Island Hopping: Santorini

The next morning at the crack of dawn we were down at Pireaus, Athens' port, hopping on a high-speed ferry to the island of Santorini. Four fast but amazingly-smooth hours later we arrived. What an incredible place! Santorini is actually composed of the jagged edges of a massive old volcano that has been submerged. So the inside of the circular formation is very steep cliffs, while the outside gently slopes down to the sea. The boat arrives on the steep side, and that's where we stayed, perched on the top of the cliff, looking in towards the "caldera".


It's such a stunning location that we started taking pictures almost immediately - we ended up with almost 400. Particularly on our first day, the combination of blue sky, blue water and the sugar-cube-white buildings of the Greek islands made it almost impossible to stop shooting. Here's Johnny in maximum artsy-mode, utilising the complimentary fruit-bowl:


It was a really interesting time to be in Santorini, as "The Season" was about to begin and everyone was frantically painting, decorating and generally tarting-up their hotels and shops. Because there were only a few tourists in Fira (the capital), the locals were really relaxed and friendly, accomodation was still very affordable yet most of the restaurants and shops were open.

It's a tiring place though - being perched on top of a cliff, most of the streets are actually more like staircases, and cars can't get close to most of the town, so you end up doing a lot of huffing and puffing. But most of my favourite places are car-free and this is no exception. The only real problem with the layout is that the main delivery vehicle is hence the donkey. And they tend to leave the occasional reminder of their services right in the middle of the thoroughfare...


Oh, and we made a few furry friends too - the place is a cat's paradise!