My big fat Grecian villa

That’s right. As marvelous as the youth hostel was the lack of air conditioning, lock on our door, water pressure, and a few other things led us to set out to find a new dwelling for the next several days. And that's exactly what we did.

The last 2 days we’ve been bumming around Oia which is this gorgeous small town on the northern part of the island. We did and saw all their was to do and see (within our price range at least) and spent a lot of time and money (which we have little of) going back and forth on buses to the biggest town on the Island, Fira. So we decided yesterday while picking sea urchin spines out of our feet that it was time to move on.

This morning we had a tearful good-bye with our ever so animated and helpful hostel manager Manolis (who, as a side note, wants to plan our weddings at his hostel) and set off with all 3,000 pounds of luggage (OK, exaggeration) to Fira. After a miserably hot bus ride and pulling our bags on the cobblestone we made it to Villa Margarita, our gorgeous new villa. That's right. V. I. L. L. A.

The oh-so-typical old Greek man Spiros feed us grapes from his vineyard and I promise it was the closest thing to wine that wasn’t wine I’ve ever tasted. They were dripping with sweet, sweet juice. It was fantastic. So we spent the rest of the day lying around our private pool and every now and then Spiros pops in and checks on our feet or asks how “his girls” are doing. Later we cooked a fabulous meal of orzo with feta, fresh grape tomatoes, and olive oil. Today has been a very relaxing and much needed day of rest and limited walking.

(These are pictures from the villa!)

Some other thoughts from my time here so far:

1. I am so not high maintenance. Yes, I have my moments but except for a few hours the other day I’ve had on the same white V-neck that I left the house in on Tuesday. Sick? No. low maintenance. And yes, I lugged my suitcase around without crying (which we can’t say about everyone in the group).

2. I have a much higher pain tolerance than I ever imagined. I wish I hadn’t found that out but hey, I guess its valuable information.

3. Modesty does not exist in this part of the world. At all. Last night while we were hanging out in Fira we people watched for a little bit and all I can say is….????.....!!!!.....

And now a quick update on my foot:

I have officially cleared the time range for poisonous sea urchins. I have not showed any of the symptoms of sea urchin poisoning (and neither have the other girls) so we are in the clear. We are continuing to soak our feet in olive oil and a combination of vinegar and scalding hot water which is doing strange things to our skin. The spines are still definitely in my foot but walking is becoming increasingly easier.