Island Hopping: Part I, Santorini

Most of the hostels in Santorini are expensive, especially from June to September, so we were lucky to find Anny Studios on Perissa Beach. The hostel was reasonably priced and the pictures on its website made the place seem pretty big and clean (important qualities when traveling on a shoestring budget). HostelBookers.com even ranked Anny Studios one of its Top 10 Hostels of 2008. We were sold.

When we got to Anny Studios, our room (which was advertised as a four-person suite with a kitchenette and private bathroom) was more like a cave then a suite. It was dark, damp, and had a curved ceiling; the boys took the two lofted beds, because that’s where the bats lived. To add to our misery, the air-conditioning unit and TV didn’t work and the room smelled like stale sweat. The “kitchenette” was just a mini-fridge and a hotplate and it’s cord didn’t reach any outlets. (One night, when Avery and I tried to cook dinner, we had to put the hotplate on a wooden chair by the outlet nearest the bathroom. Mid-cooking the hotplate sparked, we heard a loud crack, and the power went out in our section of the hostel. Needless to say, we ate out every night). Despite the smoke and mirrors, HostelBookers managed to tell one truth: the hostel was actually 100 feet away from the beach. As a result, we spent many afternoons lounging on Perissa Beach, eating chicken gyros* and working on our tans.

*I overdosed and will never eat a meat-in-a-pita sandwich again. Ever.

Our schedule sounds lovely, and it was, but that's because up until this point we had perfect weather--between 80 and 90 and sunny with a breeze. It made avoiding the beach (even the gross Star Beach) nearly impossible. The hostel manager, Steve, jinxed our good luck when he casually mentioned that it hadn’t rained in 4 months on Santorini. The very next day we experienced a torrential downpour.

To be honest, I was thrilled; the unfortunate weather forced us to explore Fira/Thira (the names are interchangeable) for the day. And by explore, I mean that Avery and I had a delicious lunch, got pedicures, and window-shopped. We were of the mindset that Fira/Thira was posh, so we had to acclimate… despite the fact we hadn’t done laundry in three weeks. To end our girly day, we faked elegance and had a cappuccino and coffee in some fancy hotel.

The next day was sunny and we jumped right back into our routine; after dinner, however, we decided to head back into Fira/Thira to check out the nightlife. Per Steve’s suggestions, we were armed with a Post-it of the city’s best bars and all four of us were dressed to impress (read: stale-smelling and wrinkly outfits that we dug out from the bottom of our backpacks). We were styling.

To get to Fira/Thira you need to take a 30 minute bus. Like most transportation in Greece, the bus system in Santorini is sub par and the bus comes whenever it wants. So we get to the bus stop, conveniently located in front of the outdoor Bob’s Bar, and grab a drink while we are waiting for the bus. (The bar was somewhat of a dive, but it had cheap drinks and played 80’s hits making it an instant favorite). During our wait, I decide to strike up a convo with Bob (I presume he was the owner of the place) and convince him to let me DJ the next night. I spin some elaborate tale of my music knowledge and experience as a DJ and he gives me the job. In terms of a salary, he said he would give me free drinks all night long. I was slated to start the following night, but never showed up for the gig. I figured that being asleep by 11 was a more sound decision then pretending to be DJ Fig at an empty outdoor bar. I think we can all agree on that one.

Somewhere in the middle of our eight nights in Santorini, Avery and I hopped on a ferry to the island of Naxos. I‘ll get to “Part II: Naxos & Santorini, Again” tomorrow, in addition to our harrowing tale of forgotten passports, pickpockets, and how we managed to get stuck in Greece for 5 extra days instead of going to India.