trip day 7

 Trip Day 7:  Epic day on Santorini

Back to not sleeping well.  We got in bed late and the wind on Santorini is not playing around.  It blew hard all night and knocked things around outside.  I woke up several times.  Paul Yanko was planning to run with me but he was also up a lot during the night so he opted to try to sleep in.  The gorgeous sunrise made up for the lack of sleep.  It was like waking up to a postcard every morning.

There are always treasures to find on solo runs.  I found this painted randomly on the side of a building.  

Coming from a coastal area that will literally pack houses and developments sideways and on stilts just to fit one more in, it was very strange to run 1.5 miles down this world famous beach and find a complete lack of development.  There was nothing on the beach or on the street.  Just beauty not yet ruined by humans.  

The mountain loomed large over Perissa Beach.  In the middle of the side of the mountain was a monastary/chapel.  It appeared to be completely inaccessible but we later found that there was a scary mountain path leading to it.  It was tempting to attempt it, but we ended up finding an even more fun adventure later.  

Our little unresearched travel group decided we were going to opt out of the bus ride and visit to the historical museum planned for the morning.  I knew there would be a LOT of art in Italy and I didn't want to subject Violet to anything that wasn't absolutely necessary.  I also wanted to explore and neither of us were excited about the public bus.  Kennedy and Alayna had similar ideas for their day, so we decided to meet later in the morning for a real breakfast.  The ham and cheese slices just weren't doing it for me.  I let Violet sleep in and wake up on her own while I drew and reflected in my sketchbook on our little balcony.  Then we walked to a restaurant close by with Kennedy and Alayna when everyone was up and ready.  I had cinnamon french toast and it was amazing.  The cappuccino, however, was lacking.  We enjoyed the leisurely pace of breakfast and then decided we would find our way to the famous red sand beach.

We did some math and found that a taxi would only be a little more than the bus, so we called a taxi and got picked up by a really nice guy in a van.  He took us to the red sand beach and warned us about pickpockets.  The beach was a short hike over a hill (mountain).

The rock and sand was actually pretty red.  We agreed the black sand beach of Perissa was more of a gray in reality.  Violet showed us videos of people saying the red beach wasn't really red.  It was red enough to be called red.  

We don't have mountains on our beaches in South Carolina, so all the beaches here looked cool to me.  We again, didn't want to be wet all day and have sand in our shoes, so we walked along the beach exploring and looking, but we didn't get in the fairly cool waters.

We hiked up and around everywhere possible before heading back.  I took an adventurous route down a loose, rocky path and was rewarded with a different, beautiful view of the beach before climbing back up to rejoin the group.

We noticed the sign on the way in but ignored it.  We learned from a Greek person later that the whole beach was actually closed a while back because of the danger of rockslides.  He said that Greeks don't follow rules so they just ignore the rule and go to the beach anyway.  I'm down with that part of being Greek.  

In addition to wanting America to adopt European toilet design, I also want America to adopt Greek architecture.  Straight lines were not always straight, corners were rare and curved, organic lines and forms were the norm.  We saw a guy building one of these walls at his house and he was doing it with concrete and the bottom of his Croc shoe.  Every house had a concrete mixer and this was truly a do-it-yourself sort of place.

The red sand beach was a short walk from the Akrotiri Ruins Site.  We got a really good mixed fruit salad and some water and then walked to the site to meet the rest of our travel group.  We entered the ruins, which was an active archaeological site that has been remarkably preserved and protected.  

We would probably have screwed this up in America too, but they did a great job preserving it and still allowing it to be seen by the public.  It didn't take long to walk through the ruins and see it all.  We got to pet three sleeping dogs who seemed to live in the site and then we sat outside in the shade wondering how to spend the remainder of our day.  It's moments like this when doubters will question our lack of trip preparation.  Someone had noticed an ad for a tomato museum a day or so prior and we decided that might be a fun and unexpected thing to do.  We called a taxi and ended up getting the same guy to pick us up.

It was only a couple of miles to the Tomato Industrial Museum but the taxi was worth it.  The guy was really nice again and he seemed to think we were some sort of family.  We decided he thought I was a dad taking my kids on a trip.  We thanked him for his kindness, gave him a tip and entered the courtyard of the Old Tomato Factory.  It was a visually stunning place and when we entered the gift shop to purchase our tickets, we knew we had made the right choice.  

They gave us little phone things to listen to the audio tour and it was self-guided, so we all just took off looking like we were on our phones.  That's Violet signing the old factory log book.

The tour took us through the entire operation of the tomato factory and at this point you're likely wondering why anyone would pay to tour a tomato factory.  I assure you that is not the correct question.  The correct question is why WOULDN'T you?!!!  We had no idea tomatoes were even a thing on this little island, but apparently Santorini produced the most sought after tomato juice and sauce in the entire region.  The juice was so good and such an economic boom, it was called "golden caviar".  

A fun fact about me is, I don't like tomatoes.  My family grew them when I was a kid and I was forced to plant, hoe and pick them.  Bitter about my indentured servanthood, I rejected all veggies and grown items until fairly recently.  The ticket ladies had told us we would all get to make our own can with a label and that we would sample the tomato juice and paste on the tour.  We try new things when we are on trips, so I was ready.  

They actually had tomato plants growing.  We were instructed to get close, rub the leaves and smell the sweet aroma of the plants.  Kennedy followed the instructions.

The tour was awesome because of how well the tools and equipment had been preserved and exhibited in their original locations in the plant.  We learned that one guy's job was to watch the temperature of the juice as it was pasteurized.  The juice had to be kept between 90 and 92 degrees F in order to be used.  Any higher or lower would ruin the juice.  This fact stuck with us and became our favorite thing to repeat over and over, much to the dismay of our group.

At the end of the factory tour, we were pleasantly surprised with a ceramic sculpture exhibit in the same place.  The work was very good and it turned out that it was a part of the Ceramic Biennial Exhibit in Greece.  

We looked at the art and continued to bask in the awesomeness of the Tomato Museum.

The tour ended at a bar just outside the old factory.  The bartender personally greeted everyone and brought complementary tomato juice and tomato paste for us to sample.  Again, I don't eat tomatoes but this stuff was amazing.  We drank/ate it or, as was described on the bottle, "you don't drink, you don't eat, you dreat!"  I also raided the kid's station nearby and I drew a little note because I was out of sticky notes at this point.  

The bartender sold us on trying some tomato based drinks.  Spritzers, cocktails and the (gross) old faithful, the bloody mary.  I have to admit the drinks were really good and I was starting to worry that I might like tomatoes.

We got to make our own cans with the lid machine and then the nice ladies helped us put on the labels of our choice.  

It was all so cool and fun and not at all what we would have expected to be in our day.  After we took a lot of photos and reveled in our wonderful discovery, I drew another "esai omorfi" note on a kid paper and gave it to the bartender.  He thanked me and politely told me that my translation was feminine in gender but that he appreciated it.  He then told me I could take it back inside and have the ladies put it on a can for me.  I didn't realize I was drawing on blank labels.

The ladies helped me create a new can and attach the label to it.  They thought I was making a souvenir for me but I then gave the can to them.  They loved it.  They told me they would put it on display for everyone to see.  I now have a work of art in the permanent collection of the Tomato Museum!  The happiness was contagious and everyone was smiling and laughing when we left.

The Tomato Museum backs right up to the shoreline and I had to go explore the new beach when we left.  The color and the light on Santorini was beautiful.  I thought it was similar to the light in Charleston.  There's something about the quality of the light near the water.  

The beach was gorgeous.  It looked very much like something from a sci-fi movie landscape.  I was put in charge of taking photos so the rest of the gang could stay at the road and wait for our next mode of transportation, which was going to be awesome and completely unplanned too!  After a good walk down the beach, I glanced back to see everyone waving at me.  I had to run back to make the train on time.

Yes, I said train.  The Fun Train!  We saw the Fun Train roll by our hotel once and we heard that it went all the way out to the Tomato Museum.  We took a chance on waiting for it at the beach and we happily jumped on when it arrived.  The Fun Train looks like a kiddie ride.  It's a blue train that rides on the road and has a cute little horn.  It makes loops and you can pay to hop on and off.  We were living our best life on the Fun Train.

We felt like the cool kids on the Fun Train and it dropped us off right in front of our hotel.  A day later, we were walking and the Fun Train passed us on the road.  We all made the 18 wheeler horn blowing motion with our arms and the driver honked the horn at us, laughed and gave us high fives.  

We then had a perfect dinner on the beach with complementary ice cream.  The waiter kept telling me I had a beautiful family and had a lot to be thankful for.  We didn't correct him.

Back at the hotel, Violet wanted to swim and Alayna joined her in the pool.  Kennedy wanted to put her feet in and had to be creative in how to make that happen.  The wind made things a little cool after the sun went down and I don't swim cold.  This was a perfect little wind-down from our adventurous day.  It also gave us time to think about how we wanted to spend our next day.  We had some ideas we picked up from walking around.  More adventure awaited.