Med Cruise: Santorini, Greece

 

The very next morning we came into the port for Santorini.  Santorini is actually the name of a group of islands around a volcanic caldera.  Rob was fascinated by the fact that the "youngest" island is only a few hundred years old.  Also, an underground rush of molten rock just 6-7 years ago rose parts of the largest island of Thira by 8-14 cm! Cruise ships can't get in close enough to land to port here, so we "tendered" to shore by motorboat.

 

Once on land at the base of the cliff, we had a choice to walk, ride donkeys, or take a cable car up to the main town of Fira. We took the cable car which was fast, fun for the kids, and gave us great views of the caldera and ship below.

 

We hailed a cab, piled in, and headed straight for the black sand beach of Kamari.  My thinking was that we would enjoy the beach while it was quiet and not so hot and then go visit the town of Oia on the opposite end of the island once some people had headed back to the ship and it wouldn't be so crowded.

 

The black sand was really rocky.  We wore flip-flops and crocs this day in anticipation of a beachy day, so that was good.

 

The kids swam, collected rocks, and just generally loved being at the beach.

 

I loved how empty the beach was, and listening to the gentle waves from my shady beach chair.  I did go in the water a bit too, but it was very rocky and very cold!

 

Sisterly love.

 

The beach chairs and umbrellas were courtesy of a restaurant behind us.  They were free, as was the clean and modern restaurant bathroom, and the wifi.  We felt obligated to order some drinks while we enjoyed all of the perks.  We stayed until just before noon and then headed out to find a cab to take us to Oia.

That ended up being more difficult than expected.  We couldn't find a taxi anywhere.  We walked for about 20 minutes, during which time we passed this cute church, until we finally found a bus stop.  We ended up waiting there for about 30 more minutes until a public bus came by which took us back to Fira.  Once there, the girls needed a bathroom break.

 

There was a (pay) public bathroom right at the bus stop, so I took the girls.  This was their first encounter with a squatty potty.  Amelie was not amused, and Charlotte thought she had somehow ended up in a shower stall.  I explained the process, and we made the best of it. When we came out, Rob had hailed a cab to take us to Oia.

Now, I know this will horrify some people, but the taxi drivers we met on this trip had no qualms about squeezing all six of us into seats for four people.  We just piled in and made the best of it.  I took this short video on part of the drive from Fira to Oia just to give you a glimpse of the driving experience in Greece. Good times. This guy was my favorite driver the whole trip. He was happy, conversational, and just a nice guy.  He told us to pay him on the way back- that way we knew he would return for us because "a taxi driver will always show up to collect his fare."

 

We finally made it to Oia around 1 pm, and arranged with the driver to come back for us at 2:30 pm. The last tender to the cruise ship would be at 4:15 pm, and we didn't want to cut it close.  We were all hungry too so we found a restaurant serving Gyros and enjoyed a quick lunch.

 

Then we just walked around Oia taking pictures of the beautiful whitewashed buildings  and the caldera.  Doesn't this dining area look dreamy?

 

All of that white sure does reflect the sun's heat!  There were very few shady spots in Oia, but our kids found them whenever they could.

 

There was no avoiding the crowds, but the beautiful views were worth it. 

 

After our little photo safari, we found an ice cream shop and headed back to meet our cabbie.  He surprised us by sending a large van to pick us up for the ride back to Fira, which was fantastic! Once there we got in line for the cable car to head down the cliff side.  It was then about 3:15 and the line was about two blocks long.  I started stressing.  I don't do well with standing still when there is a time crunch, so I convinced Rob we could easily walk down to the tender on the donkey trail.

 

We headed out down the slippery, smelly switchback stairs that these poor donkeys take.  If they looked like they were treated half decently, we may have opted to pay for a ride, but those poor animals were not in good shape, and we would not add to their misery.  So on we walked... in flip-flops. 

 

We slipped so frequently that it was impossible to carry the children, so they had to walk the whole way too.  I did once land on my backside, hopefully that will make me think twice before suggesting an activity like this again.  There are 588 stairs (I googled it) but they are long and each takes about four careful steps to cross (remember: slippery, donkey poop, hay, and so on) so this took a looooong time. 

 

But we did it!  We made it on the second to last tender, hot and sweaty.  I was so proud of Amelie!  Yes, she complained and whined the whole way down, but she DID IT. I tried to talk to her about how she can do hard things when she chooses to, but she was not very happy with me at the moment... just happy to be headed to dinner and the pool!