It started after a great night's sleep - the best since we arrived to Greece. The bed is king size, comfortable, and the a/c works great! Thank goodness!
We ate breakfast at the hotel; there was lots to choose from (pastries, bacon, sausage [aka hot dog weiners], eggs, fruit, cheese, bread, cereal). We easily made up our plates. The only issue we had was the amount of bees that tried to join us for our meal - hard to enjoy yourself with the threat of being stung!
We had planned to go to Maganari beach today, on the south end of the island (about a 40 minute bus ride) but we changed our minds last minute after hanging out on some goddess-like sunbeds (billowing sheets with pillows and everything!) overlooking the beautiful beach below us. We opted to stay close as the beach here is lovely and being close go our hotel had its advantages. So, we paid our 5€ for our beach chairs and settled in for the day. And the day was HOT!! The sun was strong and it took no time before we needed to cool off in the water. The water itself was gorgeous - you could walk right in it, it was so warm and you floated easily! All we had to do was keep ourselves verticle and we'd float - even Jeff, who is what we call a 'sinker', lol. We didn't have to work at all to float around in the water, which made hanging out in the ocean all that much more enjoyable. We were in many times throughout th day.
As this beach is often very busy during the high season (June-August) there are lots of activities on the beach to do, including wake-boarding, peddle boating, tubing, kyaking, paddle boarding, boat tours, banana boat, scuba diving and this giant couch looking thing that you sit on and it gets pulled behind a power boat (similar to tubing but bigger, sitting up and unlikely to fall off). Jeff and I did the couch ride and it was AMAZING!!! We had so much fun!! We were laughing, screaming and grinning from ear to ear for about 10 minutes as we bounced and flew over the water a speeds comporable to the boat pulling us (at one point we were side by side with it!). With every wicked jump or bounce we laughed harder. I kept giving the driver the thumbs up when he gave it to me - we weren't sure if that meant go faster or if we were good. It didn't matter. His excitement and enthusiasm for our joy was intoxicting. I'm smiling as I write about the memory already. He blew a whistle, hollered at us, clapped, waved, cheered. It was a hoot and a half and a highlight of our trip so far. All I could say afterward was, "That was so much fun!!"
After that we spent the rest of the afternoon at the beach. We met a young couple (Danielle and Bobby) who were sitting behind us (from Michigan but living in Chicago) who are on their honeymoon. We chatted with them for quite some time. They are staying in town ("Chora") and had come to the beach for the day. Seeing as we are planning on going to town tomorrow, we arranged to meet them for dinner. We have a double date! lol
Jeff and I got back to the hotel after 6pm and got cleaned up to go to the Mexican restaurant next door to the hotel (we read good reviews online). We had drinks (I had a strawberry mojito) and food - we shared a HUGE plate of chicken nachos (delicious!) and "Mexican rice balls" (rice, jalepeno and cheese deep fried and served with a yummy sauce). All was very good! I ordered a brownie and they brought two (I think they thought Jeff would want one - I took the 2nd one to go). They also brought us a bite size brownie in a caramel sauce that had cayenne pepper in it - it was good too! Jeff is stuffed to his eyeballs.
The restaurant was mostly young people - a first for us as we've typically been the youngest everywhere we go. We met the owner and she said her place is often full of Canadians in June. She was very nice. She sounded as though she was from Australia but we didn't ask. Jeff bought a shirt from the restaurant as a souvenir.
On our way back to the hotel, our Oshawa friends called my name from a dark patio they were sitting on - Jeff bumped right into me when I stopped at the sound of my name. It was pretty funny. It's been nice to talk with them when we see them.
We made it back to our room about 10pm and I'm now finishing my blog (about 4pm home time) and preparing to go to bed. Jeff has been trying to find the blue jays game online to listen to but hasn't had much luck.
It was a full day of fun, friends and food. We've got another full day in Ios tomorrow before heading to Santorini.
Right now there are fireworks going off across the water! Who knows why and who cares! We've got a great view from our balcony as we're about the same height they are going off.
This really has been an enjoyable and relaxing vacation thus far!
Have a good weekend everyone!
Amanda and Jeff xoxo
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