Sunday morning we had a flight booked to Santorini. The half hour flight was not much more expensive than a ferry and would save us hours which we thought we would rather spend on the Island than in transit.
Our morning started at 2:45 a.m. as we had to catch a cab to bus X95 which would take us to the airport. Some went to bed at 11:30ish, whereas Susanne had gone to bed at 2 a.m. Our little travel adventure began when getting on the bus which was at about the same time some bars and parties likely finished. 4 young Greek guys, who were obviously inebriated, dressed in plastic emergency rain ponchos, surgical masks and “fragile” tape wrapped around them popped onto the bus and made their way toward the back where we were sitting. They had a video camera going and thought of themselves as being pretty funny and entertaining. They all kept bouncing and banging around the bus as it made its way around corners and through stops. Wow, I don’t think I was ever THAT young….
We got to the airport with an hour until our flight and started up in the long “Aegean Airlines” line. When we had not made it to the front with 30 minutes to go until departure time, we asked some questions and found out that we had to go to counter 119, then 78. Service in Greece’s transportation system, is horrendous and whether it is a person at a bus station selling tickets or this customer service rep at the counter, most experiences include getting the feeling that one has annoyed the person asking the question and getting an answer so short and often incomplete, that one really has to fill in the blanks and hope for the best.
Whoever thought that we wouldn’t get our exercise on this trip was wrong… We had about 15 minutes to drop our bags off, make it through security, and run to gate 31, which of course, was the last one in the terminal. It was like a slalom race which ended with us getting in line behind 5 or 6 of the last passengers. Phew, running in flip flops is always a challenge. ;-)
We thought we just made it only to then see some other folks “strolling” over who were behind us in the line-up and who were obviously much cooler about the plane having to possibly wait for them. But: we made it and enjoyed the very quick ascend/descend as Santorini which is only 200 km’s from Athens. To fly into Santorini at 6:30 a.m. is a real treat as it is sunrise and the surrounding coloring adds to the already beautiful scenery when flying over the Island. Santorini used to be circular, and seismic activity and volcanic eruptions made part of the Island sink, leaving a caldera of cliffs which are stunning to see from land and sea.
We got into town at 7 a.m. and had to wait for our rooms so we strolled into town, only to run into people who were still up from the night before. The capital Fira “never closes”. Stores, bars and restaurants are open pretty well 24 hours and everything is geared toward socializing, it seems.
Our accommodations at Pension George’s are excellent with loft apartments and a nice pool where we hang out most of the day after naps. The evening was spent walking around this town and Steph/Mark went out for a nice anniversary dinner.
We found out about a tour called “See Santorini in One Day” which we planned for Monday.
It was an excellent tour starting at around 9 a.m, saw some sights including a castle, some churches via bus, then climbed onto the 18th century replica King Thiras and continued on via boat. We took a tour along the coastline, stopped at a little island with an active volcano (no bubbling lava, no worries) which we had to climb (more climbing, surprise, surprise) and then anchored in the water a few hundred meters close to the sulfur hot springs. We were told to “jump” which we did and then had to swim over, periodically passing little “turds” which were made of sulfur and smelly. The water got warmer and warmer as we got closer to the little bay housing the hot springs. The water got warmer and it was neat to swim in them with dozens of others who were also trying to avoid swimming into the floating turds.
We got back on the boat and stopped at an Island for lunch (more calamari , hmmm) where we had some really bad service and Mark was ripped off by being passed a $20 Euro bill as change from his $50 which was ripped and seems to be useless on this island. Will check with a bank to see if they may exchange it.
We ended the day by being dropped off in Oia which has the longest and most sunning sunsets on the Island. We had to again climb from the water all the way up steep steps to make it to the top, deciding to forego $5 Euro donkeys which line the cliffs at various points of this island to help those that don’t want to or can’t climb on their own. I can see the need for alternate transportation, but what a poor life for these little donkeys though. They have become a bit of a symbol for Santorini, alongside with the white churches with blue roofs. The churches have a neat story. There are over 500 churches on the island as all families used to have their own church. The white and blue churches go years back in the tradition where blue was a symbol for the sky and white for waves. They are indeed beautiful and very picturesque in the sea of roofs.
The sunset was spectacular and parts of Oia fill up starting at around 7:30 or so with people lining streets and roofs to get the best glimpse of the stunning setting over the water. It was over by 8:20 or so and followed by an applause from the crowd once the last sliver of sun disappeared behind the horizon.
Absolutely amazing!!!
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