last day on santorini

this am i am seated in "the pure" a santorini coffeebar that you can find online:
www.thepure.gr. it is a lovely bar, all white,w/ divine cups of tea and free internet.
first time we came in here, and already enchanted. we will try to make it to the archaeological museum today before our ferry. s'posed to meet up w/ christos again too.

yesterday we took the buses around the island to see more. had a brief time at the north tip at oia around sunset, no rain for a change, and the magic of seeing clouds moving over a large expanse of ocean with sunlight and wind and squalls, and the light changing over the nearby islands. a really expansive vista. then the rain came back.

most of the day yesterday, rain actually. first we took the bus to kamari, a touristic beach resort but still shut down for winter. somehow we started talking to a young man outside an internet cafe, and ended up visiting w/ him for hours. he reminds me of several of our friends: jerit and andy for his politics, and he looks like a younger miguel. iergos has a pasta cafe there in kamari but he wants to "homestead" a cave near the beach. his first topic was the film"zeitgeist", which sorry jerit i still did not watch. i think it affected his world view towards greater cynicism. he is a native of santorini and has a lot of critique for his home and country. like the cruise ship that sank in port here, and no one will salvage or touch. he offered us a ride back to fira town, but then we went and drove up the mountain to the ancient thira site, even tho it was closed that day. so we drove up all the switchbacks and stood on the top in the rain and fog and looked around a bit. the only bit of original mountain here from ancient times so the old old town is there. his grandfather helped with the original excavations. later on the way to fira he also took us to "old kamari" --the same town which was ruined in the 1956 earthquake, but was rebuilt on the other site, by the beach.
some of the houses have been rebuilt, but only a few people live there. the old ruined gardens and broken walls, fences, gates. i took a lot of photos. the way they build here: they will carve a cave into the hillside, which is mostly compressed whitish volcanic ash, very firm, maybe leaving a boulder in place and going around it, to create living space inside the hill. one must forget rooms w/ square corners. then they build a front of volcanic rock w/ cement, which contains the ash, with windows and doors. there are a lot of blue outside doors here. have seen many fig trees, wild and not. the famous bouganvillea here is not yet in bloom, but you can see the vines. there was ruta growing in those ruins too, and some pine trees (not like ours).

today has been rain again. but now at 10:30 the sun is coming out. i even used my poncho today, after getting all wet last nite. last nite we went out to a bar and had "SEX ON THE BEACH" cocktails at happy hour, with free shots of some blue liquid that also contained alcohol. some american college girls who are studying in germany,with their lovely blond ponytails were there dancing and drinking and flirting w/ the cute bartender in his tight tee shirt. pix of mel gibson around the bar, since it was scottish theme. pretty fun, and finished off w/ a gooey baklava at the sweet shop across the street (that is the 8 foot wide street--raining in the middle).

one last chunk of time here for some tourism, before our hotel lady takes us to the ferry. her mom, LETA, age 78, was our original contact at the hotel and she is our pal. i took their photo before i left,and leta gave me her shawl she made, lavender and knitted.

these kind people here are helping me try to phone christos again, and then i go. its been fun.
mo' later.......