouth and greeted us with a very loud "Hey you
Sexy Buns!" as we walked into her restaurant. She
cursed a blue streak in the kitchen, but cooked and
served us a huge, American-style breakfast.

From there we covered every bit of Santorini. We saw
ancient cities that were in the process of being
excavated. We went to red sand beaches and black sand
beaches, saw the island from its highest point
(willing our little car to make it up there). It was
great. Pictures will come eventually. After a day of
driving around and soaking up even more sunshine, we
landed at a little pub that served the coldest and
cheapest beer I've had so far. 1.50 for half a liter
of frrrrrrrosty Amstel. It was pretty close to
heaven. Eventually, we got back to the hotel, and
cleaned up for another night out. That was pretty
uneventful, and as I write this, my cohorts are
sleeping off the effects and probably quite hungover.
I'm about to catch a bus back to the west end of the
island to check it out and have a day to myself.
Togetherness is wearing me out. The next group
arrives tonight, and I'm looking forward to getting
some new people to spend time with.

After Santorini, it's onto Naxos for 2 nights, and
then Athens for a few days before I fly to Rome to
spend a few weeks with various family members. Time
to learn a new language. :)

Before I go (the counter is ticking down) a few
statistics:

Books read - 5 (The Dirt--Motley Crue, Citizen
Girl--Emma Kaufmann, The Butterfly House--Someone
Sucky, Valhalla Rising--that was the one I couldn't
put down--Clive Cussler, and Paradise House--Someone
Schmaltzy)

Gyros eaten - 4

Olives eaten - 64 (that's just a guess, but it's
probably not far off)

Donkey bombs successfully avoided - countless
Donkey bomb failures - NONE! (that jinxes me for the
day)

:)

Time's about up. Love to you all!
Michele