18/4-20/4: Greece Part 3 and final log
Greece Part 3 – Santorini
We awoke to a pretty clear day although it was quite windy. But everyone decided we’d go for a wander today and see more of where we were before we did any volcano visiting. So after breakfast we headed into the town of Fira which is many stairs up and down away from our hotel, but about 10-15 minutes walk in total. We were all pleasantly surprised that there seemed to be a greater variety of shops in Santorini compared to what we’d seen in Mykonos.
Bev had read about the prehistoric museum in Santorini in the Lonely Planet guide so we headed in that direction only to discover that it wasn’t open on Mondays. None of us were too phased and we just did some touristy shopping before heading back to the hotel passing some of the local donkeys on our way.
The views in Santorini are pretty spectacular as it is a horse shoe shaped island overlooking the nearby volcano which is on its own separate island. So our hotel was perched on one of the cliff tops overlooking the sea and the volcano. We all had lunch and then Bev and Mark were keen to go in the spa bath at the hotel as it was nice and warm. Ed headed off to do some washing and I went for a wander looking through some more of the shops.
After a while we reconvened at the hotel and Bev decided she wanted to head to Oeia (however it is spelt) which is a nearby village on the island. So she went in search of the bus stop. Mark and I decided to have a relax at the hotel instead only to discover later that Bev had never made it to Oeia as no buses past her at the bus stop she was told to wait at.
Our party rejoined in the evening for a walk over and down the stairs into Fira for dinner and found somewhere with a spectacular view. Unfortunately it was a bit cold, and many places seem to bring bread and charge you for it when you never asked for it! Mostly we all enjoyed our meals but charging you for things you don’t want seems to be a trend we have encountered in Europe. Generally it is a service charge per person or sometimes per item. Either way it is a bit of an oddity we have experienced and seems almost like an in built tip for restaurants.
The next day the weather seemed ok, still cold and windy but ok, so we decided to book the trip to the volcano. We headed down via the very steep cable car to the old port and waited til 10.30 for our boat, which didn’t arrive til well after 11. We all believe that the Greeks operate on different time from most people! After a while our boat arrived and we could see that the ocean was very choppy. But after some interesting wet passages across the ocean we got to the volcano to walk up it. It probably took 20 minutes to walk up with a couple of short stops with our guide telling us some info about the volcano.
It reminded Mark and I of Vesuvius with the terrain. Santorini’s volcano’s most violent eruption happened around 1500 BC and wiped out the prehistoric civilisations in existence then. Mark and I had watched a pretty fascinating documentary on the history channel on this exact eruption so we were pretty amazed by the whole thing. That particular eruption led to huge tsunamis that reached the island of Crete in 20 minutes and even went as far as Egypt.
We saw a small vent with hot air coming out of it with a sulphur smell which showed us that the volcano is well and truly still active even if the last eruption was back in the 1950s. Overall a very lunar landscape on the volcano island but all around you can see the horse shoe of Santorini.
After this stop we headed back down to our second boat for the day with more outdoor seating to take us to the area where the hot springs are. A few brave souls went in the cold water (15 degrees Celsius) to get to the hot springs. Of course Mark was one of them, although he said the hot springs were more luke warm than anything else. Then after this brief stop we headed to our next stop which is a separate island for lunch. Mark was by this stage feeling the cold with lips going purple so we all insisted he change into his Dad’s spare clothes so he wouldn’t freeze.
We eventually embarked on our next stage of the boat journey to the port of Oia at which point most of the people on board disembarked because the seas had been so unruly and most were not feeling well. Bev and Ed decided this was what they preferred to do. So they took the bus up to Oia and wandered the town before heading back by bus to Fira later.
Mark and I were feeling ok as we’d taken travel sick medication that had done the trick, so we stayed on the boat back to Fira and enjoyed the breathtaking views of the cliffs on a relatively empty boat. Mark was also very keen to take a Donkey ride to the top as we’d done the cable car and neither of us wanted to do the 600 steps to the top. So we paid our 5 euros each and jumped on our donkeys who just start walking up with a guy on the back of the group shouting at the donkeys in Greek to keep going. It was a pretty scary climb, but much like riding a horse. My donkey seemed to be quite keen on Mark’s one so they never really parted until we reached the top when mine decided it wanted me to walk less so it took me another 20 metres higher than everyone else’s. To top off the day make and I jumped in the spa to warm up.
But the final highlight to the day was the sunset. We all headed up the numerous stairs to the top near the main road to find some dinner for the evening and spotted a restaurant with sunset views with an enclosed area. None of us were expecting to see the sunset we saw. Bev described the sun as a pink fluorescent orb which is the best way to describe it. There was virtually no colour in the rest of the sky other than this beautiful pink orb and of course none of us had any cameras on us to capture this moment!
Today we headed off from Santorini by plane to Athens and are currently waiting numerous hours for our planes. Bev and Ed are heading off to Turkey while Mark and I are flying back to London to then start heading home tomorrow. Yay for long flights. Not! ;)
Goodbye Greece and in the not too distant future hello Australia!
