As I'm sure that you can tell from the pictures, our hotel was on the side of a cliff. Our room was literally a cave. That was cool. What was not cool was getting to our hotel from the main roads. David forgot to check his e-mail to see if we were sent any directions, so all we had was an address. We couldn't find it. I finally insisted that I was going to run inside the travel agency directly in front of us and ask for directions. They told us to go to another travel agency who will take care of us. Huh. Didn't know we needed 'taking care of'. So, we found our way to agency #2. Without explanation, they took our credit cards and passports and told us that we were now checked in and that all we had to do was wait for her "colleague" to arrive to take us to our room. Really? What room? We did not see a hotel, let alone anywhere that looked like the hotel we booked online. But we waited. Soon enough a man, maybe 50 years old, arrives to take us. He doesn't speak English. But he smiled and we went. David and I had absolutely no idea what we were getting into and we had both our suitcases with all of our things plus souvenirs we picked up along the way. Then, he insists on taking the HEAVY suitcase which he then proceeds to carry on his shoulders (mind you this thing weighs about 60 lbs). A human mule. We were going up and down the tiniest little walkways along the cliff of a volcano and this guy insists on carrying the heavy suitcase. David & I both feel terrible. Dave tried to insist that he should carry the heavy suitcase when we stopped for a break. Oh ya, did I mention it was crazy hot out? Ya. Well, the guy didn't let David take the bag. About 15 minutes later we arrive at our hotel. Except that it's just a room on the side of a cliff. It looked like a home by itself, not part of a complex. But he had a key, dropped us off and said c'ya! Huh. Ok. Well, it's a nice room with an amazing view... we're not going to complain. We're confused, but we're also thirsty. I finally tell David "those over there look painted just like ours... I bet that's our pool!" We go over there and sure enough, we were part of a hotel! And even better, that was our pool!! Hallelujah! We finally figured out where our breakfast would be served and where we check out. Which was the next day. If we had known what a trek it was, we would have stayed longer... but as it was there were more places to go. We did love it there. It was wonderful. (As a side note- we felt so bad about the suitcases that when evening came, we consolidated all we would need for 3 days for both of us into one suitcase and David carried the heavy one back to the rental car where it stayed until we reached Hydra. We didn't want that poor man to have to carry it again!)
The sunset was truly lived up to the hype. David is a wonderful photographer with these sunset photos but you'll have to trust me when I say that the photos absolutely don't do the scenery any justice.
The first night after sunset, we cruised the town. I was really wanting to see the "Caldera" at night (which is a fancy way of saying the "cliff on the side of the volcano"). It was pretty cool:
The goal of the first day in Santorini was to relax, enjoy the view and relax some more. We did "hike" down a bunch of stairs to go down to the harbor that was directly below us. We also cruised the town of Oia for a bit... here's what we saw:
1 comment:
I love reading your stories! What an amazing place and I can't wait to read more!
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