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Left Ios about an hour late; it took about 4 hours to get to Santorini which included some stops at other islands. Saw the spot where the boat wrecked (roped off by buoys so the oil doesn't leak all over) near Santorini a couple of months ago. Passed some cruise ships. Small port, but crazy busy when a ferry docks. The ferry carries cargo in its belly so trucks roll on & off; it's a big ship. & lots of locals either meeting you to take you to your place or trying to sell you a place for the night, so they all stand around holding signs & trying to solicit your business. From the port, you immediately climb up a steep road to the plateau of Santorini (forewarned ma, you probably won't like this road as you drive near the edge of each switchback turn). Santorini Princess Villas are nice accomodations-kitchenette in the room, air conditioning! TV-only two stations & they're both in Greek, but I still watched for a few minutes (something in Greek about a heat wave in AZ & flooding in TX?); all good except for the phone booth sized shower! Hard when you're a big
man. & expensive laundry! There's no self-service.
Walked around the Perissa (black beach from the volcanic ash) Beach area where I'm staying, had a nice dinner beachside & then took the bus up to Fira, the island capital. Fira is the area Santorini is most famous for. You're up on the edge of the caldera (when a volcano blows its top & leaves a bowl filled with water=a caldera. If you've ever seen Crater Lake in Oregon, you get the picture.) looking out onto the water & the rest of the circle of the caldera. However, it is not a complete circle of land, there are some narrow parts, some missing parts & a bigger part that is inhabited, but you can get the image as to how it once was. The main point where the tourists (I) view from is also lined with nice hotels & restaurants that hang over the edge & creep down the hillside towards the water. Incredible views to sit there & have dinner (with incredible prices as you could imagine). Just behind those (going back up towards the top of the hill & towards regular land) are more narrow alleys/streets lined not only
with souvenier shops, but because it is Santorini, lined with many jewelery stores, art galleries, boutiques, speciality foods... Although the whole area is not tremendously big. But basically be hungry as it is overwhelming with food/places to eat. I chatted with a couple of guys from Yale. Then returned by bus at 11 where I met a girl going to CU (University of Colorado). Walked a few more minutes around the nightlife of Perissa Beach & headed for air conditioned bed! What a difference over my wooden tent of the three prior nights.
Day 2 Lucky 7's! 7/7/07
Decided to take a break from hanging at the beach after 3 straight days of that in Ios. So I spent some time around the Perissa area then took the bus up to Fira (25 min), transferred busses for the 20 minute ride to Ia (ee a) at the tip of the island. Walked around there for a little while. Getting a little old seeing the same old tourist, souvenier type shops. This area is not as developed as Fira. It is the spot people go for the ultimate sunset picture. So I did that, then returned to Fira, returned
to Perissa, went to a bar along the beach where I listened to more incredibly to loud lousy dancing music. And headed to bed.
Day 3
Checked out, stored my bag & headed to the internet cafe where the wind blew out the internet; luckily I didn't loose this blog, so I've now moved to another place (for twice as much money, 2 Euro/hr. Some places I've traveled to have charged as much as 6 Euro/hr). Anyway, hope to finish this, grab some food & then, at 2, get my transfer down to the port & I'm off to Naxos, 2 hr ferry ride.
Two side notes:
-Can't remember if I mentioned this nice tradition-a lot of places serve a small bowl of potato chips with your beer; great if you're a snack-a-nator like me.
-In telling people where I'm from, of course they know the U.S., but it's iffy on Colorado, so I'm left to say out west, the Rocky Mts? somewhat near the Grand Canyon? & if that doesn't work, then somewhat towards California is the best we can do.
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Aaron Margolin
non-member comment
Toilet
Hey Stephen, Loved the pictures, must save the picture of the toilet for me and if you can, get some others. One of the classes that i teach is public health and we talk about the role that the toilet has in spreading disease so i would love to show the class what the difference is from here and other countries. See you soon, have fun. Aaron