Monday, June 13, 2005

Monday.
Been a long period of unblogness, but let me remedy that.
Saturday, after leaving the office went and looked round town with Joanne and David to try and get some lightweight walking boots, cheap but only saw pricey ones - fifty quid upwards. Did buy a fancy T-shirt from Selfridges though. We went to see Dad.
Sunday morning went to Merry Hill with David and bought us both a cheap (37 quid) pair of really good boots from the big French sport store, whose name I cant remember. Then went to the airport, Jayne drove the car back. And off to Frankfurt then Athens.
Got a cheap (not 90 Euros) taxi to the hotel.Not much to note for the first week except Wednesday went and had a pizza, 2 beers and a bottle of wine, 2 cocktails in bar 21 and woke up at 4.30 lying fully clothed, ooh err, too much alcohol !
Saturday went to Athens, bought a cheap pair of baseball boots for 15E from the market, and to Piraeus to get tickets to Santorini, where the caldera is ! Stocked up on groceries, had a snooze, then metro to Piraeus and got on the boat to the islands.
Left at 22:00, arrived 07.30 !
A long night wandering about the boat, watching the dawn, seeing island appear out the sea. Go to the island, had a coffee then joined a trip out to look at the volcano.
Volcano !
At last ! A real livevolcano !
Lots of lava floes from the eruptions, last on in 1950. There are vents around the summit crater issuing sulphur dioxide, steam and hydrogen sulphide, which probably means things are heating up underneath.
Then round to look at the hot springs, where they come onto the seabed by the coast, had to swim to see that so soaked my shorts and undies. Back to the main island dripping wet.
Decided to walk up to the top of the island, went off down a little track which led to a rubbish heap, then climbed down a steep valley to the sea.
It was a deserted beach, and secluded so I took my shorts & undies off to dry them on a rock.
Later I walked further up the hairpin road, but near the top got fed up of all the traffic so went back down.
Eventually sat in the cafe waiting for the boat, and drank 5 bottles of Heineken.
Also noticed a smudge on pictures, must have got dirt of moisture inside the camera, how am I going to clean that ?
Back on a really fast catamaran, stood at the back above the mighty propellors most of the trip, listening to mp3s and getting slowly coated in fine salty spray, and drinking 2 tins of lager. Long train trip back to Kifissia, then a long walk to hotel, to finally get back about 12.45. Phew ! Put some factor 30 sun cream on, so didn't fry like last time !
After all that excitement, what can I do next weekend ?