Through the Greek Isles - Santorini

There's a tale about a man who saw a bird in a tree and wondered why the bird was in his neighborhood when it could go almost anywhere if it wanted to. It was then he realized that so could he...

On this trip we've enjoyed the empowerment of saying 'just wait a while' to our normal to-do list. Our careers may not be thanking us but we're getting some great memories, together time, and life lessons that are of a higher worth to us. Although I think we timed it pretty right too! ; ) The unique vistas of the european coastline are spectacular and are safely stored in our memory banks.

I've wanted to visit Santorini since seeing it on my friend's Facebook, and in two great items of quality entertainment: America's Next Top Model and Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants.

Our ship had arrived in the night and we awoke to find ourselves floating within a seeming circle of high, vegetation-less mountains. Great. We were floating over an old volcano. On the upside, there was a streak of white buildings clinging to the top of two of the mountains. One was the famed Santorini!

To get up we went on small boats to the shore then had the option of 1) taking the donkeys up the winding stairway; 2) walking up amongst the crafty and vengeful donkeys and all their poo; or 3) taking the furnicular/cable car.

We had just a few hours and had plans to really explore up the top so we took the soft option - enjoying the company of some hilarious crew members from another ship on the way up to get free wifi for their iPads from a cafe.

Up the top we were confused. Where were all the postcard shots? To get away from the touristy stuff we took a punt and found ourselves on a walkway headed to the side of the town and slightly upwards. About an hour along we found we had gone the right way and we had struck gold; or rather, visions of soft curvy white and deep jewel blues...

In returning to our ship we took the wrong and very long way back. Thankfully though it wasn't the 'wrong, and very brief' way back (i.e. quick drop, sudden stop..or splash, rather..). Following some wrong directions we found ourselves on a bus winding over bare hills further and further away from the cable car. Finally the bus stopped at a very popular spot, the drop off for Oia, the supposed 'best location' in the area. Twist of fate, if only we'd known earlier!

We had to stay on the bus due to the time and mass of people and were soon charged another fare. It turns out the word 'furnicular' - that all the directors on our cruise were using - sounds very similar to something in the Oia area. The ticket man blamed us for not speaking Greek (!) and not using the more standard word 'cable car'. For a 3 euro round trip we weren't going to complain though. To think that some on our ship had spent a hundred plus dollars to come this way on a guided tour!

The previous day the island of Mykonos had been on the itinerary. However the winds blew fiercely and the waves were high so there was no chance we were going on land via the little boats. A friend told me that in this region there are three words for wind. The individual meanings are: 'swing mover', 'chair pusher' and 'unseats rider from horse'. I think we had the last type as we went past Mykonos!

Ephesus up next!

Amanda