Greece cont'd (Santorini)

Have lots to write but only 5 minutes of time left at the internet cafe! Santorini was really cool, different than what I thought but cool nonetheless. It was a very volcanic and barren island, lots of towering cliffs and it was much bigger and more spread out than any of the other islands I have been too.

When we got off the ferry Dave was all worried about getting a hotel room, I just laughed and said not to worry about it. Sure enough, there were about 50 people yelling and screaming to give us hotel rooms since the tourist season was not yet in full swing. We got a sweet hotel room, with a pool and a fridge for 10 euros a night (about $12)

// Greece Santorini //

Day 1: Travel

We got up at 5AM to board a ferry for Santorini at 7:30, I had to say goodbye to Kirsty which was sad but I will keep in touch. As usual (like on a plane) we arrived an hour before departure (like they recommended) and proceeded to sit around for 45 minutes doing nothing, I needed that sleep! Here's the harbor after the sun came up about 7.

Harbor in Piraeus (Athens)

On the ferry ride, yours truly

Dave with the video camera, we collected almost 3 hours of footage on this trip!

Santorini is beautiful but not what I expected, it is much bigger and more spread out than the other islands I have been too. I kind of have mixed feelings about it, like it for some reasons and dislike it for others, I guess it kind of sucks that everyone is kind of doing their own thing here and we haven't really met anyone.

Day 2-4 Exploring Santorini, beaches, discovering ruins

We rented a car though which has been interesting to drive, the one rule of the road is not to get hit. I have been doing all the driving even though I'm the only person who forgot to bring their drivers license (oops), this is because Andrew rented a stickshift but he can't drive one. Dave has also rented a scooter and he has been tooling around the island on that, I feel much more comfortable in a car, even a little rollerskate one like we have.

At the beach again today, went swimming in the Aegean yesterday and it was as nice as I remember from the last time, cool and refreshing yet not freezing like Lake Superior. We saw several other beaches which I will post pictures of...

The "Red Beach" wow!

Dave and Kirsten's scooter and our beast of a car (foreground)

Fruit Seller

Dave's at dinner, don't worry he always looks like that :)

Fira at Sunset


We are going to go scuba diving tommorrow so I have to go and set that up right now, full PADDY certification was really expensive so Kirsten and I are just doing a "discovery dive" to see if we like it.
I have a little more time now, it's the middle of the night and I am on a ferry in the middle of the Aegean Sea on the way to Athens, this boat must have a satellite uplink, cool!

Day 5: Scuba diving

Anyways, Santorini was nice, Andrew (this guy we met on the overnight ferry to Greece) continued to follow us, we got lots of sunshine, and we went scuba diving! I was a little nervous at first but Chris, our guide from Canada (who had an uncanny similarity to Kevin Sorbo, remember the "Hercules" tv show?) showed us how the equipment worked and since we did not do a decompression dive it wasn't a big deal. I only had to surface once becuase I had to cough and it was a little weird for me to cough while breathing out of a tank 25 feet underwater. Scuba Diving was really neat but there was not much to look at under the water, a few fish and a lot of seaweed covered rocks, I was more focused on getting the equipment to work correctly and trying to make myself buoyant (not sinking or ascending) than to see anything though so it worked out. Chris took some underwater pictures of us so if he emails them to me I will post them here (still waiting Chris!).

I continued to drive the car which was a good thing because Andrew could not drive a stick, we went to Perissa beach, then went to see the ruins of some ancient city, I forget the name, then on to another beach.

I was happily sunbathing until Dave (a.k.a. Indiana Jones) had the brilliant idea that we should climb this hill and he and I did. The climb sucked but we found a deserted ancient city at the top which was really cool. Dave continued to line his pockets with pottery shards and we took some pictures

Dave's Mountain

Dave's Mountain fron the top, that's the beach that the previous picture was taken from! See why the climb sucked! We will probably never get home with Dave taking pottery shards out of every country we visit but oh well, better that than drugs I guess....

Several more days of fun in the sun passed on Santorini, we did, scuba diving, laying on the beach, climbing a barren mountain, laying some more on the beach, eating, laying on the beach, I think that's all of it. Wait! we went on a sightseeing tour our last day there, a really cool pirate looking sailing ship that took us to the volcano.

The "Pirate Ship"

Little boy on the ship who seems to be enjoying himself

A hot young lady at a hot volcano crater

...then to the hot springs, which weren't really hot but kind of lukewarm brown water, ewww. Then we returned to the Old Town Port and it's 570 some steps which I had walked the day before (see pic).
Up the stairs, once was enough for me

This time, I hired one of the donkey's to carry me up the hill. It was really fun, mine was plodding along then it would practically gallop up the hill when this English guy behind me was about to pull ahead. We "raced" our donkey's up the staircase for awhile, then he finally pulled ahead and mine decided to quit! I had to pull it up the stairs the rest of the way by it's halter but it was a fun time and I didn't mind. Then I carried a kid up the stairs past all the donkeys and finally rejoined Dave, who had taken pictures of my predicament(!) at the top. We all laughed about it, then went to watch the sunset which was beautiful.

From the donkey's back, he was a quitter!

The caldera (volcano crater) at sunset

Overall, I liked Santorini but I think I like Ios and Mykonos a little bit more, they are a little more compact and I like the towns better, Santorini is beautiful in it's own way though and there is a lot to do here. Next stop: Crete...

The Jetboat destined for Crete...

- posted by mark @ 10:05 AM