Santorini, Greece

Santorini was, hands down, my favorite part of the entire trip. The island was magnificent and more beautiful than I imagined. Santorini is a Greek island in the southern Aegean Sea, roughly 120 miles from the Greece mainland. It’s about 35 square miles and sits essentially inside an old dormant volcano known as the “caldera.” Santorini was created after a volcanic eruption created a lagoon surrounded by 980 foot cliffs along the sides. The lagoon connects to the sea in a couple places around the island; a popular tourist activity is to go swimming or diving inside the lagoon.

The original and historically accurate name of the island is Thera. It remained mostly unoccupied during the Bronze Age, and after its collapse, Phoenicians established a site on Thera (which at the time they called Callista). In the 9th century BC, Dorians found the city that is now known as Ancient Thera. In the 5th century BC,  Santorini sided against the Athenians during the Peloponnesian War; Athenians took the island during the war but lost it shortly thereafter. Thera eventually fell under Roman rule. After the Byzantine Empire, Catholic Western Europeans took the island where it got its official name “Santorini.” It fell under Ottoman rule in 1579 and finally gained its independence in 1821. It was united with Greece in 1830 via the Treaty of London.

Santorini’s climate and location make it a truly unique and one-of-a-kind place. The island has no rivers and during the summer months has a dry and arid, almost desert-like feel to it. Its rough soil produces world renowned cherry tomatoes and to-die-for tomato sauce. Santorini also has some of the best eggplants and grapes, which produce phenomenal wines. The island is probably best known for its cave-like homes and buildings made from local stone and whitewashed or lime washed. The buildings and architecture were my favorite part of the island.

Santorini has an airport called Santorini (Thira) National Airport, as well as two main ferry ports: Athinios and Skala. Santorini is made up of different areas, each with their own distinct feel and attractions. Andy and I stayed in the Oia area (pronounced EE-yah), which is known best for its magnificent sunset.

Getting to Oia basically took like…8 years. It was like when we were in the airport and I thought I was going to die there. Getting from the front door of the Hotel Grand Bretagne to the door of our hotel in Oia involved a taxi, a ferry, two buses, and chasing two hulk-like porters down the narrow streets of Oia with our luggage on their backs.

The day began at 4:00 a.m. That’s right, 4:00 a.m. What I like to call the “un-functioning” hour. Andy’s alarm goes off at 4:00 and I refuse to move. He has to haul me out of bed and hover over me until I get all my stuff packed. And I have a lot of stuff. I finally get all my things together, pull on some clothes, pin up my hair, and stare at Andy like he’s sending me to my death. “Let’s go, Tiny Wife, are you ready yet?”

We stumble downstairs, check out of our room, and catch a taxi. Our taxi driver this time was named George. When he found out we were going to Santorini he insisted we hook up with his friend Ivan who worked at a bar on Santorini called Murphy’s…“Tell him George sent you! You’ll get a free drink! I promise!” I was asleep during this exchange.

Andy waiting to board the ferry

We made it to the ferry terminal, got our tickets and waited in line. This was the first of what would be five separate ferry excursions, all increasingly more annoying than the last. There was little organization in getting on and off the ferry; you basically  either a) shoved your way onto the huge bumpy platform built for vehicles and tried to avoid all the cars zooming around you, or b) shoved your way onto the small bumpy platform and tried not to fall into the sea. You wedged your luggage into tiny compartments and followed lines of people up flights of stairs like cattle until you found your seat. Despite all this, passengers got to see beautiful views of the different islands we passed and the Aegean Sea.

Athinios Port

 

The port

To the left of the main port area stood lines and lines of huge tour buses. People were walking in between them trying to figure out which one went where. We had no idea what we were doing and none of the buses had descriptive signs on them or anything. There was no ticket window or any kind of instructions. Suddenly, about 20 feet from us this man started yelling “Bus to Thira! Bus to Thira!” We immediately ran towards him and confirmed his bus was going to Thira, which was our halfway point. We climbed on and found a seat.

The small areas of Santorini (Oia, Fira, Thira etc), are all perched on the sides of the volcanic cliff and were surprisingly far from the water. This was really the only disappointment of Santorini – there were beaches but they were near to impossible to get to unless you made the huge trek back down the cliff. The drive up was beautiful, however, as the bus inched its way up the cliff. The Greek drivers were no more cautious on these windy cliff roads than they were in Athens; cars and little mopeds scooted their way around these huge buses right on the edge of the cliff.

 

Looking down onto the port from the bus

The bus took us up the cliff and stopped off at the different areas of Santorini. Oia was the last stop but we didn’t realize we needed to take yet another bus to get there. The first bus pulled into a small station where we unloaded our luggage and stood in another line to get on Bus #2. It was a madhouse. People everywhere, more languages buzzing about than you could count, bus drivers honking at each other, pedestrians and bikes weaving in and out of traffic. Andy finally pushed his way to the front of the crowd and was able to find us some tickets.

The people and the buses

 

The ticket window

 

We boarded our second bus and made our way to Oia. The streets of Santorini are extremely narrow and a variety of vehicles/animals have to share the road. The bus battled its way down the streets avoiding motorcycles, bicycles, dogs, cats, pedestrians, mopeds, donkeys, vans, small vehicles, and some more donkeys.The best part was when two large buses would meet face to face on the road and one would have to back up. It was like a weird game of chicken. It usually involved both bus drivers rolling down their windows and yelling at each other in Greek until someone relinquished and moved their bus. I didn’t fault them for trying to one up the other bus driver – moving that thing was insane. The driver had to back up to the nearest driveway or turn off and maneuver the bus backwards into the space to allow the other bus to pass. This was also the moment where we learned the middle finger is indeed, universal.

Our bus driver was bold – he had zero problem just making people and other things move. He’d roll the window down yelling at bikers and pedestrians in Greek, honking his horn like it was going out of style. We figured out half way to Oia that this guy had an assistant yeller who would disembark the bus at the driver’s command and negotiate/force fellow buses to get the h-e-double hockey sticks out of the road. At one point the bus came to a screeching halt and the driver leaned over the steering wheel yelling in Greek to his assistant. Everyone on the bus looked around until one passenger discovered the issue: There was a parked moped in the middle of the road. The assistant came back inside the bus and from what we could tell, the owner of the moped was nowhere to be found. Our driver let out a huge sigh, put the bus in park, and got off. Everyone was like what on earth is this guy doing…? We all stand up to watch as the bus driver takes the break off the moped, physically picks up the entire moped and moves it to the side of the road. It was like he was moving a small branch off the road. Hysterical.

The bus and its dedicated driver finally made it to Oia. Andy and I got off the bus, found our luggage, and looked around for our hotel. We didn’t know exactly where to go so we ducked into a tourism kiosk to ask. We told the woman at the front desk we were staying at the Residence Suites. She said “oh yes, ok, just wait right here and the porters will come get your bags.” Andy and stood outside the kiosk until around the corner comes two young men who looked like they just took a break from a decathlon. They were the two hardest working people I had ever seen. “Residence Suites?” they asked. We replied “yeah, we can help with the luggage we just didn’t know where to go.” To which they replied “NO, we will take your luggage, do not worry at all!” Andy and I each had one large suitcase and a backpack, and I had an additional smaller bag. Andy’s bag probably weighed roughly 60 lbs and my bag weighed probably around 45 lbs. The first porter picks up my backpack and puts it on his back, takes Andy’s suitcase and hauls it up on top of his right shoulder and picks up my smaller bag. The second porter puts Andy’s backpack on his back and picks up my suitcase with one hand and they both just take off down the street.

Only picture I could sneak of this guy.

This may be hard to believe, but we could not keep up with these guys. They were moving faster with our thousands of pounds of luggage than we were. “Andy where did he go?!” “I don’t know,” Andy said, “he’s like a cheetah!” We anxiously followed the porters up and down the narrow Oia streets, ducking in and out of side buildings and roads, passing vendors, churches, restaurants and shops. We were fortunately able to keep up with them! They dropped us at our hotel with our luggage, Andy gave them a well-deserved tip, and we checked into our room.

Our room was what I referred to from that point on as “the cave room.” Because it was literally, a cave. It maintained the iconic whitewashed cave-style structures of the rest of the island, and I loved it. It was cozy and cute. It came with a little front porch with a table, a small private pool overlooking the Aegean sea and caldera, a hot tub, and a breakfast area with a complementary breakfast.

We had made it! We got to know our hotel and got ourselves all settled in. We couldn’t wait to start exploring Santorini!