santorini, greece

Remember how earlier I said that we always make it just in time when we have somewhere to be early in the morning? Same thing applied when we had an early ferry to catch from Athens to Santorini. We ran aboard just as they were making the announcement that the ship was ready to depart. I don't know how it keeps happening, but we've been darn lucky. The ferry ride took 8 hours, but I think we slept for at least half of the time. Mike was starting to complain that he wasn't feeling so good, but figured it was lack of sleep or that fact that we didn't have a proper breakfast. We had lunch at the fast food place on board and waited and waited until we arrived in Santorini.

While we were waiting in line at the port tourist and accomodation info office, a guy from a hotel in town approached us and told us about his hotel and offered us a rate of 35 Euros/night. We were a little hesitant and wanted to look into a hostel, but one of the hostels only operated until October, and the other one would be the same price as a nice looking hotel (he had a brochure!). He ended up saying ok ok 30 Euros/night and we said ok! We actaully got really lucky in meeting him because at the port there was NOTHING and we would've had to figure a way up the cliffs and into town on our own; he just whisked us right up in the hotel shuttle. Man did we get a DEAL on the place, it was a reallllly nice room with ensuite and a huge balcony. We even had a fridge and heater! The chart on the back of the door said the average rate for the room was actaully around 85 Euros a night, but I guess since it's the off season they'll take what they can get! By this time Mike really wasn't feeling well and wanted to lay down as soon as we got in. He was also complaining of being really cold, so it was good thing we had that heater. I went for a quick walk around town and to get some food for us. Santorini is SO beautiful. It was right around sunset, and all the buildings are so white, and it was so QUIET. A lot of shops and things were closed down (probably for the winter) and it was very peaceful - not another tourist in sight! hahah..just a lot of stray cats and dogs running around..

When I got back the room was a boiling hot 32 degrees according to the heater, and there was Mike, wearing both his jackets, hood, and gloves, under the covers shivering away, sweating bullets and going from hot to cold all the time. I made some soup (noodles and soup stock made with boiling water in our hotel room kettle, haha). He was really sick for the next few days and we have no idea what it was. It may have been food poisoning from the burger on the ferry, but I had the same thing and also he was complaining of not feeling well even before he ate that. We were only planning on three nights in Santorini, but he was sick in bed and we didn't do anything for all of those days. Looking at the brightside it couldn't have happened at a better time. We had a private, quiet, comfortable room for him to rest in and we were in a place without a lot of sights to see. It would have been awful for it to happen in somwhere like Rome. We stayed another two nights, and by our last day when he was actaully feeling better and ready for some sightseeing to the black sand beach and to the neighbouring town of Oia, it was POURING rain and thundering, lol. Oh well, I think we've lost a lot of our sightseeing energy and didn't mind just doing nothing for once. We're pretty much just counting down the days till home time at this point! Mike braved the rain to go get some food from our regular souvlaki guy here, and the streets were totally flooded with gushing rivers.. part of the embankment outside our hotel even collapsed and caused a mini landslide. There is a fruit and vegetable stand just on the corner, and any fruit that had fallen to the ground was actually washed away.. when the rain stopped we had some potatoes, carrots and pieces of lettuce practically at our hotel doorstep! lol.. I guess they have some drainage problems here.

Our last day in Santorini, before we caught the ferry back to Athens, we took the short bus ride to the other side of the island to the town of Oia. Oia was beautiful as well, and supposedly the best place in all of Greece to watch the sunset. Of course it had to storm the night before! hahah.. Oia was REALLY quiet, with only a few cafes open. There were a ton of stray dogs, and we had at least 2 following us around for the whole time. We also met a very angry local running around with a stick looking for the pack of dogs who had just killed two of his cats. I guess with it being winter all these animals are more desperate. They seemed to be doing a lot of construction in Oia as well, and we saw this pack of donkeys that were carting materials up and down the hill.. haha they were so cute!

The island was great. I think we'll definitely have to come back in the summertime though so we can do more beach stuff!