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Published: September 16th 2008
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Thursday Sept 11, 2008
After anxiously awaiting the end of classes all day, finally finished up at 2:30pm. Came home, my bath tub laundry was dry! Success! Brought it all inside, did some homework, took a quick shower and packed for the weekend.
Left the apartment as soon as Leslie was done class, about 6pm, for our 8pm ferry. For some strange reason, I didn’t notice until we got on the boat that my watch was 40 minutes fast, so the whole way to Piraeus (the port) I was practically running, wondering why my room mates weren’t the slightest bit worried that we were cutting it pretty close lol. We spent the night on the boat, watching strange Greek soap operas - one had a man w/ a shirt asking “Got Meth?”…interesting… - met some cute Aussies that ended up sitting in front of us, paid 15.50 Euro for a Greek salad and baked eggplant - most expensive meal yet, we learned our lesson for the ride home - and watched some of the other CYA kids make complete asses of themselves via drinking the entire way to Santorini. Thankfully, our “deck seats” ended up being inside the cabin
and were even more comfortable than typical airplane seats. Definitely glad I saved 20 Euro by not getting a sleeper cabin.
Friday Sept 12, 2008
Watched the most amazing sunrise I’ve ever seen as we pulled into the port on Santorini. The sun rose over the ocean in a matter of minutes, a perfect sphere. The landscape of the island itself was incredible, with white washed buildings clinging to the top of cliffs that plunged straight into the ocean. Words really can’t do any of it justice.
Had a very precarious van ride from the port to our hostel in Akrotiri, weaving along the cliffs and overtaking tour buses around corners. The hostel was run by a very nice woman named Maria and her daughter. They cooked us breakfast every morning and became our unofficial guides to navigating the island. I was actually quite surprised with how cute and idyllic the hostel was, and our room was far better than I thought it would be. The bathroom/shower was rather interesting. There was no actual “shower” just a shower head attached to the wall beside the toilet so the whole bathroom actually functioned as the shower basin as
well.
Since we really hadn’t slept all night, the only thing any of us were us for was lounging at the nearby red beach. Walking down the road we passed something along the lines of a vineyard with a man and his donkey harvesting grapes. We also walked by the now closed archaeological site and at least got to see a glimpse of the ancient settlement. The beach, much like all of Santorini, was gorgeous with its own unique character. We swam, lounged, gawked at the topless sunbathers and awkward man-kinies, and ate fresh fruit supplied by local peddlers.
Ate dinner at a local taverna advertising its fresh seafood. Ordering the grilled fish, I was handed a plate of a fully entact, grilled fish. De-boning it proved an interesting task but what I did manage to eat was incredibly good. Caught a bus to Fira, the largest city on the island, famous for its white washed buildings and views of the caldera. Side note: Santorini is home to a volcano that exploded in ancient times, creating a large crater which the cities now border, overlooking the ocean. This is also what makes the ancient settlement in Akrotiri so
special, the volcanic ash almost perfectly preserved it, much like the city of Pompeii. Anyways…Fira, although beautiful, was quite touristy. We got some amazing homemade ice cream at one of the numerous restaurants and then just barely caught the last bus back to Akrotiri. Back at the hostel, I think I got through maybe 2 pages in my book before passing out around 10pm.
Saturday Sept. 13, 2008
We all slept until around 9am, which felt amazing. Maria cooked us breakfast: homemade bread w/ homemade marmalade, fresh eggs from her own chickens, and tomatoes from her garden. AMAZING! Afterwards, we caught the bus back into Fira, browsed the countless shops, explored the town, found some gorgeous churches, almost got trampled by donkeys, and almost paid 6 Euro to see “the famous Akrotiri wall paintings” until we realized they were only “3-D, digital recreations”…riiiiight.
Made a quick lunch of a Greek salad and a chicken souvlaki and then took a bus to a local vineyard. Sadly, we ended up being rather disappointed by the “wine museum” and “wine tasting” offered by the vineyard. Please see pictures for the awesomeness that was the museum, and the wine tasting ended
up being only three very cheap wines. …Then we ended up waiting an hour in the hot afternoon sun until a bus finally stopped to bring us back into Fira.
To make up for our less than exciting afternoon, we went to an Irish pub we had passed earlier in the day advertising live coverage of the Liverpool vs. Manchester United soccer match. The pub ended up having the most unique character of anyplace I have ever been, and an ice cold beer hit was exactly what we all needed after our long wait for the bus.
We then wandered around again until our dinner reservations at 7pm, checking out the museum that held the actual Akrotiri wall paintings. Sadly, when dinnertime finally came, the sky was filled with fog, rather ruining our “caldera sunset” dinner plans. The fog itself though was pretty cool to watch. It seemed to be flying up out of the ocean, over the cliffs and sweeping across the town. We had our own private table set off from the rest of the restaurant and the food was, once again, very good. After my experience with authentic local food the night before though, I
decided to play it safe and got chicken fajitas.
Back in Akrotiri, had a hilarious run in with some local boys as Leslie and I walked to the market to grab a piece of fruit before bed. While they had simply stared at us as we walked by to the store, on our return one boy decided to try his luck and called out “Hey bay-beee!” In return, I turned to him with a death stare and remarked “malaka” in my most unimpressed voice - meaning “ass hole” in Greek. I don’t think he quite expected it and looked rather taken aback, while his buddies got quite a kick out of it. Once I told her what I’d said, Leslie got quite a laugh out of it as well.
Sunday Sept. 14, 2008
Up at 8am for another amazing breakfast by Maria and her daughter. We returned to the market and stocked up for the ferry ride home - no way was I paying for another meal on that boat! While we were waiting for the van, burned some energy via a running tour of the parts of Akrotiri I hadn’t gotten to see yet. Another precarious van
ride brought us back to the port. We lucked out and grabbed our own private nook on the boat, far more comfortable and quite than the deck seats, and settled in for the 11 hour ride back to Athens…BLAHHHHHHHHH. We did get to see the islands during the daytime at least, and were entertained by some very intoxicated and very stupid Aussies - it was surprising how many people on the island and the boat were from Australia/New Zealand.
Pulled into Piraeus around 10pm, after leaving Santorini at 11am. Had to walk about 2 kilometers (about 1.5 miles) from where we docked to the metro station, at night, a little sketchy. Walked into the apartment right around midnight...well, more like collapsed, but either way…
Santorini was certainly one of the most beautiful places I have ever been, and it was great traveling with the room mates. After being together for 4 days straight, we all have started to bond quite closely. I must say I really enjoy their company and hearing about the amazing things they’ve done so far in their lives.
I will admit though, I don’t think I will ever return to Santorini via ferry,
once was enough of that! haha. Will try to get pictures up as soon as possible, but there are quite a few of them to sort through - no big surprise there.
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Rozlyn Petersen
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Sounded like a great mini trip. I find it so amazing that everything you explained about Santorini reminded me exactly of Xiana. Deffinetly more of a relaxed life on the Islands than the mainland. I had to laugh when you were talking about the van rides on the cliffs and hills. Their roads are insane - some with no rail guards and a 50 ft straight drop. I'm so glad to hear your enjoying yourself. Miss you