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Published: August 10th 2008
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Cruizing
The ferry wasn't all bad Beautiful beaches, great atmosphere, stunning scenery. All things we thought we were heading to.
We got the ferry from Athens to Santorini. Slept on the deck which was great at the start, novelty factor. But by the middle of the night we were quite cold. The ferry stopped at almost every possilbe stop on the way. It took us 16 hours!!! Which didnt bother us at the time because we just thought about the beach!
We got to Santorini at 6 or 7am and found a guy with a sign for Perissa Beach where we knew we had accommodation for the following 3 nights. The guy who drove us was a bit of a character, pointing out all the wineries on the way. Despite the wineries there is practically no trees and no greenery on Santorini. Didnt matter when we pulled into the place and saw a near new pool and palm frond umbrellas. Thought we had hit the jackpot! We were dirty and feeling gross after the ferry and had to wait 3 or 4 hours for our room, so we went for a walk up the beach.
The beach was black sand... and when i say
sand, i mean tiny pebbles. Not sandy at all, which had one up side, it doesnt stick to you, or have that gritty feel. I guess thats two upsides. The beach itself was partially littered with palm fronds from the rows of umbrellas, and wind. There wasnt much beach to actually use unless you bought a drink at one of the bars supplying the umbrellas and beach chairs. The water was cold and not so inviting, there was no surf, and because the sand was black it was bloody hot. If you walked on the road instead of the beach you were likely to be hit by passing scooters and cars, but there was no foot path so thats what you did. The roads were poor with no guttering and the shops were all resteraunts and bars, which would have been great because we were starving and wanted breakfast, but no one on this island is up until 9 o clock. So we waited some more till 9 for breakfast and went back to the hotel to swim in the pool.
Finally got our room and it was a classic box. Double bed, bedside table, bathroom. If you needed
to use the toilet while you were in the shower it wasnt a problem. You are practiacally on the toilet if your in the shower. But it had aircon so it was great. Fine for one night.
After seeing what Perissa had to offer we wanted to leave, but of course everyone says you have to see the sunset in Oia, and of course see the capital, Fira. So the next day we got picked up by our other hotel shuttle bus and told the driver we would only stay one night. We went into Fira and it was hell. Think 40 degrees and no shade. No grass. Nothing but concrete and tourists. We walked for half an hour and had had enough. We bought our ferry ticket out of Santorini and headed to Oia for this amazing sunset. We got there at like 3:30... 4. The sunset was around 8:30. Hmmmm 5 hours to kill.
Oia took us about half an hour to see. I can see it would be a nice place if it wasnt so hot, but it was practically the same as Fira, just on a smaller scale. By this stage Kell was having
major problems, her leg had a heat rash and her feet were swollen. Walking around was not a good idea but we had more than 4 hours till sunset. We found some shade and sat. Under the shade of a beautiful pink Bougainvillea, we sat, and waited. Some street dogs kept us entertained for about 5 sec. We were making progress. We met a man from Saudi Arabia, he was nice, he found a phone in the nearby bathroom and we helped him find the owner. More progress. Just 4 hours till sunset. The Saudi man bought a back of figs and gave us one each, just thought id let you know. We watched an old Greek man sit on a wall for about 2 hours. It was sad because there was another old man next to him and he was getting more attention. Tourists were getting photos with him, while the other just sat there peacefully in the shade. We didnt know weather he would object to us getting a photo with him or not. We thought that maybe it would make him feel better, but we decided against it. Instead i slighly took a photo of him from
Santorini 2005+3
A funny sign in Fira where we sat. Progress. We decided to go for another walk to find a more secluded spot to watch the sunset. Again it was too hot to walk so we headed back to the shade. We bought a deck of cards and were 2min from the Beoganvillia when i heard a horrible thump behind me. Like someone falling over. I turned and to my surprize Kell was hastilly getting to her feet. Both knees, cobble stones, ouch! Embarassed Kell led me back to the shade in a rush. We got there and striked up a game of Go Fish with our new cards. After 5 min we remembered how much that game sucked and i tried to remember how to play crazy eights. We would of played Canasta, thanks to our lessons on the farm in S.A. but at 3.50 euro a pack we decided against the second deck. We had a mental blank on how to play other 2 player card games and gave up. We watched the old man some more. The shade of the Bougainvillea was getting busy, 3 hours till sunset and lots of hot tourist needing to kill time. After another half hour or so
Beoganvillia
Kell eating a peach in the shade, one of the stray dogs infront of her. we convinced ourselves that there is no possible way that this sunset could be any more amazing then others. Its just a freakin sunset. Since when did everyone on the whole island become nature loving freaks. Beacause lonely planet told them so i assumed. Then realised that i was there because of stupid Lonely planet! How ironic. We left!
Back to Fira, we were starving and needed dinner. The whole bus ride we saw the sun get lower and lower and lower and thought how rediculous our day had been. When we got to Fira we walked to the waters edge to see the sunset. Packed, just like in Oia, everyone in Fira had become nature loving hippies. I got a few photos and we headed for dinner. We had to catch a ferry at 3am. We couldnt find anything decent in Fira so we just got on a bus back to Perissa. On the plus side the buses that service Santorini are all coaches with air-con. Dont ask how they get through the little streets, but they manage. There was only one place to eat near our hotel, so we ate. Burgers arnt burgers here. Burgers are like
a bit ball of meat, like a cross between a sausage and a rissole. Despite this it was a good meal.
We decided to check what time the hotel were going to ferry us to the ferry port. Ha. We were told 2am originally. Now its 1:30. So up at 1. The time was 11pm. I set my alarm. 3 hours and 45min later we got to the port. We dropped our bags and lay on the concrete. The stars were amazing. We saw 9 shooting stars in half an hour. Well Kell saw 2 then fell asleep and i saw another 7 or 8, and not piss weak ones either. Some really bright long lasting ones. I ended up falling alseep as we waited, waking every 10min or so. At one stage i saw the ferry in the distance the next time i woke up it was gone. Nothing. What? I turned my head to the right and there was a massive ferry reversing into the port. We got up and got on.
We were headed for Crete.
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