Iccy sal schene fur beurn ascott*

Which is a norweigen saying. I know, in MOART, you actually LEARN. THINGS. That might just SAVE YOUR LIFE. You also can see that I am growing an unhealthy prediliction to capitalising every gosh darned thing I write. But more on that later. That's a lie though, I won't write more on that later. Well, I might. Either way, there's a lie in this paragraph.

Sorry.

Ok! So, there's a bit to cover here, and let's start at the beginning - Santorini is really nice. Very much, it has been so beautiful I didn't want to leave. I had a plane to catch so I had to, but I didn't want to. I have photos that I can't seem to upload without a fancy card reading thing, which is a shame, because I really can't describe how cool shafts of light falling on a city by the ocean, when viewed from a mountiain nearing sunset are. It's quite a, well, it's almost a religious experience - in that, I feel that this is what religious experiences would look like, if I were to see them.
And of coourse, there are stories of little lanes, and dancing, and even learning! Me, learning!

So, to begin - I get off the ferry from Athens to Santorini with two great Swedish girls, and an agreement that we'll rent a car together and check out the island. So, we rent a car - a manual car. Now, I can't drive manual, so the first day was pretty much:

"Andrew Iyer gets driven around by attractive scandinavian girls"

And yes, I am your god. Anyway, we were all pretty tired, so after getting to Fira and getting some accomodation, the girls retire to their room (ok, just a demi-god) and I head out for a night on the town. A wild night, a night with... Plato. Yeah, I've got The Republic, and figured I could churn through it a bit in Greece. I hit a pub called Murphy's and read it there, I suspect to the amusement of all around me. After a bit, I head back, ready and refreshed for the next day.

The next morning, after seeing a town called Oia (prounounced ia, a little like ear), we decide that driving lessons are the GO. As Trina (one of the norweigens) put it:
"Andrew, you are a worse driver than I was when I started learning to drive. And I am scared."
But really, she was over reacting. Sure, I drove on the wrong side of the road once or twice. And, yeah, the car would stall on occaision (mostly on hills), but otherwise... kind of, anyway.
Oia was great, there are stray dogs everywhere there, and then after seeing a beach with black sand, and carving my name in a mountain, we head back to Fira for a night on the town. So I meet up with the local Aussie Greek population there, and get taught Greek Dancing (because:
a) they knew I was aussie and
b) they initially thought I was Greek
Also, where else do you see bullet-letters in brackets?)

I learn to drink a shot, from the floor, without using my hands... crazy most. But fun! And the next day, sadly, the norweigens left to another island, and I had to head back to Athens. But I had the manual car for the rest of the day (they left early), and I can proudly say that, aside from reversing the damn thing anywhere at all, I can pretty competently drive a manual now!

Oh, and on the off chance they read this, my very best wishes to Trina, who is engaged, and getting married next year (congrats again!), and her younger sister Theresa, who is going to the Dominican Republic to, well, do sporting stuff for a year. Which sounds very fun!

So! After driving the car around for a bit, I get on the ferry back to Athens, and who should I meet but two very nice, attractive yankee girls, Erin & Kim, who were in Santorini at the same time I was! We later discoevered that they even saw me at the bar reading Plato ("who is that weirdo" was the then response, apparantly). I explained to them the standard global insight into Americans and had a nice chat until about 1am with Erin ('twas a night ferry) about stuff. Because Stuff is Awesome.
The next day, in Athens, after going our seperate ways, who do I bump into but the girls... again! So this time I meet Erin's mum (who is also travelling around Europe), have some tea with them, and get taken to this totally funky shop which sold some nice things - but my parents will discover that later.

So thanks, really cool americans (who are flying in the face of American stereotypes) for making the last day in Greece pretty cool!

So I've had a pretty fun, cool last few days with some incredibly wonderful people - the entire Greek trip has been meeting really nice people, actually, and I think that's why Greece is running high on my "Cool Places I've Been".

Ok! I have a plane to catch! And good friends to meet in London! Dave, Haran & Andrew, united again - is there madcap zanyness? Can I even AFFORD madcap zanyness (no, seriously, I can't) - read this blog and find out! Because, well, what else are you going to do at work?

* Norweigen saying: don't sell the fur before you've shot the bear.
Others include: "cest pu di (or du, or alla) cactu-sannah" and "yay ach fra norgen".
And everyone's favourite - "Ach du farade?" I'll leave it to you and google to translate them!