Advertisement
Published: November 8th 2007
Edit Blog Post
It was an early rise towards the port of Piraeus where we had to pick up our tickets at 6am and board the ship. We took our seats and eased back for our 5 hour journey to Santorini via Paros and Ios.
When we arrived at Santorini new port we were welcomed by a scrum of taxi drivers with signs begging for a passenger- we swiftly paid to get out of the scrum and to our hotel located Imerovigili.
On our way to our hotel the taxi driver surprised us by saying he had never heard of our apartments and began to call his taxi base for directions. As we made our way further and further away from the port- nobody seemed to know where this hotel was located! After a few more calls to the taxi base and with no answer forthcoming our taxi driver decided to call the apartment owner. This conversation was all in Greek (obviously) and after a long conversation the taxi driver told us that he would drop us off at the corner and we would have to wait for somebody to pick us up- He dropped us off, took out our luggage bags,
got the money, told us to wait ‘for some nice people’ and took off!!!!
As the car sped off we noticed that we stood on a random corner all alone with our luggage on top of the hill with no-one around- it was all really suspicious and a bit scary- It really was like a scene from a western movie: tumble weeds rolling by, windy and all the buildings around us were construction sites! We just sat on our bags and waited for these ‘nice people’!
Antonis, the apartment owner, came to meet us and take us to the apartments about 20 minutes later- it was all very awkward at first as I tried to suss him out make sure he was the right person!!!. It was then that we realised there was no car access to the apartments- The trip to our apartment was via some small windy streets, steps and then the streets opened out to reveal a fantastic overall high view of the caldera- the volcano- which gives Santorini its character and why it is so popular. We walked a further 30 meters to our apartment and up two levels to the apartment, which was
at the highest point overlooking the whole of this fantastic view. It was breath taking.
We then decided to make sure we were in the correct apartments and make sure that the price was still the same as it was rather unbelievable. We were in the correct location!!!
We stayed on the balcony for a good hour admiring the view before deciding to head off for a walk and discover Santorini’s streets.
The following day we decide to do a tour to the centre of the island where a mildly active volcano- Nea Kameni- still exists. It was a torturous route to the top however the view from up there made it worthwhile!
As part of this tour we also were told that we were going to go to a hot spring on the island of Vourvoulous- we were ready!!!
Little did we know that to get to the hot springs the boat would go as close as it could- about 50 meters and then we had to swim in the Mediterranean to a bit of water that contained bubbling hot springs. Swimming there was fine however the way back was an interesting experience!!! Cris nor
I are strong swimmers- in actual fact we make Eric ‘the eel’ look like a world champion! Cris and I were furiously doing our strongest and most elegant stroke- dog paddle- to the boat. I made it to the boat and that’s all I was worried about- but when I turned around Cris was still about 5 meters away and paddling like mad but not making any progress- there was a fear in her eyes!!!!! She finally got the energy to say ‘ I can’t go anymore’ and luckily enough some man stretched his arm out and helped her to the ladder- it was not me that helped- I was too far!!! None the less I kept a very close eye on proceedings! Lets just say it was rather fortunate there was someone to help because she was not in good shape!
After the saga- we were taken to lunch on another island Thirassia and downed about 3 kilos of squid each to recuperate our energies- We then headed to Oia to see the sunset which is absolutely beautiful with a typical Greek Island setting with blue domed roofs cupolas and small white houses!!
We are sure to
be back sometime in our lives to one of the most beautiful places our eyes have seen!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.336s; Tpl: 0.019s; cc: 10; qc: 63; dbt: 0.1381s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb