Santorini

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Arrived on Santorini around 4pm on Tuesday (2/8)

It took about two and a half hours on the Blue Star ferry from Naxos to the island of Thira, commonly known as Santorini which is at the southern end of the Cyclades.

It is a very popular island and quite dramatic island with steep rocky cliffs and villages perched on the top and dense clusters of colourful buildings. Along the way we past Paros, Iraklia (a small island on which Vangelis and Michele were married), and Ios.

From the port at Athenios, we took a coach up the steep, narrow, and winding road to Fira where we changed to another which took us to our destination at Oia (“ear”).

Again the transport was modern, comfortable, clean, and efficiently organised.

It took us some little time to locate our studio built into the side of the cliff, partly a cave, with a beautiful view out over the neighbouring islands.

The village of Oia is fascinating with a complex jumble of narrow twisting alleys, less than 2 metres wide and stairs of all shapes and sizes leading up and down to studios, villas, and other lanes. It was a surprise to meet a packed mule along one of these pedestrian pathways.

Santorini is quite westernised with English widely spoken. Much of the retail is jewellery, art, and clothing and the prices are higher than our previous stops. Restaurant prices are 20-40% higher.

The calf muscles are a little sore from the constant stepping up and down. There is little distance covered here on level ground. But the village and views are quite breathtaking with a contant flow of cruise ships passing by (and too many stopping for a days shopping on Santorini).

My camera went missing today and despite my clear recollection of it in our studio it has just disappeared. Maybe it got swept up by the cleaners or into a plastic bag that went out with the rubbish. It seems likely that we'll never know.

We walked down the path to the beach (about 250 steps by my count). We swam and snorkelled around the rocks and I swam around the small island to a chapel carved out of the rock.

Clumsy me scraped my knee on a rock trying to get out of the water and collected a bunch of needle like things in the knee which had me a bit woried about sharks when I was swimming back to shore.

After a leisurely morning we hired a taxi early afternoon on Thursday and travelled from Oia in the South East corner to the beach at Kamari which is close to the airport on Santorini. Surprisingly, for this small, hilly island they have managed to carve out an airport runway which services the more hurried tourists coming from Athens.

The beach was a black sand and quite compacted but the water was clear and refreshing.

We took the bus back to Oia via the main township of Fira and I hired a car for the last day on Santorini. Maz and I used the car, rather than the path, to find our way down to the beach for dinner and were lucky enough to get a waterside table for dinner. We both chose the seafood pasta which we agreed was the best Marinara we have ever eaten laden with fresh seafood including muscles and fish, and topped with 2 barbequed tiger prawns.

After packing and lugging our bags from the studio up the never ending steps and along the path to the closest point of vehicle access the packed up the little car with all our luggage and that of the K’s. They went off to Fira to have a walk around that village.

Maz and I took the car to a small beachside village at the Eastern end of the island called Perissa. We met up at the port where we used some spare time to the internet café facilities at the car rental office.

We all boarded the high speed Hellenic ferry Flying Cat 3 about 5.30pm on Friday. It took about 2 hours to reach our next destination, Crete.

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Photos

Alternative transport up the steps
These donkeys carry passengers up the 250 steps from the water to the village of Oia..continuously through the day.

Alexios and Katarina
The Waterfront at Oia

Quick visit to the volcanic island
The volcano is currently dormant with the last eruption only 50 years ago.

Sunset at Oia
It's like a magnet. Everyone comes out to see the sunset.