Our alarm didn’t go off this morning. We wanted it set for 7 am, because we wanted to go to the bank and get more euros. Then we had a 9 am pick up for a car rental. Maybe the reason the alarm failed to go off was because there were power outages all over the island. So we had no power and also no shower. The power luckily came back on soon and I was able to take a shower, while Don went to the bank.
He came back with no euros though because the front desk failed to tell us banks are not open on Saturday. So after breakfast we walked to a place to get some euros. Then we got a call at 9 am from the car rental place. The guy was out front and ready to take us to get our car. We rented a smartcar. It was kind of purple and Don drove it first.
We wanted the car so we could go beach hopping. We went to Psarou Beach first. There were people every where as Don tried to park the car on a hill. It was challenging because the hill was so steep and the car had such a weird brake/accelerator system. Finally we walked down to the beach and the beach had a bunch of nice chairs and tables. The beachfront had a bunch of restaurants on it also. Even though it was busy, it was pretty quiet. We had to have lunch from the restaurant to sit at the chairs or pay 10 euros for 2 people. We figured we would just have lunch since we needed to eat. We ordered a cheeseburger and pizza. The pizza was very good.
When we first got in the water it was cold, but then it felt good. The water was so clear and the salt in it made it sparkle. Don wanted to snorkel so we got our snorkels, good thing because it was awesome. On the side there were rocks with tons of fish and sea life. Fish were surrounding us. It was so cool. I think it was my favorite beach of the day.
Next we drove to Kalafatis Beach. It was much quieter; people were mostly sleeping. There were a few restaurants on the side but we didn’t go there. We wanted to snorkel. There were big rocks with tons of sea life. I think this was Don’s favorite beach. It was fun to just ride the waves and see the fish doing the same.
Next we went to Kalo Livadi. We thought we would snorkel again but the beach was sandy with no sea life really. We saw a few fish following us around but mostly it was a beach to have a good time. We mostly just laid out and tried to get dry. The sun felt so good.
After this beach I tried driving the car. The car was very rough shifting, probably because it had the option to be a manual and it was also very hilly. Going uphill felt like you were just going to fall back down it. But after awhile the driving was okay. I did fine. Don was the navigator. We decided to stop at one more beach, Lia. It was surrounded by rocks, kind of like a mountain. We saw some people hiking. There were hardly any people at this beach. We just walked around, but didn’t get in the water. We took some pictures with some random dog. It was very quiet there. There was a restaurant that seemed kind of weird but relaxing.
Then we took the car back to the rental place. My first time driving in a foreign country was not too bad. Driving in Greece was crazy though! There were bikes, atvs, people and other cars all on these tiny winding hilly streets.
After we returned the cars we got a ride back to the hotel and took showers. Then we went out and had some gyros at a little place not far from the hotel.
After eating we did some more exploring. We found a little desert café place. We had a chocolate cake thing with ice cream. It was probably the best desert I’ve ever had. The people running the place were so nice also.
We got back to the hotel pretty early, but we were tired. But before we got home…we found cats…
