Sat/Sun 7.24-7.25 Part III: Make Your Own Luck

We awoke at 9:00 AM and had what turned out to be quite a good breakfast at the hostel. Eggs, bacon, toast, coffee, and juice, and in the heat, we walked back to the ferry to go to Santorini. Once on the ferry [both this and the last had very comfortable seats by the way], we noticed that they were playing an episode of Doug!! *childhood memories ensue*

And then, of course, I immediately fell asleep afterwards and woke up in the port in Santorini. We made our way to Fira with some shady dealings with the people who were picking Nick and Sam up to go to their hostel (we weren't actually supposed to be on the van with them, but the woman was super nice). And I thought to myself, "I need to get one of those stuffed donkeys to remind myself of the awesomeness of this trip." And after much walking up and down the hills of Fira, I found one. And I found myself wanting to name him. At the same time, I realized what a pain it's been trying to find a guy named Kostos here in Greece. You'd think it wouldn't be that hard, but the number of guys I actually asked the name of dwindled after the skeezy ones tried to "ni hao" me. I mean, I had found a Kosta and a Kostis, but...no Kostos. So, instead of relying on luck to find me one, I decided to make my own luck and thus, this cutie here is named Giannis  Kostos Leonidas IV, Giannis because all the men  Marj has met here are named John, Kostos for me, Leonidas for Shivani's chocolate obsession, and IV for the fourth John Marj has met here. So his name is pretty intimidating, but we call him Yanni (after my coworker who's as adorable).

1. Meet someone named Kostos.

After getting Yanni, we headed to one of Santorini's famous black beaches. The beaches are black due to the volcanic rock on the island, and all the beaches in Santorini are black except the Red Beach and the White Beach which are red and white respectively. The thing with the black beach is that as expected, the sand is very hot during the day so that if you don't wear shoes in the sand, you will likely experience pain of some sort on the soles of your feet. Because it was the last beach experience of the summer, we decided to splurge for an umbrella and because we hadn't slept all weekend, a nap. But before we napped, Marj decided she wanted to fly a kite and produced from her backpack, two kites! I tried to help launch them but the wind wasn't having it.

And thus, we relaxed at the beautiful beach. I contemplated getting my henna there on the beach (lots of other people were doing it!) but ultimately felt too gross to do anything of that sort. I still had smoke residue, sulfur residue, and Eos sand residue on me and was sticky from sweat and ocean spray. So I slept. And it was wonderful.

We finally decided to call a cab to take us to the airport and got there around 7:00 for our 8:15 flight. So a little background on the next part of the story: On Friday, there had been a little scare that the air traffic controllers in Athens were going to strike that Sunday, but when the courts deemed it illegal, we thought we were in the clear to come back to Athens all safe and sound that Sunday. And the air traffic controllers are law abiding people so they did not strike that Sunday. They did, however, all call in sick. The message we got at the airport was that "All flights scheduled today will be leaving at midnight. But if the air traffic controllers feel better, maybe we'll go a little earlier."

And so, with four full flights waiting to get out of Santorini, we squatted in that tiny airport with overpriced food and the same sticky air as the ocean with no breeze. But it wasn't that miserable an experience, and definitely not enough to bring down the whole weekend. I finished a book I started around 3 weeks before, David Sedaris's When You are Engulfed in Flames. I highly recommend it, especially for those who share a sense of humor for the daily absurdities of life. It's a good beach read because it's a compilation of short stories so you can read one, take a nap, go swimming, and come back to read another. However, even in the comedy there is a sort of a darkness that...well...you'll just have to read it for yourself.

We didn't make it until midnight. At around 11 PM, our plane took off for Athens and we finally made it back to the apartment, exhausted but pleased with the way the weekend turned out. We went big and now, we get to go home accomplished.

Wednesday, 6.16: Heat Wave

Remember in the last post where I noted that it was around 99°F every day? Yeah....well it is. And I become ridiculously shiny in the heat. Like a newly minted quarter. Usually, getting around the city is doable because I don't have to walk around in the heat too much and the stores and buildings are all air conditioned so they blow cool wind out their doors every once in awhile. The Athens Metro system is pretty good and the buses are usually air conditioned as well (at least, the new ones and the trolleys). It becomes a problem when THE METRO GOES ON STRIKE.

Yeah, you remember the strike two Thursdays ago where the whole transportation system shut down and the traffic was horrid and I had to walk to Syntagma (which wasn't a problem then because it wasn't nearly so hot). On Wednesday, the Metro system shut down, but the bus system was unaffected. My project for work that day was to go to the airport and get some footage of the MEDASSET exhibit that was in the airport. Apparently, Athens airport has a number of exhibits that feature art from the New Acropolis Museum and some contemporary artists, which is pretty cool and just speaks to the culture of sitting, relaxing, and browsing. You could never have such an exhibit in the departures section of LAX, what with people shoving their way into the plane like the airport's on fire.

Anyways, there are a couple ways to get to the airport, and the only really feasible way for me to do it was by bus. Because I had already taken the bus once before, it wasn't a problem and I was able to loiter a little around Syntagma Square while waiting. However, I did not anticipate the number of people that would be boarding this bus at 9:30 AM. It got to the point where it was standing room only and people's baggage only made it worse. Fortunately, I was able to squish my way onto a seat and the ride to the airport was pretty smooth after that.

I creeped around the exhibit for awhile, and walked around the airport, marveling at how expensive everything was. The Athens International Airport is pretty nice in terms of shopping and exhibits.

Even the McDonalds was cushy.

The issues came on the bus ride back to Athens. There were so many people on the bus that I didn't get a seat. Then, any room to stand became smaller and smaller until everyone was just pressed up against everyone else. Super awkwardness ensued. Any movement of the bus caused people to careen into their neighbors and personal space could no longer even be defined. To make matters worse, the bus drove super slowly in the heat and even if the bus was air conditioned (which I think it was), the sheer number of people in the bus made it hard to breathe. I got shinier and shinier and the journey was certainly up there on uncomfortable public transportation experience list.

Finally, after making it back to Syntagma, I lugged myself into work, treated myself to a milkshake, and spent the rest of the day showering and sitting under the air conditioner.

Hopefully, this heat wave will cease soon.


Bright and shiny,

Angela