5K to the Moon

Today was the story of 2 trips.

The first was to the very small village of Klima, which pretty much consists of a row of houses along the water. All of the houses have colorful doors and windows. The locals were out and about, chatting with each other, pushing a boat into the water and cleaning it, rolling some sort of water storage container around, and we also saw some rugs tied to the pier, washing in the Mediterranean.

It was super relaxing, so we spent a lot of the morning sitting at the end of the pier. This place is so incredibly un-touristy. I think there are probably fewer than 100 tourists on the entire island. At the same time, they speak way more English than the average Czech. After a semester in the Czech Republic, I am no longer used to any sort of customer service, so these Greeks are quite a shock. It's so nice to have people smile when talking to me.

The second trip was to Sarakiniko aka. the Moon Beach. It all started with the map that the family which owns our hotel lent to us. And by map, I mean more of the type of treasure map you might expect from a pirate. It consisted of a series of lines with distances written between them. It noted which roads were "asfalt," and at one point told us to turn at a "House," which it showed as a square with four quadrants. On the way there, we saw the wrong house, turned the wrong way, and ended up 2 kilometers off course. So the 30-minute walk to the beach turned into a 90-minute 5K. In sandals, on a highway.

But when we finally arrived, we were stunned. We'd seen pictures, but like... it's real. There were fewer than 10 people there, probably because it had been overcast the whole day but the sun came out during our epic hike. We swam a bit and spent most of the time exploring the rock and taking pictures. I could try to describe the beauty... but pictures can do that better.