So long, Greece. Part 1

Hi all!

Greece was so fun! Lots to catch up on!

On the second morning, I woke up to catch a ferry to Mykonos, a Greek island that’s about a four hour ride away. When I got there, I dropped my stuff at the hotel, and left for the beach. We’d heard it wasn’t uncommon to see celebrities there, so we were excited! It was super pretty, and I was thankful for the sand, since the Croatian beaches had been pebble beaches. After hours in the sun, and sadly, no celebrity sightings, we decided to head back and get ready for dinner. Although we’d walked down to the beach, it was all downhill…steep downhill, so we decided to have the beach bar call a taxi for us. Unfortunately, none of the only 30 taxis on the whole island was able to come pick us up…so we started walking up…Let’s just say, I’ll never complain about walking from lower campus to upper campus ever again.

After about an hour of walking and accidentally getting on the wrong bus, we finally managed to snag a taxi and share it with two girls from Australia who were heading in the same direction as us. As I was introducing myself and telling them where I was from, one of the girls looked at me and said, ‘Oh my God! Your southern accent is SO cute!’…my southern accent? You mean, my almost nonexistent southern accent (unless I’m saying ‘ya’ll’)? Hmm…interesting. I said thanks, and she continued on in her cool Australian accent with, ‘Wow! You, honestly, sound JUST like Britney Spears!’…WHAT!? Is she serious!? Wait…should I be flattered or insulted? Regardless...it’s settled.  This chick MUST be deaf. We parted ways with our new clearly hard of hearing Aussie pals and went back to the hotel to prep for dinner and dancing.

The next morning, I woke up bright and early to catch a ferry to Santorini. When we got there, we found a hotel to stay at near the main area of the island, Fira. We got showered, had dinner, and did some shopping around town. Whenever we’d go into stores, people would ask us where we were from and before we could answer, they would say, Canada??....so, we went with it. We told everyone we were from Halifax…which was partially true…I mean, that’s where the boat started from.

On our last day in Santorini, we went up to an area called Oia, where all the pretty white houses with blue roofs are! We found the post office that was in Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, too! We wandered around town all day and took a cable car ride down the side of the mountain. On the way back up, we opted to ride donkeys…which was terrifying. It was only 5 euros, so I figured sure, why not? Plus, I went to horse camp in the 5th grade (don’t judge)...how much different could it really be? How about…a lot different. I mean, there was a saddle-type thingy that I got to sit on. And a weird metal bar thing that I got to hold onto. But the donkey driver totally creeped me out. And he smelled worse than the donkey did. When I asked if my 5 euros included insurance, he looked at me like I was the dumbest person to ever walk the planet…so I took that as a no.

My donkey (whose name I never even learned) kept going way too close to the edge for comfort. And when I would tell him not to, he wouldn’t listen…which I figured was because he probably only spoke Greek. I spent the entire 15 minute ride talking about how I was too young to die, but rejoicing in the fact that death by donkey would make for a pretty cool gravestone. I’m sure my friends were thrilled they’d brought me along. When we got to the top, the creepy driver helped me off my donkey, and my foot got stuck in the foot holder thing…which was interesting since I was wearing a dress. Brilliant planning, Elaina. All of Santorini got a free show. At that point, though, I didn’t care. I was happy to have my feet firmly planted on the ground…even if it meant flashing some Greeks.