Santorini - The consummate Greek Island

Tuesday October 1^st – Santorini! It has taken a while to get to this blog as there has been so much to process about Santorini. Santorini, Santorini, Santorini! The word of the day is Tourist!

Susanne and I believe that this is one of the most beautiful places we have ever been. The majesty of the brilliant white houses accented with blue trim and doors (the same colors as the flag of Greece) is striking. Standing out from the houses are the many churches and chapels. The buildings appear to all be interconnected and flow from one to the other without sharp corners or edges. Many you only get to via a series of steep stairs. Set apart from this is the archaeological site of a bronze-age village at Akrotiri that was meticulously preserved for us in the 16^th century BC by volcanic ash deposits. An experience very much like the experience of Pompeii. The volcano IS Santorini’s history.

On the night we arrived, we went to the southern end of the island by the lighthouse and climbed out onto the rocks with hundreds of our closest friends to watch the sunset. Watching sunsets must be the favorite pastime of Santorinians as there was a good crowd there. The sunset was beautiful but the afterglow and colors of the post-sunset sky were even more brilliant.

Just so you are not concerned, we were not always on the go. We do find time to relax, over a glass of wine or beer and a view of the ever-beautiful Aegean Sea.

Santorini is made up of multiple islands. It is the byproduct of a volcano with a history of lava flow and new deposits as recently as the 1940s. On our first morning here we took a boat out to the volcano and climbed to the crater. A nice 4 mile walk up, around and down over cinder trails. It was worth it as we peered into the crater (active by scientific standards) and looked out over the Aegean, aware that as recently as 200 years before, a lot of where we were standing did not exist. Doesn't look like much in the picture, but that's the volcano to the left in the picture.

On our second day we rented a car. We visited the Akrotiri archaeological site. If you ever make it to Santorini this is a must. Parts of the site date back to the 3^rd to 4^th millennials BC. Imagining five thousand years ago was a leap. Most recent parts of the site are as recent as the 17^th century BC when the Pompeii-like volcanic activity ended the city under a pile of ashes. Although not as large as Pompeii, it was a village of wealth with evidence of frescoes on the walls and very advanced pottery.

The feelings we had were similar to the ones we had while visiting Pompeii. It is the feeling that we were intruding into someone else’s space and place, frozen in time. The dig was going on while we were there. We could sense the feeling of discovery continuing to happen.

As we drove up the island, Malcolm was getting the hang of driving like the Greeks. There is no such thing as a lane, there is only open space where cars flow directionally. Stop signs are mere suggestions and people seem to read each other’s minds in anticipating what the other person/car combo is going to do. In addition to all of this, the motorcyclists are there to pass at will, sometimes creating three traffic lanes where none exists, at other times to just jump to the front of the line and cut off the first car or to drive down one-way streets the wrong way. We got into a parking lot with cars blocking us from all directions and into a traffic jam where no one could move (except the motorcyclists) because we were all blocking each other. It was obvious that one of the cars was being driven by a tourist who did not know how to drive a stick-shift. (No, this was not Malcolm.) The only movement was to get closer and it became a true Greek comedy. Finally, several locals on foot entered the street and started to direct traffic to make it flow. One at a time we got out of the jam.

One other thing about driving here is managing the relationship between moving vehicle and pedestrians. In the US, that is usually taken care of by providing sidewalks for pedestrians. But here, pedestrians and moving cars share the same street and the relationship, once again, seems to be defined by drivers knowing what the pedestrian is going to do next. For someone not used to that, we have shown a tendency to drive slower around pedestrians than the locals do. As pedestrians we have walked closer to the ditches than the locals do and dodged the traffic with much greater concern. It does seem to have a way of working out.

We finally made it to the village of Oia, pronounced ē-uh. This is the consummate Greek island village, sparkling in it’s white and blue, that I’m sure you have all seen since it is on the cover of every travel brochure and poster selling the Greek islands. Almost surreal against the backdrop of the blue Aegean Sea. As we walked the main street, it was lined with high-end jewelry and designer stores. It appeared to ooze money and we managed to escape unscathed. It was a beautiful place, but it was not us. Rooms there can go for a thousand a night and put you right in the middle of the oozing. Can you say Tourist with a lot of €? We were so happy to get back to our simple hotel room on the other end of the island and yes, very happy to not be driving anymore.

A very beautiful place!

On the way back we passed a team of donkeys. Not that long ago, there were two ways up from the port, one was by foot and the other was on the donkeys. A friend from Hungary sent us a picture a week ago of her and her son riding the donkeys up 21 years ago. Stories are all personal. Since then, they have built a larger port that handles buses and cars but the donkey is still available at the port of the capitol city of Fira.

Finally, back to the word of the day, Tourist! I commented on someone’s earlier question on the blog about what Greeks think of Americans. But in doing so, I became so much more aware that as much as we would like to be more a part of the places we visit, a three-day or even week-long stay is not enough to develop the type of relationship that will allow you to dive into meaningful conversations about life, politics or other ‘close to the heart’ subjects. Alas, we are but tourist and we have to accept that. And we do accept that with the joy and thanks that we have been given the opportunity to visit as tourist and friends. Just not close friends.

Some of the food we ate included a squid plate for lunch and the ever-present Greek Salad. we did have some fresh fish but failed to get the obligatory picture. Malcolm's bad.