Synchala

Santorini

This was an interesting day, despite the lackluster historical features of the post we visited. Today we visited the island of Santoríni, Greece. This is a very, very old island which attained it’s current form after a giant volcanic eruption sometime after 2000 B.C. It had been settled in 3000 B.C. originally, but was not resettled again until 1000 B.C. by first the Phoenicians and then by a Dorian colony led by Therus, who gave the island it’s original name of Thera. The volcanic eruption was so large that it apparently affected the entire earth, spreading lava and ash across most of the earths circumference. As quoted from my “Port Explorer”, “The explosion exterminated all life on the island and produced a tidal wave so immense, 820 feet (250 m) high, traveling at a speed of 217 miles (350 km) per hour, that it claimed the lives of the entire Minoan civilization on the island of Crete. Crete is less than 75 miles south of Santoríni.”

What is now left is just simply beautiful. I mean gorgeous. The original round island is now a collection of 5 islands in a circular collection, with Santorini being the largest by far and with the original volcano in the center by itself. The water left between them is far deeper than one would expect. Apparently the water in between the islands is more than 5000 meters deep. This is perhaps one of the deepest places on the earth. Jacques Cousteau once attempted to traverse to the bottom, but was unable to, as has been every other person or organization to attempt it.

We dropped anchor at around 8:00am and began tendering to shore shortly afterward. Santoríni is somewhat unique in how you get from the dock to the town proper. You see, the town, Fira, is on top of the island, which is pretty much up a 75 degree hill from the harbor. This leaves three options for getting up to the top: walk a switchback trail; ride a smelly donkey up a switchback trail; take the freakin’ cable car. We took the freakin’ cable car. At the top we wandered around for a bit before finding a car rental place with an English speaking guy out front. This guy we found was awesome. He’s a Canadian-born fella with a Greek father and a German mother. Go figure. He mostly sounded like a “light” Greek, but occasionally he’d let loose with an “eh”. Talk about a life change. He was raised in Edmonton where winters get to -30c. Now he lives in Santoríni, Greece where the average temp is more like 30-40c. *Shrug* I can see why someone might do that.

So Nikos (the guy at the car rental place) worked there as a rental agent and as a tour guide as well. So we decided to do a 2 hour tour of the island with him that went really well. He went out back of the business (which in Santorini means below the place since the area on top of the island is so narrow, garages are under buildings or in caves it seemed) to get our ride, a Land Cruiser. I gotta say, the new Toyota Land Cruisers are fairly decent vehicles. Too bad Toyota just started making them as SUVs are going out of favor. Niko took us through Fira and our along the hill top roads on a visual tour of the island. The roads are incredibly narrow and constantly switch back and forth. One section in particular was barely wider than the Land Cruiser, but Niko said that full size buses use that same road. Nuts. On our way to our first stop we got to see some incredible views of wine grape fields and the ocean. Purely breathtaking.

Our first stop was at a church near the very top of the island. There are over 300 churches on this island. Let me repeat that. Over 300 churches. The population of Firá, the largest community on the island, is just 2000. The total population on the island is about 8000 (I think). That’s an average of around 25 people per church (if they actually went to church). However, they only have like 6 or 7 priests for the island. Total. Apparently they just travel around the island constantly doing ceremonies all over the place. According to Nikos, everyone has a saint that they are “affiliated” with, and instead of celebrating their birthday, the islanders, celebrate their saint’s day. Nikos’ saint is Saint Nikolas, whose day is December 6. Wow, side tracked there. So, the church we went to: This church (I don’t know the name) is apparently right near the top of the island and is a white building with a blue dome and blue trim painting. It also has a stack of three bells on top. Nikos told us that it is often used by celebrities and the fabulously rich for their weddings thanks to the view and the surrounding communities. Most recently former Russian President Vladimir Putin hosted his niece’s wedding there.

After our stop at the hilltop church we moved on to the next town on the island, Oía. That’s pronounced eeeee-ah. Yay Greek. I don’t really have much to say about Oía except that it’s spectacularly beautiful. There are a number of hotels and restaurants in this town that are cut directly into the hillside. So if you get a hotel here you’re more than likely to have your room essentially be a cave. Some of the more expensive ones even have indoor pools that sometimes connect to the outdoor pool. Apparently some of those rooms cost up to 2000 euros per night. Ouch. I think I’ll keep my money for something a little more useful. I mean seriously, I could build a badass gaming system for that kind of money.

After Oía we headed back to Firá, walked around some shops for a bit, grabbed some lunch at a café with a spectacular view of the bay, and headed back to ship to relax for the rest of the day.