Santorini
Transcribed from my notebook, written on 26 March 2007. Omissions/edits in brackets. Also, this is slightly out of order as I was on Ios before Santorini.
"The ferry ride in today was pretty calm and pretty short. Arriving was a bit of a surprise, though. The boat pulled up to what looked like a shear cliff, but surprise - there was a port at the bottom[*]. We had no problem finding our ride and were on our way to the hotel/hostel in no time.
"The island itself is amazing - and totally different from Ios or Paros. It is much more up and down ("mountains" and ridges everywhere) and the land has an ash-like white color. Very apparent that this is/was a volcano. And I get to see all of this with a dog by my side listening to gentle waves breaking on the stones under this black sand beach.
"We have three nights here, but I'm not quite sure what we are going to do. Everything is just opening (the hotel we're at opened only hours ago), but nothing appears busy. We've been exploring islands for the past few days, which is fun, but I'm not sure how much more we can do. I figured an island this famous would have more,but maybe I should look in the guide book.
"One saving grace may be a group of girls staying where we are. They could just be some nice, new people with whom I can talk over a beer... or a mildly fruitier selection on the beach. New people are always fun + can usually be counted on for something to do when Matt and Amanda feel like sitting in the room and taking a nap [at this point in the trip, they were both pretty worn out]. I can't blame them for wanting to do nothing - I just prefer doing nothing on a beach it is unlikely that I'll ever see again. New people also let them have more "them" time. And that's fine with me. I can settle with sitting on a black beach sipping cocktails [...]. Life is good."
* A few weeks later, in the comfort of my apartment, I can across a CNN story telling of a Greek cruise ship that ran aground and sank in the Santorini harbor. This came as little surprise having seen the harbor (the old one is shallow and boats moor far away - the other is new & still under construction). Just an interesting side-note.
"The ferry ride in today was pretty calm and pretty short. Arriving was a bit of a surprise, though. The boat pulled up to what looked like a shear cliff, but surprise - there was a port at the bottom[*]. We had no problem finding our ride and were on our way to the hotel/hostel in no time.
"The island itself is amazing - and totally different from Ios or Paros. It is much more up and down ("mountains" and ridges everywhere) and the land has an ash-like white color. Very apparent that this is/was a volcano. And I get to see all of this with a dog by my side listening to gentle waves breaking on the stones under this black sand beach.
"We have three nights here, but I'm not quite sure what we are going to do. Everything is just opening (the hotel we're at opened only hours ago), but nothing appears busy. We've been exploring islands for the past few days, which is fun, but I'm not sure how much more we can do. I figured an island this famous would have more,but maybe I should look in the guide book.
"One saving grace may be a group of girls staying where we are. They could just be some nice, new people with whom I can talk over a beer... or a mildly fruitier selection on the beach. New people are always fun + can usually be counted on for something to do when Matt and Amanda feel like sitting in the room and taking a nap [at this point in the trip, they were both pretty worn out]. I can't blame them for wanting to do nothing - I just prefer doing nothing on a beach it is unlikely that I'll ever see again. New people also let them have more "them" time. And that's fine with me. I can settle with sitting on a black beach sipping cocktails [...]. Life is good."
* A few weeks later, in the comfort of my apartment, I can across a CNN story telling of a Greek cruise ship that ran aground and sank in the Santorini harbor. This came as little surprise having seen the harbor (the old one is shallow and boats moor far away - the other is new & still under construction). Just an interesting side-note.
