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July 11 –July 13

Well, let’s just get it out of the way in the beginning and say that Santorini was our least favorite island--by far. Now, don’t get me wrong, it is really and truly beautiful. Full of great unique scenery and fantastic views, it’s just like in all the incredible pictures you’ve seen. If you’re in the area you have to go. That’s just the way it is and it was totally worth it. But just for that reason, because everyone goes, it was less fun than the other places we visited.

We got in in the afternoon and were picked up at the port and taken to our hotel. We had booked a private room in a hostel in the beach town of Perissa which really meant that while we checked in at the hostel our room was really in a hotel about 5 minutes down the road. Thank goodness. Our room was quite lovely and right over the balcony outside was the pool. We hopped the balcony and jumped right in, first thing. As much as I love the ocean, sometimes it’s just really nice to swim around without all the hassle of sand and salt. It was perfect after the sweaty ferry trip.

Then we made one of the biggest mistakes of the trip. We went back to the hostel’s little travel office to book a tour of the island. Usually tours aren’t really our things, but Santorini is a bit tricky to get around and is actually made up of several islands. So to get a chance to see more of it we went ahead and decided on an all day boat trip tour.

The next morning we were picked up for the tour at 10:30 and by 10:45 we had learned the most important lesson of the day: If you are older than 25 you should n’t ever book a tour through a hostel. Ever! Unfortunately we still had 10 hours of tour left to really have this message drilled into our brains loudly and clearly.

The bus took us down to the port were there was a boat waiting for us. The boat was already full and then we proceeded to pile on with our entire bus load of people (and later even more people from another dock). There was pretty much nowhere to sit. We ended up finding a bit of space on the bow which was good for my motion sickness (lots of wind) but in full sun. There were a couple of families, and middle aged couples, but 95% of the tour was made up of people under the age of 23 (no really, the 23 year old feels so weird being the oldest person around…I heard him say so). Most of them were quite hung over and regaling each other loudly with tales of what they had done to end up in that state. Over and over again for hours. On the up side I now know a whole lot more than I did before about pub crawls.

The boat took us to the island of Nea Kameni which is an active but dormant volcano. There is a small hole where some steam comes out. While it didn’t come close the other volcanoes I’ve climbed in coolness factor, it did provide some great views of the surrounding areas and one of our favorite pictures of the trip. We did managed to sneak away from the group for a few minutes at the end and enjoy the views by ourselves.

Then the boat took us to Palia Kameni which is an uninhabited island that has hot mud springs. The boat didn’t actually dock, but there was a chance for people to jump of into the water and swim. We decided not to as we had dressed for the volcano hike and didn’t want to deal with changing. Plus, apparently the red water can stain your bathing suit.

After that we were taken to Thirasia which has very few inhabitants. This is where we had lunch, it’s a small fishing village and very nice. After lunch Arantxa changed and hopped in for a little dip in the water. Then back on the boat.

The last stop of the day was the town of Oia back on the main island of Thira. This is the place that you are supposed to watch the sunset from. Looking at it from the water it is just beautiful. I think that the tour people really wanted to give us a chance to take pictures of it so they sat there for 10 minutes or more before docking. The waves had been a little rough getting to the island, and then the time just sitting there, swaying up and down, really did both of us in.

After getting off the boat we found a doorway in the shade and slumped into it for quite some time. When we’d finally recovered we headed up the zigzag stairs to the town. Lot of people get up by riding donkeys, Rita had forbidden us to do so (though I can’t imagine we would have anyway) so we went by foot. The problem is that while the view is incredible, both up to the town and out to the water the trail is covered in very smelling donkey poo. Also, every so often a pack of donkeys would come trotting down and you’d have to jump off to the side to avoid being trampled. Arantxa pointed out that it was the most unpleasant walk in a beautiful location she’d ever been on. I agree.

We walked around up top, checked out some shops and found a restaurant with a great roof to watch the sunset. It was very nice, but not really too much different than other sunsets. When we got back to Perissa we bought our Santorini jewelry. Which sadly, was the last island we’d successfully find stuff on.

The next day we took it easy in the morning and early afternoon and then took a bus to Fira in the evening. We walked around, had a drink at a place with a great view of the town against the cliff and then checked out some shops. Watched the sunset again and then headed back to the hotel.

These past two days were quite windy in Perissa and there was some question as to whether or not our ferry would be able to leave Santorini. There is only one boat out the day we were leaving and it was a small one. If we couldn’t leave they couldn’t guarantee us our room again, but they assured us they would have space at the hostel. The day of the tour we had used their bathrooms and it was the most disgusting thing. We wanted off the island before it came to that!

The good part of being on such a popular island was all the super easy traveler focused amenities. We had our laundry done, had great internet and were right by the best bakery ever. It was open 24 hours a day! With all kinds of quite cheap great foods including my favorites: olive pizza and croissants slathered in nutella.
Luckily the morning we were leaving they said the boat would go, though not until the afternoon. So we packed up our bags, put on our suits. We left our luggage in the hostel storage space (also near the gross bathrooms and showers) and headed to the beach.

It was a black sand beach and really very nice. Neither of us can remember being to one before and the wind had died down so we could enjoy it. After that we headed to the port. Next stop Milos!

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