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Published: August 15th 2010
Two down, one to go… Santorini is the last island of our little mini-adventure and if I’m honest probably the one that we had the most expectations about - given that we’d been putting away any spare cash from our daily budget into a ‘Santorini Fund’ so we could afford to do more things in Santorini, well it isn’t the type of place where you can be a beach bum!
We took a taxi to the port in Naxos to catch our final ferry, with yet again the obligatory additional person picked up en route… Not so many people seemed to waiting for the ferry to Santorini, so there was plenty of room under the shade of the hut (avoiding the French school kids saying goodbye to their holiday romances!). We boarded the ferry, which was about an hour late, and set up sunbathing position on Deck 8 (the sun deck) - the ferry seemed to move pretty much as soon as we sat down, but think this might be due to the fact that we were among the last foot passengers to board! The two hour journey was windy and passed quickly, when everyone on the sundeck moved over
to the left hand side of the ferry and started taking pictures of the view, we knew that Santorini was near! The caldera of Santorini looked impressive from the sea.
We arrived in the port and found a taxi to take us to Fira, accompanied by an Italian couple - of course. The Pelican Hotel is in a very central location in Fira and as we walked up the small hill to the hotel, which the taxi dropped us at the bottom of, it seemed like all the passengers of the large cruise ship seemed to be heading in the opposite direction towards us. The perils of Santorini, and in particular Fira, means that there are always cruise ships of significant size anchored off the Old Port of Fira dispersing their passengers on the small streets of Santorini every day. Guess this is the price you have to pay for a simply stunning island.
Anyway, I digress… We visited Pelican Travel and booked our bus tour and boat trip for the next two days, saw the first glimpse of the caldera from the cobbled, narrow streets and the simply breathtaking view. We walked to the bus station as
wanted to head to Oia (pronounced ‘ee-a’) for the sunset, the first bus left without us being able to get on it - as clearly a lot of other people had the same idea about watching the sunset at what is the best location in Santorini to view it. The next bus arrived some 20 minutes later and being in ‘London Lorna’ mode, I purchased tickets and got a seat for Chloe and I. Arrived in Oia which is a very pretty place with tiny cobbled streets, following the masses to the edge of the caldera where the sun was beginning to set. It was an absolute beautiful view, but we decided that it needed to be accompanied by a drink - so found Red Bicycle overlooking the edge of the caldera. 6 glasses of bubble later, 2 small bowls of nuts, 1 plate of Greek salad and 1 plate of tagliatelle - we had spent €90, when the bus had only cost us €1.40 each way. Welcome to Santorini!
Early start the next day, breakfast amongst playful kittens in Pelican Garden Restaurant and then we walked to the designated meeting point for our Kamari Tours bus. Dana, our
guide, was lovely and had a habit of getting very excited when telling you things about Santorini in her ‘sing-song’ voice. The trip was entitled ‘Sights of Southern Santorini’ and included a visit to Mount Profitis (which is the tallest bit of Santorini at 567m above sea level) where there is a monastery surrounded by a wall with black lava crosses and a bus turning circle that diced with death via a steep drop. Then, it was off to Megalohori a ‘big’ village of 400 occupants during the summer, we walked around taking lots of photos and saw cave houses. Stopped next for a drink at Akrotiri beach and saw our first glimpse of the black sand - well, Santorini is essentially a volcano after all. Visited Castellio Emporio as our next stop, which was built as protection against pirates so it is full of narrow, maze-like paths where no cars/traffic can travel. Saw lots and lots of blue and white Cycladic style houses - apparently the white represents the sea and the blue the sky.
We had a very busy morning/early afternoon, so finally stopped for lunch at Perivoklos at a cute beach tavern where Santorini salad was
eaten (essentially a Greek salad but with capers added) and a plate of ‘traditional Santorini food’ too (including tomato balls and chloro cheese). After lunch headed for the scorching hot black sand beach, legacy of the massive volcano eruption that led to Santorini being as it is today (not the whole circle it once was). Did not last too long at the beach, but still time for ‘beach diva’ to make an appearance (as my sister has an aversion to sand sticking on her feet, with black sand apparently being the worst), also saw a pair of very tight speedos more suited to Mykanos and a small boy blatantly weeing right on the edge of the sea! Final stop of the day was at Santo Wines, which had simply stunning views of the volcano and more - oh and the wine wasn’t bad either. The best of the three we tasted was easily Vinsanto (a sweet wine that is literally the wine of Santorini) - so duly purchased a bottle, yum! Whilst at Santo Wine, we chatted to a German girl and her mother, who shared our observations that Santorini whilst being totally beautiful is rather expensive. We were dropped
back in Fira and relaxed in our room before heading out to look at the shops in the caldera and purchased two very cute bracelets - with a bit of bartering managed to get 25% off, every € saved is more towards bubbles at sunset after all. Photo opportunity by the caldera edge with the sunset in the background, then it was off to dinner at Pelican Restaurant. If I’m honest, dinner wasn’t anything special at all and not impressed when the waitress tried to tell us our 10% discount voucher given to us by the hotel wasn’t valid as we hadn’t mentioned it before sitting down and gave us some taxman excuse. Oh well.
Up early the next day for breakfast in our room and headed out for our boat trip. We followed the smell of donkey poo to find the path to lead to the cable car station (as didn’t want to climb down the 600 or so steps that donkeys climb up and down carrying lazy people). Short journey down to the Old Port of Fira and we arrived to cruise ship madness. What seemed like millions of people had been dropped off at once (and
more in tenders approaching too) - vowed instantly to never take a cruise! Just about avoided being pushed in the sea and waited the arrival of Afroditi (our boat), once on board found a spot on the top deck and laid out our towels. The first stop was the volcano (Nea Kameni) and climbed the very steep rocky (or lava?!) path to the first crater called Mikri Kameni and then walked to the second crater called Daphni. We decided it was too hot to walk to the third (and live) crater called King George, so carefully walked back down to the boat (and drank lots and lots of water).
It was a short trip on the boat to the next stop at the Hot Springs on Palia Kameni, where we anchored up and were advised it was a 50 metre swim, but shouldn’t be done if you have asthma. After having climbed a very steep and uneven rocky volcano, surely the warning should have come then?! Our crazy guide lady jumped off the boat and we followed (albeit down the ladder steps - as can’t get the hair wet…). Swam the 50 metre distance and stood on rocks and
then the ground underfoot turned to brown/orange squelchy mud - I screamed quite loudly as the sensation was so weird, it felt like walking on poo (I must be scarred after reading the holiday book of ‘The Tent, The Bucket & Me’ - which is a must read for anyone who ever went camping as a small child!). Declined to pick up the mud/squelch and cover my skin in it… But when we returned to the boat our skin did have a slight rusty, burnt orange tinge to it. Nice!
The boat then continued on the water to our next stop of Red Beach, passing stunning views of the edge of Santorini. We moored off of Red Beach, just as well as the beach seemed tiny with people constantly arrived on a path from the other side of the red rock. We had a BBQ lunch whilst sunbathing on the deck, then it was time to return to land but this time with the sails up - but with the engine of the boat still running! Stopped off at the port to drop people off and pick up the sunset cruise people (definitely think we picked the better trip!),
arrived at Old Port of Fira to thankfully no cruise ship passengers in sight. It was a quick trip back up the cable car and then walked back to relax in our air-conditioned room and drink an ice cold drink as we were absolutely boiling…
We took the executive decision to forfeit a nice dinner in favour of very nice cocktails at Franco’s (the world’s best bar according to Newsweek). Franco’s is in a stunning location on the edge of the caldera with views of the sunset over the volcanco - accompanied by various classical music pieces (including the theme from “The Apprentice”). After 4 glasses of bubbles, 1 bellini and 1 house cocktail - Maria Callas - we had spent the day’s budget and so retired to our room via Piccolino for a €10 dinner of chicken pitta and chips - nothing like ending the holiday in style…
Thursday, our departure day, saw us take an 8am taxi to a very empty Santorini airport, where no-one seems to work until 9:30am (and of course once the obligatory very strong Greek coffee has been drunk). Our flight to Athens took all of 45 minutes, amazing when you consider
that to get to Santorini we had taken 3 ferries totally about 8 hours…!
Goodbye Greek islands, you will be missed but remembered through our photos. Promise to return! Soon. Very soon.
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