Today was a day of three flights, short ones, but well worth it! We were up at 4:15 am so that we could make our 6am flight to Cairo. We decided to skip seeing the pyramids and fly right through to Athens, then onto Santorini. I really do want to see those pyramids, but right now the state of Egypt is not the best, so eventually I will get there, but not today! Santorini here we come!
We arrived into Santorini in the early evening and went right to our hotel. Our taxi driver dropped us off at the top of a street and told us our hotel was just down the alley. What he didn't tell us, was the alley was down a steep hillside, past another hotel, then through a cobblestone side street with uneven steps, along the cliff, down three flights of stairs then we finally reached the reception of our hotel! Then to get to our room, it was down another three flights of stairs right on the edge of the cliff! Our view of the crater and the water was unbelievable! Our room had a balcony that overlooked the rest of the hotel, the pool and the water.
It was time to explore Santorini! We walked to the main street and up to the main square. People were walking in the street, eating food, and taking in the beautiful views. We stopped at a corner cafe that was selling gyros! We took them up to the edge of the street, overlooking the water and ate our food…they were amazing! Then we window shopped from store to store and eventually made our way back to the hotel!
The next day I got up before sunrise and walked around the whole town, taking in the views before people arose! I found a back street that wound through the hotels and had the most amazing views. I went up and down the cliff, down a path that the donkeys use to bring people up from the shore, through back entrances to hotels and just explored the area until the sun rose!
I found my way back to the hotel and met my mom for breakfast. They serve breakfast on the terrace of the hotel. I had the best greek yogurt with peaches!
My mom and I decided to take the bus to Oia which is situated on the end of the island. It was about a 15 minute ride through the countryside of the island where we passed terraced farming areas and pigeon houses. When we reached Oia, there was one main street through the town and we walked down the street toward the end of the town. At the edge there was two windmills and a huge walled structure. All of the churches in Oia have the signature blue domes. The contrast of the blue domes with the white houses and the blue sea, was a beautiful sight. We window shopped and stopped in a few stores which sold one of a kind clothing and things for your house. We made our way down to the other end of the town, and stopped at a cafe to have a hot coco and cappuccino. They view was amazing!
We took the bus back to Thira town and then walked again around the main square. There was street after street of small stores and cobblestone walkways with restaurants and cafes. We had a great time walking around the streets of the town. We went to Nicolas restaurant that served authentic Greek food. We had a greek salad, stuffed peppers and tomatoes with rice, and moussaka. The food was delicious.
We spent the rest of the afternoon just browsing the stores and walking around the town. We had a wonderful day in Santorini!
It was now time to fly back to Athens to meet the ship! If it was only that easy! When we got to the airport, the wind had picked up and therefore our flight from Athens was delayed, not a big deal, but an hour went by and they ended up canceling the flight! There was not another flight out of Santorini till the next day and we could not be guaranteed it would go, so that left us no other option but to take an overnight ferry from Santorini to Athens that night! The ferry didn't leave till 11:30pm so we made our way to the dock and now the wind was really bad and blowing the water up onto the dock and flooding the area! Our car couldn't even get through! So we had to wait in a sketchy terminal until the ferry got there, but again because of the weather the ferry was delayed! After midnight the ferry arrived, hoards of people were running off the ferry and what seemed like families were running onto the ferry to help the people carry their packages off. There were people carrying boxes after boxes and even mattresses! Eventually it was our turn to get on the ferry. We had to enter through a giant door where cars and trucks where driving on and off. We took turns with the cars and when it was our turn, we had to time our run because the gate of the door was going up and down with the waves of the sea. We made it on and then it was time to find our room. We opted to get a room instead of just paying 30 euros for a seat. If you just pay for a seat, then you have to sleep either on a chair or on the floor and the ferry ride was a 8 hour journey! Not to mention, the ship was rocking from side to side and waves were smashing into the ship and it sounded like the ship was breaking apart! We finally got our window view room, and we went right to sleep! I actually thought I might fall out of the bed throughout the night because we were moving so much! Well, I didn't and at 8 am the next day, we woke up and decided to explore our new ship! Wow am I glad that this is not our ship! It was pretty bad! The pool was full of rust, the dining hall didn't really exist and the plants on the ship were fallen over! We arrived in Athens, later than expected about 9am and made our way back to our ship! I was so glad to be back on the ms Amsterdam!
Our "New" Ship!
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