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June

June 5 - 11 Athena and Santorini, Hellas: So this trip to Greece was the best ever. I had such a good time. I knew things would be good when we arrived at our hotel in Athens, located in the historic Plaka district, and they informed us that we had a suite on top floor with a terrace with views of the Acroplis ... for only 60€ a night for the room, you can't beat that. So that was good.

Our first "adventure" occured on the morning of our second full day in Athens (the 7th). We wanted to take a bus to Sounio to see the Temple of Poseidon. We asked the front desk of the hotel and the guy told us to just go around the block and there will be a bus stop, to which the bus will come. So we get to this bus stop (like a local city bus stop) and look at all the signs (which are in Greek, but since I was quite proficient in reading the greek alphabet, it was ok). None of them said "Sounio". This posed a problem. We went to a nearby bakery to ask if they knew. The person there directed us around the corner. So we go around the corner and see a big sign that says "Souion" and points the right ... problem is, that it is a street sign. The lady gave us directions to drive there. Not terribly helpful. We stopped in a nearby travel agent to ask them. The lady at the desk did not know, but pointed us in the direction of the nearest tourist information center. We went there and obtained a bus schedule for this

Sounio bus and the lady highlighted on a map where the stop was. Unfortunately, she highlighted the entire street which we were just on, so that was not too helpful. Thinking there might have been another bus stop along the street, we proceede to walk down the entire length of the street. Nothing pops out at us. We finall reach the end and ask someone in a ticket booth who is selling local bus tickets. He says 50 meters back the way we came. We were elated. We thought we had found it. We reach this stop and look at all the signs. None say Sounio. We ask a guy nearby and he says it is the next bus stop down the street. So we begin walking .... and reach the first bus stop we were at that morning. Quite discouraging. Chris then pops into another nearby travel agency and ask if we are at the right stop. The guy say "no", and that the bust stop is in front of a parking lot (which we passed 3 times that morning). We walk to this parking lot and notice an orange pole sticking up out of the sidewalk. Attached to this pole was a small bus schedule that said "Sounio" on it. We finally found it! No wonder it was so hard to fine, the sign that normal said "Sounio" that was normally attached to the top of the pole was ripped off. We waited for the  bus for 30 minutes (it came very hour and the next one was in 30 minutes). It did not come. Well, it finally did, 20 minutes later. But it did not stop!! A lady also waiting for the bus rushed into the street waving her hands to stop it. It then stopped and we all ran down the street to the bus. Chris and I were the last ones in the door. The bus took off before Chris had even stepped in yet, So he had to hold on and jump in to make. Talk about a hectic morning. We did finally make it to Sounio though, and our ride home was much less eventful.

Santorini is the most beautiful island I have ever been to. They were not kidding when they said it had the most beautiful sunsets in the world. Check it out for yourself. We had another hotel episode here. For some reason the hotel I booked was full for the first night I booked it for, so we just got upgraded to a nice one owned by the same lady. It was good. I spoke more German in Greece than English ... it was very helpful. Our second "adventure" occured when Chris and I rented an ATV to see the island. We were on the hunt for Ancient Thira ... and archeological site on the island. Our previous attempts to reach said city were thwarted by this huge mountain in the middle of the island that was impassible by bicycle. With the ATV though, this would be no problem. We turned down this dirt road, following the signs to the city when

suddenly, the road ended. The sign pointed to a scraggly narrow path up the mountain. Oh ... so Ancient Thira was on top of the mountain. Pah. Since we are troopers, we decided to take the hike. We parkted the ATV and began the trek. About halfway up, we met a German. We asked if we were going the right way to Ancient Thira. He told us "yes", but that the site was closed. Great. Just great. He said the view was good though, so we decided to finish the climb. Upon reaching the top, we noticed a little fruit truck. Excellent. We were hungry. We also noticed a road ... coming up the other side of the mountain. So we could have driven to the top. Hmmm. That was a slap in the face. As we were picking out our fruit, the cover to the trash can blew off the mountain side. The fruit lady rushed outside, all sad. Chris, being the gentleman that he his, chased after this trash can cover. He retrieved it and the lady was so happy she gave us free drinks. Hooray for us. After snacking at the top of the mountain, we began the climb back down to our parked ATV. When we reached the bottom, we had a surprise waiting for us. The headlights had been accidentally switched on ... so they drained the battery, and now we could not start the ATV. Not to be discouraged, we push the ATV a bit, then hop on it and coast down to the beach and town of Perissa. Our plan was to find an ATV rental shop and see if they could jump us. No need for that, however, because the rolloing motion of the ATV somehow charged the battery a bit and we were able to start it after our coast downhill. We even had time to make it out to Ia for the fantastic sunset on our last night. We won (insert U2 music here).

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