Advertisement
Firostephani
The classic Firostephani view, ruined by the sodding cruise ship.I woke up again at 5.00am for the sunrise, but that was most definitely not going to happen. I opened the door to discover that it was pouring with rain. I closed the door and went back to bed.
We all surfaced when it was time for breakfast, which we order the night before and then it's delivered to us. It was a bit of a rush to get ready as we didn't want it to arrive when we were looking like complete slobs. We needn't have worried though as a rep on a previous holiday had told us that the Greek islands all run according to GMT or rather Greek Maybe Time.
I should have just slept in as the rain had actually been forecasted, so our plan for today was to get the bus to Fira, the capital of Santorini.
As it was still raining, we stopped at one of the Oia shops and got ourselves two €3 ponchos. We thought we looked a terrible state, but the amount of people who asked us where we got them, as we are obviously not the only ones who didn't expect to need a rain-mac for a holiday
Greek Breakfast
Fetta, tomatoes, olives and capers - not that different from lunch or the evening meal. in the Greek islands. As they were blue, so very much in tune with the Santorini influencer dress code, we may well have created a new social media trend. If there's hordes of Santorini influencers in cheap blue ponchos, then you heard about it here first.
The restaurants near the bus station didn't mind us sheltering from the rain in their covered seating area, in fact they even passed round some samples of bananas fried in batter and dipped in chocolate, which were gratefully received. The buses are actually more like coaches and a lot more comfortable than those that we are used to in the UK. When one arrived we got on despite the lack of any indication of where it was actually going, but in the expectation that it was probably going to Fira. Thankfully, it was.
When we arrived, we walked along the cliff tops from Fira to nearby Firostephani. There was a particular church in Firostephani that's supposed to be very photogenic. To be honest we were a bit underwhelmed (the deceptions of Instagram) and it wasn't helped by the cruise ships that were moored up in just the wrong location for the classic
Stylish Blue Poncho
The new social media trend. shot. Oh well, I'll just have to fix that in Photoshop later, as I am sure all Instagrammers do.
It was a nice walk, but Fira is not even close to Oia for the beauty of the buildings and the charm of the streets. It's where the cruise ships come in to drop their passengers off by means of small boats, as the cruise ships are too big to dock. They sit out in the bay specifically to wind me up and spoil my photos. There's a cable car from the harbour up the steep cliffs to Fira, where there are inevitably masses of shops, ranging from our favourite tat shops to expensive boutiques selling all those influencer fashions (and a good stock of cheap blue ponchos).
We also enjoyed the views over the bay. From here, you can see how the islands form the shape of an ancient volcano, which apparently exploded around 3,600 years ago and was understood to be one of the largest ever explosions. Hence the steep cliffs around the inner crater of the volcano, called the caldera. Looking out to the other islands, it is apparent how huge a volcano it was.
Fira
Along the rim of the ancient volcano. We got to the bus station for the 4.00pm bus back to Oia, but it was lucky that we got there with plenty of time as it actually left early at 3.50pm. Actually it is almost certain that it was the 3.30pm bus leaving 20 minutes late as it's GMT, but who cares as we got straight on with no need to wait out in the rain.
We thought we would do the social media thing as the queues were a lot shorter than yesterday. Presumably, the influencers didn't want to get their hair and clothes wet.
We chilled outside the windmill for a while with a beer, wine and some left over Greek-style pizza
In the evening, we started off at a cocktail bar, which was full of boisterous, care-free and energetic youngsters, with hip bar-tenders doing the full Tom Cruise routine whilst mixing the cocktails. And wearing crash helmets for some, unknown reason.
I'm sure everyone would have been thinking, "Those two hard-hitting influencers will be introducing this place a their generation of followers", but more likely, "What are those two old gits are doing in here?" I'll ask our daughter as she would
Fira Street Art
With the usual architecture in the background be able to read that generation better than us. She didn't seem to be wishing the ground would swallow her too badly.
Afterwards, we succeeded with our "cheap and cheerful" mission. With vengeance. It was basically the Greek equivalent of a kebab-shop or rather a gyros / souvlaki-shop I suppose. At least there wasn't a puddle of vomit outside it, which is compulsory outside any UK kabab-shop.
To finish off, we went to an ice-cream shop and had some frozen yoghurt with just about every topping that we thought we could get away with.
On the way back we passed the social media queue, where there still wasn't much of a queue, so we got on and did some of the cliché poses such as walking down the steps, walking up the steps and standing with our backs to the camera. At least my wife and I did, and I'm sure everyone just assumed we were the older generation of influencers!" Anyway, someone might have taken a picture for one of those "How clueless are they" social media channels and, as I type this, we might well be trending. Sadly, we didn't have our blue ponchos on.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.075s; Tpl: 0.014s; cc: 14; qc: 28; dbt: 0.0435s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
