We got to that point.
So today we woke up earlyish to grab the complimentary breakfast of bread, cake, tea, and juice at 830. It was nice but not quite enough. Next time we'll grab yogurt the night before. We then took a bus to Fira/Thira where we could catch another bus to the southern part of the island. The bus rides themselves aren't that long, but between waiting for the buses and the connections it took a long time. Overall the bus system is not visitor friendly at all. No stops or roads are marked. To get to any other town not between you and Thira, you have to go to Thira first. The bus stops also don't have the schedules there most of the time. It could come every hour or half hour depending on the stop. We ran into a couple problems later, but not too bad since we were doing mostly walking (the special student discount ride). Actually riding is around a euro and a half each time you get on. It adds up.
Upon arriving at Perissa, a popular beach, we most immediately started walking up in the hot sun (not a cloud in the sky) with our long sleeve shirts on (someone had said it was going to rain all day) to the top of a barren 396 meter high mountain/hill towards what were supposedly Roman and ancient ruins. The oldest dating to the 3rd century BC. The Romans had discovered ruins from the Minoan civilization and built a city nearby. The giant eruption (one of the largest in history) was in 1650 BC and wiped out life on the island until around the 3rd century. Anyway, the ruins were actually really extensive. We were impressed after having walked so long with no sign of ruins. And, it was free!
By the time we were starving and decided we could get to food the fastest by walking down the other side of the mountain (which was the second highest point on the island). When we got to Kamari, another beach town, we downed juice, a cheese pie, and two delicious gyros. But they are just so good...
From here we tried getting into a couple of beautiful churches but they were locked. So we took a bus to the center of the island to check out some other cute towns. Of course, streets and towns were not marked (we had the map and were trying to be careful!) And we went too far. Being stubborn, we walked (after grabbing a delicious icecream) towards Pygros. Passing through some other towns, we didn't see nearly as many tourists, which was especially nice. When we got to Pygros (of course on a hill) we walked from one gorgeous really old church to the next, hoping to get at least a look inside one of them. No luck though. From the top we saw another larger and more promising church below and decided we had enough time before the sunset. We got lucky and were able to poke our heads in. It was very ornate, with darker colors in the frescos and dark wood furniture. We didn't stay long though and headed to the bus stop across the street hoping one would pass. When it didn't we decided to head back up closer to a bigger town. After finding another stop, we asked a couple local shop keepers when the next bus was. The only good answer we got was, "maybe around 8". And so we waited. Hoping. And it came! Amazing.
We rode back to Fira and then headed to Oia where our hostel is. We ate and then headed to our rooms. We are exhausted and are looking forward to beaching most of the day tomorrow.
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry
1 comment:
Just a tiny correction, the massive explosion was in 1500 BC, and since no bodies have been found, it's believed that the Minoan civilization had enough warning to leave the area.
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