What a hilarious misunderstanding...

Goodbye Athens! Hello Santorini!

We (Anya and I... and then there were two) left Athens this morning and after a tumultuous plane ride, landed in the Greek island of Santorini. It was nothing like I expected. I suppose I equate all islands with Puerto Rico, which is lush and green, and mostly animal reserves. Santorini is right off of a volcano, so it's dry and brown here. There are cliffs and hills but the island has a very open feel to it, like you can see for miles.

Our trip started off very rocky. We were directed by our hotel owner to wait at the hotel for her husband Loukas. When we arrived at the (small) airport we waited for about 15 minutes. Then a man with a van came up to us and this is how the conversation went:

Man - "Two?"
Me - "Are you Loukas?"
Man - "Yes Loukas."

And off we went with the man. I was worried this wasn't exactly right, but on the drive we tried to clear it up.

Me - "You are Loukas?"
Man - "Yes Loukas."
Me - "And your wife is Gianna?"
Man - "Yes Loukas."

When we arrived on a corner another man showed up to take us to the hotel.

Me - "Are YOU Loukas?"
New Man - "Yes. *touching chest* Loukas."

Off we went with the new man. He took us up and down hills, through town, down some stairs and down an alley. (Let me remind you that it is 100 degrees (not an exaggeration...), and I was dressed in black pulling 50 pounds of luggage. Not my finest hour.) At the end of the alley there was a sign for "Hotel Lucas" I immediately dropped my luggage and was irate. Luckily Anya kept her cool and went inside to straighten up the issue. The lady at the hotel gave her the correct number and we were told to leave. Nice.

We had to go up the stairs, back up and down around the hills just to get back to the place the first van dropped us off. We saw a set of pay phones and I called Lila, the owner. After a very confusing phone call we decided to head back to the airport, so they could pick us up there. We took another taxi and 30 Euros later we found the owners!!

Lila is a hilarious, ridiculously loud woman who just kept repeating "Where were you?!" and all we could say was "We don't know!!!" It was just a hilarious misunderstanding...

Lila knew just how to make us feel better though. We got to the hotel and she took us to this beautiful pillow-laden patio where she immediately gave us a couple of Amstels... ahhh... The rest of the day we've just been laying by the pool, drinking Amstel, getting some sun and genuinely relaxing. I figure after today, we deserve it.