2022 – Late May – Exploring Greece – The Islands: Santorini, Mykonos

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Sunset on Santorini

We wake early for our Sea Jet ride to Santorini. The port is only a few blocks away, but we decide to use a taxi, the driver will know where to take us.  The line of people is long, and we get directed to another, shorter line, then are directed on to the ship.  We scramble with the other passengers finding a spot for our luggage.  We find the cabin quite spacious, with comfortable chairs.  We sit close to the ticket desk watching all the activity.  These somewhat smaller boats did not sail the past two days due to the high winds and turbulent water so lots of people are boarding.  Keep in mind ‘smaller ship’ is a relative term, it still has room for a few dozen vehicles.  The boat serves food, so we pick up a couple spinach pies for breakfast.  The ride is quite smooth given the water conditions the past two days.  We arrive in Santorini in two hours.

Part of Thira from above
the caldera

Once disembarked, a mad dash to get from the port to town ensues.  Offices stuffed with salespeople encourage us to take their van to town, only 20 Euros per person, private taxi 80 Euros per person.  Our boat arrives at the commercial port, which is different than the tourist port, directly beneath the town of Thira.  It is 5+ miles away with a steep road employing several switchbacks to climb from sea level to the top of the cliffs.  The van is packed with other recently arrived tourists.  We make several stops, leaving people at their destinations.  The driver gets out at each stop, then shuffles through the pile of luggage retrieving the desired bag.  We get out at our stop and point at our bags, at the bottom of the pile.  The driver throws bags out of the way to retrieve ours.  He points in some general direction towards the main part of town telling us to find the McDonalds, then he and the van are gone.  We start up the road looking for a safer spot to look at my map.  I can identify the main street getting us closer to our destination but no McDonalds.  A few blocks further the street is closed to vehicular traffic allowing us to collect our thoughts and study the map for identifiable locations.  Cobble streets wind through town running in different directions making map reading a challenge.  The town has one improvement over Monemvasia; they have installed large flat stones in the center of the cobble streets making carry-on pulling a less hazardous operation.  After a few minutes of searching, I find the hotel, seemingly hanging on the side of a cliff.  We are too early to check in so we leave our bags at the hotel.  We wind down from our frantic dash to town and hotel search dining at a restaurant down the street from the hotel.  We order our usual Greek salad, stuffed grape leaves and a main course.  When the bill arrives, we find it is almost double what we had been paying when on the mainland.  It was somewhat expected since everything has to be shipped in, but it is still a shock to see real numbers on a bill.

We check in and are taken to our room about three levels of rooms below the office.  Thankfully the porter takes our bags down the steep steps and into our room.  The room is a bit like a cave with stone walls and the door and window on one wall looking out on to the balcony and sea beyond.  No vehicles can drive around here so it is quiet, but all the human activity associated with a popular tourist location provides a different type of noise.  After resting a bit, we put our cameras back on our hips and start our exploration of town.  Thira is crowded.  Lots of window shopping, lively cafes, and restaurants.  We are here for three days so we don’t have to take everything in right away.  We stop with dozens of other tourists to photograph the sea with the dormant volcano poking up out of the water.  A quick stop at a grocery store gets us water and a few other essentials before heading to dinner.  The hotel restaurant looks right out over the water.  As I have mentioned before the views are breathtaking.  We dine on stuffed grape leaves, octopus and calamari.

Sunset is approaching so we walk down another two levels from our room to the pool.  Nobody is there so we take over, searching for the best spot to shoot the sunset.  I am reminded how I used to shoot these events with film.  Shoot and adjust camera settings hoping one image will be a keeper.  In addition, one had to keep a few extra rolls of film handy since there were only 24 images per roll.  Ahh, the good old days.  Once the sun has set the temperature drops quickly.  We head back into our room for the evening, planning for the next day.

Walkway to the port

We wake the next morning to ringing church bells.  Stepping outside to greet the day we find two cruise ships already deploying passengers into small boats for a ride to the dock then a walk, donkey ride, or cable car ride up to town.  We stop for the hotel breakfast.  Staff brings coffee, juice, cereal, eggs, bacon, sausage, cakes, milk, bread and yogurt.  Much more than we can eat.  Here we meet a couple from NY on a brief holiday.  We visit a bit noting that they have signed up for a sunset cruise in a couple of days.

Donkey rides anyone?

We decide to walk down the 530 steps from where we get on the switchback filled walkway between town and the port.  The last steps have numbers painted on them, so I don’t have to count.  We pass a dozen donkeys waiting to take tourists down the steps.  Fortunately, they have bells on, so we hear them coming before seeing them.  There are over a dozen switchbacks on the walk.  Occasionally we come across a ‘present’ left by a donkey so one has to pay attention to where they are stepping.  Where there are many ‘presents’ the air is aromatic, not in a good way.  As we make our way down the walk, we notice the cable car speeding up and down every few minutes filled with passengers.

The walk is worth the effort.  We see different views of the town, the sea and tourists walking or riding donkeys.  Arriving at the port we see the little boats dropping off their passengers then heading back to the ship to get more.  The passengers are immediately badgered by the donkey drivers offering rides to the top.  A few people are interested, I think they had decided this would be fun before they got off the ship rather than being convinced this is the way to go.  As more boats drop off their passengers the line for the cable car grows.  By the time we are ready to walk back to the top the line snakes across the dock area, over 100’ in length.

In the meantime, we find an office offering sunset boat cruises.  It makes stops at the volcano in the middle of the caldera, the hot springs, and just offshore by the small island of Thirasia for a buffet dinner.  After dinner we cruise out towards the town of Oia witnessing the sunset.  It sounds like a nice way to spend the afternoon, so we sign up.  On our way back to the top we see the line of passengers for the cable car has gotten only slightly shorter.  A few younger women are riding the donkeys to the top.  Most of them seem okay, one is struggling to stay on and wants to get off.  The donkey driver keeps telling her what to do to right herself – in Greek, but she doesn’t understand Greek.  They disappear around a switchback; we keep hearing the donkey driver yelling instructions at her.  At the top everything appears normal, no emergencies, so we assume she made it to the top; with a story to tell.

Returning to the room we decide to wash our laundry, a week has passed since the last time, so it is due.  No laundromat is seen so we go back to the plastic bag, squeeze out the clothes and hang to dry.  Over the next couple days, we notice a problem.  The air is so damp the clothing does not dry.  We shuffle our clothing to the patio chairs to bake in the sun.  Slowly we get a handle on all the damp clothing.  While we are drying our laundry, we see low level clouds? Fog? On the horizon.  It is moving very slowly so we can’t really tell what’s going on.  We stop out for an early dinner enjoying a dinner of sardines, white eggplant and lamb souvlaki, along with the usual Greek salad and stuffed grape leaves.  After dinner we visit tourist shops to pick up some Santorini souvenirs.  That completed we return to our room to witness another sunset.

Akrotiri portable oven

As the sun lowers in the sky the temperature starts cooling off and the clouds that were off in the distance start moving towards us.  I see them rushing by as they roll over the edge of town above us.  At times they are thin and wispy, others thick; so thick that at times we cannot see the other side of the island.  The clouds and wind combine to quickly drop the temperature.  With the sun having set for the day we retreat into our room.

Akrotiri frescoes

The next morning it’s still foggy, we can barely see down to the water.  We have our breakfast and visit our fellow tourists from NY.  We tell them we booked a sunset cruise for today, but we are not certain if it’s on the same boat.   We walk through town to the Museum of Prehistoric Thera.  The exhibits center on the island’s history; late Neolithic to the late Cycladic period, when Akrotiri was at its peak, 17^th century BC.  We see household equipment; pottery jugs; jewelry; bronze vessels, tools, and weapons; and several frescoes.  Akrotiri was a thriving port town in its day with links to many other cities on the Mediterranean.  It was destroyed by a volcanic eruption, the one that makes Santorini look like it does today.

Cable car ride to the bottom

This time we take the cable car to the port.  Exiting the building we see the same line of people wanting to go to the top, the line appears as long as yesterday.  Small tourist boats jockey for position with the other small boats dropping off passengers from the multiple cruise boats floating in the caldera.  The tourist boats quickly stop to pick up tourists for various tours.  The throng of people ensures bedlam.  People coming, people going, follow the person with the colored paddle, last but not least men incessantly shouting, ‘Donkey rides’, ‘Donkey rides’, ‘Donkey rides'.

Thira from Nea Kameni

After 20 – 30 minutes, which seems like hours with the stress of finding our boat among the swarm of boats, we see it.  But the captain has to wait for other boats to handle their passengers.  Finally, we get on board with our NY friends already boarded at the first dock where the tour originated.  We pass between the massive cruise ships carrying thousands of passengers to our ship’s 100.  The view of town and the main island of Santorini is totally different from the caldera than from the city.  It needs to be seen.

Nea Kameni

We land on Nea Kameni, the youngest volcanic landform in the eastern Mediterranean.  It has been declared dormant, for now.  The last time it erupted was 1950.  Only vents of steam and hot springs in the caldera give evidence of any volcanic activity.  We hike up towards the center of the island hearing the story of Santorini and the volcano.  We are left on our own to view the rest of the volcano, but we have to be back at the prescribed time, or we will be left behind.  From there we cruise over to the hot springs.  We are told we will have to swim 150 – 200’ to get to the springs.  We decline but one of our friends decides to try the water.  Most of the people jump in, he takes the ladder slowly immersing himself.  It takes more courage to do that in my mind.  He stays in the water a few minutes before coming back to the ship, ‘Too cold to stay in the water’.  We cruise on to Thirasia for dinner.  We dine on chicken, meatballs, Greek salad, rice, vegetables, and bread.  Halvah and oranges for dessert.  As the sun approaches the horizon, we head towards Oia (pronounced eea).  

The sails are deployed not for actual sailing but for the romance of a sailing ship and sunset.  The clouds don’t cooperate today, blocking the sun before it hits the horizon.  It does make one brief appearance through the clouds but not for long.  I credit Gary Hart, a photographer I follow, for prompting me to keep watching for events even after it seems they are over. https://garyhartblog.com/

We get off at the dock where pandemonium prevailed earlier this afternoon.  It is quiet.  We walk directly up to the ticket office, purchase our ticket, then on to the platform for the cable car.  Nice and easy.  On top, there is a line of passengers waiting for the cable cars, taking them to one of the two cruise ships still waiting in the caldera.  We get back to our room finish packing for our boat ride to Mykonos.

We wake to thick clouds below us.  After a quick breakfast we meet our porter carrying our bags to the taxi the hotel arranged for us.  It is much less than the 80 Euros we were told we would have to pay when we arrived.  The sky is clear above us.  As we head towards the port, we see clouds filling the caldera like thick soup.  As we descend towards the port, we lose sight of everything seeing only a few hundred yards before details disappear into the mist.

We arrive at 9 for an expected 1010 departure.  Time passes and the ship does not appear.  We are moved on to the dock in anticipation of boarding but have to wait for the ship.  Once landed we watch people and vehicles disembark before we are allowed on.  Another mad dash ensues with people looking for places to stow luggage.  We find a spot and head up to the same seats we occupied on the first sea leg of our journey.  The water is a bit rougher than on our trip to Santorini.  I feel like a drunken sailor walking through the ship.  As we make stops at other islands, we notice we are arriving later and later.  Passengers are questioning why but we do not hear any real answer.  Once we arrive in Mykonos, we meet my family and learn that one of the engines on the Sea Jet was out of commission so we could cruise 24 knots instead of the normal 34.

 Mykonos

If you follow this blog, you will know I have been to Greece before, Mykonos in particular.  The last time I was here was in 2016.  I was not certain I would ever make it back here, but I am happy to be back.

Little Venice

The port area has really been updated over the past six years.  Gravel, unmarked, parking is now paved with landscaping.  There are other improvements, but the parking area and landscaping stands out the most to me.

Their house looks the same but the plants surrounding it have really grown.  Some had to be replaced because of disease but the replacements are filling in nicely.

After getting settled into the room we head out for lunch; Greek salad, gyros, spaghetti, pastitsio and moussaka.  All are tasty.  We return home to empty our luggage then tour around the house and property.  Later that evening we move outside visiting, catching up, having an enjoyable evening.  We finish off the evening with a pizza delivered from a local restaurant.

Having been here before means I should be able to find our way into and around town.  The buses still run as before but the buses themselves are new and improved.  Once we get into town, I recognize the general layout, but the shops are new and different.  Making our way to the port we receive a grand tour from my brother-in-law.  I have seen much of this before but now I learn stories behind buildings and parts of town.  He is happy to get out to see the town, but we get this feeling he is somewhat saddened at what the town and island have turned into.  Lots of foreign investment, lots of money in general.  It must be tough when you remember how it used to be from your younger days.  After walking the town, a bit more we return home for lunch.  Freshly caught red snapper and baked potatoes are on the menu.

Port of Mykonos

Today we are heading to the beach.  We don’t want to tell our friends we went all the way to Greece and never made it to the beach.  We catch the bus to Ornos Beach, one I have never gone to before.  The bus is full of beach goers, no empty seats on the bus, so we stand.  The beach is lined with umbrellas, chairs with cushions and beach towels.  We pick one out only to find it is reserved…  We didn’t see any sign or anything noting it was reserved but we are told that’s the way it is.  We move down the beach another three umbrellas to the unreserved section, which look the same as the ‘reserved section’.  The front three rows are 70 Euros, anything behind that is 50 Euros for the day.  We grab one on the front row.  The attendants quickly set up the umbrella, chairs, cushions and give us beach towels.  We liberally rub sunscreen on our bodies letting it dry before going into the water.  While we are waiting many people pass by selling; glasses, hats, jewelry, donuts, women’s blouses and kids play toys.  Each hopes to get our attention so they can stop and try to convince us that we cannot live without whatever they are selling.  We withstand the temptation.  Instead, we decide to live the dream, swimming in the Mediterranean in Greece.  We get to our knees looking at each other wondering if we want to go through with this.  The water in late May is cold, not a little cold – cold. 

Panagia Tourliani
Monastery entrance

Panagia Tourliani
Monastery

Usually, one can jump in paddle around a bit and warm up.  Not this time.  We paddle around, swim some strokes and are still cold.  We huddle together to conserve some heat while deciding what to do – exit quickly is the first thing that comes to mind. So we do.  While warming up we see young kids playing in the water for over an hour, seemingly not affected by the cold.

We order French fries and California rolls for lunch.  Both are good, so we relax.  We look at each other deciding to try the water again, ‘It can’t really be that cold’.  It is…  We decide to walk the beach seeing what other beach goers are doing.  All I can say is the bathing suits for women are getting smaller and the tattoos for both men and women are getting larger.  The vision of tattoos at the age of 80 is not a good one for me.  We catch the bus returning home in time to change then catch the bus back to town.  We have a tour of Delos scheduled for the evening.

Delos

Our tour is very informative, we visit eight to ten buildings, each with its own history and story.  The remaining buildings reveal that many people lived here.  Temples tell us that this was and is still a sacred place to the Greeks.  The tour has so much information that I was not able to digest it all.  I have included highlights, below.

Delos

Sacrificial altar

According to Greek mythology Delos is where the god Apollo and his sister Artemis were born.  The entire island is an archeological site, the largest in Europe.  As of the 5^th century BC the island was purged of dead bodies, purifying it; making it sacred.  That is when prohibition of dying or giving birth on the island was enacted.  Excavations show the island has been inhabited since the 3^rd millennium BC.

As of the 1^st century BC Delos was the center of all economic activity in the eastern Mediterranean.  It became a magnet for merchants, bankers and ship builders as well as artists and craftsmen.  Becoming wealthy and popular made it attractive to other cultures.  Delos was attacked and looted twice around 88 and 69 BC.  The destruction caused the island to decline eventually leading to it being abandoned.  Subsequent civilizations used the stone structures as they wanted.

At one time it’s estimated that the island had a population of over 20,000.  Archeologists have identified relics used for sculptors, bakers, butchers as well as other artisans.  The stonework is as detailed as we have seen at any of the other sites we have visited.  Mosaic floors, still in place, are stunning.

Lions of Delos -
Guarding the Sacred Way

On the boat ride back, we witness one of the best sunsets on this trip.  We move back and forth on the boat hoping to shoot the iconic sunset image.

Mykonos

The next morning, we make another trip into town to shoot a few more images in different parts of town, away from the crowds of tourists.  We also do some last-minute tourist shopping for small ‘Mykonos’ souvenirs.  That night we go out for dinner at Maki’s Place, close to the harbor.  The meal was outstanding we order; fish roe dip, shrimp risotto, mussels, calamari, and lamb kleftiko.  We came home with lots of leftovers.

Today is the day we leave for Athens, our last stop on this trip.  Before we go Nicida and I get a tour of the island.  We see the family monastery/chapel.  It is still maintained by the family and brings back memories for them as they got married here.  We stop at Ano Mera visiting Panagia Tourliani monastery built in the 15^th century.  Hungry, we pick up some treats at the nearby bakery.  We travel to other locations which I barely recognize because of the influx of people and the homes built for them.

We celebrate one last meal before heading to the harbor for our Sea Jet ride to Piraeus.

Next, Athens

Thank you for stopping by,

Mark