Traveling days are lost days because everything about the day focuses on when you have to get ready, check out, transport and re-acclimate. We all spent the morning by the pool after packing up, a last refreshing swim and a little time to snooze and read. Our van driver got us to town in plenty of time and we waited on the dock. And waited. And waited. In the roasting sun. It did have its payoff as we were one of the first in what turned out to be a very long line of people boarding the boat. Warning to my fellow adventurers. In many parts of the world people DON’T USE DEODORANT. We are there and it’s ugly. We were downwind of the mean and wicked sisters who cut us in line and stunk to high heavens. We finally got on board our catamaran and with nary a ripple we zipped to Santorini. Catamarans=awesome for this tends-to-get-seasick-while-looking-at-water traveler.
More dock chaos in Santorini and no transport from the King Thiras was in view. We hopped a mini-bus for 6E each. Painless.
King Thiras is not exactly royal. Kind of Motel-6ish Greek style, but it’s clean if not totally comfortable and our hosts will definitely leave the light on for us. They are a charming older couple. Amanuel has already given us lots of tips on how to maneuver around Santorini.
We are all ready for dinner big time and Adriana is jonesing for her daily Saganaki (fried cheese for all of the rest of us)We take the path with the cliff view and ooh and aah over it. It is amazingly beautiful. We don’t linger too long though, and we plunked ourselves down at the Greeks for another humdinger of a meal. Ade declared it the best Saganaki to date, and the rest of us were completely happy with a grilled stuff squid, pork souvlaki and pita. John and Terri are drinking Mythos beer and I am content with a ½ bottle of the local Greek red. Dry and earthy, it doesn’t have much on the back end, but does the job with another fantastic meal.
The soccer fans, i.e. everyone but me, were determined to watch the World Cup game with US vs. Ghana. They found a good spot at Murphy’s bar while I strolled and admired the VAST array of jewelry in Fira. This town is so different than Mykonos. Where Mykonos is twisting byways with a surprise shop or plaza at every turn, Santorini is in-your-face dazzling jewels in beautiful shops. Easy to navigate and lots more people give it an excitement that Mykonos lacked. But also made it seem slightly huckster-ish.
It was getting late and my batteries were running down. I found Terri and we decided to head home and not watch the overtime period for the game. Getting to our new “temporary” home turned out to be not so easy. We walked up the road, and I do mean, UP, huffing, puffing and sweating. Overshot the place by a country mile and didn’t get back for an hour. Wandering around by full moon in Greece is not so bad but we were happy when we got directions from a very nice Greek boy at the Santorini palace hotel. By the way, lovely place, with a super nice pool that happens to be on the other side of a dirt parking lot from the jolly old King Thiras. Hmmmm… a possible illicit midnight swim on Sunday night? Stay posted!
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