Afternoon on April 20th, I took a ferry boat from the port of Piraeus in Athens to Santorini, officially Thira, arguably the most extraordinary island in Aegean Sea, located at about 120 miles south east to Athens. The departure was delayed by 1.5 hours, the arrival was delayed by 3.5 hours. The waves were violent that day and the small boat was dancing most of the time. Many people on the boat were suffering, including myself. I threw up 5 times, I guess. Athena was kindly taking care of me.
The host from the family hotel we booked was waiting to pick us up even though that was past mid-night already. I gave him a box of Belgian chocolates to express my gratitude. I felt instantly better once we got off from the boat. Driving through the night in Santorini made me even more relaxed - the dim image that I could see suggested a very promising stay for us there. When we pulled the luggage in front of the hotel, Athena and I exclaimed - so, so beautiful! The hotel was on a hill in Fira, the capital of Santorini. Down from there we could see Greek white houses with pink tops, scattering near and far. At the end of the land there was the warmly dreamed Mediterranean/Aegean Sea (although our boat sailed through it, I was too sick to remember my dream and appreciate it). I almost could see the rolling and breaking of the waves and the romantic deep blue. The ocean breeze gently caressing my face and the fresh ionic smell filling every pore of my body, all the hardship on the journey was dissipated and I became excited and ... touched!
The host brought some spring water, hot tea, and some home-made cookies. Savoring everything, Athena and I could not believe that was real :-)
Morning of the first day, at the appointed hour the hostess knocked at our door and delivered the home-made breakfast. We moved to the sun-deck facing the ocean. It was a brilliant day, hard for me to keep my eyes open without shades. Now we could have a good look of the views. It was beyond words.
Aegean sea has a special spot in Chinese pop culture. Most likely because the pronunciation of Aegean resembles "love" in Chinese, apart from the fact that it's the cradle for one of the most ancient civilizations. There are beautiful love stories and love songs around Aegean sea. I, as a romantic Chinese who adores history, no doubt worships Aegean. Can you imagine my feelings then when I was at such a proximity to it?
Our plan was to lead a relaxing and "hedonistic" life on the island - well, only relative to the rest of the trip.
Shopping, donkey ride, caldera, sunset view in Oia - that's first day. Red Beach, Perissa, Pirgos, grilled octopus, Eastern celebration - that's second day. More shopping - that's the third day before ferry took us to Crete.
Santorini has much to do with volcano. It is itself a caldera, at an ancient rim of a still active volcano. The eruption of the volcano is considered responsible for the destruction of the Minoan Crete. Nowadays beautiful white houses on the caldera cliff form one of the most pictures on earth. The beaches on the island are in turn very different from most other places, it can be white, red, or black. The sands are not very fine. The glittering feature led me to guess that the sands are rich in minerals. All three colors can be seen in Red Beach, while Perissa is known for the best black beach. Sitting in one of the many restaurants on the cliff side, an all black volcano island can be seen very close by, and another island a bit further away is known for hot spring.
Watching sunset in Oia is one of the rituals that must be done. We arrived at around 4pm while sunset was not to start until 7pm. Surprisingly when we reached the good spot, many tourists were already waiting. We found a table in one of the small cafes. Needless to say they charge a premium due to the location. There was not even much choice on the menu. More and more people joined us gradually. By 6ish, every space was occupied, steps, roofs, random rocks, walls, and patch of grounds. It was truly stunning when the soft orange sunshine painted the white houses, the whole cliff, the bell tower casts a long and slanted shadow, and the sun looked like a fire ball hanging in the colorful sky right above the twinkly water. However, I was not sure why sunset in Oia is so special. Heather said it was because of sulfur element.
The most amazing event we came across was the Easter celebration in Pirgos on Friday night. Pirgos is one of the 15 villages on this small island. When we first arrived the host pointed it to us on our way from the port to hotel and said that Friday night it's going to be most splendid and a huge amount of people would come there. As he only spoke limited English, we did not know what to expect. Again we arrived early, found a good spot in the restaurant which turned down many late comers during our dinner. BTW, I had the most delicious grilled octopus there, which inspired me to order grilled octopus later in the trip whenever I saw it on the menu. After dinner we followed the visitor flow to walk up to the top of the hill. Then we settled on a roof right next to the church. By then we finally learned that there would be a lot of fixated torches lit up and after that there would be a parade walking through the village. We waited with thousands of other people. We got a little impatient after the sunset and the sky turned purple. Standing on the roof on top of the hill, we could see clearly that an ocean of cars were still coming towards this direction. Nothing happened until the last stray of sunlight disappeared. From multiple locations, the torches started to light up one after another. Soon, we were surrounded by flames and the scope was expanding continuously. People got excited. It was quite unique to experience such a ritual. After lingering a bit we headed out to catch a bus. Only when we walked further away to the streets did we notice that actually the entire hill was lit up by flames. It was stunning. And it indeed felt holy.
Road was closed by the police, and we had to walk a lot more to reach the bus station. We waited for a few minutes and no bus came in sight. We were not sure if the bus was to come at all. And certainly no way for us to grab a cab. Well, then I had my first hitchhike experience. A gentleman and a lady picked us up and sent us to Fira even that was out of their way. Knowing nothing about them, I really want to thank them for the kind help.
Santorini is nowhere like Athens. It's beautiful, clean, orderly, and tons of cute stores. Buses are ready to take you from Fira to most other scenic spots. It was still off-peak season when we visited so it was not crowded, and the hotel price was very low. Of course sitting on beach was not quite enjoyable as it was windy and a bit too chilly. Athena and I laid on beach benches under straw umbrellas and enjoyed tremendously anyway.
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