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.

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Rhodes

I think that today was our first taste of the Greece I know from my studies and which I have thought about many times. Galaxy (our cruise ship) actually docked in town today instead of anchoring mid-bay and tendering us to shore. I much prefer it when they can do this because it makes it easier to come and go at will. Of course, we rarely do, considering each port city is so stock full of stuff to do. Today was no different.

We arrived in Rhodes, Greece at approximately 9am. Unfortunately we missed the Colossus by a couple thousand years. Bummer. Well, at least there was still the city and the acropolis to see! We started off by walking through and around the harbor into the old city. The old city of Rhodes is surrounded by a fortified wall in order to help fight off seaborn invaders. According to an inscription I read in one of the museums, the original Rhodeian wall was a meager thing built hastily. But after an attack in the 3rd century B.C. (?) in which the original wall was little to no help, the Rhodesians rebuilt it quite impressively, after which point it was hailed as one of the most remarkable fortress walls in the Mediterranean region. Of course, this doesn’t mean they never got sacked again. To the contrary, Rhodes fell again to the Goths in 269 A.D. and was then brought under the influence of the Byzantine empire 28 years later. It was alternately ruled by Crusaders, Ottoman Turks, and Italians over the centuries until about 1309 A.D. It was at this point that the Knights of the Order of St. John took the city and led it into it’s “renaissance”. Apparently the Knights got lucky 3 years later when the Pope outlawed the Templars and gave all their money to the Knights of St. John. This gave them the means to fortify Rhodes.  It was only after World War II that the country of Greece gained rulership over the island. [Mostly cited from Celebrity's "Port Explorer" notes]

Our first stop upon entering the Old City and wandering the streets a bit was to visit “The Hospital of the Knights” which is now host to the Archaeological Museum of Rhodes. It contains a large collection of pottery and sculpture from the ancient times, including some famous statues of Aphrodite (which my Dad kept pronouncing Afroditty). I got pictures of the smaller of the two famous ones, but unfortunately there was a set of huge tour groups in the way which kept me from getting close enough to take a good shot of the larger of the two. There were also huge cannon balls in the courtyard which were apparently leftover from the wars of the past and a great deal of recovered pottery, weapons and statuary scattered throughout the entire place.

Our next stop was the Palace of the Grand Masters (also known as the Palace of the Knights of St. John). This place is freaking giant. It contains over 300 rooms and a massive courtyard and contains another huge collection of pottery, sculpture and artifacts. But the best part about this place was the building itself. It was clearly a major military center and a home to many knights and their followers. Much of the indoor areas are studded wall and floor with mosaics and artwork. There is also a great deal of intricate woodwork. Many of the rooms had lovely chairs and tables constructed of very impressive mahogany and other hard woods. Unfortunately I didn’t get as many photos of it as I would like because they were prohibited in the majority of the “museum”. I’m not sure why. It could be because of the safety of the artifacts (flash light can be degrading to some types of artwork), or just because they don’t want people taking away photos that might decrease their revenue.

We wanted to visit the Mosque of Suleyman (Suleiman?), but unfortunately it is closed to the public. It is opposite the Palace of the Grand Masters and was constructed after Sultan Suleyman the “Magnificent” captured Rhodes in approximately 1522.  So instead we headed to lunch at a café that didn’t have a roof but rather a latticework covered in leafy vines. We had a “traditional” Greek lunch. Which is to say that I had a plate of gyros (no pita, just the contents and a fork) and my family all had pizza. *Shakes head in shame…*. I also had some Greek ouzo. For those who haven’t heard of it, ouzo is the traditional Greek drink, like vodka to Russians and wine to Italians. It’s nearly 100 proof (50% alcohol). *choke* <strained voice> Good stuff… </strained voice>.

I actually skipped one of the places we visited. Technically, the first place we visited was the Temple of Aphrodite. I forgot about it simply because it is almost entirely gone. What little is left is simply ruins, and resembles nothing so much as a temple.  Supposedly it was completed in the third century B.C. but there isn’t much left to distinguish such by.

Finally, we took a long walk (a very, very long walk uphill) to visit the acropolis of Rhodes which contains the Temple of Apollo as well as a stadium. All that is left of the temple is three columns with a cross beam, but even that was sufficient to demonstrate the incredible majesty that was once the ancient Greek world. Down the hill from the temple is an ancient stadium which is mostly intact. It includes a small amphitheater (which we have a picture of me “orating” in) ((get your mind out of the gutter)), and a large chariot (I think…) racing track. We got a great picture of my brother doing a one-handed hand stand in the amphitheater.

After this last we trekked back downhill from the acropolis (which took quite a while, though not as long as to get up there) and caught a cab at the edge of the old city to take us back to the cruise ship. That’s pretty much it. We just relaxed after that.

I know this is late, but for a day we had a really slow internet connection and then I was just having too much fun to post anything.

Peace out.

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