Today we are going to walk down to Amoudi port.

 

 

We do some exploring as Oia is quieter this morning. We find “the spot” for the photo of the blue dome and the orange church that you see on all the travel brochures for Greece.

 

 

 

We come to this spot.  This is the exact spot that I took the photo of the crowd of people leaving the sunset spot once the sun went down.  So peaceful now.

 

We get to the castle as it is on the way down. There are quite a few people here already. some great views back up to the point of Oia.

 

 

We carry on down the path and run into a couple on the way up. Turns out they are from Quesnel. We chat with them for a bit and another couple on the way down over hears our conversation and says “must be Canadians”. Them too! From Sechelt. More chatting and then we are all on our way again.

There are donkeys on this path as well but very few. I think we might have seen a 7 or 8. That’s all.

There is a geocache down here, so Stu goes off to shoot photos while I head up the road a bit to find the cache. It is another very warm day. The cache was fairly easy to find. I logged it and found a Travel Bug inside, so I take it along with me. 🙂

 

Back down to the port to join Stu. We walk through the 5 restaurants that are down here to a path that leads to a bay around the point.

 

 

 

The water is so blue and clear here too.

 

 

 

We stop for a beer at Oia Sunset. Enjoying the peace and tranquility of this place. There are maybe a dozen other people here. Up above we know it is getting busy. We saw 4 cruise ships in port before we came down the path.  The fisherman is bringing in his catch.  Can’t get much fresher than this.

 

Time to head back up. We thought about counting the steps, but no need. They are counted for us every 10 to 15 steps. You always know how far away you are.

 

 

 

We were told there were 250, but the last number we saw was 230. From there the path diverges, but I don’t have any trouble believing there were at least 30 more before we were back at the top.

 

 

 

This will likely be hanging over our fireplace very soon!  🙂

 

 

We deserve another beer!! We head to the first place we had a beer here after our walk from Fira. It is called “Flora”. The old guy that greets you and takes your order is another old Greek character. He makes spending our money with him pleasant. It is our last day here, so we need to have a Donkey beer. We order 2 Yellow ones and a saganaki. I will miss these 🙁

 

We start a conversation witht the couple at the table next to us. We overheard them talking about doing the Camino de Santiago, “The Way” in Spain. We brag about our friends who finished it recently!! It turns out they are from Calgary. The woman is originally from Spain and her husband from Chile. We talk about the place we are staying now and how great and cheap it is. They are staying in Fira in a place that is not on the caldera, but close. We describe where we were and there eyes light up. “We are just down the street at Villa Soulas”. We were at Villa Soulas for the first 3 nights in Fira, I say we were in room 12. She pulls the key from room 12 out of her bag!! We heard there are 6 million people visting Santorini every year. What are the odds of meeting someone that is staying in the same room you did! I think they are pretty small. They did the walk from Fira today and after beer and a snack they are walking back again! We feel wimpy now. 🙂 We leave them as we go buy beer for our pool time this afternoon and they start heading up the trail.

We enjoy the pool all by ourselves this afternoon. A couple nice dips and dry off in the sun. All we hear here are the birds chirping and a couple of brays from the donkey mom and her foal?? that live in the field behind us. We are not doing the sunset madness tonight.

We get a couple of restaurant recommendations from the lady that runs our place. Stu tells me it is my choice and as we pass the first one, which is on the caldera he says, “shall we do it??”. Me – No we are going to check all 3 out first. The second one is not on the caldera, but down a side street. As we approach we can hear people happily enjoying there meals. After checking out the menu, Stu says “I think this is it. Shall we do it??”. Me again – No. We then go even further down dark alleys with a couple of twists and turns. We see the sign for the place, so we know we are not lost. We look inside, it smells great and there are the people from Sechelt again. They have had a starter and report that it was good, so now “This is the place and we decide to do it!

This was an amazing meal. We started with mussels  in wine and then herbed bass. They were both amazing. We had a table along the back that was open to the low side of the island. If we were there for sunset it would have been beautiful here too. It was dark, but there was a nice breeze blowing. One of our better meals.

We stroll home and set the alarm for an earlier than normal morning. The mini bus for the airport is picking us up @ 7am.

Another fabulous day.

We are moving from Thira to Oia today.  We pack up and walk to the bus depot.  The bus to Oia is just about to leave.  The conductor opens the luggage compartment, we load in our bags, board the bus and we are off.  We need to get off the bus in Finikia which is just before Oia.  Apparently there are a couple of stops and we get off at the first one.  A bit of a hike to get to our new place, but nothing we can’t handle!!

It takes us less than 10 minutes to walk into the heart of Oia.  There are 4 large cruise ships in port in Fira and many of the people come to Oia for a few hours.  It is fairly lively this afternoon.  We see at least 3 wedding photo shoots going on.  A beautiful backdrop for the photos.

We head back for a bit of pool time in our new hotel.  A game of Scrabble.  Standings are now Stu 16, me 14.  He is getting nervous!  🙂

 

We head back into Oia for dinner just as the sun is setting.

 

 

 

 

We catch a few shots along the way.

 

 

 

This not NOT where we are going to have dinner.  Looks amazing.  I wonder what the bill for this is.  Do you think they pay 2 Euros for bread??

 

A couple more shots just because we can’t help ourselves.

Stu figures that the cruise ship people will now be back on the ship and the town should be quiet.  HAHAHAHA.  This is main street after the sun has set.  Thousands of people heading in one direction.  The opposite of us 🙂

We have our dinner and head back to our place.  By this time the pools in some of the caldera side hotels are lit up.  This is not the best shot (hand held with my little camera), but I think you get the idea.

Our apartment is the one above the “Moto Chris Rental” sign.  We had a thunderstorm last night.  The thunder wasn’t too close, but there was a lot of rain along with it.  We lost power sometime during the night.  It seemed that other buildings around us had power in the morning, but we did not.  Had the coffee all set to turn on, but no juice.  I emailed the woman we rented from and she was here shortly after.  She has 3 apartments in this building and it sounds like there has been no rain since the renovations were complete.  She turned the power on, but found water dripping in the breaker box so she wisely turned it off again.  She said someone will be around to look at it sometime today.

We decided that today is the day we walk all the way down to the old port along the zigzag path.  As we leave our place which is on a hill toward the east side of the island, the water is flowing like a river down one side of the street.  We make our way up through the streets of Fira/Thira to they place where the path starts.  There are many many stairs and the cobbles are wet and therefore slippery.

 

We see these 2 guys delivering water, beer and pop to some shops near the entrance to the donkey path.  You can see how slick the cobbles are.  These guys need to be strong!!

 

 

We start down the trail.  It is covered with donkey poo.  Wet from the rain last night and VERY slippery.  The steps are not flat, but at the corners the inside track is even steeper.  I stepped onto one step, both of my feet slipped out from under me and I landed on my butt on the trail.  Thank goodness it was on an almost poop free spot!!  😉

 

 

I am starting to wonder who’s idea this was.  Not only do we have to contend with the poo, the slick cobbles and the mystery liquid that congregates in the potholes, but this is a donkey freeway.  Much more dangerous than the auto bahn!!.  I am serious!

 

 

 

The donkeys go up and down this trail.  As they go up loaded with fresh meat from the cruise ships we hear squeals and screams as the donkeys are also slipping on the trail.  This little dude doesn’t look very excited about this ride.

 

 

At times we have donkeys going both ways past us.  We squeeze to one side or the other, but the donkeys often bump us.  Stu found a little cave to wait for me (I am much slower since my little fall, the steps are pooier as we go, don’t need to land here).

 

 

As on the trail to Oia the other day, I am amazed at the footwear people have as they walk up or down this path.  Perhaps it is the rain that makes it so bad, but trust me none of these shoes will EVER be the same!!

 

We arrive at the bottom and the donkeys are queued up like taxis at the airport.

 

 

 

Lots of people arriving from the cruise ships.  We climb up above to find some doors that we could see while we ate lunch.  Stu wants to get some shots.

 

 

I am done climbing!  I inform Stu that I will not be walking back up that trail.  I am taking the cable car!  He agrees.  He is worried I’ll fall and break something so close to the end of our adventure 🙂

I get in line for the cable car and Stu goes to start the climb back up.

 

My line is long and by the time I walk from the end of the cable cars to the start of the donkey trail, Stu just arriving too.  It took us an hour to go down.  Dodging donkeys and me being extra cautious.  Later the sun had dried most of the trail and the donkey rush hour had abated, so he made it back up in about 30 minutes.

After a cleanup we take the bus to Oia.  We are moving there tomorrow and want to see where our place is.  As we near Oia the road narrows to one lane.  There are many many buses coming out of town so our bus and all other traffic heading into Oia is stopped.  We sat on the bus for about 10 minutes and then just got off, as we could walk from there.  I am sure that bus did not move for 40 minutes.

 

Next some lunch with this view!

 

 

 

Found our place and waited for the bus back to Fira.  The bus stops and opens the back doors for us.  Another couple and us squeeze into the jam packed bus.  Didn’t think we would be able to close the doors.  😉

Another incredibly interesting day.  Donkeys and all!!

 

Off to explore more of Fira today.  First thing we run into our convenience store guy on the corner.  We wants to know “how was the water??”  We laugh and tell him it was great.  It was actually not too bad.  He tells us that he makes it from grape skins.  hmmm  I’m thinking Grappa.  It was a clear liquid, like water, but pretty potent.  Also says he could bottle it, put his name on the label and would have to charge us over 7 Euros in taxes alone.  So to avoid that he stashes it in his store and gives it away for free.  No taxes!!!  I think I mentioned something before like “hence CRISIS”.  Just another example of how the economy here functions, I’m not sure if I should say “works” 🙂

 

We head down to the Donkey Station.  We will walk part way down to get the lay of the land/path.

 

 

The donkeys are waiting to start their day.  Looking happy and eager for the day ahead.

 

 

 

 

Just like like the donkey handlers 😉

 

 

We base our dining decisions on a couple of factors.  The price of beer and a Greek Salad or cheese saganaki and if the place has entertainment value…… a view or lots of people to watch.  We see the price of beer go from 1.80 Euros a can in Leros to 9 Euros here in Santorini for a local craft beer called Volkan.

We haven’t tried this one yet.  There are also some other local beers called Yellow Donkey, Red Donkey and Crazy Donkey.  These guys run 7-8 Euros depending on where you go.  I saw some in a mini mart, but didn’t check the price.  We saw the Crazy Donkey in a restaurant for 15 Euros, but it comes in a 750 ml bottle, so that isn’t a great comparable.  They are brilliant marketers too.  All over the island there are Yellow, Red and Crazy Donkey t-shirts.  I’m thinking “not so crazy”  🙂

Today for lunch we based our choice on the price of beer.  The place has a view and the beer is 4 Euros for .5 l.  Not too bad.  We also order Potato Saganaki.  We have never seen this on a menu before, so thought we should give it a try.  Basically a potato casserole with potatoes of course, bacon, mushrooms, red peppers in a cheesy cream sauce, topped with a crust of baked cheese.  Pretty darn good.

 

There is a cruise ship arriving as we have our lunch.  We watch the launches all go out to meet the boat.  There are small ones and some larger ones all hovering around the ship.

 

 

 

We suspect there is some sort of pecking order and they know who goes next.  Similar to a queue of cabs at the airport, not as neat and tidy.  As you can see from these 2 photo the rain is coming in.

 

Time for a museum!!  We make our way to the museum of Santorini.  It is housed in a house built in 1700’s and it survived an earthquake in the 8’s in 1956.  It now belongs to the church and has an interesting photographic history of the island.  Very interesting and by the time we are done the rain is done!.

Okay we came back from dinner tonight and thought we would try the ouzo I bought from our friend last night.  We open it with much difficulty as I ensured I bought a sealed tight bottle.  Well, it turns out it doesn’t taste at all like ouzo.  It tastes quite exactly like the “water” from last night!!  No wonder he was giving me his “water”.  He thought I was a “water” fan!!  From what I can read on the label it is this.  How was I to know??  It was a clear liquid, in what I thought was the ouzo section.  Oh wait, he has no system.  😉 😉

 

We had a lazy day today.  We had to move again.  We booked this place online for 2 nights and extended it to 3 when we had to leave Leros early.  We weren’t sure how we would like it.  Turns out it was great.  The location was close to the center of the action, but far enough away to be quiet when we want it quiet.  Any way when we tried to extend for another 3 nights we found that they couldn’t accommodate us.  We got a name of a place from Emily who we met on the hike yesterday.  It is 3 doors away from where we were so the move was pretty easy.

The weather is a little unsettled today.  Apparently 80% chance of thunderstorms.  We have some rain and lots of wind.

 

We take a short stroll to the caldera.  There are fewer cruise ships in port than yesterday but still lots of tourists along the walkway.

 

We walk along a street that is close to our place and stop to look at a menu at a restaurant.  Suddenly we have their pitchman giving us the menu highlights.  Sounds good.  We decide that this is the place for tonight’s dinner.  Later we return and have Mussels Saganaki and a Greek Salad.  It is excellent.  So excellent that we devoured it before I took a photo 😉

We have a “convenience store” on the corner.  We have purchased beer, wine etc. from this guy since we arrived.  He is quite the character.  The first time we bought supplies, we paid and suddenly he says “Wait a minute!!”  he disappears and comes back with a big slice of white cheese.  He wraps it up in paper and stuffs it in our bag, after he offered us a corkscrew and plastic glasses for the wine!  Wow.

We take our goodies home and slice the cheese and put it on the crackers he sold us.  Oh my god!!  It was amazing!!

The next day we were back for our bottle of wine.  He asked if the wine was good.  It was.  Trying to find it again was impossible.  His little store is jam crammed with stuff.  So much wine stacked to the rafters.  I have no idea what his system is, but we eventually decide on a bottle.  There is a French couple buying a few things and he tells them “Wait a minute!” and disappears.  They look confused.  He comes back with a different cheese and gives them a slice in their bag and calls me over and cuts two slices and places them in my hand with his knife, indicates that one of them was for Stu who was still searching in his wine aisle.  And then adds another cheese package in our bag.  He is a hoot!!

On the way home we decide to stop into the “convenience store” to buy some ouzo.  I go in because we bought some milk and yogurt at another store and we didn’t want him to know we were cheating on him 🙂  So Stu stayed outside and I went in to buy the ouzo.  There was another woman in the store buying some water.  He asked her where she was from, it was Ireland.  She leaves, I hand him the bottle of Ouzo I have chosen, (I noticed while I was perusing the shelves that some of the bottles were opened and only half full ????   huh???)  I choose a bottle that is well sealed and take to the cash register.  He checks it out and nods his approval and tells me it is Good.

I pay and he says “Wait a minute!!”  He disappears again, I am expecting more cheese when he appears with a plastic cup in his hand.  He takes me down the wine aisle.  About eye level he takes down a large bottle of ouzo (almost empty) and from behind pulls out a 1.5 litre bottle of a clear liquid.  He says “this is my water, I make”.  He pours a full plastic cup of this into the cup he gave me.  I take a sniff and say “Wow”.  At this point other people are coming into the store and he is now pushing me out.  I am just giggling.  I share my “water” with Stu.  This is quite a character!!

 

Stu didn’t even take his camera out of the bag today so I am including some of his amazing shots from our hike day.

…..

 

 

 

 

……

 

 

 

 

……..

We are going to hike to Oia today.  There is a path from Fira/Thira.  We hear it is 9.8km and should take 2.5-3 hours to complete.  Just as we were leaving our hotel, a young woman asked if we knew the way to the bus station or the path to Oia.  Well what a coincidence 🙂  we guided her up to the start of the path while we went in search of breakfast.  We thought that the hotel breakfast was a bit too large.  We looked around for a bit and decided to start walking and find something along the way.

 

We notice that there are 5 cruise ships in the bay today.  There was only 1 yesterday.  We figure this is a good day to get out of Fira!!  Someone told us that they were expecting 20,000 people in town.  There were also a couple other ships arriving later in the day.

 

We catch up to the young woman and find out she is from Orlando.  Travelling on her own.  She is on her way to a friends wedding Tuscany and thought she had to come to Santorini as she was in the neighbourhood. 🙂

 

 

We walk with her for a while but leave her as we follow signs for coffee and a bakery.  We finally find it after passing many signs promising it is 100m away.  We pick up 2 coffees and 2 pastries.  It cost 12 Euros!!!   OUCH!!  Feeling ripped we make our way back to the trail to at least have a view with our pricey coffee.

 

 

 

We continue on to the north.  We think that we will climb a bit and then the trail will level off along the top of the caldera and be fairly flat all the way to Oia.  Sounds reasonable right?

 

 

Well we couldn’t be more wrong.  There are lots of elevation gains and losses.  The views are UNBELIEVABLE!!!  We need to keep our head down a lot in order not to trip on a stray rock on the path.  Also not to see the hill ahead 🙂

 

 

 

The photos are worth it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Can you see the little white dot up on the side of the hill?  That is where we are headed. Not sure what is waiting for us after that 🙂   Long road ahead.

 

Steep hill on the left.  Keep looking right!!!  The trail is very rocky and slippery due to loose gravel on top of the hard packed base.  This requires careful steps.  We are wearing our hiking shoes but we see lots of people in flip flops and flimsy sandals.  We shake our heads.

 

 

 

 

The little church is near!!

 

 

We see this sight.  Donkey rides and a scooter.  The old and the new both together.

 

 

 

 

We made it to the church.  I grab this little bench that is in the shade.  It is surprisingly cool.  The temperature is in the low 30’s.

 

 

 

 

 

Should be all downhill from here.  That is Oia down below.

 

 

 

 

Down we go.

 

 

 

 

 

We are back in civilization.  Can’t beat some of these views.

 

 

Found a little taverna for some well deserved beer and a snack right along the caldera.  Great views and great little old Greek guy serving us.  We meet up with the young lady from Florida and find her name is Emily.  She joins us at our table and we strike up a conversation with a couple that now live in northern California but used to live in Nanaimo.  The little Greek guy keeps selling us beer.  He is thrilled when I give him a Canadian maple leaf key chain.  Part of my geocache sharing treasures.

I am patting myself on the back again!!  This was a tough hike in very warm temperatures.  Lots of water in and out 🙂

This was another AMAZING DAY!!

 

 

 

 

Arrived at our hotel last night to find this note on the reception door. 🙂

Not quite enough sleep, but that’s OK.  There will be naps.

 

 

Our hotel serves breakfast for 4 Euros each.  We have no idea where we are in relationship to cafes and restaurants really as it was so late when we arrived.  So we go downstairs and have breakfast here.  Strong coffee, orange coloured juice 🙂 , two thick slices of toast (with butter, jam and honey), a hard boiled egg and a grilled ham and cheese sandwich.  Quite a lot of food.

Off to explore.  We discover that the ocean that we see from our little deck is actually the opposite side from the caldera.  It slopes gently to the ocean.

First thing we see is this! A Triumph Spitfire.  My first car was a 1968 almost this colour and Stu also owned a 1967 in this colour too.  Very cool.  Don’t see many of these anymore.

 

 

As we walk up the hill to the center of Fira it gets busier and busier with people and vehicles of all sorts.  Lots and lots of shops.  Selling jewelry, clothing, art and souvenirs. A big change from sleepy little Leros.

 

 

 

 

 

We soon see why we came back to this island!  Amazing vistas.

 

 

 

 

We find a spot for refreshments in a great place with a view.  There are a few to choose from.  There is a cruise ship in the bay and passengers have been dropped off at the port below us.  There is a zig zag path that people can walk up and down.  You can also take a cable car or you can ride a donkey.  Here is a donkey traffic jam.

 

We walk along the rim of the caldera and look back towards Fira.

 

 

 

 

Nap time done, we head back for more views and dinner.  Many people congregating at the prime sunset spots.  Many bars and restaurants require reservations for this time of day.

 

 

 

 

 

 

There are still some open spots for photos.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Such beauty!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Glad we made the decision to return to Santorini!