Sunsets in Santorini, and my personal financial "crisis"

Arrived into Perissa, Santorini, and the whole beach village was practically empty! I had the whole island to myself, I thought! It was a nice break too, because I have trying pretty hard (yeah right) to get away from the party/hostel scene. It was a good place to collect some thoughts and just have some solid Daniel time. I even had my own room all to myself!

I ran into Yael from Israel, who was my bunkmate back in Athens, at an internet cafe in Santorini. It wasn't really a surprise to see her, but I felt bad because I forgot her name and she remembered mine.... *smack forehead* Anyway, she was looking to get out of the Santorini as soon as possible because, as she stated, it was completely empty. Interesting, I thought, because whenever people go to beach resorts and find ten million people on the beach, that's usually not a good thing.

Whatever, I headed to an empty restaurant and met a couple of Kiwis who had just been to Egypt. Given that I was planning to go there, they gave me a few good recommendations and tips, as well as the name of the tour group they had joined. I have been hesitant about joining any tour groups, as I have been able to manage without them for the past five months. The idea of waking up at 7am in the morning to be shuttled around from one site to another just to snap a few pictures here and there, and eat at places that are getting kickbacks from the operators just never really floated my boat. But Heidi and Courtney said that their tour capped out at 12 people, and used local transportation most of the time. Food was mostly on your own. So, I think a place like Egypt may be the only place where it might make sense, given the sheer number of places to visit, as well as the amount of information and history to digest. I am sure that English may pose to be a slight language barrier as well.

As far as my personal financial "crisis" suffice it to say that I left my ATM card in the teller AGAIN (I wonder, am I really a blond inside?) and Etrade subsequently froze my savings account-- of which I use to pay all my bills and extract cash. I won't go into the ghastly details of the horrible and completely unprofessional service that Etrade has so far exhibited, but suffice it to say that I will be closing my account with them when I have the time and access to do so. I mean, who outsources their "Security and Fraud" call center to the Philippines and staffs them with people who can barely understand, much less speak English??!! Seriously. Short the stock if you can! Oh wait, you can't do that anymore.... But thank you Auntie Bev and Dad for extending a much needed line of credit to a subprime borrower like me in the meantime!!

Anyway, as Etrade instructed me to do, they said I needed to get a copy of my passport notarized and MAILED to the US. I spent a good morning trying to do just that:
10am: Head into the town of Fira, ask a few locals around where to get something notarized. One lady suggested I go to the bank-- made plenty of sense, I thought.
10:15am: Get into Eurobank, Greece's largest bank, and ask the kind lady if she can notarize a copy of my passport. She says, yes, just wait here in line and we'll take care of everything. "Sweet," I thought. This was going to be a lot easier than I'd imagined...
10:45am: Get to the teller and she tells me that the notary service is only for customers. After pleading with her and trying to offer to pay, and using what little Greek charm I had, I was promptly denied.
10:50am: Walk into grocery store, ask the local clerk where I may be able to get something notarized. She gave me a blank stare. I gave her one back. Standoff ensues. A tumbleweed rolls in between us. Nothing happens, I leave.
11am: Walk into photocopy shop, ask the guy same thing, he mentions I could try the bank down the street.... uhhh... I say "Epharisto," (Thank you) and march on.
11:15am: Walk into the post office, and a relatively helpful employee suggested I try the police station.
12pm: Arrive at the police station, ask the cop if he can notarize a copy of my passport, and he says yes, but only if you're a Greek citizen. Apparently, they can't notarize anything in English! He said the only way was to get it notarized by the US Consulate, and guess what, there wasn't one in Santorini. I'd have to go back to Athens............ At this point I was getting pretty frustrated at Etrade, needless to say. But at least I knew that I exercised all the options available to me in Santorini.

Many of you know that I always like to say that things could always be worse. I must have told myself this at least every other minute that morning, trying to keep me sane. One minute, I'd think, "Well, I could be an armless fool..." Then, "I could also be legless, wheeling around in a wheelchair..." Then, "I could be a paraplegic vegetable drooling all over myself." Then I'd get pissed at Etrade again. And, of course, back to the armless, legless, vegetable thoughts.

Exasperated, but relatively positive, I went to the supermarket where I had that staredown with the clerk, and bought a loaf of bread, ham, tzakitzi, a bag of Doritos and a bottle of water. After lunch, I mosied on over to a beach I saw on a map and decided that it would be a good place to watch the sunset over the sea. I walked down and found a completely empty beach, with just one sunchair available, as if it was waiting for me. Coincidentally, my iPod was playing, "Today," by the Smashing Pumpkins.... and the lyrics for those of you who don't know, basically say, "Today's the greatest..." Indeed, everything is, despite the minor setback I've encountered.

From Santorini

I went back to the hostel that night, where I ended up chatting with Michael, the owner of the joint. I mentioned to him that I may one day start a hostel in Mammoth, and it turns out he's an avid skier and a fisher! I showed him Mammoth Lakes using Google Maps' satellite feature and he was completely enthralled with all the lakes and how big the mountain was. I had him type in Perissa, Greece, and lo and behold, he saw satellite images of his own hostel! In my mind, I was just thinking, who hasn't heard of Google Maps? Apparently, the sleepy beach town of Perissa, Santorini...