We rented a car for two days so we could drive around, check things out. A new Nissan Micra that already has a dent in it.
A lot of people rent scooters and quads here, but they have their obvious disadvantages. Easy to park and manuever, but you're exposed to the blazing sun all day and can't carry much gear with you. And I have to say, there are some inexperienced people driving these things. It'll be a miracle if we go the entire week without seeing some skinned-up knucklehead who took a tumble...
We put a little gas in the car. 10 liters cost 17 Euro. I'll let you do the conversion.
The topography of the place is "rugged hilly." If southern Arizona had an ocean, and was composed of lava and other volcanic material, it'd be Santorini. Very few trees here, and a fair amount of cacti. But, surprisingly, grapes grow here, though not the neatly trained grapevines we're used to seeing. No, these just look like a low bush. The local wine isn't bad.
Amazingly, we stumbled on a fucking Mexican restaurant, of all places. We pulled in to take in the view from their patio, and pay for the view by buying a drink, but ended up staying for lunch because the owner, Mary, was such an interesting character.
Mary met her Greek husband (then boyfriend) in Colorado in the late 70s. Ten years later they married and then they moved here. About 18 years ago they started Senor Zorba's Mexican restaurant, with just 3 tables. Since then it's grown to be a good-sized place. Mary was a charming and talkative person, and gave us a lot of hints on what to see and what to avoid on the island. She and B talked Euro-politics as it relates to the ongoing Greek economic crisis and the corruption that pervades Greek officialdom.
We sat outside on the patio and the view of the water-filled crater was spectacular, probably the best ocean overlook I've ever seen, maybe better than the Amalfi coast in Italy. The food was pretty good and the conversation with Mary lots of fun.
One view from the patio of Senor Zorba's Mexican (!) Restaurant
As we drove along we noticed a lot of houses under construction. They're all made of concrete, and many of them have a half-cylinder shaped roof---think quonset hut. Not sure why, if it's functional or aesthetic, but they seem to like these roofs here.
We drove as high up as we could go, and got a great view of the airport on one side and the flat agricultural area on the other side. The very top of the mountain housed a military installation of some kind.
There are several villages on the island and not all of them
sit on cliffs overlooking the sea.
We found a beach. Accessing this beach required a long walk along a steep path up, then down to the beach. Again, not a sandy beach, but not rocky this time, either. The beach was kind of a fine lava gravel. The water wasn't too warm, but tolerable, and the beach was crowded with people mostly laying around...I'd say maybe 3% of the people were in the water at any given time. We each went in twice, separately, and then took off.
A shot of our beach as we were leaving.
An hour before, there had been twice as many people.
We stopped off at what is probably the only supermarket on the island and stocked up on stuff to put in the fridge. You can buy stuff in Oia but only in small shops, like convenience stores, and it's overpriced.
On the way back we travelled a road we'd not yet seen, which is on the other side of the cliff where we live. There are several beaches along this stretch, at least one of which we want to try tomorrow. A young hitchhiker stuck his thumb out and we picked him up. Turned out he was half-Greek, half-British and was working here for the summer, but the rest of the time was living in Barcelona. You meet people like this a lot in Europe---mixed parentage, who speak two or three or four languages.
The young man gave us some information on the beaches and thanked us for the ride when we dropped him off. It was a good 8 kilometers or so he'd have had to walk otherwise.
We parked the car where we could, hoping it was OK to park there----the public lot was full, of course.
Then we schlepped all our groceries and swimming gear, etc. through the village and down the steep path leading to our place.
A few shots I made in the morning, in Oia.
B made an excellent supper of (believe it or not) watermelon chunks with feta cheese and roasted almonds. Pretty. Damned. Good.
She oversees her kingdom, which is vast.
She expects food after already getting some.
