Santorini

I met up with some people back in Athens, named: Ariel (arry-el) from Del Mar, Rachel and Trevor (the funniest guy on the planet) from Seattle. The four of us quickly became a tight unit and traveled together for a bit now. Quick side note- of all the places I’ve been in Europe, I have met the most Americans here in Greece.

From Athens we took an overnight ferry to Santorini, playing hearts all through the night. We came into Fira, one of two or three towns on the island and met Mr. and Mrs. Poppy. Mr.s Poppy (short for some long ass Greek name) is a lovely, short, eccentric woman who went out of her way to make us all comfortable. Mr. Poppy is a laid back dude who pretty much just drives to and from the port all day, picking up new arrivals or dropping off. Mrs. Poppy definitely runs the show, and she’s a sly one that one, definitely a shrewd business woman in my opinion.

God there’s so much to say on Santorini. This will be a long post. On the first day, we rented ATV’s and cruised all over the island. I’d never ridden a four wheeler before and had to lie to get the guy to sign off, but it was coolest shit ever! I got that baby up to 40 miles per hour, homey! We explored up and down the island. At one point, we stopped and trespassed through some construction and stumbled upon a spot with THE perfect view, and watched the sunset. Santorini is famous for its sunsets, but by now they all seem the same to me. Afterwards, we hit up some seafood and enjoyed free alcohol. Upon coming to Greece, I think that I’ve been given free alcohol every single night… not bad. And ouzo is all over the place, man, cheap as hell too… I’ve yet to try anything Greek that I don’t really love.

On the second day, we booked a boat tour to see the local volcanic area. It was a whole lot different from Vesuvius. This area had 3 or 4 craters and at some point during the tour I learned that there’s speculation about the area being a possible location for Atlantis. There’s a lot of detail behind it and they showed us pictures of what the island would’ve looked like back at that time; it was a haven man, guarded by an island ring with a volcanic island in the center. There is definitive proof of an advanced civilization that utilized the volcanic spring water for baths and such, as Plato mentions in one of his dialogues. So, I’ve been to Atlantis man! How cool is that shit? Then, we went to some hot mud springs that weren’t so hot and stained the hell out of my board shorts. Rachel drank too much the night before and spent the day puking, sometimes overboard on the ship and God knows where else! I had own experience relating all the way back to Egypt- but you gotta ask me in person, maybe then I’ll share the fun that was my own volcanic activity.. At then end of our tour they dropped us off and we missed what should’ve been the best sunset in Europe, but I hear it was cloudy anyway and we caught our own the day before.

Aside from the tour and bitchin’ ATV’s, we spent our time drinking and enjoying the night life. It’s still pre-season so much of what I experienced was straight-up Greek culture- but I’ll delve into that next post. There was an amazing bakery on Santorini where I had THE BEST spanakopita (sorry Mom & Sis, apparently Spanakopita is served without tzatziki). I also had some Moussaka and Godlike Baklava, stuff that makes shit in states taste like utter crap… God I could eat that forever. Ariel connected me with ‘The True’ Greek yogurt: plain stuff that is all texture but oh so divine! Man, the five of us- ‘The Fucked up Family’ as we liked to call ourselves (due to all the unmentionable disasters that we braved together) had an amazing time. Well I guess I’ll mention one: Back in Athens Trevor came back drunk and then left again at 4 or 5 in the morning. He awoke around noon the following day, sitting up on some steps on some street corner in the middle of nowhere. He didn’t have any money and couldn’t find a cab or an ATM for at least two hours…… LOL, yeah Trev dawg!!! Trevman35!! Pllllzz don’t post shit about me… PLLLLLZZZZ forget my blog address… that goes for you too Ariel, Rachel…