It was an interesting experience being in Santorini in late-November. It is a place of stunning scenery as the whole island is in fact the caldera of a massive volcano and the houses are built up the slope.
Uve (a German bloke we met & hung out with for the few days), Johnno and Lei with the view out to Thirassia, the island in the middle of the caldera that was part of the main body of the volcano before the eruption.
Wouldn't say it was the best time I've had so far for quite a few reasons... But here's a summary: Highlights: hiring a car and seeing the sheer cliffs of the volcano and the different layers of rock, pumice and basalt; riding a mule up the 600 stairs that lead from the old port up to the main town of Fira; very good gyros; friendly dogs and; unique lava stone jewellry.
The very picturesque (when not in zoom) view of the houses/hotels/shops on Santorini, caldera-side of the island.
Johnno and Uve with some of the very friendly doggies.
Lowlights: windy & cold weather; lack of people being very depressing - the tumbleweeds blowing down the road were the only traffic (human or otherwise) at some points; the VERY dodgy accommodation operator (more about that later); early buses.
It was an ok time, I'm glad I've seen Santorini but I would only go back at a good time - not high-season but a season with at least some people and good weather.
We arrived on the ferry from Pireaus about 3:30pm on Thursday and were greeted by people trying to sell their accommodation... We took a few brochures then caught the bus up to the main town for some lunch and hopefully some scoping of places to stay. That idea didn't work too well - very little open!! Maybe 1 in 15 hotels?? Johnno checked out one guy's place, which was really cheap, but the guy was a bit dodgy, so we kept trying.
No luck - so in the end we rang one of the guys from the port. He came up and gave us a room for 30 euro. Sure, it was cheap but it turned out that it stank of concrete and was wet and cold inside, all the blankets and sheets and walls were wet, and there was no shower curtain (one of our pet hates because water ends up going everywhere)!! So basically, overnight we all froze and none of our towels dried! Luckily I had a sleeping bag, I warmed up but Johnno and Lei really suffered. It was basically a hole-of-a-room. (DO NOT STAY at Villa Maria - if you go to Santorini!!!)
Despite the lack of quality sleep and the mould we'd accumulated on our feet through the night (:P), the next day we had a great time, hiring a car and driving around the island with Uve, the German guy we'd met the night before. It was fun - even with the hirer's warnings to hold onto the doors if we opened them in the wind, playing on our minds. We checked out the beaches which are allegedly great - but really have nothing on the Sunshine Coast (except one was red from the volcanic earth). The view from the top of the caldera, to the middle of the volcano with the old lava core visible, was spectacular however.
In the afternoon, I had quite an animated discussion with the room owner, trying to check out early and get a refund, or at least get the air-conditioning remote, without paying an extra 10euro, so we could sleep warmly and maybe dry out the room for the 2nd nigh. He wanted money for the remote control and wouldn't give us a refund and he was, quite frankly, an asshole!! I told him his room wasn't fit for humans (really wanted to say something about 'maybe you could house your donkey but not paying customers' but I didn't)... In the end he gave me the air-con remote and said that if we left the next day he'd give us 5 euro back (as his two-night rate was 40euro per room & since we'd paid 90 for 3 nights AND now we were using the air-con, he would only give us back 5). So anyway... we actually slept quite well with heating and the next day we went for the famous donkey ride up the 600 stairs from the old port. The weather was still pretty crap so in the end we decided to catch the arvo ferry and for-go our few euros.
That's right, we're on our way to the donkey station!!
Me, Lei and Uve on our mules (not pure donkeys these ones)
The 'donkey man', he was great & seemed to enjoy his job (particularly the hugging of the girls??), nah he was truly lovely.
Sorry, couldn't help it, this is what you won't see on the Santorini postcards (along with the tiny little farms with rubbish everywhere, the numerous dogs, the half-built and seeminly abandonded houses).
After our great donkey ride I went off to find a phone then met up with Lei, Johnno and Uve to catch the bus up to the town of Oia for a bit of shopping/coffees. We were on our way to the bus stop (early, mind you) and we saw the bus to Oia going up the main street. Quickly hailing it, we jumped on and thanked our stars we'd managed to catch this wayward, early bus...
Oia is a really cute town. If I was going back to Santorini I would stay there for sure. We went for a wander (still amazed at how dead the place was) and the boys went for coffee while Lei and I went for a shop. Lei and I did a dash for the bus stop about 10min before it was due, just to be on the safe side. Well we still weren't - the bus left a full 10mins early from Oia to go back to Fira. The boys made it but we were high and dry, all alone, with no transport and only tumbleweeds and dogs for company. The next bus was not for an hour and that would mean we'd be in Fira too late for the bus to the ferry!!! Lei got the phone number for a taxi but I convinced her that we should try and hitch a lift. She agreed and after a few weird looks, beeping horns and people pulling over only to say 'no', we finally got a lift with a lovely couple. I think we ended up getting in to Fira 2 mins after the bus!!! To those lovely people - I send you goodwill through cyberspace.
So back to the room to get the bags that we'd left in Uve's room for the day. The owner of Villa Maria was around and he decided to give us a real hard time about the bags and tried to make us pay extra for them. In the end, some forceful verbal conversation (& probably the fact he was outnumbered 1:4 by big blokes and angry girls), he gave in and gave us our 5 euro back. Ferry was quite late so we didn't get into Piraeus till about 1pm. No way we were going to stay there, drove straight back to Athens!
So that was Santorini. I can see that it would be absolutely awesome in Summer and the shoulder seasons!! Beautiful views and in hot weather the beaches would be fun. I am glad I saw it though and I now definitely know what it's like to travel in Greece in the off-season. Amazing that a country with 10 million people shuts down so much in the winter months. I think it's true that many leave the islands and head back to Athens (where 1/4 of the population lives).
No comments:
Post a Comment