Day 261 - Rough Seas to Santorini
Trip Start
Jan 10, 2011
1
188
221
Trip End
Jan 08, 2012
Where I stayed
Athinios Port, Notio Aigaio, Greece
Thursday, September 29, 2011
Eli & Howard exchanged looks and agreed that we should lock it anyway despite their protests. One of the guys emphatically exclaimed when we did so but we followed through. He went to unlock the car and his key didn’t work! He tried it again and it did unlock the door so we left well enough alone but content in our decision to not just take their word for it (a good scam if you can get it…).
The ferry to Santorini was only about 2hrs on a fast catamaran style boat about 40m long. We boarded and took our seats at the back. Almost immediately the boat began to zip across the water bouncing from one rolling wave to the next. In harmony Mia began to feel ill and though successful in keeping her breakfast down only found relief when she slept/passed out slouched over some bags near the center of the boat.
The ride was VERY rough and at least a third of the passengers were feeling sick (the attendants gave everyone a sickness bag anticipating the possibility of a 'complete & total barfarama’. Although the hallway by the head (washroom) was lined with pukers thankfully the full scale puke party did not materialize.
Once on shore Mia felt better though still a tad worse for wear. While she and Eli`s parents talked to a car rental agent. Eli walked up the pier waiting to be solicited by the other agents. After a few consultations and a 15 minute process he had secured a 30% discount on the first agents `best offer`. So we piled our suitcases (including a separate one we purchased for souvenirs) into our 4 door Nissan hatchback and wound our way up the switch backed road out of the port.
Santorini is a beautiful place and driving along the volcanic ridge there were many times that we could see the sea on either side of the island stretching out in a crescent shape ahead of us. We stopped at a restaurant with a magnificent view which turned out to be Mexican. While Eli had fajitas, Howard had ribs, Mia had a chicken taco and Irena had a Greek salad (of course!).
A short drive later we easily found the parking area for our hotel. The main pedestrian thoroughfare traced the upper ridge of the caldera (the name for the cliff side) and an intertwined patchwork of hotels and residences were accessed by winding stairways. Everything was painted white, except when it was painted a light blue, and it looked exactly like we expected it to: a postcard of white buildings perched on a cliff overlooking a sparkling sea.
After our late lunch we nibbled on some snacks and leftovers enjoying a stunning sunset as it disappeared into the clouds on the horizon. This is a paradise and we were ready to take advantage of it and relax for 4 days.
