Jenni & Joe
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Greek Islands, Greece
Sunday, October 14
It's time to go to Greece. The problem is we're not exactly sure how to get there. Sure, we know we have to take a ferry, but the ferry schedules are not posted anywhere, especially because the rough seas make the schedules are extremely flexible. So we decide to take a blind leap. We opt to take a ferry to Samos and then, once we get there, we'll have to figure out a way on to Santorini. We wake up early to catch the ferry to Samos. After grabbing a quick simit for breakfast (a kind of bagel with sesame seeds) we wander onto the ferry for a one-and-a-half-hour ride to Greece. Jenni gets extremely seasick, while Joe chats with some fellow Texans. Once we make it to Samos, we find out the ferries are not running very frequently because of the rough seas. It's just as well because Jenni is still blue from the ferry trip. We make an expensive decision to bypass the ferries and fly to Santorini. We will have to fly tomorrow and, unfortunately, the flight will take twice as long because we have to go through Athens. Since we're spending the night on Samos, we check into the Samos Hotel and take a nap. Joe gets up and climbs up the steep hills for a look at the old town. The white and blue paint along with crosses and bells make the Greek architecture distinctly different than Turkey. Another huge difference is evident at dinner when we eat roast pork (Muslims don't eat pork). We share the dinner along with some famous Samian wine (it tastes like the grape syrup we ate with the family in Cappadocia.) We eat dinner surrounded by cats who beg for food. After dinner we went for a walk accompanied by a pack of neighborhood dogs.

Monday, October 15
Got up EARLY to catch the plane to Athens, then to Santorini, but the plane is delayed. By the time we get to Athens, our connecting flight has already left. We spend 4 ½ hours in the new Athens airport, reading everything we can find. We want to eat, but it seems the only restaurant is McDonalds. We scarf down some big macs and fries and take a walk. That's when we realize there are a plethora of a restaurants on another level of the airport! Oh well, we got our french fry fix for the month! Finally, we get on the Buddy Holly prop plane for the 25-minute ride to Santorini and check into the Venus Aphrodite Hotel on Kamari beach. It's a lovely hotel and it's cheap too because it's off season (it cost us about $26 a night). Kamari beach has beautiful, black volcanic sand left over from the giant volcanic eruption thousands of years ago. As stunning as it is, though, the party is over. We have arrived in Greece after the tourist season. Besides, tourism is down some 30 - 50 percent because of the terrorist attacks of September 11th. This Santorini is much different - much less lively - than we expected, but we decide to make the most of it. We eat dinner to the sounds of live bozouki music (the Greek version of a guitar).

Tuesday, October 16
After getting up late, we exercise in the morning and then lay on the beach most of the day. We both get much-needed haircuts in the late afternoon and visit an Internet café at night.

Wednesday, October 17
We buy picnic supplies for lunch and dinner since the remaining restaurants are quite expensive. We spent the rest of the day on the beach and later dropped by a travel agency to ask about tours around the island.

Thursday, October 18
At the last minute, we manage to get on the last formal tour of Santorini of the year (see Journal). During the day we meet two honeymooning couples: one from Canada and another from New York. They both tell us their families urged them not to travel because of the threat of terrorist action. They're both glad they went ahead with their honeymoon plans and decided to enjoy a splendid time on this beautiful Greek Island.

Friday, October 19
Jenni is sick with a sore throat, so she spends the day sleeping. Joe runs to the nearby town of Fira to buy plane tickets to Crete for the next day. He wanders around the town, finds an Internet café, and scours the Internet looking for a good place to visit on Crete. He finds a great Web site put together by a British man who has fallen in love with a beach called Plakias. The site is filled with input from people who share the enthusiasm for this little beach on the Southern end of Crete. Seems like a winner, besides, the weather is bound to be a little bit warmer which could make it perfect.

Saturday, October 20
Jenni sleeps late, trying to get rid of a fever and the sore throat. Joe gets out and about in the morning, and we update the Web site with Istanbul and Adana. The hotel lets us check out late, around 5:00, since they're closing tomorrow anyway and since Joe made a good case that Jenni wasn't feeling too well. The plane left the Santorini airport after sunset, and arrived in Crete just 25 minutes later. The only way to get to Plakias was to take a $60 taxi ride, as it's 125 kilometers away and no buses are running. We do it, and spend the night at what seems like a shady hotel but actually turns out to just have listless staff who couldn't care less about guests.

Sunday, October 21
We get up early this morning to find a new hotel that we like better, and one that has a TV in the room. Joe's need for news is not just a passion…he wants to stay abreast of the latest happenings with the war, and TV is really the best way since there's only one Internet-enabled computer in the entire town and it's expensive to use. We choose the Alianthos Beach Hotel (after looking at 3-4). They said they have CNN, but it's really BBC. Can't anyone ever get that straight? But it's a nice room for $30 a night. The view out the window is perfect, with waves rhythmically crashing against the surf that will lull us up to sleep for the next week-and-a-half. After getting settled and unpacking into our new home, we head down to the beach. We walk all the way to the East end of the Plakias beach which happens to be a nude section. We decide it's time to get a good tan, and we spend about 4 hours just laying out and not worrying about a thing in the world. Soup for lunch and dinner was a grilled fish, tsatsiki, olives, and feta cheese. We then make calls to family and friends, or rather try to. The pay phones are temperamental at best, and we don't get to talk with everyone we want to, despite 21/2 hours of trying diligently.

Monday, October 22
A lovely day at the beach. Jenni stayed up way too late last night reading a book, so she sleeps late into the morning while Joe grabs a short light workout, then gathers picnic supplies for lunch. A quick picnic under some trees, and then we head to the beach and water for a few hours. Showers, then a short afternoon nap with the sounds of the waves crashing and the sea breeze blowing the curtains…then we make our way to dinner for some more soup and pizza, drink a couple of shots of raki, and then quickly check e-mail. We turn in around 10:30.

Tuesday, October 23
Joe gets a morning workout, while Jenni goes to the Pharmacist to get some better drugs for her sore throat. After that - you're not going to believe this - but we decide to spend most of this day on the beach yet again! The weather is just perfect, and we are catching up on our sleep along with our rays. If this isn't paradise, we're not sure what is! Later at the Internet café, I get an e-mail from the NBC accountant who was working on my paycheck. She says she and all the others in her office had to be tested for anthrax, and she tested negative. Unfortunately, she won't be able to open my letter with my reimbursement paperwork - possibly for weeks!

Wednesday, October 24 We both get a good morning workout. A healthy walk and some stretching as well as pushups. After a delicious picnic brunch, Jenni decides to stay inside and read. That's when it strikes us just how lucky we are. It is not a luxury, we decide, to simply be on one of the most glorious beaches in the world. It is a luxury to decide we don't have to lie out on that glorious beach if we don't feel like it one day! We are so lucky! And, although we feel a little guilty about it, we decide to enjoy it because we may never be in this luxurious situation again. Joe does, however, decide to spend a couple hours down at the nudie section for a couple of hours (that's his luxury) and then we both go to dinner.

Thursday, October 25
Strong morning workout of a brisk 40 minute walk along with some situps, lunges, squats, and arm exercises. We're starting to feel healthy and a little sore … good feeling! We picnic for lunch and spend the day lounging around and reading our books. No beach and no dinner today. Just a Greek salad and soup. Later, we drink "Mythos Beer," a local favorite and read our books by candlelight at a music bar. We are unabashed nerds. We don't care if it's goofy to read while others are drinking, smoking, drunkenly dancing and looking cool. We want to read our books. They don't know us and we can't understand them, so it doesn't matter if they don't think we're cool!

Friday, October 26
It's even chillier today. Even too cold to do our morning exercises, so without a chance of lounging on the beach, we decide to sleep late (what would you do?) We finally got up for coffee (Joe) and tea (Jenni) and watched the killer guard ducks protect their territory in the area in front of the hotel. They chased after everyone; especially children and cars with their necks extended and their beaks and tongue in attack position. They yelled like banshees and scared the heck out of many unwary tourists. (They even bit the car bumpers of unsuspecting tourists when they parked in killer duck territory!!) We took our laptop and sat in an outdoor café and worked on the web page (like the geeks that we are). We munch on a Greek salad and bread while perusing a map, deciding maybe it was time to start planning some sightseeing. We both just finished the books we have been reading for the last 2 days. Jenni was reading whatever trashy novels she could get her hands on and Joe was reading Clear and Present Danger, by Tom Clancy. Lunch is a cheeseburger for Jenni and a pizza for Joe, along with 2 shots of ouzo -- a Greek liqueur that tastes like black licorice -- and Mythos beers. If not for the alcohol, we could have been in Omaha Nebraska if you looked only at the food we're eating.

Saturday, October 27
Another chilly day, this time complemented with blowing rain. The water looks gray, and you can see the wind dancing across the waves…it looks like a ghost moving across the water. Whitecaps as far as the eye can see. It's another day of doing nothing for us. Reading, drinking coffee and tea, naps, calling friends and family. Days like these are like a vacation from our vacation from a vacation.

Sunday, October 28
Okay, enough of the rain and wind. We are becoming stir-crazy and getting far too much sleep. This morning we set off to find a tiny beach I read about on the wall of the hostel here in town…but we can't find it. The path leads into a dark cave which we have to waddle through (low ceiling). That experience scares Jenni to pieces - what if there were wolves or a dead body in there?! We end up just stretching and doing some light exercises in the scrub grass; sort of sheltered from the wind. There's supposed to be a parade through town at 11AM, so we make sure we're back in time, but nothing is going on. They're just running late, we figured. They're on Greek Time, we joked. The joke was on us - we forgot completely about Daylight Savings Time! The computer reminded us of it when we turned it on this afternoon. Later that night, we also decide to rent a car and make something of these sunless days. Tomorrow is supposed to be dry, so we feel a bit better about navigating the scary roads that edge sheer cliffs. Our hotel provides rental cars, and we get one for about $65 for two days.

Monday, October 29
It's a beautiful, sunny day so we are determined to take a hike. It's the first day of the 2-day car-rental agreement, and we head out early for the Imbros Gorge. The roads inspire an active imagination, picturing what it would be like to drive over a sheer cliff down the side of a mountain…we pass little town after little town, that measure no more than a quarter of a mile in length, and make way for bigger vehicles and sheep alike. On the way back from the Gorge, we are driving through another small town and move the car over to the right shoulder to make way for a truck coming down the one-car lane. Bam! The car jerked and we plummeted…one foot down. The right front wheel dropped off a small ledge, and the little rental is now stuck flat on a ledge. Two ladies immediately saw us and told us that this type of thing happens all the time…(whether she meant "dumb tourists" do this all the time, we are not sure.) At any rate, they gather up a few grumpy men and they help us push the car onto the road. It's a small incident, but it's enough to put our nerves on edge and we are both irritable for the drive home. We make it back in time for the sunset over the sea, and eat a dinner of picnic supplies, and plan the rest of our trip on the calendar. We are now 4 months into the trip …60 days left.

Tuesday, October 30
Our second day with the car, and we again get an early start! The agenda today: get money from the ATM at the town 30 kilometers away and arrange for travel to Athens. We also want to find a little-used beach to watch the sunset and be romantic to make up for yesterday's irritability. We succeed on all fronts, although we had to drive down even scarier dirt roads edging even sheerer cliffs that left Jenni's hands sweaty and Joe's knuckles white. But it's worth it - the beach is deserted and the view stupendous. But the sunset-watching is out - no way are we going to drive that dirt road in the dark! Back at the hotel, we grab a disappointing dinner (the restaurant is about to close, and everything is bottom-of-the-barrel), wrap up all loose financial ends and pack up. We leave tomorrow morning for Athens!