Greece Day Three ((Sea Urchins))

Liz, Michelle, Paul, and I decided to island hop once more in Greece, and bought tickets to this out-of-the-way-not-touristy-at-all island called Agistri. The flying dolphin zoomed us across the Aegean Sea once more and I found myself in a wonderland of whitewashed buildings with blue roofs…exactly what I’d been searching for since I’d arrived in Greece. It was brilliant! We found a tavern that sat right across from the ocean and basically ate our lunch on the beach. The waiter was incredibly nice, and at the end, gave us each two slices of fresh watermelon, on the house – Aaron, you would have loved it. I’m sure I didn’t appreciate it as much as I should have… but the waiter told us that watermelon came from Greece…so of course we filled ourselves with this juicy goodness.
We sauntered no more than two feet to some beach chairs and I ran into the ocean as if I’d never seen it before. Then I noticed the waiter flailing his arms at me.

“No swim, no swim there! Black…crawl…no say in American. Spike!”

Black…crawl…spike? I looked down at my feet and about had a hissy fit. I was standing in the middle of a circle of black sea urchins, their spikes glinting in the sun. Flailing my arms back at the waiter, and my very confused friends, I leaped and skipped and fell back onto shore a nervous wreck.

“Let’s just swim down here…” I suggested, and the rest of the afternoon lulled gloriously on. The water was so clear, just like Bohemian water. Other islands silhouetted in the distance, and I floated (with my flippy-floppies) on top of the ocean, staring at this beauty.
“It’s Wednesday.” Michelle stated, as she floated beside me.
“Yeah.” I said, not sure where she was taking the conversation.
“It’s Wednesday, and it’s the middle of the afternoon, and we’re on an island in Greece.” She turned to look at me.

I stopped floating and dropped my mouth open. We were in Greece. On an island. On a Wednesday.
It’s funny how you can be in the midst of something and still not feel like it’s happening. You can be in Greece and still not really know it. You can be sitting in a gondola in Italy and it doesn’t really sink in. You can be trekking all over Europe, leaving footprints and gum wrappers and still not really feel like you are anywhere but where you’re supposed to be.

That night, a group of us wandered into a Karaoke bar, and flopped onto the couches. A bored looking waitress came over and asked in a thick accent what we wanted to drink, but as our group rattled off drinks that they wanted, she kept smacking her gum and shaking her head.
“No Guinness, only Amstel. No (w)odka, only rum.”
One girl asked if she could have some chicken wings, and the waitress stared at her. “All we have is toast.”

Toast! I laughed out loud. What kind of karaoke bar was this? I ended up taking the microphone and belting out “Sweet Caroline”. It was laughable and I noted to myself that I could cross “sing in a karaoke bar” off of my 100 list. Sweet.

We ended up leaving shortly after, and took two cabs to a place called Giza. It was certainly thumping with life. Nightclub after nightclub pumped music through their speakers, bars flashed strobe lights and disco balls hung elegantly as a witnessing centerpiece to drunken youth. We went into a bar that walked us right up some stairs and onto a roof. The skyline was breathtaking. My first thought was that I shouldn’t have been wearing braids. People were looking at me as if I were ten, and more than one stranger patted my head. I’m not even kidding. I weaved and bobbed through sweaty, B.O-ridden people, and watched the scene unravel in front of me. Bars are great places to people-watch…maybe even one of the best places to people-watch, especially when you are not drunk. I had a blast listening to drunken conversations, attempted hook-ups, and Greek pick-up lines.
We left after a while and made our way to another bar that was apparently more “danceable”. Madonna screamed at us through the speakers and we danced like Americans. It was such fun.
On our way back in the wee hours of the morning, I rolled down the window of the cab and listened to the night sounds. Honking, breezy air gushing against my face, friends talking, laughing…it was nice. Then I saw my room, and I crashed.

Opa!
A.