Finally we got to the flight, which was as late as everything else here, then sat around the Santorini airport until a bus showed up to get us into town. Once we made it in we had a quick breakfast and took a quick look around for a room. Everything was overpriced in this town (Fira) and not too good-looking either, so we busted out the Lonely Planet and took its advice to head to a youth hostel in Oia. Oia is the town with the classic post card views of blue domed churches and views over the ocean. It's also a major spot for sunset, when lots and lots of people hike up there to watch our star go down below sea level. So, we got up there, found the hostel, and the place was a like a luxury resort, just the kind of resort where 11 people share your room. It even included a decent breakfast. A nice Greek man (the only one, I think) runs the place and maintains a sense of humor even though he seems to work about 18 hours a day. It was a welcome respite after Athens and the struggle to get out there. So, we checked in and took a proper nap. A couple of hours later I got up and tried to roust Ian out but he was still pretty jet lagged, so I went out alone. I intended to go swimming but I went into the town first to see what I could see and ended up spending at least an hour admiring the views, checking out shops, etc. After that I did go down the road to find a swim spot that the hostel dude had described, and took a half hour walk to get to a rocky spot that had some pretty decent cliff jumping. The highest jump was 18-20' off this little island, but it was enough to get some speed and think twice about it before I ever did it. Good times though. A while later I finished up and headed back up to the hostel, got Ian up, and we out to see the town. We grabbed some food at a gyros joint I think and had a pretty low key night. The next morning we got up to do a tour that the hostel kind of organizes and spend the afternoon cruising around on a boat full of tourists to hike up a volcano that is still active just off of Santorini, then went over to a hot springs spot with mineral rich (murky) water that at one point was ninja-turtle green, then hit a little island called Thirissia for a walk up its hundreds of steps to the top of the island (and the town, which was as ghostly silent as unfinished parts of Baja California), had some octopus skewers, then went back down to the beach level where the boat was waiting. We had some time before we had to get back on for the final leg of the trip back to Oia, so we had some killer chocolate (triple) ice cream and then went for another swim. We were diving down to the bottom in about 20' of water admiring the clarity of it all and I decided to continue to try to pull pieces of trash off the bottom, which are sadly common. I could kind of make out a stick-like thing in one spot, so I went down, got my hand on it, and found it to be partly lodged in the bottom. I pulled it up and free and then discovered that it was a boat anchor with four hooks coming up off of it that had apparently been abandoned. It was heavy, but not impossibly heavy. I took a firm grip on it and then swam like the excited 26 year old boy that I am all the way to the surface to show it to Ian. It was tough getting back up there with not a whole lot of air to spare, and as soon as I broke the surface and told him what I had, my new prize started dragging me back down pretty quickly. I had to let it go at that point, so if you consider the anchor a piece of litter, it got away. Next time, anchor.
We went back to Oia afterwards and I showed Ian the first swim spot with the cliff jumping, and we spent time doing more of the same there. Eventually we ended back up at the hostel and booked some diving for the next day. We caught the sunset that night, despite the crowds, and got some decent photos of that. There's such an unobstructed view of the ocean horizon here that I think the sun actually disappears behind haze on the water surface before the water itself. It makes for some interesting colors and kind of builds a red-orange spectrum on the sun itself as it goes down. So, that night we had a fairly quiet evening again. We had dinner then grabbed dessert at this little pastry shop I couldn't resist, then hung out at the hostel with some rum (thank you again, Lacy) and plastic bottles of Coke, then hit the hay. We had originally planned to leave on a ferry after our diving, but couldn't get one out that same day, so we had to stay in the hostel one more night (not exactly punishment) and take off the next day. When we got up I was consolidating my stuff and had a few minutes left before the van would show up for the dive center. At that point I discovered that my wallet was missing. Shit. I only ever put it in one place, and it wasn't there. Everything else was, but no wallet. I dug through everything and had no luck, then started thinking perhaps it had been liberated from my stuff while I was showering or something. Most of our room was still asleep, but I didn't know what else to think. So I ran up to the hostel owner to tell him it was missing in case he happened to come across it, and he told me it was at the pastry shop. Somehow it got out there and stayed there the night before, and luckily, I had a business card for the hostel in it. The owner had called our guy at 3am to tell him, and he passed all this on to me once I told him what was going on. So now I had about ten minutes to recover the wallet and meet the van. Maybe less... I hurried into town and went to the shop, talked to the employees, they discussed things in Greek that I'll never understand, then told me the owner had set it aside because she wanted to get it back to me personally. Perhaps now is a good time to go over the stakes. The wallet contained my driver's license, student ID (pretty handy in museums), diver certification card, my two credit cards, atm card, and about 350 euros in cash. Now... a few minutes in, they call the owner, she tells them something, a guy disappears, and then comes back a few minutes later and hands me my wallet. Lucky... fantastic. So I say thanks very much and run outside to go back towards the van. That's when I opened it. Hmmm.... everything is there except for about 250 missing euros. They didn't take all of it... just most of it. I run back in and tell them there's a lot of money missing and they go into Greek mode again, then call the owner back. I have no idea what they say to one another, but the girl in the shop hands the phone to me and I say, "Hello?" At that point the worst Greek person I've had contact with yet (this is saying something) starts literally screaming at me and telling me that I should say "thank you" and go. She's sleeping now, and I have to leave. I should say thank you. So, I wait for her pause and thank her profusely and tell her I'm not accusing her but wonder if perhaps someone else had a little contact time with the wallet before she found it. And she yells at me some more... then hangs up. If that doesn't reek of guilt I don't know what does. But, I'm out of time and there's nothing I can do anyway. I got all the really critical stuff, so I run out to meet the van. They were waiting for me, but no one seemed to concnerned about it, so I get in and we go.
Bummer morning, but it could've been worse. We eventually get to the dive center with about ten people and find the most efficient dive shop I've seen. All our gear is ready to go and labeled with our names (they got weight, height, etc. ahead of time) and shortly after we head out for the first dive. We took a quick, rough boat ride to the first dive spot with out Norwegian guide, then jumped in. It was great to get a mask on finally... the water is just amazingly clear. We went down and got started with a wall dive, followed by a swim through a small cave area, then slowly went back towards the boat and surfaced. It was about 40 minutes total and very cool. I wasn't totally comfortable with it, however, only becuase it had been a while I think. I used more air than I usually do and found my regulator to be a little sticky, but it was no big deal. We went back to the dock for an hour or so, then went back out for a second dive to a cool reef spot. We did another 40 minutes or so and everything was pretty good but I was getting a headache by the end of it. I don't know what it was, but I just felt off again. Maybe it was bad air or something. So, that was pretty much it for that. I needed to chill out on the surface and let the headache subside, so once we finally got back to the hostel we showered up and then went out for a drink. We were on a little patio with a view out over the ocean but kind of opposite where the tourists go at sunset, so it was a relaxing time. A little of grandpa's medicine got the headache to go away, and we then decided to keep it going. We went back to the hostel and went to their bar, which stops serving liquor at 8pm (huh?), so we had bottled and canned things for a while. We took a table next to a couple of apparently American girls and held separate conversations for a while, but I eventually bridged the gap with a little one liner and we merged conversations. One was from Miami but is currently living in NYC and is the daughter of two Greek islanders. Pretty girl... cool too. Her friend was from Philly. Both are grad students. So we chatted for a while and eventually the friend wanted to basically shower up and head to bed, so she did but the first girl stayed behind to hang out. This is cool, I thought. So we talked a lot more, then Ian headed away to use the facilities and chat with some other hosteler, and this girl and I kept up for a while longer. It was good, honestly entertaining conversation. It didn't hurt that she's pretty attractive, but I was having fun. So eventually Ian comes back and we decide to still grab dinner, so I tell her that I'll look for her in town if she's headed that way. She told me she'd be in a book store I had been planning to check out (which, like most things, was open until at least midnight), so I tell her I'll look for her there. I have to post this now, before I almost lose it again. To be continued...
posted by Matthew MacLeod @ 7:28 AM
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