A true path follows no plan…

I think I could stay here forever! It is such a beautiful place. Everwhere I look, every alleyway I turn down there is something stunning to look at. I’m trying to get some good photos and have been really happy with some so far. I’ll get them up on here later today when I’m back at the hotel.

I’m sat in a Skala restaurant, have just had lunch whilst looking out at the cliff front in Ia (Oia) which is the famous town for the Santorini Sunset. Fira, where I am staying is also famous for it’s setting. I have walked along the top, down hundreds of steps, and back up, twisted and turned down every alley and laneway I could see and have happily snapped away and shopped as I have made my way around the town. It is stunning. I am now waiting for the sunset as would love to see it in person instead of from a postcard! It has been gorgeous weather today with the sun shining bright, although it is sill a bit windy and cool. I am hoping the sunset will be a good one as the weather has been really cloudy since I’ve been on the Island, and we haven’t really had a proper sunset yet. Stay tuned…..

It’s spitting, as my favourite comedian says. It’s raining. It’s wet. It’s grey outside and I’m not even in England! It’s a bit miserable outside as I write this, sat in the busy square behind the Caldera view strip, but it’s still warmish. I’ve had breakie at the rather lovely (slightly posh by some accommodation standards I’ve seen) Loizos Residence and have been faffing on with my photos taken on the trip, ready to play around with the blog. I still haven’t got round to catching up with anymore homework since Sunday, but I know I’ll get there.

When I went on my first wander on Thursday it didn’t start well. I walked about 50m from the hotel and was greeted with the fantastic Caldera view. I’ve got a really good rate for the area at this hotel, managed to wangle BB too, and it’s a lot cheaper in general as it isn’t facing the ocean or volcano which is the famous Caldera view. I went inside a courtyard of some studios and I was taking a couple steps backwards taking a photo of the view I somehow managed to trip over a table umbrella stand, which was randomly sat there, nowhere near a table or an umbrella! I kind of stubmbled backwards, got my leg caught and I fell, putting my left hand out to stop me, hurting my recovering broken wrist and hitting my camera on the floor when my right hand made contact with it. I could have cried. I stood up and could feel my wrist aching and the back of my right knee (nice bruise I have now) and didn’t even want to look at my camera. Then I did that thing you do when you’ve just gone arse over tit….I checked to see if anyone had seen ha ha!! I think I got away without any witnesses. I pulled myself together and the angels must have been looking after me as my wrist is intact as well as my camera, thank goodness!

So I had a good explore around Fira, walking up and down the lanes and hills. I had lunch right on the front of the cliff top, a salad and 2 glasses of wine, and paid the equivalent of two meals and a bottle everywhere else not on the strip! But it was worth it. I’m finally here, have always wanted to visit and I’m doing it!

I ended up at the other end of the cliff ready for sunset, but as the weather had been so crap there wasn’t one!! And it was really windy! I ended up wandering back to the hotel, after buying some gifty things, and had an early one as I was knackered after the late travel from the night before.

Yesterday wasn’t as bad, although it was still raining on and off, so I did some more photos, caught up with homework notes then ventured out for food in the afternoon. I had a cheaper time of it as I came down to the square, where I’m sat now. €3 Gyros for lunch, yummo! I think I’m becoming addicted to the best Greek snack ever! I actually went back to the hotel to get changed as it was so cold. I put my hoody and Uggs on believe it or not (yes I packed them as I knew it would be cold weather in October / November and I thought I’d still be here!) I went back out for the sunset and had another treat – a seat at the cliff top bar and ordered a hot Mulled Wine Cocktail, €11!!!!!!!!!!!! It was lovely. The view was great, although me and the other customers were sat all rugged up and almost getting blown away with the wind. The sunset wasn’t great, it’s been really cloudy and wet, but it was nice to be there for it. I’m hoping I’ll get a proper one before I leave.

I then went down to the Irish Bar in hope of some people who wanted to be friendly and social! There are so many miserable, rude travellers around. And way too many loved up romantics for my single girl status liking ha ha! Nah, it’s nice to see people happy. The bar was dead! The Manchester guy behind the bar was ok craic and had a few funny tricks and jokes he shared with me and an English couple, then he closed at 9pm. I followed his recommendation and found the Tropical Bar, and I was so happy I did People! Friendly, fun people! And a hilarious barmaid called Jeanie, who reminded us all of Roseanne off the telly series years ago. It was good craic, and cheap drinks for happy hour until 11pm. I was a happy, drunk girl! Think I left about 1am and as I hadn’t eaten since my cheap lunch 12 hours earlier, yep, you guessed it, I got another €3 Gyros on the way home!!!

I arrived back in to Rhodes yesterday at 10am after a 7 hour journey from Patmos at 3am. I booked economy instead of a bunk, as it seemed too frivolous to pay double to share a tiny room with a stranger and wasn’t even sure if I’d sleep anyway. I carried out the normal crazy check in on the boat, dropped luggage wherever I could find a space in the designated “Rhodes” area, made my way up to the lounge on the boat (it was like a proper large ferry, like the one from Dover to France, not sure what I expected really, although I have been travelling on the small island boats) There were no bloody sofas free anywhere. Gutted! I found a chair and table and tried to amuse myself with the English speaking crap programme on TV and tried to connect to the Wifi to do the Blog. No luck. And then this guy came over and sat in the chair right next to mine, like, right next to me. I could almost touch him, not that I wanted to. There were dozens of chairs free, just not sofas, so I thought this was slightly strange. He kind of sat there and kept sideways glancing over at me. I had a really strange feeling about him (a bit like my reason for leaving Patmos for Rhodes instead of heading to Samos, I just got the feeling I shouldn’t be going there or in that direction) I packed up my stuff and headed off to find another place to rest up. We were approaching Leros at this time so I went out on deck to check out the port of Lakki in the darkness as this was when I heard it was busiest with refugees. There was very little happening, which I’d like to think is a good thing and maybe they are less folk fleeing their countries. But, realistically, it probably only meant the arrivals from earlier that day were already “locked up” in detention awaiting processing of their papers. They are actually arrested for entering the country illegally, that is why they wait for processing, have finger prints taken, and then have to be held somewhere. Pretty intimidating I would think.

Anyhow, I found a sofa, bingo!!!! I was knackered to be honest so lay down with my ever loyal little Mexican blanket I take travelling, had my neck pillow, and zonk! That was me for about 4 and a half hours!!!! No special tablets on a ferry, unlike when I’m flying, just pure tiredness!

I’ve stayed in a lovely little budget hotel in the Old Town of Rhodes, which I love being around, called Via Via Hotel. Pretty basic but I received a lovely reception and it was only €26 for the night! George even had my room ready early for me so when I got there at 11am I could check in and get settled! And it was very clean, with a decent shower!

It was raining yesterday and this morning. I ventured out last night with it in mind to meet some people and have a laugh. No joy! The place was like a ghost town, I even went over to the “New Town” and it was dead. So much for a night on the tiles! I had dinner, went back to the hotel and packed, mind made up to leave today.

I am having issues with hotels in Santorini. I had one booked at a discounted rate of €50 per night, and they agreed to only charge me the two nights, Thursday and Friday as I’ll not get there until 02.00 Thursday morning. They have just emailed to say they will charge me 3 nights! This is understandable, and having worked in hotels most of my life I get it. However, don’t say one thing and then charge more! I’m trying to budget as I’d like my spends to go as far as possible and it’s really annoyed me that they agreed to charge two nights then say three. I will literally arrive and go to bed, and check out is normally 11am so they are now charging for, technically, 9 hours! Anyhow, I’ll see what’s happening when they reply back shortly. The plan was to have two nights in that hotel then move on to a youth hostel. They are only €30 per night if I’d like a private room, which, to be honest, I’d prefer as I’m over sharing with people when it comes to rooms, and houses!!!

So, I’m sat in Old Town Rhodes square, watching the world go by as I type. And being chatted up by the waiters – which is not saying anything about me or my outstanding beauty (ha ha!!) they do it to EVERYONE! And, from the ones I have met on my travels, they are all MARRIED!!!! I’ll head off soon and walk round to the Domestic Ferry port and get checked in. I have been dead flash…….I paid an extra, breaking budget, wait for it…….a whole €3 extra to have a designated  “Airplane seat in lounge 2” Woohoooooo!!!! Basically, I have my own reclining, airplane style chair, in a separate lounge area so there is no fighting over a sofa space to lie down on the long journey. Oh, and no weirdo blokes sitting way to close in my personal space bubble!