Day 10: A Warm Welcome

I woke up this morning and snuck outside to watch the sun rise. Our balcony overlooks all of Kamari and I could hear roosters crowing from every direction.

Will woke up a few hour later and we went to eat in the reception hall where they served us a complimentary breakfast of bread, biscuits, nutella, yogurt, coffee, and juice. We were very grateful for their generosity and I heard them laughing at us later because we said thank you so frequently.

We walked down our spiraling hill into Kamari to wait at the bus stop. It was already very hot outside! We planned to go to Red Beach, but every bus had to go through the capital, Fira, so we had to transfer buses. About forty-five minutes later we had made into the little port where we hiked to see the beach. The contrast of red rock and blue water was dramatic and beautiful, but the beach was already stock full of tourists.

We took a bus back to Fira and explored shops while admiring the houses built into the cliffside. We snagged a table overlooking the cliff where we could watch the donkeys and wheezing tourists climb the 580 steps from the Old Port to Fira. We got saganaki, which basically is like a giant mozzarella stick. They are sinfully good! Will got carbonara, which he considered one of his best meals so far and I got a fresh seafood salad.

We went back to our place in Kamari and went to find our clothes. Tina, our wonderful cook offered to wash them for us, and we found them hanging on a clothesline. We waved to her signaling that we were going to take them and went back to our room. Unfortunately, a couple hours later, Tina knocked on our door in a panic thinking our clothes had been stolen. The poor woman was close to tears and so relieved to hear that we had them. Will and I felt absolutely terrible, but when we saw her later we patted her arms and apologized again and she laughed with us. Despite scaring her to death, I think she really likes us.

We tried dolmades, stuffed grape leaves, at dinner, walked on the beach, and watched some of the soccer players on an open field in town.

Hope everyone's first day back at school has been good!
Cheers,
Emma