At this stop, the 4 of us went on a tour of Olympia, where the first Olympic games were held.
it was fairly interesting... i mean, they were ruins, so we were looking at a bunch of rocks. ... but they were old rocks, so that's kinda cool.
the Katakolon docks:
it looks peaceful eh?
Bus ride to the site:
then.... old stuff!!
the original field for track and field events:
And this is basically what i came here for, the place where the Olympic torch is lite from every 2 years:
And next was the museum to see more old stuff!
it was pretty funny, people kept forgetting to turn off their camera flash, so the employees kept yelling, "no flash! no flash!"...that'd be an interesting job. yelling at people all day...
so that's basically it for Katakolon/Olympia.
Next stop was Santorini, Greece which is a fairly famous place b/c it's a volcano, which is considered to be active. ...although, i don't think it's done anything for a really really long time.
it's also the site where a cruise ship sunk about 4 weeks ago. ...like 2 weeks before we went there!
it sunk really slowly, but i hear that two people either died or are still unaccounted for. so that's sad...
so the plan for this day was similar to the others...my sis and i walk around a lot.
the plan changed though, cuz there were FIVE cruise ships there at the same time...so like TONS of tourists.
so the way it works is the ships dock out in the middle of the sea and have little ferries that take you to the dock.
it's a volcano, which mean, there's a huge cliff you need to go up in order to get anywhere:
most people do that by cable car, but there's also a winding stairway you can walk up, or donkeys that take you up the stairs.
of course, the cable car line was HUGE! and we heard someone say that it would take 2-3hours.
so my sis and i decided to walk up.
we find the stair area, and this man starts bustling us to get on the donkeys. "5 euro! 10 minutes!"
my sis is like, 'oh, 5 euro! that's not a lot...' so she decides to take a donkey.
the guy told us that it takes approx 1 hour to walk up, and there was donkey poo all over the place...so i decided not to do that.... and i like donkeys, so i felt like having one carry me up this mountain would be like cruel and unusual punishment.
so my sis and i split up, and i went to join the huge line.
it ended up only taking an hour, so that was better than expected.
it was the usual 'wandering around' when i got to the top.... but it was less fun b/c i didn't have anyone to talk to. ...and i didn't take my camera out as often.
so i basically shopped. ....and got lost.
that was the worst part. SOOOO frustrating!
1. because i was tired and just wanted to get back to the boat.
2. because i was hot and just wanted to get back on the boat.
3. because i was hungry and just wanted to get back on the boat!
and 4, the worst of all, i could SEE where i wanted to go (DOWN!) but i just couldn't find the stairs, or cable car entrance!!
and of course i didn't ask anyone. ...i figured it shouldn't be THAT difficult to find.
hah, apparently it was.
so i walked. and walked. and walked.
i got out of the shopping area and into a more residential space.... and i saw this touristy looking guy walking down this dirt road.
so i followed him.. ..not closely though.
the dirt road:
then he turned the corner, so did as well...
around the corner:
nothing. ...just a dead end, and houses far away.
oh, and the man was gone.
hah! seriously, i have no idea where he went.
so i think i was even more upset now, cuz i had to walk back up that hill! ugh!
actually i semi-considered trying to climb my way down the hill. ...but it was definitely too steep, and i was REALLY far from where i was supposed to be.
anyways, later on, i took a picture of where i think i was during those wanderings:
so that whole being miserably hot and tired and lost thing sorta ruined Santorini for me, but my family thought it was a beautiful place. there were no trees, b/c it was a volcano, but the buildings were nice and white with bright blue accents...
random pics:
they did some cool designs with their stones.
and that's about it for Santorini!
