And On The Eighth Day It Rained Cats And Dogs (Metaphorically!)

---

I woke up and it was still dark. Checking my phone for the time it said 05.15, so I grabbed the camera and headed for the rooftop of the building to see if the moon was still out. It was a pretty impressive sight seeing the moon go down in the exact same fashion as the sun had only a few hours earlier. Hopefully the photos turn out ok. I headed back to bed for some more sleep before the alarm went off for breakfast. We took our breakfast on to the roof and admired the view once more before going back down and packing for our volcano trip. I took charge of directing us into finding Rob and Katie's hotel and duly got us lost. We managed to find it though not too long after the time we had arranged. We bought Rob and Katie Santorini shot glasses as gifts for helping us out. I still can't believe how lucky we are.
Being Tommy's birthday back home we gave him a call from a public phone which had a big delay, but it was good to be able to wish him all the best. Lucky we are in a fantastic place like Santorini, because missing Tommy's 18th made us both feel homesick.
After getting off the phone to Tommy we rushed around getting supplies for lunch and then rushed down the hundreds of steps to the port. They have donkeys going back up the other way as it would be hard work if you were on foot.
Down at the port there was a cute old style boat that we thought was too fancy for the relatively small amount of money we had paid for it to be our transport, but sure enough it was. Along with the boat came a guide. The majority of people on the boat seemed to be retirement age, and we were surprised there wasn't more youngsters (people our age!).
I didn't think there would be much walking involved so I brought my comfortable shoes along instead of my hiking shoes which was a mistake. We got off the boat and headed towards the heart of the volcano, stopping every now and again to hear from our guide.
The first two craters were inactive, but at a particular point you could feel the heat/energy of the volcano coming up through the path. At the crater of the active volcano there was sulfur coming out of the ground in areas, and while it was good, it was far from spectacular (as expected though). Our guide gave us some amazing facts at this point.
In this area 3,600 years ago there was a huge volcanic eruption/explosion that was 600 times more powerful than the bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and 40 times more powerful than the explosion at Krakatoa. The island group of Santorini (Thira, Thirasia, and Aspronisi) is all that was left in this area after the explosion.
The sound of the explosion went around the earth three times (it was heard 3 times), and created waves that were 250 metres high. These waves were still 75 metres high when they hit the island of Crete and is probably the reason behind the disappearance of the Minoan civilization.
Temperatures around the world dropped 2-3 degrees Celsius and there was even ash found in China from the eruption.
The rocks formed at the current volcano date back as far as 430 years ago (1570), and the last eruption was in 1950. All the eruptions that have occurred in this time period have been mild and haven't caused any serious problems for the island's inhabitants.
From the crater (active) we were allowed to do our own thing as long as we stayed on the paths and were back at the boat in time for departure. Some of the rock formations are so strange and incomparable to anything else I've seen.
From Nea Kameni or young island, we headed to Palea Kameni or old island for the warm/hot springs. The temperature of the springs varies depending on the time of year. Our guide said the springs were closer to warm than hot at this time of year. There was no place for the boats (we had been joined by others) to dock so we had to swim about 100 metres through the cold water to the warm.
Diving in off the end of the boat the cold water certainly lived up to it's reputation while the 'warm' springs were a big disappointment. You could definitely feel a change of temperature, and the water colour was brown due to the concentration of iron, but to say the water was 'warm' would be a stretch. To actually 'warm' up I got out and sat on a rock to try and get some sun.
Before hardly any time at all we were summoned back into the even colder water to get back on to the boat. Luckily the boats had managed to get a lot closer, and before long we were back on the boat with warm clothes on. It was good fun, but it would have been so much better if the springs were hot.
From Palea Kameni we headed to Thirasia where most people were lookig to get some lunch, including the guide. She shamelessly pumped up this restaurant at the port which the majority of the people ended up going to, including the guide - undoubtedly for a free lunch!
We had packed our lunch so we headed up the hundreds of steps for a closer look at Thirasia. At the top we got out our lunch along with the few others who had managed to make it to the top. Before long we were out numbered by cats who came out of nowhere to try and sample our lunch. In Greece, cats and dogs just roam freely wherever you go, we're not sure if they actually have homes or not.
After managing to have more of our lunch than the cats we had a walk around Thirasia. Other than a school the whole place was very quiet, and was very run down. I ran to the top of the hill to see what was up there and what the view was like. The other side of the island was quite green, and looked like farm land. Despite it appearing like there weren't many residents there was still white churches everywhere in the most unlikely places. An old cannon was also on top of the hill, but it didn't look like it had seen much use for a while unless the local donkeys needed to be kept in line.
I jogged back down to meet up with Beck and on our way down we bumped into Klaus who I had met in the 'much less than warm' springs earlier. We talked travel with Klaus and his wife Olivia until we got back on the boat.
From Thirasia we headed to Oia (pronounced ee-aah) which is known for it's world famous sunsets. From Oia you could catch the boat back to Fira, or stay in Oia to catch the sunset before heading back by bus. We opted for the sunset.
There was plenty of time to kill before the sun would be going down so we walked the streets going through every shop. Grace who was on our boat tagged along with us, she lives/works in Dubai, but is from the States and was good company. Many of the shops had amazing art work, but a decent price tag to match. We nearly bought an amazing chess set complete with Greek gods, along with countless paintings, pictures, etc, but we managed to restrain ourselves. Oia was also very quiet, and while there would be more things to do in Fira, Oia is a lot more peaceful.
At about six o'clock the clouds started to roll in and after debating for a while, we came to the conclusion that there would be no sunset in Oia tonight so we caught the next bus back to Fira.
Getting off the bus we farewelled Grace, before Beck grabbed a gyros and we headed to Murphy's for a quick drink. We were that tired we could have gone back to the hotel and crashed, but we had talked about having a drink at Murphy's all day for Tommy's birthday, so we stuck to our original plan.
We grabbed a beer and sat in a quiet corner and started re-capping the day we had had before a familiar accent floated across the room. Two blokes sitting at the bar sounded like they were from Australia so we thought it would be rude not to go and say g'day. We got on really well with Chris and Matt who are two brothers from Knox which isn't far from where we live at home. We spoke non-stop for the next few hours about travelling, football, spring carnival and anything else we could think of. It's amazing that we were in Greece, on the island of Santorini, in a random little bar, and we meet people who know people we know. Yes, it is a small world.
We had a few beers in Murphy's and then we played the bars in the little alleyway against each other. We went a few doors down and got cheap drinks, before heading back to Murphy's for drink cards and two for one cocktails.
Murphy's really filled up, and we made our way out at about twelve, but not before the DJ finally played Men At Work's, 'Land Down Under', followed by INXS. We grabbed Chris and Matt's details and arranged to meet up with them again tomorrow night.
Before we headed to the hotel we rang people back home as the time difference suited. I grabbed a gyros and then it was back to our room. We didn't get to bed until about 1.30 a.m, and as I drifted off to sleep I pondered what the difference is between a gyros and souvlaki. I think I came to the conclusion that a gyros is shaved meat, while a souvlaki is the meat off the kebab stick. Can anyone confirm this?

---

Comments

[Nephew Benjamin]

Dogs
Hi Uncle Danny and Aunty Bec - gee whiz there are dogs overseas too! They look cute, but i am sure they would not chase lemons like Pepi and Charlie do. I can actually throw lemons to them (not very far though) and they will catch them. I am happy you are having a great time and your pictures certainly show that as well. Please look after Grandad and Grandma for me. Aunty Bec you have lost your spike? I am lucky enough to be sleeping in a big bed now and i hope to see you in a few months time so i can show you what it looks like! Keep your journal up it gives Daddy something to look at when he is at work and we now also have the Intenet at home, but usually Mummy is buying things on e-bay for me. Take care and Luv u heaps!!