Santorini Greece

As an elementary kid I read about the island of Santorini in World magazine and was fascinated by the white town perched on the edge of a sheer cliff above a rich blue sea.   Santorini, known as Thera in Greek, was a typical volcano island until it was destroyed approximately 1600 BC by one of the largest volcanic eruptions in history.  Most of the island collapsed leaving a semicircle shaped island that looks like a Greek God took a huge bite out of the island. 

While visiting Al and Ardy, I mentioned the desire to see Santorini so Al got right on the computer to check the ferry schedule and find an affordable hotel.  Days later Ardy and I boarded a huge Blue Star auto/passenger ferry early on a Saturday morning.  We sat in the first class lounge near the bow and watched as we headed north around Paros on our way to Naxos where we picked up more passengers and then headed south to Santorini.  About 3 hours later we approached the back side of Santorini and my excitement started to build.  The back side, rarely photographed, has mid-sized cliffs with gently sloping land that looks like farmland.  Then we rounded a sharp corner and began to enter the caldera, WOW, it was completely different than the back side.  The caldera is lined with vertical cliffs of different strata that rise straight out of the ocean to dizzying heights.  The first town we saw was Oia (pronounced Eea) it was perched on the northern end of the island at the top of those steep cliffs.  Some of the city looked as if it tumbled over the edge of cliff.  What a sight!!  The island is much larger than I expected, imagine how big it was before most of it sank into the ocean.  Photos don’t do it justice. 

As we docked we scanned the crowd with “Rooms to Let” signs looking for Hotel Popi.  There were more people with hotel signs than there were people on the boat at least that is how it felt as we were walking through the crowd.  We found our driver and he escorted us to a van that would take us up the switchbacks along the steep cliff to the city of Fira where our hotel was located.  As we entered Fira it was much larger and more modern than I expected it to be.  All of a sudden our driver pulled over next to a Harley Davidson shop, got out, opened our door, and said, “Please follow.”  He went down some stairs, left under an arch, down a narrow walk way, right into a patio, across to another narrow arch, down more stairs to a tile walkway, that lead to a pool and then up a flight of stairs to Hotel Popi.  We were not sure we would ever find our way back but thankfully the Hotel Leta next door has signs and blue arrows painted on the ground and that was the only way we could find the hotel in the evening.  We checked into room 10 that had a beautiful view toward the east over farmland and out to the sea.  At first we were disappointed because we really wanted a west view but the room was only 35 Euro a night and it was much quieter than anything facing west or closer to the caldera. We were just minutes walking distance to the market area and cliff edge.  We just dropped our bags, picked up a map and hit the town for some shopping and sightseeing.  We walked around the narrow streets of the old town lined with many different shops. 

While shopping we were stopped by two guys who asked our opinion about some shirts they were buying.  We talked a bit, gave them our opinion and went to the next store.  They came across and asked again about other shirts so we talked a bit longer, they were from Toronto, were both cute as pie and very fun to talk with.  They helped me pick a pashmina, we said goodbye and continued walking.  About 5:30 we choose a nice cliff side table to watch the sunset over the caldera.  We ordered drinks and sat chatting and taking photos of the sunset every few minutes.  We also had the perfect spot to watch the donkeys carry people and goods up the path from the old port where the cruise ships dock hundreds of feet below.  One of the donkey men, about 70 years old, was guiding his group of donkeys while on his cell phone; old world meets new.  After the sun set we wondered around the narrow streets of the market for a while longer.  Almost every other store was a jewelry store, not just average jewelry but extremely expensive and flashy jewelry.   The windows were full of pieces that were over 5000 Euros; do that many people spend that kind of money on a vacation trinket??  I did see a little bauble that caught my eye; I had never seen anything like it before or since.  It was square cut fancy sapphires of all colors lined on each side with small single cut diamonds and it was priced at 4000 Euros.  It was the most beautiful bracelet I had ever seen, lots of color and sparkle!!  The storekeeper came down to 2800EU (about $3600) but that was more than I spent on the whole two weeks in Greece so I just could not bring myself to spend that much. 

By now it was dark and we were hungry so we found a cliff side restaurant called Archipelago.  It was a bit expensive but I am sure so was everything else with any kind of view.  We both ordered sea food spaghetti, it was a light tomato sauce with muscles, scallops, calamari, huge shrimp with the heads and crab legs that were red and white speckled.  It was delicious!!  Ardy and I sat there and chatted for a long time, she is such a neat lady.  At dinner the wind picked up, blowing right up the cliff, thank goodness we both had brand new pashminas!  But too bad the cute Canadian guys were not at dinner with us.  After dinner we walked back to the hotel, thanks to the blue arrows we did not get lost.

It was really warm outside so we left our shutters open, not a good idea, the mosquitos used us as their dinner.  I tossed and turned most of the night and right at sunrise I looked out the window to see a beautiful pinkish/reddish foggy layer over the sea just before the sun came up.  I rolled over, covered up and tried to go back to sleep, just to be startled by some very loud and very long sounding bells from the church not too far away.  Even though I was crabby because they interrupted my last bit of sleep it was hard to stay crabby because they had such a joyful sound.  I am guessing this was an alert to notify worshipers it was time for church.

Since there was no sleeping with bells continuing to chime I went to take a shower.  Like much of Europe, our bathroom was all tiles and the shower portion was simply a basin with a raised lip, no curtain or door to keep water inside.  The shower head was a wand mounted at the knobs, not up high, so that you had to hold it to wet your hair and upper body.   This is normally pretty easy to do without spraying the whole room as long as the shower head works properly.  Not the case here, this shower head had water coming straight out as it was supposed to AND had water coming out all sides so there was no way to avoid spraying the whole room.  I tried to shower quickly but could not help but laugh the whole time as I sprayed the whole room, even the toilet paper got all wet. 

Today’s agenda was a visit to Oia, the smaller town on the northern point of the island.  Most of the photos that you will recognize of Santorini are taken in Oia.  We caught a bus from Fira for about $2.  After a curvy road with many beautiful views of both east and west sides of the island, we arrived in a courtyard that was the bus stop for the town and probably the only flat surface large enough for a bus in the whole town.  The streets are narrow cobble stone with homes, inns, and stores built into the rock on one side and hanging off the rock on the other.  It was so storybook; there was another beautiful view around every corner.  Ardy and I both felt like we were in a dream or a movie.  We wandered up and down and around the whole town.  We caught the bus back to Fira and had a couple of hours before we needed to catch another bus back to the ferry terminal but I was exhausted from lack of sleep and lots of walking so I plopped into a lounge chair by the pool while Ardy went to find a dress shop.  The bus back to the ferry was only 1.60 Euro and was exactly on time although the ferry was a bit late.  We took the high-speed ferry back to Paros and I am pretty sure I slept the whole way back.  These two days in Santorini were a dream come true!!  Thank you Ardy for going with me, you are a great travel companion!!!

KAREN’S SANTORINI TIPS:

ü  Put Santorini on your top 10 must see places.

ü  Stay in Oia if at all possible, it will be extremely expensive but worth the experience.

ü  Stay at least 4 full days if you can: 1. Fira, 2. Oia, 3. Volcano Tour, 4. Akrotiri Archeology Site and some diving, if possible.  You might be able to do this in three days.

ü  Avoid the rental car, busses are organized, cheap and drivers are CRAZY.

ü  Experience the steps down to the water in Fira or Oia.  Fira has donkeys and cable car while Oia is walking only. 

ü  Wear comfortable thick soled shoes with good traction, the pathways are old lava stone that is very polished from all the years of foot traffic and it is very uneven.

ü  Take a wrap or light jacket, the evenings are chilly

ü  SUNSET – position yourself early, relax and experience every slight change in color of the sky and the way it lights the town.