A LOT has happened

This is the sunset in Oia I talked about, and the donkeys in Fira that take people up the hill from the port because it is so steep.



Right after we left the Internet Cafe when I published my last post, we went to check on our ferry that would be leaving in 2 hours. "Oh the ferry to Crete? Its canceled." Oh... So after some reading of my book and tons of questions to the ferry lady, we decided to head to Naxos instead of waiting another day for a boat to Crete.

Our intention was to catch another ferry to one of the tiny islands off Naxos, but once we got there we found that there weren't really any boats that worked with our schedule. Oh well, I guess we'll just make the most of Naxos!

We wandered around the streets late at night and took pictures of the castle. The streets were completely deserted, which was weird. They are very cute though. Tight and windy, just like you'd imagine for a Greek village. We met a man who wanted us to go to his restaurant. The conversation went like this:

Man: Where are you from?
Me: We're from America.
Man: (after sizing me up) Originally?
Me: Yes...where do you think I'm from?
Nothing
Me: Greece?
Man: Yes.
Me: You're right. I'm Greek.
Man: Where?
Me: Um....Athens...?

At this point Elise interrupted with, "She's not Greek! We're from America!" Haha, he totally believed me. So we ate at his restaurant and paid more than we should've. I'm such a sucker...



The next morning we rented a 4 wheeler and took off for a journey exploring the island. We drove for hours up and over mountains from town to town.




We ended up in a little place where we ate lunch and walked around. We ended up getting lost for like an hour. Literally, we could NOT find our way out of the maze. At one point we turned the corner and found this:



We finally saw another person and asked for help. She only spoke Greek and French but we finally got our message across and she led us out. So kind of her. Elise decided she was our angel for the day. I don't disagree.

After leaving that town we drove to a beach to go snorkeling at sunset. It was freezing but we saw an octopus, which is very common on this island. We ate Calamari last night because octopus and calamari are so plentiful here.



After snorkeling we set off to find a place to sleep. We'd been traveling with all of our luggage strapped to the 4 wheeler all day. With the sun going down we were running out of time. Unfortunately we hit a bump in the road when I lost the bag we'd put all of our wet stuff in. We turned around to search for it because it had just fallen off the 4 wheeler (named Thomas), but it was gone. How does that happen? We were the only ones on the road, it was a bright red bag, and we turned around no more than 10 minutes after we'd lost it. That is SO annoying. So we lost our swimsuits, towels, a pair of my shorts, my brush, and deoderant. No big deal I guess. I'm super annoyed, but my bag is lighter now. It was our last island and last chance to snorkel too. It definitely could've happened at a worse time. We got lucky.

Unfortunately we didn't get lucky on a place to stay. We searched for a few hours, found nothing, and ended up sleeping on the beach. It was FREEZING cold because we only have silk sleeping bag liners and airplane blankets. We woke up with the sun frozen and wet from dew. We got on our ferry and used the bathrooms to change, wash our faces, and brush our teeth. At least it was free. We also slept for a few hours on the ferry.


Somehow after a day of traveling and a LOT of people who don't speak English, we made it to Delphi. Its a small town on the mainland in the mountains. Its beautiful and we've spent the day exploring ruins from at least 300 BC. Quite amazing really. Tomorrow we're heading to Athens to do some more touristing before we head to Rome and then back home. This has been amazing.




Don't tell our dads we slept on the beach. We were totally safe and saw NOBODY else the entire night. But still.... ;)