70 Liters or Less: Santorini summer and Prologue to Chasing Italy

Hello to all our faithful, bored, and eager readers! This is Jamie, the lost, lost boy. I have not written a blog post after we moved to Santorini for the summer. I am still alive and have finally decided to pick the pen back up, so to speak. Since then, a lot but a little has happened. Michael, I am pretty sure, kept all of you up to date on the happenings and lack of happenings on the volcanic, Number 1 island destination in the world that we called our home for 4 months.

As most of you know our path has changed quite a bit from when our semester ended. To catch you all up to speed: Michael and I went from a graduation freak out about our future, to prolonging real life by finding work on Santorini for the summer. Santorini is where we met and made some amazing Australian friends and a Kiwi(Will, Elle, Kate, Jess, Justine, Amy), who gave us the T.B. In case you were wondering that does not mean Tuberculosis and it is not a sexually transmitted disease. But it is the highly contagious and contractible Travel Bug. With only Greece, Canada, and England under our travel belts, it wasn’t hard for them to convince us to travel above and beyond. We then set our sights on Southeast Asia, but our aim to be in Australia by December to start our 1 year work visas. With our leaving date set for September 29, the summer whisked by, our friends came and gone, and pretty soon September rolled around. Michael and his new Australian girlfriend and our SE Asian tour guide, Elle, left for Athens to meet his parents/my aunt and uncle for a romp around the Peloponnese and mainland Greece. For the first time in 7 months I was without my counterpart, R2D2, I mean Michael. And for the first time in 7 months I was without a drinking partner and a wingman. (Dramatization) Devastated, I stumble on down to the girls apartment, and begged Amy, one of the last Auzies on the Island to be my new drinking partner and wingwoman. After a few beers she agreed. Together, we set off down the road to Tranquilo, one of our favorite drinking an eating holes in Perissa Beach.

Upon arriving I recognized 2 girls that had walked past the restaurant I worked at earlier that day. They were just arriving to the island and seemed lost when I first met them. Since I am super shy and both very cute and intimidating, I sat down next to them and started talking. They were Italian, sisters, and some of the nicest and interesting ones I had met. We had a great time shooting the shit and at the end of the night, we made plans to hang out the next night. Anyways over the next few days we developed this amazing chemistry: dancing, teasing, talking, hanging out. Carlotta/Charlie, the younger one, who I was especially keen of, besides being a summer romance, we also became really good friends. But all good things must come to an end and just like every other tourist who visits the Island, it was time for her to leave. The goodbyes that we exchanged were tough as I told myself, What did you think would happen? She had to leave. Everyone who comes here leaves. Maybe you will meet again someday, but it is highly unlikely. Little did I know she would put another speed bump in my future traveling plans…

The next 3 weeks of work were tough. I just wasn’t mentally there. I felt like I was in a slump. I had packed up in my mind way to early. Besides an awesome wedding I worked, nothing really happened. I realized there was nothing really left there for me. 10 days before I left, Michael came to me and said dude, you need to leave. I weighed out my options of leaving early, thinking of places I could go and stay. That’s when I got a message from Mike, Elle’s x who I had become a pretty good friend during his long stay in Santorini, saying he was near Bologna, Italy staying with a friend. The plan clicked, I will go hang out with Mike and then with Charlie and meet Michael in Elle back in Amsterdam in a week or so after they too, left Santorini. The ticket was booked in 12 hours time of the decision, luckily I found a direct flight to Bologna for $150, which was the only ticket left for that price. The next price margin was $1,200!

Unfortunately this meant I had to tell everyone of my work friends and the Greeks that wore their way into my heart, an early goodbye. It was sad leaving them. It turned out to be harder than I thought. My last night I shared some teary eyed drinks with everyone who I loved there and wished them good luck in life and I hoped to hell I would see them again.

With my bags packed in my 70 liter Lafuma Backpack I was ready for my own adventures…

(more to come after my 14 day stay in Burma/Mayanmar)

Lots more pics on facebook, best summer yet, these were just some of the highlights.....