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Wednesday 9th May 2012
We left Adelaide flying business class on Virgin Australia to Melbourne
and then business class on Etihad Airlines to Abu Dhabi before flying on
to Athens. The first leg of the trip from Melbourne to Abu Dhabi was 14
hours. We left Melbourne just after 10:00pm and were served a sumptuous
three course meal on just after we took off. The seats were very
comfortable and unfolded to make a very comfortable bed that was almost
flat. It is a much better system than the "cocoon" style offered by some
other airlines. It was a long night and dark the whole way. We arrived
in Abu Dhabi at about 6:00am local time. Abu Dhabi is flat, dusty and
surrounded by sand. It is not a very inviting place from the air. Note
the "cloverleaf" interchange in the middle of the desert, in the right
hand photo.
Thursday
10th May 2012
We had a two hour stop before continuing our journey with Etihad to
Athens. This leg took another 4.5 hours. We then had another 4 hour wait
in Athens until our turbo prop plane took us to Santorini (50minutes).
We were met at the airport and taken to the Volcano Reflexions Hotel in
Fira where we were greeted by the young and very attractive
Irene and Ilias.
Our room has plain white painted walls but the ceiling is vaulted.
It it accessed via a very narrow and steep wooden stairway. At the top
was a very narrow and low blue door with a lock that was almost
impossible to insert the key. The doors are narrow and the vaulted ensuite bathroom is across a little
passage all within our room complex. The bed is huge and the room size
ideal, with a low window (glass shutters) overlooking the bay
and the three cruise ships.
Santorini is noted for its sunsets and we were not disappointed and
watched the red sun disappear behind the island out in the caldera.
Irene gave us a list of places to see and
places to eat. So we headed off to Mama's Restaurant and both had a
bottle of beer and a huge Moussaka. It was excellent. There were probably
10 people sitting under the huge white umbrellas in the balmy evening.
Four were Canadian and the others probably American. We were told that
Fira was full of Australians at the moment.
After dinner we took a few more photos of the lights and went to bed.
Friday 11th May 2012
In the morning the three cruise ships had gone. The early morning
silence was broken only by the bells on the donkeys as they were herded
to work carrying tourists up the winding cliff from the bay to the ridge
top. After a hearty breakfast we began the cliff top walk to Oia
(pronounced ee - ah). The journey is supposedly 12kms but it seemed
further and took us just over three hours. During this time we passed
through the numerous narrow streets between the hotels, shops and holiday homes.
It seemed like walking through the streets of Venice, the only
difference being that these streets ascend hills and descend into
valleys. As we left the streets of Fira the surroundings became a little
more rural. We passed through the villages of Firostefani, Imerovigli,
Finikia and finally we came to Oia. We had left Fira at about 9:15am and arrived in
the centre of Oia at about 12:30pm
Oia is spectacular with all it's white walled buildings dotted with the
bright blue domes of the numerous churches. We had lunch in Oia
and then caught the local bus back to Fira (2 x
€1.60)
arriving back at the Reflections Volcano hotel at about 3:00pm. The
midday temperature was quite warm, probably about 27˚C
and there was blue sky and only one or two small clouds.
In fact the weather was perfect.
We wandered around Fira looking for a place for a light meal for dinner.
We ended up in a place with a spruiker out the front. He convinced us
that this was the place to eat as the food was fresh and not frozen like
his competitors on down the road. His swarthy looks and the casual look
of the long haired waiters inside made it look as though it might have
been run by the local Greek mafia. But they gave us
each a glass of white wine "on the house" for no reason at all, which we
gratefully accepted. So they can't have been that bad. We each had a very nice Souvlaki and left.
Saturday 12th May 2012
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Today started slowly and after a leisurely
breakfast we checked out of the Hotel and Ilias carried our suitcases up
the 50 metre path to the rim of the caldera from where it was all down
hill to the Pension Petros. It was here that we were to meet up with the
tour group and spend tonight.
We dropped our bags off and caught a local bus to Perissa. This is a small town with huge rocky outcrop as a
backdrop and a black beach. We had a mixed fish lunch at one of the
beach front tavernas. As there was little else to do, we caught the bus
back to Fira and then took another bus to Akrotiri. We didn't look at
the ruins but wandered down to the beach which was supposed
to have red sand but in fact it was closer to a shade of
black. |
We bought drinks in
one of the beachside tavernas (the cave of Nickalos) and listened to the ocean lapping
at the water's edge, relaxed and
watching the dogs sleep.
We caught a bus back to Fira and checked into the hotel. We had a
meeting at 6:00pm and met up with the rest of the group. Then onto
Mama's House for dinner. Afterwards Briar and some of the others
indulged in a "fish massage" by soaking their feet in an aquarium full
of small Turkish skin eating fish for about 20 minutes.
We returned to the hotel and went to bed.
Sunday 13th May 2012
Our day began quite early when we left Pension Petros at 8:50am.
Part of the deal was that they would arrange a small bus to take the
group with luggage down to catch the ferry. The bus arrived on time and
we arrived at the port at about 8:15. We had breakfast door at the port,
then boarded the ferry
which took us to Ios via the islands of Folegandros and Sikinos. We
arrived at Ios at about 1:00pm and had lunch in a local taverna. Then
made our way up the hill to the hotel, Homer's Inn.
We headed back down to the beach for a swim. The water was cold
but not too cold! At about 6:30pm the group set off, up the hill
(everything of interest always seems to be up the hill on these islands)
for the town of Chora. It seems that the principle town on each island
is called Chora. This, Chora, is renowned to be the party place on the
island. We passed through the narrow white painted streets and on up to
the three churches on top of the hill. We finally made it up to the
highest one, Aghios Nikolaos. We then descended back to the village and
settled outside the Majito Bar, and relaxed with some of the various
cocktails on offer (our bill came to €34). Had a yiros from the little shop next door and found our way back to the
hotel by about 10:15pm.
Monday 14th May 2012
Breakfast wasn't served until about 8:30am, and so the day got off
to a relaxing start. We then walked back up the winding paths to Chora,
where we had been the previous evening. We continued past the Majito Bar
until we came to the windmills. These were in various states of
disrepair. After taking many photos we returned to the Majito Bar,
which had transformed itself from a cocktail bar to a place that served
breakfasts and lunches, and relaxed in the shade of the umbrellas.
In the afternoon we wandered
down to the beach and swam. The day was colder than yesterday and the
water seemed colder. In the evening Intrepid Tours took us out to dinner
at the place where we had eaten lunch on the day we arrived. It was a
sumptuous meal with the main course being goat. It was quite sweet, a bit stringy and
not the most ideal meat I have tried. The cook told us that it had been
boiled twice to get rid of the fat and to tenderise it.
After drinking way too much of the local red and white wine we headed
back to the hotel and to bed.
Tuesday 15th May 2012
We were woken at about 3:00am by the timber shutters on the window
banging loudly as a strong wind blew in from the west. The wind
persisted all day. After breakfast we wandered back up the steep hill to
the village of Chora. I took some more photos of the windmills, as I
seemed to have destroyed the high quality ones I took yesterday when I
reduced them in size to put them on the web page. We dropped into the
Majito Bar for a smoothie (2 x €5) then walked down the kilometre or so
of steps and paths back to the hotel to pack up our luggage. We left by ferry for the
island of Naxos at 2:00pm..
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The ferry trip took about 2 hours and upon arrival we were taken to our
hotel, Princess of Naxos. Kris then took us on an orientation walk from
the Hotel, along the beach to the port area. We took some photos of the
local fishing fleet, Hadrian's Gate and the sunset. We had dinner
(€32.00) at one of the numerous cafe/restaurant/tavernas along the seafront and
returned to the Princess of Naxos hotel by about 8:30pm. |
Wednesday 16th May 2012
The weather was fine and sunny and thankfully the wind had dropped.
At 9:30am we were picked up and taken on an all day bus tour of the island.
Our guide was an Italian woman who has lived on Naxos for the last 12
years. We first stopped off at Damalas and saw a pottery demonstration.
Then onto Chalki and to a distillery for a tasting of a local liqueur
called Citron. Citron comes in various colours and green was my
favourite. Not far from the distillery there was a Venetian
tower/keep which is now privately owned so we could only look at it from the outside.
It would have been built somewhere between 1450 - 1500. However, Theo
said afterwards that the Venetians had arrived in the early 1200's and
so it could have been built much earlier. We were lucky
enough to be passing a 10th century Orthodox church just as the priest
was unlocking the door and we were invited in. It was full of colourful icons. I took photos of the frescos
in the dome.
We then took the bus on to the
village of Apeiranthos, had a quick look around and a cup of hot
chocolate. Photos below
The next stop was Apollonas,
at the north of the island, where Briar had red mullet and I
had a chicken souvlarki. After lunch we had a quick stop just outside Apollonas to
see one of the three unfinished statue of Dionysos from the 6th. century BC.
on the island. The bus took us back around the north western coast to Chora.
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Part of a wine press in
Apeiranthos |
The Taverna where we had
lunch in Apollonas |
The unfinished statue of
Dionysos in Apollonas |
We had a quick dinner in Chora and then headed off to an evening of folk
music and folk dancing. There was an endless supply of Citron on offer which made
the mood of audience pretty lively. Note in the photo below how the lute
player plays a barre chord!! ... middle finger and thumb.
Thursday 17th May 2012
It was another fine sunny day as we set off in a minibus that Kris
had organised to take us to Chalki. From Chalki (the place where we
visited the Kitpon (citron) distillery yesterday, we walked, maybe 3kms
across the countryside to the village of Moni (Monh). From here some of
us decided to walk up to the distant church of St Elijah (according to
Kris all churches on hilltops are dedicated to Elijah) on a hilltop
across the valley. Although the path/road was very steep, it had been
paved with concrete which made the walking a little easier. At the top
there was a small vineyard just below the church and down in the valley
below we could see a
stonemason's yard with many hundreds of tonnes of cut marble, and huge
blocks of marble at the back of the yard waiting to be cut. Naxos has
huge quantities of white, translucent marble. Our hotel was testimony to
this with it's white polished marble stair treads and risers and the
door surrounds in the bathrooms. Later as we
drove from Moni we passed the quarry from where they sourced the marble.
We passed through Kouros and George, the driver stopped to let us see other unfinished statue
of Dionysos.
The bus dropped us off in the
port area of Chora. We had lunch at about 2:00pm and then walked around the
old Venetian castle area,
which has been turned into shops, museums and art galleries.
We made our way back to the Princess of Naxos hotel and had a barbeque
dinner, brilliantly cooked by Kris at about 7:00pm.
Friday 18th May 2012
There was thunder and lightening over night and light rain in the
morning during breakfast. At 9:00am we left the hotel and caught the
ferry for Pireaus. We had a 15 minute stop at Paros, then sailed on
through a few showers of rain to Athens. It was a 6 hour journey.
It was raining when we arrived in Athens. We took the train from Pireaus
to Monastiraki Station, then wheeled our bags the 400 metres to the
Athinaikon Hotel in Evripidou Street. Somewhere between the ferry and
reaching the hotel a pickpocket had stolen one of the group's camera
from her backpack. We wandered around Monastiraki and the Plaka window
shopping and even took a few photos in the failing light.
My initial thoughts of Athens after seeing only this part of town is
"What the hell have they done with all the billions of Euros they have
borrowed." The place is rundown, decaying and covered in graffiti and
nothing like I had expected. It is akin to a third world country!
We had our final dinner
together, said our goodbyes and went to bed
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The Intrepid
Santorini to Athens group consisted of:-
Mal & Dianne from Hamilton,
Victoria
Gary & Helen from Hamilton, Victoria
Martin & Briar from Adelaide, South Australia
Rich from Calgary, Canada
Theo & Margurita were both from Greece and were the "trainees"
(minions) accompanying our leader Kris who was from Slovenia |
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