Out in the blue
Trip Start
Apr 08, 2007
1
42
144
Trip End
Oct 01, 2007
Santorini,
Greece
Saturday, May 26, 2007
Mayu's been just as impressed with the place as I imagined she would be. It's turned out to be a brilliant decision to reorder our itinerary, and I know she's very happy now that we did so. We really lucked out with our hotel as well, which is easily the nicest place we've stayed in so far. After a bit of negotiating at the port, we ended up in a place just at the edge of town with TV, AC, private toilet and shower, fridge, a view out to the Aegean and a pool just below
Morning at Piraeus port
. All for the price of €40 a night! For a little perspective, our shitty room in Rome was supposed to cost €70 a night. What a difference it makes hitting the Greek islands midweek in May! On a bizarrely coincidental note, we've been staying on the exact same street I stayed on last time. How odd the way things work out sometimes.We didn't exactly have wonderful weather today, but yesterday and the day before were quite warm and sunny. Strangely enough though, it was hotter when I was here in April nine years ago. The ocean is still a tad nippy, but not to the extent where it's painful to swim. With a late arrival on Wednesday and overcast weather today, however, we were only able to hit the beach yesterday. We made a day of it though, starting at Perissa around one and then catching a caique (small boat) on around the bend to more built-up Kamari beach. Perissa turned out to be more enjoyable in terms of atmosphere - nice and mellow - but Kamari had more sun and warmer water.
The first day, or rather evening since we arrived about 4pm, was spent mostly looking around Thira town and seeing the sunset. For the night then we retired to our room and watched the Champions League final on television over a few glasses of ouzo. Well, I drank the ouzo - Mayu won't touch the stuff. That was enough to do me in after two exhausting days of travel; I didn't even catch a single one of the three goals!
Today then we had to settle for sightseeing, with intermittent rain spoiling any chance of bumming around the beach
Neighboring ferry
. Too bad since we had wanted to check out the red sand beach on the south side of the island (all other beaches being black volcanic sand). We had a good time all the same, starting out the day with a donkey ride up from the old port below Thira. Mayu's donkey took off at full throttle once she hopped on, which just about scared the wits out of her. Mine was a little speedy too, but I just hung on and enjoyed the ride. Not the most fragrant of rides though: the whole pathway was lined with donkey manure. Good fun in any case. Then as soon as we dismounted at the top, Mayu's donkey let out the loudest, longest fart I've ever heard any creature make, to the amusement of all in close vicinity.This evening we took a bus out to Oia, a gorgeous little town on the northern tip of the island. If anyone's seen a postcard from Santorini, nine times out of ten the shot came from there. Like Thira, the town clings precariously to the edge of the caldera's rim, but with a much greater concentration of whitewashed, blue-domed churches popping up into the scene. Even under thick, grey skies the setting is magical, so it made for a pleasure to explore. Naturally it's incredibly popular with the tourists, but even the busy streets and endless souvenir shops don't detract from the overall experience. The place is famous particularly for its sunsets, as the sun dips below the horizon perfectly unobstructed on the sea. Unfortunately, with the heavy cloud cover, we didn't think we'd get much of a sunset and I opted for an earlier bus back to beat the crowds. Well, it just turned out then that the clouds began to thin just as the sunset began, so we made a quick decision to jump off at hilltop Imerovigli on the way back. We made it just in time to take in the stunning pinks and oranges amongst the clouds, with evening the sun's disk poking out for a few minutes just before the end.
Tomorrow morning we go to our next island, the pricier, ritzier Mykonos to the north. This time it's a new destination for both of us, so it's yet another destination to look forward to.
