Friday, August 24, 2007

Summer Sun in Santorini!

Ahh, gotta love alliteration! So cheesy but I love it.

If you haven't already guessed, I am in Santorini! It is the best island so far because there is a bit of everything here. There is an awesome shopping area where you can find almost anything you want - jewelry, ceramics, hand blown glass, clothes, etc. Of course, I couldn't help myself and I went shopping and bought a fantastic blue glass heart shaped necklace - which I ended up breaking after I opened my suitcase, forgetting it was on the top of some clothes, and shattered the bottom part of the heart. I was upset but got over it once I went back into town and found an even nicer heart in pink, plus a silver butterfly necklace with mother of pearl wings. Retail therapy really does work!

I also found a man who did Henna tattoos so I now have a butterfly on my ankle which I love immensely. I think I'm going to get a real one when I get back to London. Just a small butterfly on the same spot on my ankle.

On our first night here, our tour guide took us out for dinner and then we went to this cocktail bar where we could get 2 cocktails for 7 Euros. Well, all I need to say was that I probably had a bit too much to drink without realising (the drinks were so sweet and so cheap that I didn't realise until much later how drunk I really was) and apparently one of the guys on my tour gave me his camera... which apparently I dropped and broke. I texted people to see what they thought I should do but I concluded that if it were my camera, I'd be pissed off and figured that until his insurance came through the least I could do was offer 100 Euros. Turns out, he had other ideas. The next day he came up to me and pushed a receipt for 200 Euros in my face - quite rudely actually. I told him I'd give him 100 Euros because I didn't have any more money. He replied with 'well there's an ATM down the road'. I told him he could either take what I was offering or leave it. He took it. I was angry at myself that I'd done something so stupid but at the same time, shit happens. Luckily it only cost me 100. One of the people who joined our tour a few nights later did something even more stupid which cost him a LOT more than 100 Euros!

and this story goes as follows...

We went out for dinner as a group and everyone went out afterwards, except me. I went to bed early that night because I wasn't feeling too good. Anyways, the rest of my room mates trickled in at different times throughout the night until the last guy trickled in at 4.40am... with a girl who did not belong in our room! Alarm bells began ringing in my head - I knew what that meant - and it wasn't a pretty thought. Anyway as it turned out the other girl in my room needed to leave for the airport at that time so she was up and getting ready - they were obviously annoyed that they had no privacy so they left the room - but came back when she had just left the room for the airport. Crap, I thought I was safe. They headed into the bathroom where they started the shower and by this stage I had ear plugs and my iPod in so I heard nothing but no amount of music or ear blockage could stop the sound of the massive **BANG** that erupted from the bathroom... I heard swearing and the girl crying... turns out they'd broken the shower in their sexual frenzy. The whole shower door was broken off - actually, snapped would probably be a better explanation! So, I guess they'd be paying more to fix the shower than I would to replace a camera. That thought made me feel slightly more better about things!

On our second night here, we had the option to go to Oia and have a picnic to watch the sunset. Apparently Oia is famous for it's beautiful sunset and I have to admit it was pretty spectacular. It's amazing how the sky lights up in all of these different reds, blues and purples. Words can't describe the beauty adequately enough (well, perhaps if I were a poet or a decent writer and had a way with words, then maybe words could express the beauty but since I have neither, photos and a dodgy explanation will have to suffice!). The Greek Islands are everything I imagined and more. The white washed houses with blue shutters and blue roofs are so quaint.

Today I spent all day at Perissa beach - it was great. The sand is black and is unbelievably hot. The water drops off suddenly so one minute you are in shallow water and then you step forward and you're up to your waist in water. That kind of scared me. There were men at the beach who were wandering around offering massages so I got a massage on the beach with the sound of waves lapping against the sand in the background with the Greek sun hitting my bare back - heaven or what?

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