The Transporter goes Greek!

Well, today I decided to have an adventure and rent a moped to scoot around the island. Wow is all I have to say. That was quite an experience! First; of all of the European countries Greece has the most accidents; second, I don't understand their signs; third, I may not understand the language, but I understand what the sound of the horn means; 4th, the roads are narrow and everyone experiences traveling on the road, cars, trucks, buses, motorcycles, scooters, atv's, people, animals, etc. There are no sidewalks and the roads are REALLY narrow.

I wanted to go to Fira which is the capital of Santorini to see their Historical Museum. I figured what the heck it probably won't get any easier to drive in Greece than on a small island. I go to rent a scooter it costs about 12 euro, that's $18 US. The thing looks fairly beat up with bald tires and a horn that doesn't work. Not to mention the guy renting this to me either didn't explain well or I didn't understand, because I am tooling around and suddenly puuut, ppppppttttt..... blahhhhhhhhh. The damn thing runs out of gas. I don't know if you've ever seen Santorini, but it is pretty much all mountains, and there are not a lot of gas stations. So, here I am pushing this moped up the side of some mountain trying to get it to the next station of which I have no idea where one is, so I could be pushing this thing until Zeus comes down himself to help me out. So I'm pushing and pushing and finally I see a sign that says Petrol 500m ahead... Thank the gods!! So I push this thing the longest 500m of my life up the side of this mountain in 95 degree heat to the next gas station, put some fuel in it and am on my way again. I finally get to the Capital Fira and have to go down these old roads where it is a free for all regarding driving, riding or walking, so everyone is yelling and honking and giving me what is the Greek equivilant of flipping me off (I'll show you later), but after circling the town about five times I finally say screw it and decide to park the scooter and walk to the musuem (I am having trouble finding it). I find it w/o much trouble and I proceed to get in. All the doors are closed so I circle the facility only to find out that it is open every day EXCEPT the day I decide to visit. So, I walk around a bit, buy a couple things and try to head back to the hostel. I am driving around and around. I don't how I can get lost in this little (but confusing) Greek town, but I manage and just as I think I get my self square on the directions I run out of gas AGAIN!! Yes it's true, I guess a liter doesn't get you too far... so once again I push this f*#%-ing thing to a not so near gas station (lucky for me this time most of it was down hill!) fuel up and make it back to the hostel in one piece!

I am off for Crete, my ferry leaves at 3:30 am... yes that's right I typed that correctly, I have to catch that infernal thing at 3:30 am... waaaaahhhhhhhhhh!

Cheers~
~Craig

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