Day 18 - Thira to Oia

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Gorgeous Santorini day today! Still hot as anything, but gorgeous.

I headed out early to do the hike - I knew I was only going to do Thira to just past Imerovigli - I didn’t have the oomph in me to do the second half without any shade at all lol. My timing was pretty good - I’d say 80% of the walk was in the shade (other than when I deviated a bit to try and find photos). But even in the shade… that heat still gets you as you mostly walk uphill in this part.

(Side note - as I was leaving Thira I timed it as the donkeys were on their way down. They didn’t have the usual donkey silly energy to them. I feel so bad for them… poor things basking in the sun, being ridden all day long.)

So. It’s not the most obvious of paths, let’s just say lol and GoogleMaps isn’t overly helpful either since it doesn’t pick up the nooks and crannies (and oh god there are SO MANY books and crannies). I’d watched a few videos online and checked out a few blogs, so that’s what I found most helpful.

The views really are stunning though. (Sigh, even with cruise ships in the backdrop lol) It was well worth the walk and exploration.

I headed back down to Thira which was fun lol. It’s a slightly smaller coach that does the Imerovigli loop and I was the only one on it which is rare - we got to the station in Thira (which is normally organized chaos) except… it was just chaos lol. My bus goes to pull in perpendicular to then reverse into a spot. Another bus goes to pull out. And a big shuttle van decides to come up the street. All at once. Then no one wanted to back down so we just sat there in a triangle for literally 5min as they all honked and yelled at each other. I’m sitting there like… I just want to get off lol. Finally he let me off - not like it matters middle of the road when the road is blocked. I walked away as they were still yelling lol but ultimately I think my bus drove off and looped around.

Anyway! I decided to go down to the Old Port - it had been recommended to check out plus I was going to do a boat tour from there later in the afternoon. I opted to just pay the stupid 6 euro for the cable car - I didn’t feel like adding to my trek today nor did I feel like side stepping donkey shit in the blazing sun. I have thoughts re: the cable car I’ll save for my trip back up lol. But yeah, going down was no issue - I sat w two couples from cruise ships and we chatted a bit.

(Side note: it’s so funny, I honestly didn’t think my Jays hat would be a conversation magnet but I guess it screams NORTH AMERICA… which like… accurate. But it’s funny I have these various Americans be like YO JAYS or AH THE JAYS! and start up a convo. Meanwhile I also have a bunch of people whisper to their travel mates variations of “is that a Jays hat?? I think it’s a Jays hat!!” and I am utterly convinced those are Canadians lol.)

Down at the Old Port I puttered around the shops a bit (there aren’t that many) and then went for lunch and a drink at Cafe Ilios which didn’t disappoint. I had this really good grapefruit drink of some sort and a giant Greek salad… and then added a Mythos beer bc why not lol. The cafe was right across from the Princess Cruise line tender booth, so I had lots of fun people watching as they came back dead from the heat adventures or as they bushy tail and bright eyed headed out with no idea what was ahead hahaha. (… did I also act like a passenger and grab one of their sweet, sweet cold towels on my way by… maybe…)

I was going to do a boat tour with Santo Star but I changed my mind for a few reasons: 1) it was ridic hot now (2pm) and the tour basically brings you to an island volcano crater to walk around (ie no shade) and a swim in the hot springs 2) passengers getting off the 9am tour were literally telling a bunch of us in line that it was awful with the heat and the staff aren’t helpful and 3) the staff were full on SCREAMING at some people in line to ask questions - not like “polite” screaming, like full out bellowing at people to get out of the office (which is literally where you buy tickets and ask questions lol). I’m like fuck this shit, keep my 20 euros I’m out.

I took the cable car back up and holy the line up to come back down…!!!! When I tell you it was at least a 1.5 hour wait, that’s being generous. The line up zig zagged through a good chunk of the town. I had read the lines up can get crazy (and 1.5-2 hours) but I thought it was an exaggeration. Nope! The infrastructure really is not in place for this many cruise ships at a time - they also do an awful job at filling the cable cars - they don’t count, so they just like a glob of people go through and then you end up having a bunch of cars that aren’t full. Like, it’s infuriatingly annoying to watch haha.

I quickly let go of my annoyance by squishing myself through the line to grab myself an Aperol Speitz to go at the Boozery (these guys are legit and so much fun) and headed off on my merry way lol. I did a bit of window shopping in Thira and then headed back to the hotel… where I promptly lost power for about an hour. Apparently it’s pretty common on the island - they have their own grid and it often can’t cope with the long excessive heat (ACs etc)… so I mean, I’m lucky it was only an hour lol.

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