Week 2....begins

October 1, 2006, Sunday

Well we only have a week left, the time really flies on vacation, but the first week was perfect, and I am eternally grateful that we have another to go. The first week we walked miles and miles up and down craggy, gravely foot paths over mountains and saw all that we could see that way. Now this week we’ve rented a car to see all the rest of the island. Places too far to walk, ruins, beaches, etc….. Yesterday we went to Perissa and Akrotiri and the Red Beach. We ate by the Black Beach and walked in the Mediterranean Sea. We watched the very comfortable Europeans feel completely at ease topless on the beaches and realized that we Americans aren’t nearly as unself-conscious of our bodies. I rather envy them. There are no sugar substitutes here, no one looks either overweight or anorexic, they are all just very normal and natural and comfortable with aging and losing to gravity. Their work ethic is amazing too as shops open at 10 am and close about midnight, and we are told 2 am in season. The season is nearly over now, most everyone closes up shop and goes to Athens for the winter on about Oct. 15th. We leave on the 8th, however it is already pretty quiet in town, busy only during the days when the cruise ships are in. The amount of stairs down to the water from Fera is absolutely amazing, some people take the donkeys and there is a cable car, but the very stout still walk it. Eating dinner over the stairs last evening, we watched the sunset as the donkeys all came up at the end of the day. It is a place unlike anywhere else in the world, with the boats, the sunsets and all the amazing buildings built into the cliffs, and the bluest water to be found anywhere, Santorini is a one of a kind experience and a perfect honeymoon destination….. We are having an incredible experience and our Greek is growing although still an amazingly difficult language, I think we are up to 6 words!. Most of the tourists here now, are German though, it is only a 3 and ½ hour flight for them, so we are also hearing a lot of German each day, and the Greeks seem fairly proficient in it too. Well off for new sights and sounds, I love you all.