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Santorini is what you see in pictures and soooo much more!
Coming in to the port on the seacat, the first thing you notice are the cliffs, with the white buildings clinging to the sides. The "tourist info" is really "car hire", and we hire a car as Oia is a bit of a drive from the port.
Up the mountain road and through Fira, the main city, and suddenly we are looking down on a wide plain, farmland and houses, spreading to the volcanic beach ("smooth black sands", the brochures boast). This is not the Santorini of the travel brochures!
Our hotel is just off the main square, where we and others park the car. we do not have direct access to views of the sunset, but a walk up the "street" next to the hotel takes you to a square and a big church, looking over to the caldera. Breathtaking! this is the postcard Santorini! The shopping alleys are off this square, so as you browse,. and buy, you can stop to drink in the amazing postcard view - the blue and white buildings interspersed with colour of flowers and some cafes, cascading down the cliff. We walked to the end, where you can see the sunset on parts of Oia. we are yet to have a decent sunset as it has been overcast, even cold, but we have 2 nights left..... But we have taken many photos.
Today we wandered Fira, and looked down onto the volcano island. We are touring this by boat tomorrow, along with a small island with hot springs, and another island, Thirassis, which has some inhabitants.
Yesterday we went to ancient thera. We decided to drive up the hill. then we decided to walk. then about halfway up we decided to drive. Lucky we did. It was a long way. it's about 1500 feet up and that's a lot of walking. when we got there we found thera was this huge city sited on the top of this hill. I couldn't quite work out how the seafaring aspect of ancient Thera melded with this city so high up and difficult to get to.
last night we had a very pleasant meal and it rained during the middle of it.
the guy at the hotel wants to know why we brought rain from Australia. As if....
On the first day we discovered a beach near oia which had industrial quantities of pumice and lava instead of sand. we sampled some to bring home. boy will we be weighed down when we get back.
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Stacey
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An Observation
just as the www was the cb radio of the 90's , I think travel blog is the equivalent of slide nights in the 60's...every single day