On August 24th, we took a bus to Fira, where we explored & found a place to get coffee & gelato, then another place to get some Gyros. Then we caught another bus to Akrotiri, an archaeological dig site that's working presently to uncover the Minoan city that was abandoned & destroyed by the volcano in about 1600 BC.
They had built a structure overhead to protect the scientists from the heat & sun.
It was pretty incredible to see the houses, windows, doorways, streets & squares that had been uncovered.
Self portrait on "prehistoric day". Kenton was finally getting another fix for seeing impressive, ancient, prehistorical "stuff". ;)
Looks like the stairs were karate chopped.
A town square.
Remains of pots & vases. This city was especially important because it was fabled to be the lost city of Atlantis. It had working indoor toilets & functioning sewer systems, which was unheard of even just a few hundred years ago. So it was cool. :)
After touring the dig site, we walked down to the water & caught a boat to White Beach.
The boat made stops at Red Beach (obviously named for the color of the rocks/sand)...
...and Black Beach (less obviously named for the color of the rocks/sand, but the rocks were blacker).
Finally, we made it to White Beach! The boat didn't get very close to the shore & we weren't wearing our swim suits yet, since we toured the dig site first. So we ended up getting soaked up to our tummies, when we got off the boat & walked through the water to the shore. :P
We made the mistake of sitting under an umbrella until a lady asked us for €7. We moved, but not without her going down to just €5! ;) We had just each paid €5 each to ride the boat, so we were just fine laying our towels on the rocks.
We swam out to the huge rocks & enjoyed the water. It was super hot, with the sun beating down on the white rocks, but the water felt great & we enjoyed the experience.
The boat that came back to pick us up was already crammed with people. We weren't sure if we'd fit on there, but in true Greek fashion, they piled us in & we fit! I just prayed for an uninteresting ride back to Akrotiri so that we'd make it back safely. ;)
Two bus rides later, we made it back to our hotel & took a swim in the pool. We got cleaned up & dressed for a walk in the twilight as we picked a place to eat dinner.
So many pretty churches.
Living on the edge of a volcanic caldera makes you value your faith, I suppose. :)
Kenton ordered Ouzo at dinner. I tried it & it wasn't my favorite, but I don't care for most alcohol.
Looks like we hit the mark for dinner time, this time. ;)
More photos as we walked around Oia.
Pretty lights.
No comments:
Post a Comment