Blogs from South Aegean, Greece, Europe - page 94

"It has been said that the sunsets in Santorini are the best in the world. From the Caldera breathtaking views of the volcano & neighbouring islands. From the east, miles of dark sandy or pebbled beaches. Everywhere one sees small domed churches and remnants of days gone by." Santorini is all it is cranked up to be. Beautiful beaches, majestic cliffs, intriguing ruins. After 8 hours on the Blue Star Naxos ferry (£93.6) we arrived at the port at the bottom of the caldera. We grabbed our bags and headed to a travel agent to find some accommodation, after deciding that was too hard we walked back out and straight into the Hostel Anna van. The guy jumped out and convinced us to come with him and look at his rooms. So we got in the ... read more

We've been in Paros for about 4 days now, but to be honest, we haven't been that impressed! We got over here on an early boat and thankfully found acc easy from a recommendation, then spent the rest of the day on the beach which was fine. But apart from that, there isn't much else to do! We had read that it was a bit of a party island but Llandudno seems busy in comparison to here. It's pretty quiet. We've tried exploring some of the beaches that were supposed to be amazing, but really were not that great - although they were in the middle of nowhere and the buses weren't what you'd call exactly regular, so that made for nearly 2 hours waiting at a bus stop! Yesterday we visited Antiparos which is an ... read more

I thought I'd detail another aspect of Rhodes. The old town of Rhodes is encircled by these tall, thick stone walls built to repel any kind of siege. The old town is like a fortress. Kathleena and I were walking and I happened to see a short row of square holes through the wall. I could see vegetation through the holes and they were big enough for me to crawl through without any squirming or fuss. So I did, and found myself in an arched little space close to the ground. I stuck my head out and, seeing no video cameras, crept out. I was in the space between a tower and the wall surrounding it. There were grass and flowers growing wild everywhere, just as if no-one ever went back there. I walked along that ... read more

Rhodes was definately a little different than I expected. In Athens we were two tourists surrounded by Athenians, in Rhodes we were two Canadian tourists surrounded by tons of German and British tourists. I was expecting this island to be less touristy than Athens but it is actually more so. We have been busy since we last wrote. On Friday we explored the Old Town of Rhodes. The town is surrounded by medieval fortress walls that are still pretty intact. The center of town contains the Palace of the Grand Masters, the clock tower, bridges, many gates (entrances to the town), and many narrow cobblestone alleyways. It was fun to walk around the old town and picture what it was like to live there all those years ago. The most interesting part is that people still ... read more

After packing and leaving our luggage in the office, we walked up to Fira for our last chance to shop and see the view. We ate lunch at Restaurant The Greeks, having a Santorini Special Plate consisting of mashed fava beans, feta cheese, fried tomato balls, potato omelet, and a tomato and cheese spread. It was getting close to our 2:30pm trip to the new port to catch our catamarn to Crete, so we headed back to the hotel to wait. Again, Villa Manos was a great place to stay...very clean, friendly staff, and a great price. The ride down to the new port was ok, except for a very crowded van. We arrived at 3pm for our 5:45pm trip to Crete, so we had drinks in a cafe, then sat in the departure building and ... read more