That isn't to say that we didn't enjoy ourselves! It was a lovely trip and the island is impeccably gorgeous (where the inhabitants keep it that way for the tourists at any rate.) In reality, no human beings were ever meant to live on the hunk of rock that is Santorini, which has no discernible sources of food or drinking water. They manage by shipping in supplies with the tourist that feed their economy. This means that all food and water is dead cheap, but all housing, souvenirs and travel is through-the-roof expensive. A donkey ride up the steps was twice the price of a full meal. Needless to say we didn't take them up on that "offer".
All this meant was that our three day trip got cut a little short, but in the time we spent on the island, we explored everything that three museum-weary people could find on Santorini. And now, a chronology with pictures:
Monday morning M, G and I woke up at 5:00 am to race down to the port and catch our boat. Having only been in Athens about 12 hours since getting back from the Peloponnese, this was no easy task, but we managed with all the courage of the legendary heroes of old and made it onto the boat with time to spare. Once we got there...
...things got a lot less exciting very quickly. Having lost my companions, and unable to follow their lead, I set out to explore for the next eight hours.
The stunning sunrise over Athens' port of Piraeus.
The boat's first stop at Paros. We roused ourselves long enough to sneak into the more comfortable seating left by those who departed here.
We passed hundreds of tiny islands, some of which looked fully occupied, some completely deserted, and some which had only a large, blue-domed church at their peak. This was (unfortunately) the prettiest day of the trip.
Our second stop, at the island of Naxos. This was as close as we got.
And finally lovely Santorini.
We arrived around 3:30, and the very kind hotel owner picked us up right away from the port (which was about a 15-minute drive up and around the mountain) and took us to the hotel. We set out things down, walked around Thira, which is the main city atop Santorini, where almost all of the shopping, restaurants and lodging around Santorini is. After a full day on the ferry, and a week of travel previously, we were too tired to do much and settled for finding a quick dinner, planning for tomorrow and turning in early. Very early.
The next day, we woke up as early as we had gone to bed, cleaned up and departed for one of the beautiful black beaches on the island, Kamari. Kamari beach is formed from volcanic ash and lava rocks. It looks like a complete inverse of any kind of beach we have on the Gulf Coast back home. I had thought that "black sand" would look like "dirty sand", and prepared myself to be unimpressed after having grown up by the shores at Destin.
Consider me dead wrong.
The beach was gorgeous, with the rocks jutting improbably all around and within it. The ash-sand turned from hard rocks to soft ash that didn't burn your feet like the gulf white sands and again into smooth stone polished by the beautiful Aegean. Mountains and trees surround the area, and it feels more like you leave a small mountain village and come to a stream until you see the water stretch forever in front of you.
I could hardly believe how lovely it was. The rocks were slippery and the tide was rising as we were there, but it was all the more beautiful for that. That's me on the rocks, by the way.
M and G resting on the shore, enjoying the view. We stayed there most of the morning and decided to push our trip to the other side of the island until later and eat lunch in Kamari.
Lunch in Kamari, plus G waiting impatiently for hers. That is a cinnamon-sugar crepe with whipped cream. It was phenomenal.
After a lunch that consisted mainly of dessert, we headed back to Thira for a little while. This was when we decided to cut the trip a little short (since we had already done half of the island*). We were also realizing that we were all a little short on cash after the Peloponnese trip. So we spent a bit more time lounging around Thira, then took the bus up to Ia.
Ia is that part of Santorini that all the postcards come from. It looks constructed purely for beauty and flows along the mountainside like a child poured it there from their toy box. The layout reminded me again and again of something out of Dr. Seuss (in the best possible way) or maybe Alice in Wonderland when she first looks through the keyhole of that tiny door. Curiouser and curiouser.
Looking down one of the many winding staircases in Ia onto a restaurant patio.
And down another private staircase. You can see how the colors outline everything and even the stairs curve to fit the mountain.
The other thing that Ia is famous for (along with many other Greek Island areas) the domed churches.
A cute restaurant sign. I love the attention to detail that the antennae are a fork and spoon. Mom, this one's for you!
My favorite staircase. :-)
The bells of one particularly old and lovely church.
The famous windmills on the island.
Another lovely staircase with the picturesque flower and white and blue paint that so embodies the island.
The church on every postcard. It is very lovely, though.
The sunset on Ia is supposed to be the most beautiful in the world. Unfortunately, Tuesday night is when the bad weather started rolling in, and the clouds completely obscured the sky by the time the sun hit the horizon. We will have to try again someday. So we went back to Thira, grabbed dinner quickly, and once again turned in much early than we had planned.
Wednesday morning was brutal. M tried to go running outside around 9:00 am, but was forced back inside, less from the rain and more from the sheer force of wind. It makes sense as were were basically out to sea on a mountain-top, but it was completely unexpected. After making sure the ferry would run and waiting for the weather to die down a bit, we set out to walk the steps down to the old port of Thira and see the donkeys. As already stated, we didn't ride them. I don't have many pictures, because the weather was still gray and drizzly and the stairs were not terribly picturesque, being covered in wet donkey and wet donkey droppings. But we braved the steps both down to and back up from the port and felt very good about ourselves afterwords anyway. We window shopped a bit, got lunch and bread and fruit for the boat, then drove back down to the port and got on. The boat ride back looked a lot like the boat ride there, with the exceptions that the water was much rougher and we stole nicer seats much quicker than we had before. I also had purchased a deck of cards as a souvenir on Thira - but not any deck of cards. A deck of racy ancient Greek vase-paintings cards. We played gin with them most of the way back to stares and judgment of those around us. It was completely worth it, although when G fell asleep, I admit to having played the most uncomfortable game of solitaire that I will probably ever encounter.
We had a small scare where we almost missed the metro and bus back to our apartment, but that turned out fine, and we all three walked in very happy to be home. We changed and checked our e-mail and to our shock, not five minutes later, SE walked in, back home early just like us! We exchanged hugs and stories, and I fell straight to sleep again.
Today was Greek National Resistance day (also known in Greek as Όχι day) when the Greeks celebrate their WWII refusal to allow Axis forces to enter their country in strategic locations and were promptly attacked. To the average American student, this means that every shop, office, and means of public transportation is down. So we sat in the apartment today eating what food we have. K is supposed to arrive back tonight as well, but so far no sign of her, and we're all beginning to think we are mis-remembering her schedule. Still, happy to be back in Athens and definitely feeling that this city is home. Tomorrow, I'm going back to the National Museum to explore the second floor more thoroughly and I'm going to try to get into the Opera. Who knows? It's always an exciting day in Αθήνα!
Καληνύχτα!
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