DEBRIS.COMgood for a laugh, or possibly an aneurysm

Ia is known for its sunsets. From the western edge of the city, visitors are afforded an unimpeded view of the sun dropping into the Aegean. The islet of Thirasia lays just south of west, poking an edge into the scene.

The Lonely Planet guide to the islands warns that by 7:00 PM, tourists crowd the westernmost sidewalk in Ia, jockeying for the best position from which to view the sunset. We found this to be true… we hurried there on our first evening to find that the rest of the city had already arrived.

We also found that many of the people there had been somewhat overexposed. Greece is as famous for its sun as Ia is for its sunsets. The fact that all the mini-marts in town have display racks of sun lotion didn’t apparently register with some of these (formerly) pale western Europeans.

Standing in a crowd watching the sun set did not appeal to us — as ironic as it might sound, we didn’t come to Greece to hang out with a bunch of German tourists. We left the lobster people behind and resolved, first, to find a table for dinner before the crowd rushed back east to fill all the best restaurants, and second, to not get sunburned.

Moving back east, we found a much better way to enjoy the sunset. The red light does wonderful things to whitewashed buildings. This is one of my favorite pictures.