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Published: August 6th 2006
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Sunset from Oia
The much sought after postcard shot of the fanous sunset. Ahh ... San-to-rini. Discovered by the Germans in 1904, they named it Santorini, which in German means a whale's .... but no I was just trying to impress you. Scholars maintain the translation was lost hundreds of years ago" (Ron Burgundy - Anchorman). Ok so no more movie quotes and I can tell you that Santorini is in fact named after Saint Irini, although the Greeks call the island Thira. Whichever name you use it is a superb island and perhaps one of the most stunning places I have ever visited. The island used to be much larger but it had the centre destroyed by a volcanic eruption in 1650 BC, leaving a ring of islands around a huge caldera. Lonely Planet reckons it was "probably the biggest volcanic eruption ever" and that the caldera it left is "the world's largest" but they really should check out Lake Taupo which is HEAPS bigger and must have put on a bigger show when it erupted back in the day. Thats one thing I am discovering quickly over here - when it comes to nature and its many forms nothing really compares to what we have in good old NZ!
One
Taken from the top of the Caldera
This is taken from Fira and the cliffs drop at least a 100m into the deep blue caldera behind me. theory suggested by archeaologists is that the Santorini eruption was the great cataclysmic event that put an end to the legendary lost city of Atlantis and they have a couple of theories. On one hand they reckon that ruins they have found under the lave flows here could have been an advanced ancient civilisation like Atlantis, or perhaps Atlantis was on nearby Crete and was destroyed by the massive tsunami's that the volcano kicked off. Neither seems too accurate though, as you would think there would be an Indiana Jones sequel about it by now.
Anyway the caldera makes this place a truly beautiful place to visit as there are postcard photo opportunities every way you look. We arrived on the fast ferry from Mykonos and were quite awestruck by the size of the caldera as we sailed across it.
Our digs here on Santorini are excellent - clearly the best we have had on the trip so far. We are staying at Pension George in the village of Karterados, which is just outside Fira (the main town). It is run by a family who go out of their way to make sure your stay is comfortable and
"I love life. I drive safely"
Oh the irony. The Greek road code must be one page which encourages you to drive like a madman. Adds to the excitement of the place though. most importantly it has an awesome swimming pool area as well. I highly recommend it to anyone coming here:
Pension George. Pretty reasonable rates too (and no I'm not on commission!).
After being denied the fun in Mykonos we were absolutely busting to get some wheels and explore the island, so on the first day we hired a scooter each and set off on a good old kiwi tiki tour. Mine was a nice Ferrari red so I was hoping that meant it would go hellishly fast, while Jane had to work hard to convince the guy that she could ride a motorbike - she played the farm girl card skillfully enough that he was convinced. Apparently he had hired a bike to a Kiwi from New Brighton (Chch) the day before and the idiot had smashed it into an oncoming vehicle and done 700 euro damage to it! Silly boy had been driving in the wrong lane (its drive on the right over here you muppet) but got away with scratches and bruises.
Anyway we headed south through Megalohori where they have a heap of vineyards (the volcanic soil is great for grapes) and we were planning on
Born to be wild
Me and my mighty red stallion on the edge of the Caldera. doing some wine tasting but were having too much fun on the bikes so we shot through instead. Then we headed down to Akrotiri where Red Beach and the major ruins (supposedly Atlantis) are and while at Red Beach we ran into Simon Marshall (from Waipuk and a year ahead of me at school) and his girlfriend.
Throughout the day we did a full lap of the island (only about 90km mileage as its not that big) and ended up at Oia to watch the much recommended sunset. Honestly every man and his dog was there clutching their cameras and we staked out a good pozzie and sat down to wait. It was certainly a spectacular sight when it happened, as the sun sets out over the Aegean Sea horizon and is one of the must dos on Santorini, especially because NZ doesn't really have great ocean sunsets (where on the west coast would you go? Greymouth? New Plymouth? Wanganui? No thanks!). Unfortunately the sunset kicked off a lot of PDA and I half expected to hear a loud obnoxious american voice callling "Honey I love you will you marry me?" but thankfully we were spared. One thing I
Red Beach
Its hard to make sandcastles out of red volcanic rock but its quite a sight and the water is very clear and great for snorkelling. couldn't believe was the number of people clutching video cameras. Taking photos I can understand but videoing a sunset? How cruel is that to the people back home when you make them watch 20 minutes of the sun setting. "Hang on you guys I'll just rewind it to the best bit. Yep there it is - the sun went from red to orange-red". I would rather watch women's cricket.
Yesterday we decided to take an
organised tour around the caldera and its islands on a large schooner and it went for pretty much the entire day. First stop was Nea Kameni, which is the active volcano at the centre of the caldera. Again being NZers it was hard getting excited about a relatively small crater which was devoid of any apparent activity but the Europeans loved it. From there we went to another island where people had the option of jumping overboard and swimming in the hot springs. Given the temp was in the late 30s I decided that jumping into a hot pool wasn't for me (if its 2 deg in Hanmer then hot pools are great, but 38 deg in Greece - no way). The tour ended up
Our accommodation - Pension George
This place really is as good as it looks (and the pool is a real lifesaver). with a visit to Thirasia island and then we made our way back to Santorini. It was a good tour and good value for money but probably a bit long for me - they could do all of it in 3 hours but it took us over 6 in the seering heat.
Finally some tips:
* You can either stay in Fira and pay big time for caldera views or stay somewhere close where it is cheaper and still take your caldera photos. I'm glad we did the latter as where we stayed we were paying 10 euro for a full days sccoter hire, 2.00 for a jug of beer and 2.50 for a large carafe of wine. The food was dirt cheap as well and being in the centre of the island meant that we could travel anywhere we needed to on the scooters.
* Definitely do the sunset at Oia and go for a cruise in the caldera.
* Have a meal in one of the many restaurants that ring the caldera in Fira. They are a little more expensive but the view makes it all worth it!
Jane left this morning flying back to London
View from Neo Kameni (Volcano Island) back to Santorini
Our ship is the tall masted schooner in the right foreground. and this afternoon I am off to Crete on the fast ferry for four days. My next post should be from there.
"You stay classy Santorini"
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Spam
non-member comment
Hey Fitch, How do you find time to go sightseeing with all these mammoth blogs you've written?!!! Great photos, keep 'em coming! Cheers, Spam