small car shenanigans

well i made it to the island of santorini, after a seven hour ferry ride, which left at half past seven, for which i had to get up at quarter past five in the morning. guys were still out heckling even though it was alarmingly early in the morning. but the boat trip was smooth and uneventful and i managed to keep from being ill, just drank fruit juice and read and slept slumped over in my chair. when i got to the island, the clouds present at the crossing were drawing away, the sky was clear and all the houses were whitewasshed and idyllic. and when i showed up at my hostel, suprise! there were my three british girl roomates from hostel aphrodite in athens. along with their friend from turkey, phil of the fluffy hair, we formed the perfect sized group for wanderings and excursions and planned on renting quad bikes and scooters the following day to see the island (which is small enough it can be done in a single day) however, upon getting our things together in the morning, we discovered that we could not in fact rent the bikes, as i was the only member of the group with a drivers liscence. so we moped for about ten minutes and then realized we could rent a car and split five ways, it would end up being less than the bikes for a day. so we got a darling little pewter gray mini-mobile with a meep-meep horn and me being the only person who could legally rent the car, i was the driver for our island adventure. we piled in, and it was suprisinly roomy and a joy to turn as there was nothing in the back and we headed out deciding every stop by shouted popular vote. first to the red sand beach (where we had and impromptue parprika chip picknick and i accidentally stubbed my toe on a peice of volcanic rock and ripped a huge chunk of skin off) and then the lighthouse, then we drove all the way to fira, the capital, which was picturest to the extreem. and then we headed over to other side of the island and found a sign for ancient agora or something of that nature and decided to brave a terrifingly rough looking cobblestone road that wound alarmingly up a hill, or more like a mountain rather, until we reached a museum that was closed, and the most outstanding veiw down the whole island, you could see the sea on both sides from our lofty vantage point. it was glorious. and the amazing thing was, there was no way we could have made it to this place on the bus, nor would we have even found it, if we hadn't had 'toby' as the car was christened, to guide us. and now i must return the car and know that once again, i've gotten rather attached to, and bonded with, a rental car. which is a bit strange but seems to be forming a pattern.