Day 12 Santorini/Fira

Day 12 was a bit more sedate-- actually, MUCH more sedate than yesterday.  I woke up surprisingly not sore anywhere haha, after a very restful night's sleep, and decided the next two days here would be my "wind down" before leaving on Tuesday.  

I decided to see the island itself as much as I could in its entirety, so I engaged a very engaging guide named Johannes, from Bavaria, but of Greek descent.  His immediate sarcasm and wry humor made me feel right at home with him and his small group, so off we went.  He showed us many nice little villages, all accompanied with his biting comedic comments, and then took us to Akrotiri, where he led us through the ruined Minoan city with precision and a very informative, historical tour.  

After we spent about two hours in the ruin (which is bordered by the fable "Red beach" -- which was currently somewhat inaccessible due to falling rocks), we headed to the famous Black Beach and had a very nice few hours there, just swimming, relaxing, and enjoying a leisurely lunch.  After we headed up to the highest point of the island, at a hair under 4,000 feet, and did some exploring up top -- pretty scary to look down!  The cliffs are completely unguarded, so as Johannes said, if you decided "this is where you want to end it all,  sayonara!"  

Johannes decided that for safety sake, it was better to visit the cliffs BEFORE the next stop, which was the winery.  We headed to Santorini's premier winery, with beautiful views, and since I'm not a wine drinker, they provided me with a glass of fresh local orange juice, which was very nice of them.  We stayed around for about an hour, and then we were off.  Johannes tried to convince me to head back to Oia, but it was hazy, and the cruise ships had just come into port, so the idea of wading through another thousand Japanese tourists vying for a shot of a hazy sunset was not appealing to me.  He understood, and arranged for me to be dropped off at the hotel.  He said in parting, "I envy you.  I despise dealing with the cruise ships in Oia!"  Haha, apparently, I made the right choice heading back.

So, tomorrow's plan, complete leisure, as I leave Santorini the following morning, and would actually like to have one full day of rest before heading out.  Let's see if I can manage that without getting too stir crazy!

Day 7 Athens and Piraeus

Day 7 in Athens and Piraeus was a more gentle pace.  I woke up later, had a more leisurely breakfast, and then started to explore the city.  Problem was it was May 1, and the workers were having a protest/celebration for May Day, so much of the center of the city was shut down.  Not to be put off, I explored the sea ports of Piraeus -- and that was very beautiful and interesting.  I also had a nice lunch (Greek salad) and a glass of lemon soda, and back out I went.  

After, I was feeling a little tired, so I decided to head back to my hotel and hit the rooftop pool.  I stayed up there a while, just relaxing, and listening to the Danish tourists drink beer and banter.  I went across the road a little ways after showering and got a gyro, enjoying the street musicians and the passerby people as I ate, and then headed in for an earlier night.  Delphi tomorrow!!!

Day 6 Athens and Cape Sounion

Day 6 started off gray and windy, with a few showers, but that did not dampen my enthusiasm.  I started off with a traveler's snafu: the cab app I had downloaded did not work in Athens.  I had to meet a tour group across town in an hour and I literally had no clue how I was going to do that, without a cab, or lay of the land.  So, I was determined to not miss the group -- and on a wing and a prayer, I did a quick Google that showed there was a Metro tram that would take me within a few blocks of the meet up.  So, I ran down to the metro station, got on the line, bought a ticket, ran back up to the tram station, rode the tram the Google allotted amount of stops (which were incorrect) -- got off at the wrong stop, asked several people along the additional nearly kilometer I had to walk (through some shady areas too) and finally, all sweaty and flustered, arrived 15 minutes early for the meet -- so I could sit down, catch my breath, and enjoy some air conditioning.

The rest of the day was nice.  We visited some of the major areas of the city, and during this time I met with a few other solo travelers, one in particular was a very nice 30 something year old Nurse named Brooke from Sydney.  We ended up buddying up for the day, enjoying lunch together, and seeing all the sites.  It's funny how that works for us solo travelers-- We meet up, have a great time, go our separate ways, and never see each other again -- it's a traveler's "one night stand" minus the sex and sadness hahahahaha

Later, we traveled out the hour and a half to Poseidon's temple at Cape Sounion -- and what a beautiful site that was.  The best of trip.  It was so beautiful and peaceful -- with the sun beginning to set over the Aegean Sea -- the music of soft, gentle breezes, and sweet low chirping of little quayle that live on the rocky coastline.  I could've stayed there forever.  The ancient lore has it that this was the cliff that King Aegeus jumped from and killed himself, when he thought he son Theseus was dead.  Theseus had gone to Crete to kill the Minotaur under the cloak of night, and had black sails on his ship for cover.  King made a pact with Theseus and his group -- if Theseus killed the Minotaur, they would change the sails from black to white, and the King could see from a distance that his son was alive.  But Theseus fell in love with a Princess after killing the Minotaur, and in his delight and distraction of his love, forgot to change the sails from black to white.  When the king saw the approaching ship had black sails, he despaired that his son was dead, and he threw himself from the cliff into the sea.

After the trip back to Athens, I was pretty exhausted.  The day required a lot of climbing, and as expected, my pedometer clocked over 7.4 miles of walking (much of it climbing) so I was ready for a hot bath and some relaxation -- which is exactly what I did when I got back to the hotel.  And now, goodnight!