Athens back to reality

The alarm went off at 7.45. I packed up and went virtually next door for a typical Greek breakfast – ham, cheese, cold boiled egg, tea and cake (wrapped up to take away for later). I somehow didn’t want to leave the room, as it seemed a symbol of the end of my holiday, but I made myself go downstairs, checked out just after 9, and walked down to Monastiraki metro station. I bought my €6 airport ticket, validated it and only had to wait a minute or two for the next train. On the way, the feeling of not wanting to leave got stronger. I think it’s to do with having had such fun on the tour, but also because I feel at home in Greece to some degree, and the fact that I was just starting to feel comfortable and learn about the language and the people. I was feeling quite sad really, and decided to come back. I would have been happy to have seen my friendly old man from the first train trip.

At the airport I found the check-in counter, went through boarding pass control, passport control, bought some Ion chocolate, and went through security to the right gate. The plane boarded in the ordinary way and I got a window seat, though two vapid British socialites took the seats next to me and closed the window blind without asking when I had my eyes closed listening to music. We landed at Gatwick about 2.30 London time, and I felt immediately and somewhat unaccountably depressed. It was so cold and grey and the people seemed to be really pushy and unkind. This was rich having come from a country where I couldn’t understand the language and whose people don’t know how to queue. But I couldn’t help it – I almost felt like crying. I bought a train ticket to Victoria, got some lunch and went on my way.

Epilogue

I loved this trip with all my heart and I am definitely going back to Greece. I have always been scared about travelling in a country where I can’t speak the language, but now I recognise the challenges and rewards that go with it and am prepared for them.

Monemvasia to Athens

I set my alarm for 7.30 and I got organised, had breakfast and was downstairs by 8.10. I paid my €30 and walked across the road. I bought my ticket to Athens for €23 and was told that I would only have to change buses at Molai. I was lucky that an 8.30 bus ran on Fridays. The bus arrived and we got on for the trip to Molai. When we got to Molai I had my first encounter with squat toilets and this one was particularly nasty so I opted out.

The bus to Athens arrived from Neapoli very full, so I sat right up the back. John sent me the names of hotels around Larissa on this trip but I didn’t dare look down at the phone for long enough to reply. The driver wasn’t as kamikaze as the last one but I still got a sore neck from craning. Thankfully they didn’t take us through every village this time, and we got to Sparta quite quickly. I had to change buses, so I stowed my bag underneath, grabbed the front seat just before a little old lady grabbed the seat next to me, and dived for the toilets. By chance I ended up in the same cubicle I’d been locked in, so made sure I left the door ajar. I got back on the bus and we set off.

The journey was peppered with many horn honkings and dangerous driving and I was reminded about the boxes. I asked John in a text whether they were shrines, and also asked about the Nafplio cacti. He confirmed that they were shrines for road victims (pretty terrifying considering how many there are) and said the cacti were fruit cacti.

We arrived in Tripoli and stopped briefly at the smaller bus stop on the Sparta road. The bus continued on, and I had my camera out to be ready for the canal. We stopped at the Corinthia bus station I’d been dropped off at on the way to Nafplio first.

After setting off again, I had to whip the camera out when I saw the canal looming almost immediately. I only got one photo with no ships in it. That means that the stop beside the road for Fihtio had indeed been the bus station; it means that the canal had been right beside me the whole time I’d been waiting for the Nafplio bus; and it means that John was 100% deadset right about it all and I was an idiot. I kicked myself for the next half hour.

We drove on, stopped at Piraeus, and on the outskirts of the city the driver asked me in Greek to check on some traffic he couldn’t see. I stared blankly back at him and the ten other passengers who were looking at me and babbled uncertainly ‘singnomi, den milao eleenika’ (Συγγνωμη, Δεν μιλαω Еλληνικα). It seemed to do the trick though because the driver nodded knowingly and about three other people raced to the window to look. We arrived at the bus terminal and I found yet another chicken pitta, then found the toilets. It was my second and hopefully last encounter with squat toilets. Thankfully they were much cleaner than the one at Molai. Still not nice though.

I found where the Omonia bus left from and bought my 50c ticket. The bus arrived very quickly and I got off one street from Omonia Square. I had planned to look for a hotel in the periphery of Syntagma Square because I was too hot and lazy to look for the ones John had recommended, but found a good room at Hotel Cecil on Athinas St for €65. I took my gear up to room 103 and took some time to cool off and recover.

Just before 5, I decided to walk up to Syntagma Square and get the tram to the beach, since I didn’t manage it last time. The tickets only cost 60c each way and were quite easy to come by. The trip was pleasant and I saw a different side of Athens, and when I got there I walked along the beach from two stations north of the bend down to Edem Beach.
The beach was nice enough but nothing special with not much to see. The water was nice on my feet and a lot of people were playing tennis with wooden bats. There was nothing in the marina direction, so I went back to the tram. By the time I made it back to Syntagma among the crowds it was dark. I wandered back through the square in search of dinner. I got YET ANOTHER chicken pitta (they didn’t have lamb) which was really good, spoke to some Scots in the queue and walked back to eat and relax. Bed at 11.45 after seeing news reports about political riots in Thessaloniki, though it was all in Greek and I couldn’t tell what caused them.

Nafplio to Monemvasia

The alarm went off at 7.30 and I was up pretty smartly. I packed everything up, had the quasi-breakfast again and went down to pay the bill - €120 well spent as the room had TV and air conditioning and a great position. I walked down to the bus station in about 5 minutes flat and bought a €4.40 fare to Tripoli (TPIΠOΛH) for 8.30. The bus stopped at Argos as usual and most of the people got off. A handful of us continued on to Tripoli and the road went up over the mountains in the most amazing collection of curves and switchbacks I’ve seen for a while. As I was in the front seat it was a spectacular drive – the rest was very pleasant and rural.

I saw more of the strange glass boxes with religious icons beside the road. I really thought they were mailboxes for a while, until I realised some were in completely isolated spots and then, with an ominous forboding, that many were on the edges of precipices. Most were small, but a few were grand constructions resembling mausoleums. I decided they could only be shrines to people who’ve died in road accidents. That means the one on the edge of the Akronafplia is probably for someone who fell to their death. I found it a very telling manifestation of the religious nature of Greece as a country. You would never find such a devout demonstration in Australia.

We pulled in to Tripoli just before 10am and I set about finding the other bus station for buses to Sparta (ΣΠΑΡΤΗ). It wasn’t immediately obvious, even with the Lonely Planet description, so I went to the ticket desk. The woman I asked had sketchy English so she called a man who came out to me. He directed me left back on to the main road, then right and down 500 metres. It was a short walk but hot and hard with my bag. An enterprising taxi driver worked out where I was going and offered to take me there for €3. No thanks!

I found the bus station (such that it was – just a ticket office really) and bought a ticket to Monemvasia (MONEMBAΣIA) for €12. The man there was very nice, telling me I had 15 minutes to wait and specially calling me when the bus arrived. Mostly old men got on the bus, but there were two other backpackers with sketchy English who’d done the same walk as me and been offered the same taxi. I got on and there were no seats. The backpackers sat on the back steps, and despairing, I went back up the front and decided to try the driver and sit on the little step beside him. He had reasonable English and said it was OK. Then I noticed the folded-up tour leader seat on my right and asked if I could sit on that – he said yes and gave me instructions on how to open it down. I put the arm rest down, put my seat belt on and found myself extremely comfortable with a great view. I spent an enjoyable hour driving through the countryside with enormous mountains on one side and much more vegetation than previously.

The drivers are totally insane – they don’t stay on their sides of the road and overtake on the most outrageous blind corners, thinking that it’s safe if they drive slowly. Horn-honking is compulsory – it seems to mean ‘I am coming past so don’t deviate from your present course’ or ‘watch yourself’ or ‘I’m coming around a tight corner on a narrow road and you won’t see me until it’s too late’. I shouldn’t have been surprised about the shrines really, should I?

We arrived at the bus station in Sparta at about 11.40. Very unfortunately, the first bus to Monemvasia had left at 11.30.

So, determined to have at least one photo of those amazing mountains, I walked up the street to get two, then back to the bus station. I ordered a cup of tea and the old man asked if I wanted a frappe (coffee) – I mimed tea, then a sweet younger man came out and sorted it out in English, telling the old man ‘tzai’. The younger man brought my tea to my table and brought a glass of water and a big smile as well. I tried two hotels in Monemvasia on the phone – the best one was closed, and the other one was open and had rooms, but they didn’t seem to want to take my details. I was pretty sure that I would be OK just rocking up anyway. I thought to myself what a fascinating, interesting and enjoyable day it had been so far.

It all went a bit downhill from there when I went to the toilet 15 minutes before the bus was due at 1.30, and closed the door behind me before realising there was no handle on the inside. I was well and truly locked in. There was no one else in the room, so there was nothing for it but to climb into the next cubicle. Thank god there was a ledge and the dividing wall was fairly low. I got into the next cubicle, tearing my shorts in the process, then pushed the door of mine in and got my bag. The bus pulled in shortly after. I got on and could only get a seat near the middle. The scenery was fairly ordinary but the driver was a complete kamikaze. A lot of the route was minor roads through EVERY single village and he was driving pretty fast through some narrow spaces. I moved to the front of the bus after Skala but still felt a bit off.

We arrived, and stopped in the middle of the main road in Monemvasia. It was very hot and very bright and the town was smaller and less developed than I had expected. I found Hotel Akrogiali by literally looking around me from Malvasia Travel and a little old lady was waiting outside for me. She asked if I was the one from on the phone, and she showed me upstairs and made my bed as I watched. She showed me the key in the door and left me to it. I walked out to explore the town. I checked bus times to Athens, got a cheese pie from a nice man in a bakery, and explored the busy metropolis that is Monemvasia. It was windy and the waves were quite big.

While there were some nice hotels, and nice cafes on the far side of the causeway, there was still an undeveloped feel about it. The rock was bigger and wider than I expected. It looked totally barren except for a few old buildings at the bottom and a glimpse of some sort of fortification at the top.

I ventured across the causeway on foot and realised I had a bit of a walk ahead of me. I walked around the seemingly deserted road, until I came to the fortified wall and entrance, which made my jaw drop. I walked through the archway and into a dark tunnel, emerging after two bends in a beautiful street lined with signs and shops. It didn’t take long to exhaust the shops, bars and tavernas and I headed into the side streets to look at churches and other things of interest. It was hard to know which steps were footpath and which led into people’s houses. The buildings were typical brown brick Byzantine with round roofs, but there were a couple of island-looking white with bougainvillea. There were lots of cats, and some stared at me when I turned a corner. The Lower Town was nice, and amazing to think how old it was, but it didn’t hold an enormous amount of interest for me.

I headed uphill in search of the Upper Town and found only houses, piles of rubble and building sites. Then I found the path up the cliff to the real Upper Town. Ten minutes and three archways later, I emerged among the ruins. There is a sign saying to take care, but it’s outrageously dangerous.

The big church really is on the edge of a massive cliff and the unwary could easily go over. I didn’t go to the citadel because the sun was sinking, but I looked at as many things as I could. I avoided one section beyond a certain point because it was so close to the edge it was scaring me. I headed down, finding a few new nooks to explore, bought some worry beds and started back. I got dinner and some cash and settled in for the night. I decided that I had pretty much exhausted things of interest in Monemvasia and would leave in the morning rather than the afternoon. I rang John for advice about Athens hotels and regretted it because he sounded tired and didn’t have much information to hand. He said he’d text me back. The whole town lost power at about 9.30. It came back on at about 10.30 but not before I’d had a cold shower in the dark. Bed at 11.

Mycenae and Epidavros

My alarm went off at 8am and I ate the same quasi-breakfast and was dressed and ready at 8.45. I headed to the bus station early to get the 10am Mikines (MYKHNEΣ) bus to the Mycenae ancient site. I eventually found the Mikines bus and climbed on board. It went through Argos (APΓΟΣ) and the eventuating shopping madness. A woman sitting next to me spoke to me in a friendly torrent of Greek, so I tried to stammer back ‘I do not speak Greek’ in Greek and she probably thought I was crazy. We went through Mycenae town and a place called Monastiraki and arrived at the site with a lot of tourist buses. The ticket was €8.

I had given myself under two hours so made haste. I walked around the ruins in about 50 minutes – there isn’t much left really, but it was interesting and definitely worth seeing. The city was built between two mountains and while they had access to underground water, I wondered why they chose such an isolated place to build it. Must have been completely strategic. I then went into the museum, and after getting in trouble for eating an apple inside, made my way around the simple and well-laid-out exhibits ahead of a huge Italian tour group. There was a good history of the different excavations over the years, and the pieces of gold that had survived were still beautifully rich and lustrous.

I got back on the 1pm bus with no problems and headed back through Argos to Nafplio. I was in time to get the 2pm bus to Epidavros, but I went to get some lunch instead. I ate half of it then got on the 2.30 bus to Epidavros. The road wound through lots of villages and past Mycenaean bridges to Epidavros town and further on into the hills and the ancient site. I ate the rest of my lunch, fighting off wasps, then bought my €6 ticket and made a beeline in front of another huge tourist group to the theatre. As I climbed the steps I saw the top of it poking over and got quite excited. It’s absolutely amazing – huge and intact. I climbed up the somewhat uneven steps and took a seat in the blissful shade right up the top and just sat for a long while, listening to people drop coins in the middle of the stage, tour leaders crinkle paper, and jokers singing songs to rousing applause.

It is true – the acoustics are absolutely brilliant and while there were only a few people my ears were tuned in. As it filled up though, it became apparent that it’s too easy to hear noises elsewhere in the audience and the whole thing was soon abuzz with noise.

I walked round the top into the sun on the other side and made my way back down one set of steps and stood on the stage for a moment, looking up. I went then into the very sparse and unexplained museum which took all of 7 minutes, and then on to the archaeological site. It was quite large and reasonably well-explained, but burning hot with no shade, so I probably didn’t look at it in as much detail as I should have. There is a lot of restoration work happening and so it’s difficult to get an idea. I simultaneously want to see what the ruins look like now as well as how they looked in their day. I really liked the long stadium and it was interesting to see buildings intended for healing and how they worked – that was a new thing at least.

I headed for the bus stop early for the 6pm bus, having a chat with the post office man on the way and being invited for dinner (what is wrong with these people?). Lucky he warned me because the bus didn’t show up from Kranidi until 6.20, but I guessed that the Asian couple nearby were waiting for the same bus. On the bus I spoke to the Asian couple were from New York on their honeymoon and another man and his girlfriend were Classics students from Cambridge, misappropriating Faculty funds on a beach holiday. Back in Nafplio I found myself lured into a restaurant on Bouboulinas – lucky because I fancied seafood. I had quite a good swordfish souvlaki. I went back to the hotel via my favourite Antica gelato shop and had banana and tiramisu. The girl there remembered me again and shook my hand when I said I was leaving tomorrow. Back at the hotel I tried to work out the next couple of days. Bed at 11pm.

Nafplio: Palamidi Fortress, beach, and Bourtzi

Woke up at 8.45. I had a quasi-breakfast of sesame biscuits and grape juice and was out the door by 10am and heading for the ‘999’ steps to the Palamidi Fortress. I found them easily and made my way up fairly carefully as it was very hot already.

It didn’t take as long as I thought it would, and I snapped photos all the way up. I must have spent about an hour up there, looking at everything and walking between them. Kolokotronis’ prison was pretty amazing – you had to stoop right down to get in through two doorways and the cell itself was rough-hewn with no windows. I didn’t go into the church because I had nothing to cover myself with but it looked nice and had candles burning.

I walked back down much quicker than I’d walked up and went to the tourist office. A man gave me sketchy help in a small dingy office. He told me I couldn’t do Mycenae and Epidavros in one day, directed me to the ferry office to find out about boats to Monemvasia, and invited me for coffee in his siesta break. I smiled and left. I got the times for the Mycenae and Epidavros buses and had a walk around, getting a roll for lunch and sitting in Plateia Syntagmatos to eat it. The man was right on one point – the archaeological museum was closed, so I headed for the folklore museum, which was closed on Tuesdays. I headed back to the cool of the hotel for a mini-siesta, finding out on the way that there are no boats from Nafplio to Monemvasia except from Tolo, and only on Sundays. I worked out that I could do both Mycenae and Epidavros the next day with the bus times (John was right and tourist office man was wrong), and decided to still do Monemvasia by bus.

I got my swimmers on and walked the short distance to Aravinitia Beach. It’s white pebble (well, the pebbles are pretty huge), tiny, utterly blindingly bright, but very nice. There are deckchairs and walkways over the hot stones and they play good Spanish-style music. The water was very choppy by now after being completely flat that morning. It gets very deep very quickly and is very salty but was a perfect temperature. I swam and baked in my little space, feeling rather alone among all the attractive, tanned Greek people. I walked around the base of the Akronafplia, seeing the curious giant cacti growing out of the cliff, to the other side where I saw a strange glass box. It was sort of like a mail box, but completely sealed and with religious icons inside. I couldn’t work out what it was. Next were a couple of exclusive restaurants forming the beginning of the cafe strip. I went back to Antica gelato shop and got some strawberry this time. My friend there gave me a strawberry in it too, which was absolutely delicious frozen.

After finding out it was nearly 7pm, I went back for my camera and my watch and got a boat out to the Bourtzi island fortress for €4.
It was small compared to Palamidi of course, but very interesting and picturesque. I took lots of photos. When the boat got back, I got another chicken pitta from the same place as last night, headed back to the hotel and went to bed at 10pm.

Athens to Nafplio

I woke up at 8.30 and went down for breakfast, saying goodbye to many of my new friends. I met Kelli and Carine downstairs, and we went to Stavros Melissinos the sandal man. I bought the ‘Jeremy Irons’ model for €21, Carine got a second pair and her first pair adjusted, but Kelli couldn’t find any to fit her. I said goodbye to Kristie, Carine and Kelli and headed back up Athinas St to find the box office.

John called me on the way to let me know he still had things to do and might not make it. I turned right at Omonia down Panepistemiou and found the box office. The show at the Odeon turned out to be an Indian thing I didn’t want to see. I walked back to the hotel to formulate an itinerary to run past John over the phone if necessary. John rang to say he was on his way to the Arion and would meet me there in a few minutes. We worked out an itinerary that made sense, I asked him countless questions about what to expect, he gave me a map of all Greece, and he tried to ring the best hotel in Nafplio for me but there was no answer. He gave me last minute directions on how to get to the bus terminal, gave me a huge hug and left. What a man.

I packed all my papers up, got my bag and headed up Athinas St to the right bus stop. I got a suburban bus from Omonia to bus terminal A on the outskirts of the city, which took about 10 minutes and cost 50c. At the terminal, I bought a ticket to Corinth (KOPINΘOΣ), waited for half an hour and got on the bus. The scenery got more and more mountainous and the road hugged the coast most of the way. I learnt not to listen to music on Greek buses because while I looked out and saw the canal, and heard the tail end of an announcement (Fihtio I think), I didn’t know to get off there. It just looked like a stop at the side of the road where I was expecting the bus station to be the end of the line, so I continued down into Corinth proper, thinking that the bus station would be at the other end of the canal (John had said you could see the canal from the bus station). When I was the last person on the bus, I asked the driver and he said we’d passed the bus station and let me off at a ticket office – nearly driving off with my bag underneath until I realised and yelled and flapped my arms. I had trouble finding an English speaker in the ticket office but they were very nice and sold me a ticket back to the canal and one to Nafplio. They even stopped the next driver and helped me on – he was most likely going to Loutraki but let me off at a horrid roadside bus station instead of at the canal. He was quite rude too.

I checked at this bus station and they confirmed what the other bunch had told me - 5.30 to Nafplio. Trouble was, while most buses had destination signs, some didn’t, so I hovered the whole time fearful of missing it, and having strangers come up to me speaking rapid Greek. Eventually, right before 5.30 the Nafplio bus pulled in, properly signposted (NAΥΠΛΙΟ), and I got a seat near the front, but couldn’t see properly. At this point I went right off travelling alone on buses in Greece and cursed John soundly. I got a seat further up at Argos and arrived in Nafplio without further incident just before 7.

Using my Lonely Planet map, I climbed many stairs up and around the back of the old town and found Dimitris Bekas but it was full. The man was lovely though and directed me to Hotel Leto, which is at the same level but further west. I found it fairly easily and checked in to the €40/night room. It was nice enough. I was hot, bothered and tired by now, so I rested for a while, then ventured down into the town to get some food.  One look at the promenade and the water and the fortresses made me take back any hard feelings against John and made all well with the world. What a truly beautiful place. Every direction I looked gave me something to smile about and I snapped lots of photos. There is a series of probably about 10 or 12 cafes along the water with rows and rows of tables and interiors to die for. I have never seen such funky and original decors one after another in my life – I just wanted to take pictures of them all.

Instead, I went into the supermarket for food, juice and water, into a gyros shops for a really good chicken pitta then to the Lonely Planet’s top gelato shop pick (Antica) on the way back. It’s run by Italians and there are Italian flags everywhere and I was greeted with ‘buornosera’ as I walked in. It was a strange moment to be an English speaker in Greece and to be surrounded by Italy. The people were very friendly and I had a cup of chocolate gelato (delicious) while chatting to a really nice girl in English. I headed back up the hill and did some advance reading about my adventures over the next few days. I was feeling quite comfortable there by now – I think it was just the language that was the problem. Bed at 11.15.

Santorini to Athens

The alarm went off at 7.45. I blearily packed up my gear and got to breakfast with my bag at 8.30. We got on the buses to go back to the port. The boat was there when we arrived so we grabbed some snacks and jumped on. John tried to get us the swanky lounge area and managed it after a few intense conversations with the staff. I didn’t like it in the lounge as the boat was moving noticeably even in port and it was sickeningly smoky, so I told the girls and went up to the deck.

The boat was to dock at Ios, Naxos and Paros. The girls came up with John before long to join me and we found a spot behind the stack so it wasn’t as noisy or windy. John sat with us for most of the journey – he brought me his Lonely Planet guide and compared it to my photocopies, deciding it was the same edition. We talked about where I should go in Peloponnese, and he suggested Corinth, Nafplio, Mycenae, Epidavros, Monemvasia, Kalamata and Olympia. These were pretty much the places that had appealed to me in my quick reading of the chapter. He needed to be back in Athens the next day so suggested we meet for coffee so he could make some calls and check things out for me.

The deck was hot, but the trip was fun. I’d had enough sun after a few hours and wrapped my sarong around my shoulders to fend it off. John kept fussing with his shoulders being in the sun, so I offered him my sarong, which he turned his nose up at. An hour later after a visit below decks he appeared with Jacinta’s hot pink sarong wrapped around his shoulders. We told him there were butterflies on it. He wasn’t impressed and asked me to swap him. I didn’t want the butterflies either.

The girls went down to get some lunch and Lisa offered to get me something. Lisa and I listened to music on her mp3 player. I went below decks later and saw a lot of nomadic types and backpackers lying on sheets on the stair landings. It really did look like a refugee boat. Lisa started to collect tips for John from everyone. Reportedly, the Gap Years put in nothing, which made me furious, considering how much time and effort John had spent in both entertaining them and looking out for them.

Later as we drew level with the mainland John asked me to stand up and pointed out Poseidon’s Temple on top of a hill. It was too far away to see any details except a white blob, but it was a nice thought anyway. Everyone left me on the deck when it got cool around 7pm but were back within half an hour because it was horribly smoky down there and someone said the boat was rocking much more. The sunset was lovely – almost nicer than the one at Ia.

It was finally time for me to go below decks for good, and I found a seat in the lounge and coped with the motion of the boat without even noticing it. I think I had my ‘sea legs’ by now. We got into port at about 8.30 and got a bus back to the hotel. We got room keys, took a group picture, Lisa gave John the tips and he talked about extra nights’ accommodation etc. I asked John about seeing a show at one of the amphitheatres and he asked the hotel guy about what was on. We were told that the season at Epidavros was finished but there was a music and dancing show at the Odeon of Herodes Atticus the next night. John gave me the address and number for the Odeon box office and took my number to ring/text me the next day.

We all went out for various late dinners. We girls went to a rather average taverna, while everyone else went for gyros. Everyone came back for a drink on the roof. The downside about finding my sea legs on the boat is that the land starts to sway. I had to be careful where I looked to avoid landsickness. Jacinta and Michelle went to bed and we said goodbye to them as they were leaving early the next morning. Lisa, Carine and I went to bed at about midnight.

Santorini

We all woke up early for fear of not seeing Santorini before we had to leave. I was at breakfast at 8am. Breakfast was on a lovely little tray with tea, juice, bread, cake, ham and cheese. John had managed to hire the hotel minibus – for the grand total of €6 each.

I was in the first group and we left at about 9.15. John drove us straight to the black beach (Kamari) and while he drove safely, he kept up with the traffic very impressively. We saw the first of his outbursts at other drivers which were very funny. Kamari was a nice laid-back holiday town with a boardwalk, quite a few cafes, tavernas, clothes and tourist shops. The beach has umbrellas and deck chairs set up permanently. The black beach was amazing – the sand gets so hot that they build wooden walkways down to the water so people don’t burn their feet. The sand is quite coarse and very black where the water has been. It makes a hissing noise when each wave comes in. I souvenired some of the sand. We wandered around the shops and then waited for John to come back. Gina and I paid for deck chairs and I got 20 minutes each side of sun before I caught sight of John.

We got back in the bus and John drove us to Santo Wines which is on top of the cliff above the new port. The view was spectacular – looking down to the port was very vertiginous. There was a little protruding deck where the chairs were decorated with bows. They must have weddings there. We went into the gift shop and saw some nice Santorini-shaped bottles of liqueur (we had tasted some at the taverna the night before). I tasted some wine. It was the softest they had and wasn’t bad at all.

John dropped us back into Thira. We got our first gyros of the trip for lunch (not very nice – really salty) and shopped again since the shops we’d wanted were now open. I bought a necklace I liked - €20 for a blue pendant on a black strap. We girls stopped to have an iced chocolate in a gorgeous cafe with amazing views – for €5.50 they’d want to be!

At the top near the church we split up – they went to the pool and I went to find the Megaro Gyzi museum with the 1950s earthquake devastation photos in it. I found it eventually but it was closed for siesta. Instead, I listened to rehearsals for the International Piano Competition next door for a while. I went back to the hotel to get ready for the optional excursion, getting slightly lost on the way. When I got to the pool, I was informed that the excursion was off, and that we couldn’t take the later boat back to Piraeus either. This was bitterly disappointing because we were going to get a boat to the volcano with its hot springs and mud for a bath, then to Ia to watch the sunset. On the bright side it meant that I could go for a swim and could go back to the Gyzi Museum when it was open.

I floated around in a life ring for a while, then lay in the shade. John arrived with the other group and announced that he would drive us in two groups to Ia to see the sunset to make up for the cancelled boat trip. I felt somewhat consoled, nominated myself for the second group and headed to the museum. It was small and quaint but very interesting. There were etchings of the 18th/19th century fashions (think Arabian Nights), archived Diocese records from the 16th/17th/18th century, art works depicting the island, and geological and land strata information. The earthquake photos were sketchy but interesting all the same. There were a few photos of bands and parades in the same collection – I wonder if they were in aid of the clean-up effort. I would have bought a book but they didn’t have a good one. I headed back, hearing the interesting tunes of the church bells, taking some photos on the way.

 I jumped in the shower and put my party dress on. John picked up the second shift at 6.45 and drove us to Ia in time for the sunset. We walked through the utterly beautiful town with no time to take proper photos – here’s where all the traditional blue and white buildings were hiding. There were so many people at the end of the town that it was uncomfortable, but the 1st shift had found a spot on the roof of a half-demolished building (here is John spotting them).  We joined them and watched the sun dip into a haze, turn bright red then sink below the horizon. It was very nice.

The first shift headed back. Those of us left clambered back off the ruin and wandered back through the town. I tried to take some pictures of the red sky and the lights of the town but the wind was quite strong and I couldn’t hold the camera still enough. The shops were quite expensive-looking and I wasn’t tempted to even look in them.

John picked us up and gave us an amusing drive back to the hotel bellowing at drivers doing really stupid things on the roads. The Gap Years sang school hymns making poor John frantic to tune in a radio station.

We walked up to the Romantica Tavern at the top of the street for our included dinner. It was very good – the wine was better than before and so was the main.

The plan was to go out afterwards (it was 11 by the time we were finished). We went to Murphys and it was smoky, packed and had bad music. I had a little dance but by 1.30 I had had enough.

Mykonos to Santorini

I set the alarm for 9.30 I think, and went up to breakfast. I chatted to Fran for a while.

I really wanted to get the bus back into town to see the museums and then go back via Paradise Beach, but I didn’t have enough time, so took some photos, had a walk up the beach and then took my place beside the pool. I sunbaked, then we ordered baklava for ‘lunch’. I couldn’t bring myself to eat a proper lunch, but wish I could have. I was really dreading the boat trip to Santorini because the wind was very strong and the boat had assigned seating and no deck.

We got the hotel shuttle to the port and wandered for a few minutes before sitting uncomfortably on my bag to wait for the boat. It was due to leave at 2.45, but was delayed until about 3.45. There were some gypsies waiting next to us and they sent a child playing random notes on a piano accordion up the aisles to collect money.

The boat arrived and our bags went on the back deck again. I had kept my camera and passport with me in case the boat capsized (John had scared me with tales of previous voyages). We found our seats – right at the front with a big wall and a TV in front. I think everyone had taken John’s Dramamine, and I had taken one of my tablets, but I turned myself firmly in the direction of the window and my eyes on the horizon. The trip was quite rough, and splashes kept obscuring my view out the window. John came and checked on us to make sure we were feeling OK. We stopped at Paros and Ios and arrived at Santorini at about 6.45. From the water, the cliffs looked very dark with light rock up the top. Once the water on the window cleared, I realised the lightness was actually houses.

 We got on two minibuses and made the precarious zig-zag up the cliff face. John pointed out and described the two volcanoes on the way, and described the caldera, and any other features of interest. We got to Hotel Margarita and were taken to our rooms before meeting for the walking tour at about 8.15. It was the first (and only) night that felt remotely cool, and most people donned jeans. We walked around the coast way from Firastefani to Thira and the view absolutely floored me. What a stunning place. I stupidly didn’t take my camera so never got any night shots of Thira. It was interesting to see that many of the buildings were varying shades of beige instead of white and blue. We walked through the shops and John pointed out the features.

We were going to have dinner at John’s favourite Italian restaurant so we followed him there but it was full. Instead we went to a good Greek taverna. John ordered starters for the table and we ordered our own mains. The red wine was foul but the food was excellent. There was discussion about when the boat left to go back to Piraeus – John said it was 10am, but our itinerary said it was in the afternoon. This was a problem because of the boat from Mykonos having been late and this fact leaving us only one day to spend in Santorini. John was concerned, and suggested the possibility of taking the 10pm boat instead of the 10am boat. This would have got us back to Athens around 7am which didn’t suit everyone. We asked about the possibility of some taking the morning boat and the rest taking the night boat. John said he’d ring the office. As a consolation, he offered to find out about driving us around the island in the hotel minibus. I was pretty enthusiastic about that considering how long we’d have to wait to fit in with buses and how much time would be wasted as a result. It was heartbreaking to think that having discovered this beautiful place we couldn’t see it properly.

After dinner, we girls had a shopping expedition. I bought nothing except my third and final bracelet of the island set – a black leather one. We headed back and to bed by midnight.