Adio Ulus Lararassi

It was our last day in Santorini with the lovely Lu.  She had to return to Australia a couple of days early as she had previous ball commitments.

So it was with a beer, a hug and a little tear that we saw her off up the hill to her waiting chariot..... well, her airport transfer bus.

Thanks for a truly triffic holiday Lu - you are still the funniest mofo I've ever met! 

Madds and I still had a whole day before our flight to Athens, so we headed north to Imerovigli

 It's about 3 kms from Fira.  It took us about 45 minutes to walk it taking into consideration the stairs and the heat.

There were a few children begging on the street there, but this little boy was trying his hardest to work for his money.  He had this tiny piano accordion and when we first walked close to him he was resting his head on the top of it and wasn't playing, so we approached him and asked him to play.  He busted out some great songs and he was a total natural.  So naturally we danced and gave him some money.  Who knows, maybe one day he'll become famous and we can say we knew him back in the day.

All along the top of the cliff there are doors like this one that look like they go nowhere, but when you look over they have sideways staircases that go down to hotels or restaurants or bars.

On our way back we considered walking all the down the 600 steps to the bottom of the cliff where the ferry comes in.... well, Madds considered it.  I was certain I wasn't going to do it.  We did a bit of it and it was so steep and smelled like donkey poop, so much that Madds was dry retching...... so we didn't have to do it. 

Efcharisto Donkeys!

The other way to get up and down is a more civilized cable car, but thanks to our check out time looming near, we couldn't do that either...... :-)

 Our last Santorinian meal considered of a Greek Salad with the best Feta cheese our cheese connoisseur had ever tasted, some kalamata olives, and beetroot dip.  Incredible!

 Then..... to wait for our airport chariot, we sat by the pool at our hotel and drank cocktails, made by the fabulous Stefano.

Yiamas!

Cheers!

The Hilarious Tour Guide

For the culture part of this leg we took in a tour of the south part of the island.  This included Akrotiri, the ancient buried city that was said to have been lived in 4000 years ago, before the great volcanic eruption.

The old city has been covered by a massive building to protect it.  They had to stop excavating about 8 years ago due to a lack of funds, but they have only uncovered about 3% of the city thus far.  They say that it spans out over 4 square kms.  The buildings that they had uncovered already were 3 stories high and had about 10 rooms per floor.  These people really lived in luxury!

Our guide, Katarina was from Crete, but had been working on Santorini for 25 years as a guide.  She was super knowledgable and hysterically funny.  Not everyone on our tour got the jokes and looked a little confused most of the time.

They found wall paintings when they dug down and somehow took them down in one piece and moved them to a museum in Fira.  Some of them were metres high - amazing!  

Here are a couple of the paintings.

 We loved the little guide - she was so funny!

After the city we had to go down to the car park and wait for the bus..... this was the only piece of shade available. 

But we did get to watch this man teeter in and out of the water on the rocks, so all was not lost!

 The next stop on the tour was to the Black Beach, so called because of the black sand... and let me tell you - she holds in her heat!  We stayed here for a couple of hours, so we got ourselves a brolly and some sunbeds and swam in the crystal water.  Once you get off the black sand, it's all pebbles under the water.  Crazy, but it's true!  

This little lady in the picture brought us cocktails.

Katarina took us to a couple of little villages along the way.  It's amazing to think that people actually live in them.  There is nothing really around except other funny little houses, one or two restaurants, one shop and of course, 27 churches!

As we were walking through the little village, Katarina led us down a tiny street to see what the town looked like after the volcano eruption.  There is only one main street in the village, but the next street over is totally derelict and has never been restored.

The last stop on our tour was to a winery. We tasted three wines and were given a hard, volcanic rock type bread biscuit to apparently cleanse the palate!  It certainly ripped out the lining of your gums - so I guess that is a sort of cleansing.

 This was the view from the balcony at the Santo Winery.  

Check out how the grapes grow here and it's the same in Turkey.  They are hardy little buggers, crawling on the ground like weeds.  They train the plant to grow in a circular shape at the bottom making the branches and roots into a basket shape under the plant, which is where all the grapes collect into - Ingenious!

This was our final sunset in Santorini.  

We popped ourselves into a cliff top bar and had ourselves a lovely cocktail to celebrate the occasion.  

 All around us were loved up couples kissing and gazing at each other. 

Not awkward at all.

 I found Santorini to be absolutely beautiful in parts and completely desolate and derelict in   others.  There's a lot of buildings that look like this ⬇ all over the island.  There are not many trees, just low scrub and lots of rubbish everywhere, but then you arrive in a village or town and it will have been well looked after and maintained.  The women paint the buildings white every year.  I'm not quite sure why it's a woman's job, but then again, I don't have to do it, so the question didn't bother me too much.

It was hard to work out where the locals would do their shopping for food or clothes or anything other than fridge magnets really, and yet they have a paintball arena!

Well Done Sun!

One of the many highlights on Santorini is the sunsets.  We were advised to head to Oia, the most northern part of the island and to book a table for dinner.  Our lovely lady, Stavroula at reception organised us the best table and the best restaurant. 

We arrived, and had to wind our way through the tiny cobble stoned laneway streets, up and down stairs to find the place.  There were people everywhere.  The streets are really only about 2 people wide, so anyone who stops to look at something or turn around to see where their friend is or stops to take a photo, everybody on the street has to stop as well.  There was a lot of tutting and sighing..... and not just by me!

 When we got there we weren't disappointed at all.

I think the pictures tell the story.... However, I will just add that our driver dropped us off at 7 and our booking was for 7 and that he would be ready to head back to Fira (where we were staying) at 9pm, so after the sun had gone down at about 8.10ish, we finished off our bottle of wine and raced back to the bus to be there on time.  When we arrived there he stopped us at the door and said, "oh no, we're not going to leave until 10pm."  There were 2 other couples on our bus and they'd already been back and had the same information, so we couldn't just wait for them and suggest we all go at 9..... so poor us, we had to schlep back up the steps and find a bar to sit in for an hour.  This would normally have been fine, but we were tired after a massivo day and wanted to head home.  

Also.... I had dum down wid dumthing.  But please don't let that detract from the lovely vistas that await you below.

 Efcharisto Santorini

After the sun went down - people clapped!

On the way home, Lu got talking to one of the guys on the bus and it turns out that he works at the same hospital that she does!  Honestly, is there anyone she doesn't know?