Santorini

Arrived by jet, took all of 25 minutes - time for an orange juice only! We asked at the airport desk for accommodation and after some phone calls were told the hotelwould pick us up. A thirty five year old blond bombshell teetering on high heels appeared! Di was trying to hold me back but it is OK Vicki is a teacher and owner of the hotel not the pole dancer! She spoke good English and settled us down in the small modern hotel with pool, unfortunately about 300 metres downhill from the town. Fira is the main town on the hill, way above the old port were all the tourists boats now stop. There is a new port where the goods are loaded and where inter island boats stops. Fira has spectacular views to the west and many buildings are built to take advantage of the sunset over the outlying islands which are all part of a drowned volcano. There is no accommodation at either port as they are on the edge of the cliff, access to the town aboutabove the water is by donkey or cable car. Fira is very much a tourist town and the hub of the island, many tavernas, restaurants, internet cafes, bike hire shops etc. Our first evening meal we selected a restaurant that had a rooftop deck with sunset views, shared a good meal - fish platter, and watched the sun go down across the islands, volcano and sea.

12/6/10 we take the local bus to Kamari one of the favorite beaches, euphemistically called black sand beaches, actually black small rocks and pebbles, very hard to walk on! There are boardwalks between the umbrellas set up by the tavern owners, but you need thongs to get to the water's edge because of the hot black rocks. The rocks on the edge of the water are hard on your feet so everyone entering and leaving the water look like a cripple! People spend more time on deck chairs under umbrellas than in the water. The waterfront strip is quite attractive as the non-beach side of the walking streetis all single or two storey hotels, restaurants, tavernas with private pools in front and the beach side is all tavernas, stalls and open space. Lots of people walking, eating and drinking, no large groups of young drunks you might see at Surfers Paradise, no pin ball parlours, KFC, McDonalds, Starbucks etc.

We took a mini bus to Ancient Thira, the ancient town which is located about 400m above the present town of Kamari. The bus went through 25 U bends to get up to the parking spot and we then walked another 300 m up to the ruins of a fortified town at the very peak of the hill. We were looking down on aircraft landing at the main airstrip, a jet every 20 minutes. The beach chairs and shelters in their neat rows on the black beach stood out. Back to Fira by local bus to the internet café and catch up.

13/6/10 we had tickets for the Caldera hot springs and volcano round boat trip in a timber sailing/motor boat, leaving from the old port. We walked down the many steps dodging donkey poo and the odd Jap coming up on a donkey! As we arrive at the port so do many tenders transporting tourists from one of two large cruise ships in the bay. The donkey men were hard at it selling trips up to Fira; they had 80 or more donkeys waiting but most people joined the long queue for the cable car. Apparently the cable car was not put in as completion to the donkeys, more for the infirmed and for goods etc, 20% of the profits is given to the donkey men. Our boat took us to the volcano first where we were told to meet at the top of the island 1.5 km up a steep gravelly volcanic track which took us up to a similar height as Fira. It was good to look back to the steep cliffs with the white houses on top, from a distance appearing as snow on the mountain tops. The volcano is still active but dormant as its last eruption was 1950,last earthquake in 1956 (7.5 on the Richter scale), sulfur still bubbles up and an inch or so below the surface the earth is moist and extremely hot -can cook an egg in 5 minutes!

Off to Palia Kameni for the hot springs which were located up an inlet in the island opposite. We had to anchor and swim 200 m to the end of the bay were the black mud is located on the bottom for you to use on your body. Next stop another small island called Thirasia were there is a small town of 100 inhabitants, no shop, but lots of restaurants on the pebbly beach below to serve us lunch. At the sight of a boat arrival seafood went on the charcoal barbies, prawns, calamari, whole octopus, fish, lobster etc, Quite a nice place but obviously not Council or community management as there was hardly a path along the bay between the restaurants. Had a good lunch after a poor choice to start, spaghetti prawns with two prawns, ended up with a grilled squid (calamari). We decided to get off at the next town Oia the most north westerly town on the island,. The town has been rebuilt in traditional style since the earthquake in 1956 and provides more pedestrian space with great views, many small squares, churches, and lots of art shops and galleries, much more up market than Fira. We had a coffee and good look round then local bus back to Fira.

14/6/10 we are leaving for Crete today so finishing up on the internet, blog etc, Vicki will drive us to the new port at five for a fast ferry arriving Iraklio, the capital and fifth largest town in Greece, population 150,000. Melbourne is still reputedly the third largest town with 300,000 Greek nationals.