Day Seven: Fira? Thira? Who's Lost, Not Us!

We set out to find the ancient city of Thira this morning, so we asked directions, and one of the local women pointed us in the direction of the bus. We headed toward the bus stop where there were lots of people standing, and asked one of the women standing there if this was the bus to Thira, and she said “Fira”. Given that in Naxos, there was more than one name for the same place, I assumed that the same was true in Santorini, so assumed that Fira and Thira were the same place. Jordan tried to get me to go across the street to the Travel agency to catch the smaller bus to Thira, but since I am older and wiser, I won the argument.

For a mere 1.6 euros each, we got a great bus ride, again straight up the mountain until we reached the very top. The bus driver announced, “ride finished,” which was a polite way of saying, “get off the bus!” We had an absolutely delightful day walking from the town of Fira to Imerovigli, which is about a four hour walk round trip. The entire walk goes along the crest of the mountain, looking into the caldera (the inside) of the volcano, and in spots looks down on both sides of the island with amazing views out to the sea. The entire path is paving stones, with lovely little tourist shops, restaurants and small hotels built into the side of the caldera overlooking the water. This is one of the places that people come to enjoy the famous Santorini sunsets.

 

houses built on the caldera

 

We walked along the entire route and were completely surprised to not find the ancient city of Thira. At the end of the path, it was clear that there was nothing else, so we asked a woman who was resting under a tree if she knew where it was. We had a lovely conversation, she was visiting from Austria. People are always surprised when we tell them where we are from, as most of the tourists here are from Europe, they can get here with a 3 or 4 hour flight. When we tell them that it took us 30 hours, they just look at us and say, “so far, so far.” Yes, we are NOT looking forward to the return trip!

The only problem with this walk was Jordan harassing me about breathing heavy when we walked at a steady pace up long flights of stairs. Sheesh, she expects me, a 60 year old (61 in a few weeks!) to keep up with her, a 19 year old! Hmph, I’m going to get her to run a half marathon with me and then we’ll see how she does! Too bad I won’t be around when she’s 60 to give her a bad time!

This is truly an amazing place. It is thought that this is the place that Plato was referring to when he wrote about the lost city of Atlantis. Given that half the island disappeared into the sea with the last volcano, it makes a lot of sense that this is probably the area that he was referring to. In any case, Santorini claims the Atlantis story as its own, and there are many stores, restaurants and hotels carrying its name.

When we came back to our hotel, we asked the owner of the hotel where the ancient city of Thiros is, and he pointed up the mountain right beside the hotel. There it is, he said, straight up that zigzag rode. We could take the tourist bus up there, but it will be a good workout to do the hour long walk straight up the mountain. We will see how we do tomorrow, maybe it will be Jordan huffing and puffing!

Zigzag road to Thira

 

Day Six: Santorini Satisfaction!

We were up bright and early in order to pack and return the rental car by 11:00 so that we wouldn’t have to pay an extra day. We had a few hours to kill before the ferry came, so we did some last minute souvenir shopping. Yes, our lucky families are in for some lovely Greek treasures! They have a great service here, for one and a half euros they take care of your suitcases so that you don’t have to drag them all over town while you are waiting for the ferry.

The ferry ride was lovely, as the weather was nice and warm, and we had some great views of the islands. I had to keep moving out of the sun, as I was actually getting too hot, but Jordan managed to bake the entire trip! She is getting nice and brown!

 

Arriving in Santorini was very exciting, as we sailed along the entire length of the island before finally pulling into port. It is a long crescent shaped island, with incredible red cliffs, and the houses way up high overlooking the sea. Santorini is a volcanic island, and every time that the volcano erupts, it completely changes the shape of the island. The last time it erupted, part of the island sunk, creating three separate islands. This is where the lost city of Atlantis is supposed to be! Fortunately, it hasn’t erupted here for hundreds of years, so we should be okay.

Cities built on the rim of the volcano

 

 

 

 

The ride from the port to our hotel was about twenty minutes, up a zigzag mountain road, straight up over the mountain to the other side of the island.

We are staying at the Boathouse, a lovely little hotel in the seaside village of Kamari. Our room opens right onto the pool, with a black volcanic sand beach and the ocean beyond. What a view! We feel like we have landed in a magic place!

The view from our room, with the ocean behind the trees.

Our Hotel: The Boathouse

After lying around the pool for a few hours, we strolled along the boardwalk, which runs the entire length of the beach. Eventually, the beach ends when it comes up against the mountain. Amazing!

We enjoyed a delicious supper of Santorini salad (Santorini’s version of a Greek salad, with the goat cheese and tomatoes grown right here!), tzatzki and chicken with bruschetta. Did I ever tell you that Greek is my favourite food? It is going to be hard to go back to regular eating when we get back home!

Day Five: Driving in Circles

Just when we think we are getting to know the island, we find that we are no better at following Greek road signs than we were on the first day! We were so hoping to find the back side of Mount Zeus, as it is supposed to be a great hike with fabulous views, but in spite of repeated attempts to find it, circling around and going back and forth around the area that we thought the map told us, we just could not find it.

However, we did find another beautiful beach, and this time, there was a sign to tell us where we were! The road to this beach zig zagged through the mountains, on a narrow road with no shoulders and hair pin turns. Every time a big truck or bus came toward us, we pulled over to the edge as close as we could get and stopped so that the truck could get by. It’s a good thing, because they all tend to drive well into the oncoming lane, and given their size, they would definitely win in a game of chicken! Over the cliff would be no way to end our holiday!

 

Moutsouna Bay

 



Jordan is quite impressed with my driving, as we have ended up a few lanes that suddenly narrow to the point that it is obvious that they were not meant for cars. Backing out of these tight places is quite a challenge, especially when a steep hill is involved!

We have passed some interesting looking characters, and fortunately a few let us take their pictures. Here is one of a man who was just walking down the road in the middle of nowhere, no houses for miles around.

 We stopped to ask another old lady if we could take her picture, and she shook her head “no”, but asked if we would give her a ride. I NEVER pick up strangers, but what the heck, this is an island, and it really does feel like everyone is family here. I took her down the road a few miles, and let her out. Thinking that she would let me take her picture now, I asked again, and she still shook her head “no.” Oh well, it was still nice to do a good turn, but I really did want her picture! (sigh)

After much wandering around in the mountains, we finally found a Kouros, which is a stone statue that is lying down in the forest. It is thought that these statues originally were upright, but fell over when they were being moved. It looks like the Kouros is made all of one gigantic piece of stone, so it must have been a real accomplishment to carve!

We also passed by a marble quarry, very beautiful! There is marble everywhere here, it seems so amazing that something that is so valuable is so easily obtainable here!

At the end of our drive, we went to the end of the road near our hotel to see a resort that was halfway built before all the locals here put an end to it. This is a huge piece of property, overlooking a beautiful beach, with many sprawling buildings, and every room opening out onto the ocean. The problem is, that someone forged a document telling the developer that they had the deed to the property. At the time, the government here was a dictatorship, so the locals couldn't do anything to stop the illegal building on what was supposed to be protected land. Once the government changed, the locals were successful in putting a stop to the project, and now it sits abandoned. Very sad all the way around, it is now a blight on the landscape, and I can't help but feel sorry for the poor people who much have wasted millions building something that is now just waiting to be torn down.

 

 

We are off to Santorini tomorrow. Jordan has been anxiously awaiting this part of the trip ever since we planned to come to Greece. Hopefully the weather will be good so that we can sit out on the deck and get a tan!

Day Four: Jet Lagged Jordy!

 

Jordy just couldn’t drag herself out of bed today, so after laying around the pool for a few hours, I set off to do some exploring on my own. I decided to head back to Halki, one of the towns that we had driven through yesterday, as it looked so quaint. Halki is a very old town, with narrow lanes overgrown with grape vines and backed by olive groves. It is a fascinating town, as many of the townspeople still dress in the traditional way, and many of the lanes end in abandoned buildings overgrown with vines. There are also a few very old churches here, and even a castle!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tower of Gratsia

 

St. George Diasoritis Byzantine Church

 

On my way back, I stopped at yet another very old church from the 6th century. I had to walk about a kilometre off the road to get to this one, but it was well worth the trek. It was so unbelievably peaceful, I was just happy to sit and contemplate the amazing history that is in this place, and the incredible link to my God. It brought tears to my eyes to be in such a beautiful place, and I felt what a beautiful, rare privilege this entire trip has been!

 

 

Church of Ayios Nikolaus

Day Three: The Wandering Wonder Women!

Getting up around 8:00 in the morning, it is 10:00 pm back home, so both of us like to go online to check emails and Jordan her Facebook. It is very strange to be on the opposite side of the clock from everyone back home, so we make sure to do all our connecting early morning and just before bed.  

After yet another delicious breakfast and a slow start to our morning, we finally set out to go exploring around 11:00. We set out to find the Cave of Zeus and Mount Zeus. Of course, we took a wrong turn, and instead of ending up in the middle of the island where the mountain is, we ended up driving clear across the island, ending up at a beautiful beach. While it was quite a spectacular site, we had absolutely no idea where we were, and no clue how to find our way back.

 

Hmmm, driving with Jordan as the navigator is much the same as driving with her grandfather as navigator, after much conversation about map reading skills, I finally pulled over to try to figure it out, but it really didn’t make much more sense to me than it did to Jordan. We turned around and went back the same way we came, stopping at every sign and trying to find it on the map to see if we could figure out where we were. The good thing about driving around this island is that there are interesting sites and beautiful scenery at every turn, so the adventure is fun whether you know where you are or not! Here are a few of the lovely sites that we found along the way.

 

Finally, we saw a sign pointing toward a town that was on the map, and as luck would have it, it was exactly the town that took us to the mountain and the cave.

After parking our car at the bottom of the hike, we started up a lovely path with set in paving stones, past natural springs; pretty luxurious for a hike, these Greeks really know how to make life easy for us tourists!

 

Not so fast, soon the path ended up and we had to pick our way straight up the mountain.

We scrambled over rocks large and small for about half an hour until we finally came to the cave. “I’m not going in there,” said Jordan, “there will be bats, and besides I’ve seen too many horror movies.” As I approached the cave, I decided that I was in complete agreement with her, as it was pitch black inside, with a dirt floor and who knows what inside. I changed my mind about the Greeks making things easy for us tourists. The least they could have done was paved the walkway and given us a few ceiling lights, but I guess that would have ruined the natural ambience of the place.

The views from the climb made the hike all worthwhile, and we were both grateful for a chance to work off some of the calories that we have taken in from the amazing Greek food that we have been feasting on. After getting lost a few more times, we finally made it back to our hotel to enjoy some sunbathing for a few hours before heading back into town for supper.

We got to witness a real Greek wedding at the church in the middle of town. It was so cool to see the bride being escorted to the church complete with violins and her entire family following her.

 

After wandering around town shopping for a few hours, we chose the restaurant with the most people in it for supper, as we figured that would likely have the best food. We were not disappointed, as we enjoyed the most delicious Greek salad and mousakka that I have ever had in my life! Ah, life is good on a Greek island, we may never come home!

Day Two: Paradise At Last!

Wow! We both slept until 9:30! We discovered that when you are that tired, jet lag doesn’t seem to be a problem! We went down to the pool where Mrs. Moustakis had cooked us a delicious breakfast including a Greek dish made with scrambled eggs and zucchini, potato pancakes, fresh fruit and hot tea! “Ahh, this is the life!” We enjoyed a view of the ocean on one side and the pool on the other. Sigh, the long journey was definitely worth it!

We went to the beach for a long walk. We enjoyed amazing views of the water as we ambled over rocks and hills, through a beautiful cedar forest, which is considered the most beautiful in all of Greece, then back down to long stretches of deserted beach, a true island paradise! ……..until……. “What’s that I see? Jordan, that man walking down the beach doesn’t have any clothes on!”

 “Oh, Grandma,” says she, all cool and oh so grown up, “That’s just how they do it here!”

 “Oh, oh, I can’t look, let’s just pretend we’re looking at your phone until they walk by.” “EWWWWW, he made sure to walk right by us, just as close as he could, EWWWW! Fortunately there was a nice private area just ahead where we laid down our towels so that we could do a little sunbathing of our own. Sure enough, though, some people came along, and set up further down the beach…….proceeding to…….REMOVE ALL THEIR CLOTHES! “I can’t believe it, can’t they afford bathing suits in this country?” I have been to topless beaches in Thailand and Mexico before, but never before to places where both men and women sunbathed completely in the buff. As we were leaving the beach, we passed a sign that said “nudism is forbidden.” I guess that some people just can’t read!

 

We ended up renting a car for the rest of our stay here, as we are a very long way from town, and there is no public transit this far out. We had a great time exploring, getting lost and turned around many times, as the roads do not have names, but just signs that point to the next town. Since we weren’t real sure which towns we were going to, we made a lot of wrong turns. Fortunately, Jordan shares the same sense of adventure that I do, and we had as much fun going the wrong way as we did when we finally got going in the right direction!

The only problem we had was when we were leaving the town of Naxos after eating supper, and we were wondering why people were honking at us, as we weren’t doing anything wrong, or so we thought. Finally, a woman stood out in the middle of the street, flagging us down. She came up to the window and explained with hand signs and very broken English that we should turn around, “or the police,” and she pantomimed writing a ticket. “Oh no”, I exclaimed in surprise, “this is a one way street!” Hmmm, tough when you don’t know how to read Greek!”

We did go and see the Temple of Apollo today. This is built right in the port, and it is the first thing people see when they arrive on the island. Apollo, the god of sun and light, is an appropriate symbol of this island, as it is just so very beautiful. This temple was started in the early fifth century, but has largely fallen into ruin, with many of the stones carried away over time and used in building the Kastro or castle in the 13^th century, which is situated in the town just above.

 

 

 

A Dream Come True

 

Thirty hours into our trip after three plane rides including Vancouver to Toronto, Toronto to Zurich, Zurich to Athens, a one hour bus ride from Athens to the port of Pireaus, a three hour wait for the ferry, and finally a six hour ferry ride to the island of Naxos, my granddaughter Jordan and I began to question our sanity. “What were we thinking, why didn’t we just go somewhere simple like Mexico or Hawaii?”

Of course, the answer lay in the dreams that we both shared of going somewhere beautiful and wonderful where most people that we know have not been. Years ago, Jordan and I were talking about where she would want to go when she graduated from high school. Before I knew it, not only had she graduated, but she was fully embarked upon her college education. “Holy Cow”, I said to her, we better go on that trip I promised you before you finish university! “Where do you want to go?” I asked. “Well,” she said, “since the time I saw Mama Mia, I have really wanted to see Greece.” As we all know, the movies lie, but little did we know how much of the exhausting business of arriving was deleted from the Mama Mia story line.

However, the story line did not disappoint, as once we landed on the island of Naxos, in spite disembarking from the ferry looking and feeling somewhat like lost refugees, we prayed that the owners of our hotel got the message that we desperately needed a pick-up. As we dragged our tired, bedraggled bodies as well as our luggage behind us, we saw them standing there holding the “Welcome to Faros Hotel” sign. I was so relieved, I wanted to kiss them, but thought that might scare them away!  Our hosts, Mr. and Mrs. Moustakis and their son Niko were waiting to bring us to our hotel, which involved yet another 45 minute journey by van. This pickup was such a nice personal touch, and we began to relax as we enjoyed the drive around the island, past beaches and lovely little towns.

Finally, we arrived at our hotel, a lovely little establishment run by the two brothers and their parents. Although it was dark, we could hear the waves from the ocean below us, and could just make out the pool just beyond the open air lobby. We checked emails, and Jordan her Facebook, as we had not been able to get online once we left Toronto.  We both wanted to let our friends and family know that we had arrived safely. Finally, at 1:00 am after 33 hours of being awake, except for a few catnaps along the way, we finally settled into our beds for a good night’s sleep.

A very long ferry ride!