Greece Trip - Day 9

4 July, 2009 – Santorini

I got to say a final farewell to most of the group who were leaving that day before heading off to the beach with Sheeba. None of the beaches are in walking distance, so we had to take a bus out to one of the main beaches – we chose a black sand beach called Perivolos Beach. We found some sun lounges under an umbrella at a section of beach that we didn’t have to pay to hire, so that was a bonus. We ordered some fresh fruit juices and some spinach pies for lunch that was bought out to us as we relaxed on the beach. The sand was so hot though! It was so hot that I nearly burnt my feet running about 3 meters across the hot black sand towards the water! I warned Sheeba when she was about to come out for a swim, and she wore her flip flops to the water’s edge. We spent the afternoon snoozing on our sun lounges at the beach, occasionally bothered by people selling kaftans and jewellery. A group of people were going around giving massages, so we treated ourselves to another massage on the beach. Sheeba got her legs and feet done and I got a full body massage that lasted 50 minutes – it was divine.

We eventually had to leave the beach and go back to the hotel to freshen up before meeting the new tour members of the next trip. When I was in the shower and the luke warm water ran over my tummy I realised it was sunburnt! I had spent the whole day in the shade of the umbrella, I have no idea how I got my tummy sunburnt. The only thing Sheeba and I could think of was when we first got there I was laying on my tummy on the sunlounge for a bit, and this was before I put sunscreen on my stomach, and we wonder if somehow the heat off the black sand radiating through the mesh of the sun lounge was enough to burn my tummy. Very strange, because for the rest of the day I reapplied sunscreen constantly and was always in the shade.

Our new travel companions are two couples – Steve and Jo from New Zealand who are semi-retired and travelling around the world at the moment; and Patrick and Heather from Canada.