Christine insisted that she wanted a scooter / moped / moto. ATVs are too slow. Motos are easier to manage. And since they were the same price (15 Euro / 24 hrs)she was dead set on the moto. katie and I were a bit reluctant. She has never driven a moto and I haven't been on one since I was 13 - when I borrowed one from my junior high buddy and proceeded to wreck it when I rounded a turn too flat and hit the curb and careened off into the grass. Moto and I were both alright, but I've never really wanted to get back on one ever again.
So this morning in Santorini Island, I chose an ATV for the day. Which allowed Katie to just sit on the back and she could avoid driving altogether. We complete the rental purchase around noon and set off in our neighborhood's empty streets to get a feel for our new wheels. I circle around the block and decide to attempt a u-turn in the street and find out too late how poor the turning radius of this ATV is. I turned too wide and put the thing right into a stone wall. Luckily I was going very slow, so no damage was done. Just tapped the wall, backed up, completed my u-turn, and off again. Christine had similar results with her test drive.
She drives out of the rental shop with the help of the employee - he started er up and kept er balanced while Christine hopped on. As she comes to her first stop, she realizes that she can't reach the ground while sitting on the seat. When it comes time to stop, she can't simply put her foot down to balance the moto upright. She has to jump off the thing and stand on the side to hold it up. Thus, when she is ready to set off again, she has to give it some gas and jump on at the same time and hope that the moto will stay upright and balanced. This was no small task. And the second or third time she attempted this maneuver, in the middle of a u-turn, she lost control of the moto as she was hopping on and accelerating and crashed the moto into a stone wall - similar to my stone wall, but different place. Her crash was a bit more violent than my crash. The front guard was terribly scarred by the wall, and Christine bruised her forearm and somehow scratched up her inner thigh. She wasn't ejected from the driver's seat, so some part of the steering wheel must have bit her on the thigh when she slid forward from the impact. She wasn't too badly injured, so we proceeded with our excursion across the island.
Santorini is roughly 70 square kilometers (42 square miles). There are 13 small villages connected by thin and winding two lane concrete roads that are in excellent condition. Only 15,000 residents with small cars that are never in any rush when driving around. A perfect atmosphere for a couple thousand tourists to rent motos and ATVs and drive around the island for a day or two. The whole island can be seen in one long day's drive. Black sand beaches, red sand beaches, white sand beaches, stunning rock formations with villages built into the steep landscape, and breathtaking views of the clear blue waters of the Aegean Sea in every direction.
I offer katie the keys to the ATV and she doesn't hesitate to give er a whirl. She takes to it immediately. She drives up and down our beachfront road at Perissa Beach while I lounge in the back. Christine follows on the moto, probably preying that we make no stops so she doesn't have to execute her dismount/remount/accelerate maneuver. Katie likes driving enough that we maintain the driving arrangement for the first leg of our journey across the island. As we are leaving our little town and headed towards Fira, we come to an intersection where we have the right-of-way. Cars in the adjoining lane must yield to us, and there are several waiting to do just that. There are also cars behind us in our lane expecting us to go right on thru the intersection. But for some reason, Katie decides this would be a good place to stop and checkin with Christine and allow the yielding cars to go ahead. She doesn't seem to realize that there are multiple cars behind us expecting to be able to go 30 miles an hour straight thru. A man in the car immediately behind us pulls around us after he realizes what we are doing and he rolls down his window to inform us that we are going to die. No lie. His exact quote was, "You guys are going to kill yourselves".
Not long after that, Katie decides to give the driving duties back to me. I drive the ATV and Christine follows for the 6 mile drive to Fira. We park and walk around. Lots of shopping. A bit too touristy. We find the steps down to the old harbor. 600 steps straight down from the highest elevated town on the island. Spectacular views of the remnants of the volcano and the surrounding sea. We press on after we take in the views and we elect not to walk down the steps because the hot afternoon was too intense and there were too many people doing it and there were also a couple hundred donkeys standing on the steps waiting to be rented for the trip up and down and their donkey shit was so abundant and pervasive and baking in that same hot afternoon sun that we could not bear to hang out there any longer.
From Fira we drove to the northern tip of the island. The small hamlet of Oia is at the northern tip another 6 miles away, and the roads that take us there are steep and winding. It is fun to drive, but our ATV is slow and doesn't handle well. Christine is still having a hell of a time dealing with the dismount/remount/accelerate maneuver. By the time we reach Oia she is tired and frustrated. Her breaking point comes when we have to stop in the middle of a hill and she has to jump off and try to hold the moto upright, but gravity and the weight of the moto have other plans. We help her get the moto off the hill and park it for her. At that point, I offered to drive the moto and let her ride on the ATV with Katie. All agree that this is the best plan. I am a bit hesitant to relearn how to drive a moto on steep and winding roads, but this is part of the adventure. I take off and find that it is much easier to handle than I remember. Probably because I am twice as big as I was the last time I tried to drive a moto.
The steep and winding roads are no problem at all and the only feelings I have are exhilaration and pure joy as I cruise along the island hills and shorelines. We make it to the northern tip of the island in no time. We started this journey at the southeastern tip, stopped at the central western tip, and made it to the northwestern tip in less than 2 hours. the village of Oia is built into steep red rock that cascades straight down into bright blue water. We take a few pictures and take off for the town of Kamari on the Central Eastern shore. We are able to drive along the beach for most of the way. At Kamari we find a slightly upscale town center with nice beachfront restaurants and some shopping opportunities for the girls. Afterwards, we drive up to Pyrgos which takes us up and around the gigantic mountain that separates our town from Kamari. The sun has set and the sky is pink and dark blue. It gets a little chilly as the wind whips my face. From Pyrgos it is downhill back to our town. Somehow we make it back without getting lost.
When we return, Katie and I take the ATV out to the bars in Perissa. We drink wine and listen to a nice latin jazz quartet. Afterward we head to the main dance club - the only bar in Perissa that gets crowded at night. We sit at the bar and immediately meet some people. One girl in particular seems very interested in me. Her name is Natalie and she is from South Africa, but lives in Ireland. She is tall and slender and has dark hair and dark eyes. She is pretty and intelligent and has the British accent that makes her seem exotic. We hang out for an hour or two. Katie is content to be left alone at the bar with the local bartender.
Eventually, Natalie's roommate gets tired. I offer to drive her home on my sweet ATV. It reduces her 20 minute walk to a 2 minute ride. She gladly accepts. I driver her home and go back for Natalie. I invite her back to my room and she reluctantly accepts. She says that she didn't come to this island, "to get rogered, but what the hell". I'm not sure how to respond to this. Definitely not a compliment. Or is it? Who knows. I decide to also offer to drive her home so she can avoid "getting rogered". She chooses to check out my place.
I get Katie's permission to bail and we were off. He hop on the ATV and head to my killer master suite that I got because the single with shared bath was unavailable. So for no extra charge, the hotel gave me the master suite with kitchenette, balcony, and private bath. Pretty nice deal. I invite Natalie in, open the balcony doors and a fresh breeze fills the room. She locks the door and turns out the light. A great ending to a great day.
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