I have spent the last week or more on the volcanic island of Santorini, in the middle of the mediterranean sea. I am staying at Perivolos beach near Perissa which has blackened beaches made of fine pebbly rocks and black sand. The water is very clear and blue on most days and it has been very refreshing swimming in the warm sea or lounging on the beach and catching some sunshine while reading books.
I have toured around the island and visited the picturesque white cliff top villages of Oia and Thira. I even went for a cruise, swam in rusty coloured thermal pools, narrowly missed being run over by a pile of running donkeys, and walked on the nearby volcano called Nea kameni. Its actually more of a lump than a mountainous volcano but it had a cool landscape consisting of chunks of charcoal-like rock and hardened lava.

I also spent 4 days in athens before I came to Santorini. It was full of poles and russian people much to my suprise. I had alot of fun there. It was 35C almost every day and it was abuzz with people, tourists, cars ...lots of cars and scooters. The narrow streets were full of little shops and housing with air conditioners stuck clumsily on the walls leaky their goo on me as I walked on the side walk, trying to avoid rubbish bins or coffin sized holes in the ground that were once someone's effort to dig up some plumbing but they had long ago abandonmed the idea. It was also very lively around monostariki, which contained many markets selling touristy things as well as many dodgy africans selling fake sunnies and pirated Dvds and cds.

On the last day in athens I was followed by a tortoise for quite some time while visiting the national gardens. It seemed to be transfixed by my shoes. You could say it had a sort of love- hate relationship with my shoes...sometimes tapping them with its head or trying to mount them. It was very perculiar and whoever said tortoises are slow are wrong. It ran after me for one last moment with my shoes and it differently went at a fast pace!

I will be in greece for a while longer though I am not sure about my next location yet. Though I will probably go to the uk at the end of september.