Ferry to Santorini

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To me, Mykonos is just okay. It's extremely beautiful, and the town is fun to get lost in, but if it honestly wasn't for nearby Delos I probably would've skipped over it and gone maybe to Naxos or Paros instead. Mykonos is just too hung up on its party animal image, which is a shame, because it has so much more to offer. Same reason why you can't spend more than 3 or so nights in Vegas. The appeal wears off fast when there's nothing really beneath it except money.

So I wasn't really upset to take the 2:55 ferry about 3 hours farther South to Santorini. This was on a far smaller vessel, a catamaran, that can go super fast over the water. Added to that, we only made one stop, on Paros. Got in at about 5:30ish. I'm in an apartment-hotel right in the center of the main town of Fira. Since Fira sits perched on a cliff way above the port, most every hotel offers transport from the port below. This was the case with my hotel, but since the ferry got in later than expected, and the next one was due before we could make it up to town, I had to wait maybe 30 minutes or so. Wasn't annoyed because it gave me a chance to get to know the driver, an incredibly nice guy named George. He's orginally from Albania, and once I asked about his kids he didn't stop until the ferry arrived. He even pulled out his phone and showed me pictures of them. A genuinely nice, kind person.

As for Santorini, if you've never heard of it, well that's your fault because this is one of the most beautiful places in the world. There's a large and growing number of people who say that Ancient Atlantis was right here, and that when the island blew up in a volcanic eruption the town literally collapsed into the sea. What's left is a massive caldera (kind of like Crater Lake) and towns perched alongside the cliffs of it. Fira is one of these towns. It's a truly dramatic setting, then, and there's not a bad view down to the sea. Also excited because Akrotiri, one of the most important archeological sites in all of Europe, just reopened this summer after being closed for many, many years. My guidebook says it's still closed. A great surpise. Tomorrow that's my first stop.

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Photos

At the Port
That's the high-speed catamaran, the FlyingCat 4.

Up the Cliffs from the Port
You follow a long, winding road to get up to the top of the island.

View Down Towards Fira
From the Port.

Just After Sunset
The island in the distance is actually the volcano that's slowly starting to rebuild itself.

Sunset
Another village, Oia, is at this end of the island.