Friday was the Olsons last day together in Greece. We had already seen all our planned sights in Santorini, so we treated it as a bonus day. After breakfast Dan and Ann went off on their own to hike a 7 km trail along the cliffs of the caldera that went from Fira to Oia. The rest of us stuck together, first sight seeing through Fira, then catching a bus to a beach with black sand, aptly named the Black Beach.
In Fira we strolled through the scenic streets, past a couple of old churches, and enjoyed the views out into caldera. It was strange at one point to see some road repair being done on the narrow stone streets. Workers were using a jack-hammer to break out the stones, then other workers were setting new stones down one at a time, after which I assume they would set them in place with concrete. Instead of heavy vehicles to move supplies in and out for the repairs, donkeys were being used. It was the most labor intensive road repair I had ever seen, and I imagine similar to how they’ve been repairing the road for thousands of years (minus the jackhammer).
We caught a bus to the Black Beach, the same bus my Mom and Mike had accidentally gotten on two days prior, around 12:40 p.m. It twisted and turned for half an hour through much of the southern part of the island until it dropped us off in the island’s south eastern corner. The beach was very long, with one end starting at a huge rock cliff jutting into the sea, but the other end being too far away to see. As we walked along the clear blue water we saw many closed restaurants and shops, as well as empty beach chairs and umbrellas waiting for busier times.
We left around 2 p.m. to catch a bus back to Fira. The schedule listed return buses at 2:10 p.m. and at 2:45 p.m. Just around 2:10 p.m. a bus drove by, but didn’t stop. We were scared we missed it, and sought out some Greeks nearby to ask why it didn’t stop. They were able to understand our English and said it was just a school bus, even though it looked like the city bus. We waited and waited. Until around 2:25 p.m. when a bus came and stopped. I’m not sure if it was the early one or the late one.
We stopped for a snack of gyros, and falafels in Fira, then grabbed some gelato to eat as we walked back to the house. We packed and prepared to leave; Dan and Ann came back; then around 5:00 p.m. we checked out and rode back to the airport.
Even though everyone’s flights home didn’t leave until Saturday, we said our goodbyes that evening in the Athens airport. Everyone going back to Minnesota stayed in a hotel near the airport, because their flight was at 6:45 a.m., while Melissa and I went into central Athens for our hotel, because our flight didn’t leave until 8:20 p.m., and we planned to have one more day of sight seeing. We boarded a hot, standing room only subway, that took 40 minutes to bring us to our hotel. The time with the Olsons flew by, but we only have to wait until June until we can see everyone again when we return to Minnesota.
On Saturday Melissa and I retraced some of the steps the rest of the Olsons had already taken. Melissa hadn’t seen much in Athens because she had been working the day everyone else looked around. It was a beautiful sunny day, giving us better pictures than before, but also bringing out more tourists. We first wondered through a site the Olsons skipped called the Agora. It’s a large area filled with ruins just north of the Acropolis that was the market square in ancient times. The main sights include the well preserved temple to Hephaestus, an old orthodox church, and a long narrow building called the Stoa used as a museum to display statues, coins, and other artifacts.
We then walked up toward the acropolis, making the same pit stop to the Areopagus, before going through the gate. It was fun to walk through again with Melissa and pretend like I knew what I was talking about. Our next stop was the acropolis museum, which I had seen with the Olsons, then we walked to the temple of Zeus, a sight that I hadn’t seen with the Olsons. When we came to the gate of the temple site we were informed by the guard that the site would be closing in 15 minutes, but that we could go inside. It was only 2:45 p.m., surprisingly early for them to think about closing it. We proceeded to hurriedly look around. Even though only a few columns are still standing, it’s at once apparent how huge the temple was when standing. The large platform that marks the temples former footprint was roped off, but we could walk all the way around it. From the temple grounds the southern side of the acropolis in full view making a nice picture.
Exiting the Temple of Zeus we then walked through the national garden, near the parliament building. It was amazing how quiet the gardens were, if we didn’t know where we were, we would never have guessed that we were in a giant metropolis. Our foot tour then took us on streets we had walked before, to the same store we stopped at on our food tour. We wanted to buy some souvenirs, and picked up wine, honey, olive oil, and ouzo. We grabbed a snack at a falafel restaurant, called falafelfellas, that our food tour guide said was the best. There was a long line out the door, and the falafels reminded me of chipotle burritos with all the fixings inside. We took a subway back to the hotel, but decided to spring for a taxi back to the airport to save our tired feet from anymore standing.
Greece was amazing and I would highly recommend it to anyone thinking of going. The history, the food, the scenery, and the people were all awesome. We had no problems with the language, alphabet, refugee crisis, or financial crisis. The only regret I can think of is that we didn’t stay longer!
