Greece Part II - Santorini

Taking a giant hydrofoil speed boat from Crete to Santorini sounded like a great idea. It only takes about 2.5 hours and is relatively affordable. It all started off innocuous enough as hundreds of people filled the rows of seats inside the wide catamaran. Becky, Jeff, Melissa and I settled in, opening books and iPads, ready for the relaxing journey to paradise.

Little did we know that the path to bliss was through the depths of hell. Our first clue was the flight boat attendants frantically passing out bundles of barf bags. We nervously surveyed the passengers and noticed more than a few grasping for handfuls. Uh Oh.

Fifteen minutes into the trip and the books were closed due to queasiness  Becky and I reclined our seats, shut our eyes and let the roll of the ship and the sounds of heaving lull us to sleep. Melissa and Jeff were not as lucky. I woke up with about twenty minutes left as the attendants were walking around collecting the puke receptacles, just in time to see the women sitting next to Melissa hand three full bags across Melissa's lap. Jeff was no where to be found; he had made his way to the back to find some inner calm. I am happy to report that the four of us were barf free as we cruised into Santorini, though we were not too keen to see a boat anytime soon.

Santorini is a famous Aegean island for many reasons. It is the result of one of the largest volcanic eruptions in history, said to have created a tsunami that completely washed over the island of Crete, 123 miles away. This eruption created the caldera, thousand foot cliffs in three main islands.

View of the caldera from the plane. *Photo by Melissa*

The towns on the island are built into the sheer cliffs, and this is where the island really gets amazing. The shops and cave homes are all painted white with accents of ocre and blue mixed. It is breathtaking.

There are two main towns on Santorini, Oia on the North end of the island and Fira in the center. We stayed in an amazing cave house in Oia. You know you have chosen your lodging wisely when tourists stop at the cliffs above to take a picture. Our place:

The view from the walk above our cave (the deck with the chais in the middle of the picture).

To really appreciate the beauty of the island, we took a three hour hike from Fira to Oia. 

Exploring Fira before hiking back to Oia

                

 

Looking back at Fira after starting the walk.

Oia in the background . . . still a ways to go.

One last beautiful view of Oia before entering the town.

We did it!

Island life demands a dip in the whirlpool following any strenuous activity.

Santorini is not only famous for the views. The archaeological site Akrotiri is also on the island. Akrotiri dates back to 3000BC and one local explained that it is possibly the lost city of Atlantis, reasoning that what has been excavated there has much in common with Plato's description of the lost city. It is an amazing example of a civilisation way ahead of its time, at least that is what we were told. Mostly, it looked like a bunch of ruined walls.

The Greek government built a structure to protect the site from the elements.

While we were on the other side of the island, we decided to check out Red Sand beach. Most of the beaches on Santorini are black sands, so this one is quite famous. The only access to the beach is a precarious 10 minute hike from the closest parking lot, but well worth it.

Jeff and I braving the icy Aegean Sea.

After a tough day of learning and beach going, we finished the day at a winery. The vines of Santorini are famous for several reasons. First, in the 1850's, the grape vines of Europe were destroyed and had to be replaced by California vines (grafted to the roots of the old European vines). This affected all of Europe, except for Santorini, making it the only place in Europe with the original vines.

Because the island soil is volcanic ash, the way the grapes are grown in unique.  Santorini gets very little rain, but because the ash absorbs the moisture from the air, irrigation is not needed. This is true for all the island crops - cherry tomatoes, fava beans and capers. And finally, the vines are grown in coils instead of in rows. There are only two other places in the world that grow vines like this.

      

Melissa holding an old vine coil.

 

On our last day, we hiked down the 300 stairs from Oia to Amoudi Bay. 

 

Some of the beautiful architecture as we navigated down the stairs.

View from above in Oia down to Amoudi Bay.

Swimming in the bay.

Panorama from Amoudi Bay looking up to Oia. This one is worth clicking on to see the full size.

Of course, a blog on Santorini wouldn't be complete without sunsets. The best place to watch the sunset on Santorini is right where we stayed, the far end of Oia.

People staying everywhere on the island come to Oia for the sunsets.

Our stay in Santorini came to an end, but we still had the history of Athens to explore . . . Greece Part III coming soon.

Greece Part I - Crete

The end of school at AES inevitably is filled with tears - of middle school girls and boys leaving AES, India and their friends; of kids watching those same friends leave them behind; of seniors and their parents celebrating graduation to a new stage of life; and of teachers moving on and saying goodbye.

Fortunately, that doesn't last long as AES wheels out a banquet the minute the kids are gone and soon the faculty is celebrating another year. And within 12 hours, half the staff flees the oppressive Dehli heat for cooler climates to see friends and family, and to embark on a glutinous but glorious summer.

Twelve hours after the last student left, Becky and I were standing in Indira Gandhi Airport waiting to board a plane to London with about 20 other AESers. And a short 24 hours later, we reached our final destination - Crete. We hopped on a bus (we love the environment and saving money) and cruised down the rocky coast through small towns, tattered windmills and 5000 year old Mycenaean ruins. Crete is a huge island that couldn't possibly be explored in the three days we spent there, so we focused on Agios Nikolaos. With the weight of months of school lifted, and a long journey from India, it was all we could do to find a small cafe, drink some delicious wine and fall asleep in our room overlooking the infamously deep lake in the town.

We were awoken a few hours later to knocking on our door - our friends, Melissa and Jeff had arrived! Traveling with your spouse is amazing, but there are only so many games of cribbage two people can play before a new voice in the conversation becomes a welcome addition. Melissa and Jeff flew in from Texas for our Greece adventure. The next morning, we were off.

After a late wakeup, a lazy breakfast, and a stroll around town, we decided on a hike through the Richtis Gorge, one of many on the island. We laced up our hiking shoes and loaded a bus that 45 minutes later zipped right through the town we needed to stop in and kept on going. Flustered, I made my to the front of the bus to ask the bus driver to stop. The conversation went a little like this:

Isaac: Hey, that was our stop. Can you let us off now.
Bus Driver: [Silence]
I imagine his thoughts to be, "If I just stare ahead, maybe this guy will go sit down.
Isaac: Uh, can you stop the bus. Anywhere will work.
Bus Driver: [Silence] starring straight ahead - safety first.
Helpful Greek Lady: Αυτό ηλίθιος πρέπει έχασε στάση του.
Bus Driver: Γιατί δεν το βλάκας πατήστε το κουμπί;
Helpful Greek Lady: Έχει ένα απλό μυαλό. Μπορείς να σταματήσει το λεωφορείο;
Bus Driver: Όχι.
Helpful Greek Lady: He cannot stop the bus. Do you want to stop at the next place or go to the next city and get the return bus.
Isaac: I want him to stop now so we can walk back.
Helpful Greek Lady: He can only stop the bus at a stop.
Isaac: [Sigh] OK, we will get off and walk back.
Helpful Greek Lady: Οι ανόητοι θέλουν να περπατήσουν ξανά.

 Google Translate

And thus began our hike. A short one and a half hour pre-hike hike back to the start of the hike. We tried to make the most of it.

We did finally make it to the hike and it was beautiful. The Richtis Gorge:

Jeff braved the icy cold waterfall. 

        

 

The final day on Crete presented a couple of options. Four hours of travel to see the the centrepiece of the Minoan civilisation, The Palace at Knossos, or go to the beach and explore a medieval island fort. We opted for the fort.

Elounda

 Just a short drive from Agios Nikolaos is the town of Elounda with white sand beaches and the island of Spinalonga just off the mainland. The island was first fortified in the 1500's by the Venetians and later conquered by the Ottoman Turks, albeit 45 years after the rest of Crete fell. The Turks stayed there until 1903, again years after the Cretan revolt ended Ottoman rule, when it was turned into a leper colony. It was the last leper colony in Europe when it closed in 1957.

Looking back towards Elounda from Spinalonga. *Photo by Melissa*

*Photo by Melissa*

The lake in Agios Nikolaos is said to be bottomless. One taxi driver explained that there is one other lake like this one outside of Athens and that the two lakes are connected. Whatever the truth is (Wikipedia says it is 64m deep) it is quite stunning.

And, of course, what would a vacation be without games?

It would take weeks to really explore Crete, but our couple of days was enough to get a taste of the beautiful island. The next morning we work early and drove to Heraklion to take a ferry to Santorini, but that will have to wait for the next blog.