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The Island of Santorini
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| Along with about 30 other people, We decide to spend the night on the boat, so I got off and went looking for some food. The wind was very strong and cold, but I found a take away shop and bought some chicken souvlaki, yogurt and some biscuits. The ship had a nice cabin but it was not designed for sleeping, convincing Cindy she could streach out on the floor and get some sleep took a little doing. We both got some sleep but my days of sleeping on a hard floor are over. I have spent many a night sleeping on an Indian railway platform using a newspaper for bedding but I was younger then, old bones are not so forgiving. Just before 5am people started arriving back on the ship, they didn't look like they had any better night than us. About 5.15am they annouced that the ship would not leave till 7am, there was a loud sigh, a lement for the 2 hours extra sleep they could have had. The ship did offer a free tea, coffee or juice on production of your ticket. I lined up to get us a tea, the guy in front of me must not have heard the free offer, when offered a drink he asked for a glass of water!. The guy at the cafe thought that was hilarious and burst out laughing. Our 2 1/2 hour ferry trip had turned into a 14 hour ordeal and We finally arrived at Santorini about 7.45am to find our pickup had not turned up. |
Oia Santorini
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Looking down into the Caldera
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| We could have grabbed a taxi, but at 30 euros each way, we decided to rent a car for 3 days at 90 euros. Greece is left hand drive, plus the roads are very narrow and the road from the port climbs up a steep cliff face with several hair pin bends. Santorini is the largest of a group of islands that were once a large island. In 1450 BC a massive volcanic eruption tore the island apart. A tsunami over 700 feet high was triggered which wiped out all life on the neibouring island of Crete. The islands with their steep rocky sides now surround the caldera, in the center of which the old volcano is slowly rising above the sea again. There have been several earthquakes over the centuries, the last in 1956 which destroyed most of the houses on the island. |
The Volcano rising out of the sea again
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| Driving on the opposite side of the road to which you are used to, is very difficult at first. Judging how close to the side of the road you are is the most challenging. Life would not be so bad if you had a decent navigator, but Cindy is hopless when it comes to reading maps, she can find shoe shops easily, but directions when you're driving, forget it!. We finally arrive at our destination, the village of "Oia" at the top end of Santorini and park outside the tourist office where we are to check into our accommodation. The girl is very off hand and tells us to wait and someone will show us the way. I thought they would come for us with a the car, but no we must go on foot, fortunatly he is carrying our suit case. I say fortunately because we go up and down stairs through the town for 10 minutes before arriving at the gate to our unit (described on the internet as a cave house). He lifts our case onto his shoulder and decends the 72 very steep steps to the cave house. |
Our little house at Oia
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Built into the side of the hill
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Just what you need more stairs
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Typical Island colours
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The place is very unusual, a small living area with kitchen, bedroom cut into the rock, a mezzanine with another bed plus a big bathroom. There are 7 steps up to the bathroom, there should be 14 but due to lack of space you get 7 great big ones. Each step is about 16 inches, so you go up like a dog using arms as well as legs, we used to say we were off to Everest base camp, as it felt like mountain climbing. The view was amazing, we were the last building down the cliff face before it fell away into the sea some 300 feet below. In front was the huge hole caused by the eruption now filled by the sea. On top of the cliffs were the pure white houses and churches with their bright blue domes. Oia is mostly a pedestrian town with small streets and alleyways all connected by stairs, they are everywhere, easy to navigate if you know the town, but us tourists are always getting lost.
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Donkeys still working
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The postcard shot of Santorini
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The Greek islands are on the cruise boat cicuit and Santorini is a must visit, so everyday there were 2 or 3 boats in port. They anchor offshore and use their own small boats to ferry passengers ashore to a dock that is about 400 feet below the main town of Thira. Once there they have options, take a cable car to the top, ride a donkey or walk the 300 steps to the town. Most cruise passenger are well past their youth so no one walks, most take the cable car while some opt for the donkey. There is nothing more depressing than seeing small donkeys with fat tourists on board struggling up 300 stairs, transport for the super sized!. During the day tourists roam the streets buying over priced jewellery and cheap crappy souvenirs, then sunset watching takes over before they attack the resturants to devour more food.
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View from the highest point on the Island
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Stairs to our house
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Oia at night
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| We set off each day in our little Nisan Micro to try and find the real Santorini, small sleepy villages with quiet squares and not a souvenir shop in sight. Many villages show clear signs of the 1956 earthquake, the new houses built in and around the crumbling remains of the old ones. The streets were laid out when donkeys were the only form of transport, some so narrow the cars can only just squeeze through, others only accesible by 2 wheeled traffic. |
1956 earthquake damage
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Still in use
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For Sale renovators dream
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Black Volcanic sand
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| The little bakeries have food to die for. Lunch each day was a hot cheese pie followed by a yummy Greek cake. One bakery had what looked like a tray of chocolate cake in syrup, it was cinnamon with nuts in thick syrup and was the food of gods. I have a real sweet tooth and Cindy asked me if it was better than sex..... mmmmm let me get back to you on that! We travelled the island from end to end, went up to the highest peak (580 meters) and I have to say had a great time. I could easy live in Greece just so long as I don't have to help pay off their crippling debt which now stands at US$31,000 for every citizen and likely to get worse before it gets better. The only fly in the ointment is that I love Greek food and if I lived there I could easy end up as a donkey's worst nightmare. |
Such colours
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Evening in Oia
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Position Position
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Final meal
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