Santorini - Fira, Greece
Fira, Greece
Santorini is one of those places I have always wanted to visit, and was high up on my bucket list. Who hasn't seen pictures of white painted, blue domed buildings set on a dramatic cliff, the landscape plummeting into the azure ocean below, framed by caldera views? Santorini is a place of indescribable beauty and impossibly beautiful. I took over 200 photos today, as around every bend and corner there is a new panorama taking your breath away and begging to be captured. We arrived into the port at 7am today, and like a child on Christmas morning I jumped out of bed to watch the ship drop anchor and catch my first glimpse of Santorini from our balcony. The village of Fira (also known as Thira), was set high up the cliff top in front of where the ship anchored, and the choices for getting up the steep cliff were by cable car (4 Euro pp each way), riding a donkey up a steep and windy path with approximately 600 steps (5 Euro) or to climb the path and steps yourself, trying to avoid the donkeys sharing the same path and at the same time avoiding the piles of "fragrant" donkey manure littering the path. The choice in my mind was obvious, cable car it was, particularly with the trauma of a very unruly donkey still in my mind from a donkey ride in Egypt. As we were early birds there wasn't much of a queue, keeping in mind the cable car can only handle 36 people per trip (6 cars, 6 people per car, counterweighted by the same amount coming down from the top). We were the only cruise ship docked in the harbour, fortunate for us, otherwise it may have been a very different story. Now I am not a fan of cable cars, being scared of heights and sceptical of the safety mechanisms keeping essentially ropes handling quite an amount of weight and wear and tear, safe. I have been on a fair few cable car rides in my life, including in Cape Town up Table mountain and in Queenstown. However, today's cable car ride takes first prize for being the scariest, fastest, noisiest and most heart stopping ride of my life. The sheer height of the cliff aside, the cable cars were not what I would call modern, didn't have double roller safety mechanisms like the other two places I have mentioned, had a weight limit per car that was most clearly exceeded in every instance as not one person in that cable car weighed the average assumed weight taking into account that 6 persons are crammed into each car, and were noisy, went fast as lightning up and down the cliff and it was a fairly bumpy ride. Note to self: when going to Santorini and arriving by boat, bring Valium for the cable car ride. After surviving the ride to the top, and praising The Lord for our safe arrival, little did I know that about half an hour later I would be fearing for my life and the life of my unborn child again. You see, we wanted to see the picture perfect village of Oia, a 20 minute ride from Fira, and set out to the Fira bus depot to catch a local bus to Oia. Being early, there were not many people there when we arrived and found out that the next bus to Oia departs in 20 minutes. We waited, and as we did, more and more people from the boat and otherwise arrived, also waiting for the same bus. Close to the scheduled arrival time, the place was packed with confused tourists running whenever a bus pulls in to see if it is the Oia bus or otherwise. On the third occasion, the pack started running to a bus obstructed from view by another bus that was also pulling in, and it turned out that this was in fact the Oia bus. Despite being one of the first people at the bus station and waiting 20 minutes, we didn't get a spot on the overcrowded bus, as people were rudely elbowing, pushing and running to get on. I was seriously ****** to say the least, having experienced the rudeness of people at crowded locations in Greece for the second time in days. I was ****** at people's lack of manners, the lack of organisation at the bus station, the lack of a queuing mechanism which would ensure fairer outcomes and the "could not care less" attitude of the driver. My weekly "how is your baby doing this week in your pregnancy" email this week foretold that I would be irritable and set off by small things. Well, I had a mini eruption at that bus station, had a go at the lack of organisation in general in Greece, the rudeness of people in general and the unfairness of the situation. Another couple from the boat, who also missed out on the bus, asked us if we wanted to share a cab with them, which offer we gladly accepted. It was 20 Euro for the cab (the bus asked 1.60 pp which is a better deal, but there was a 40 minute wait before the next Oia bus and no guarantee that the same scenario wouldn't play out again). So the Scottish couple and us set off in a cab to Oia, with a driver hellbent on overtaking every single vehicle in front of us at high speed, on an extremely windy and narrow road, flanked by sheer cliffs and with approaching traffic around every blind bend. After the cable car ride, the cab ride was something I handled a lot better. But it was a fairly quiet ride for the passengers, hoping that we would live to see the bloody village of Oia that was getting increasingly damn hard to see. After a 20 minute ride and 10 Euro per couple we finally arrived. After all the drama of getting there, I was seriously hoping that it was going to be worth it. I needn't have doubted: Oia is the Santorini from the postcards, the paintings and the travel programmes, the place where travel bucket lists are born and where you will be stunned by the vistas and palette of colours almost too unbearingly beautiful to take in. One place cannot possibly be so stunningly spectacular, a portrait waiting to be painted or a photo begging to be captured wherever you turn. The tiny cobblestone streets are lined with little shops and cafes, offering the most amazing caldera views and views over the lime washed blue domed buildings dotting the volcanic cliff side. They speculate that the myth of Atlantis could refer to Santorini, and that Atlantis is buried in the deep waters of the water drenched caldera below. Regardless of being myth, fiction or fact, this place is worthy of mythological status, with a dream like quality and beauty that I cannot hope to do justice to with any words or even photos, but I will let the photos speak for themselves and stop waxing lyrical for a second. We walked the little streets of Oia, picking up some small souvenirs, stopping for coffee at a beautiful cafe with a terrace and 180 degree views, and later at another cafe to enjoy a light lunch of Greek yoghurt drizzled with the most fragrant flowery honey and nuts, and a Greek salad laced with chunks of feta cheese, respectively, while admiring the impossibly beautiful views and taking in the atmosphere. On our walk we encountered a magazine fashion shoot - and what a perfect backdrop they have chosen for their feature. Around 1 pm we caught the local bus with a lot more success this time back to Fira, from where we connected with another bus to Kamari beach. From Fira, Kamari was about 15 minutes by bus, being a volcanic black sand beach. The beach is quite pretty, with little straw thatched beach cabanas and chairs that are rented for 5 euro per person. The black sand is actually little pebbles which get quite hot in the midday sun. We went for a refreshing swim in the cool waters of Santorini and I mused that I could not believe that I am actually here, swimming in Santorini, and living the dream that I've had for years to visit this place. We enjoyed the vista from our beach chairs for a while, then regrettably had to go back to Fira. Chris grabbed (another) gyro at Fira, while I opted for my now habitual afternoon snack of ice cream. We then walked back to the cable car as it was getting closer to 4 pm, we have had a long and eventful day, and we were not particularly in the mood for looking at more shops. I handled the cable car ride down a lot better than the one up, although I still held concerns about the ropes being tested by the overloading of the cable cars when compared to the weight each car is supposed to be carrying, but thankfully it all went off without a glitch and we were down in the harbour in no time, and caught the tender boat back to the ship where we had another swim and icy cold frozen drinks by the pool. When I return to Santorini I will stay at Oia, arrive by plane and catch the bus to the beach areas instead of staying at Fira or the beach resorts. Mental note that Armeni suites looked fantastic, will have to check out their prices. If this place is not on your bucket list, it really should be. The September temperatures of mid to high twenties with humidity makes for fantastic holiday and swimming weather. So, start Googling and book your holiday in Santorini pronto!