Greece April 25 - May 1

The ferry ride to Santorini on the hi speed ferry took 5 hours. We loaded Tom up with sea bands, ginger drops for behind his ears and ginger gum to chew on. As a result, he was only marginally green and we arrived in Santorini without filling any barf bags......Santorini is an island with several towns built on the rim (caldera) of an active Volcano. The volcano originally erupted wiping out everything on the island and the center of the cone filled with the sea.

Our hotel in the town of Fira was a cute, very small cave room which are rooms actually built into the caldera of the volcano. This whole island was right out of a picture book. All blues and whites, churches and chapels and lots of bells. The town, and later we found out all the towns on the cadera were the same, was made up of small, narrow, meandering streets winding up and down the side of the volcano around all the shops and tavernas. From the verandah of our hotel we had an outstanding view of the entire caldera.










We arrived on Good Friday of the Greek Orthodox Easter and the hotel owner told us we should go to the Festival of 6000 lights in the town of Pirgos that night. Taking his advice we went and climbed up to one of the many churches in this hilltop town where the main ceremony was taking place. We stood outside with hundreds of other people who were coming to the church and lighting candles and waiting for the service to end. At this point we were a little confused about what the big deal was but we hung out and waited.


When the service ended, they began to light lanterns all around the church and on the rooftops of the neighboring buildings. We thought this was a little anticlimatic but then we realized the same thing was happening simultaneously throughout the town. There wasn't a single rooftop, ledge or wall in the entire town without lights, some even configured in the shape of crosses. The pictures cannot begin to describe what an awesome site this was. There were just lanterns burning, and sparks flying, everywhere and you couldn't take your eyes off of it as you walked down away from the town.The one thing the landlord didn't tell us was that the buses stop running at night. After a five mile walk there we were not ready to also walk home that late. We were lucky to hitch a ride from one of the locals to Firos with two American girls who were in the same situaion.

Saturday we took the bus to Oia, the furthest most town out on the Caldera which is a little more laid back and less touristy than Fira. It was a beautiful day and we wondered the streets for most of the day and even had our first Nescafe Frappe which is all the rage in Greece. Go figure, instant coffee ice tea, but the Greeks cannot get enough of it. Actually, it was not bad! That night was the big night for Easter all over Greece.

They go to service starting at about 10:00 and by 12:00 the square in our town was absolutely packed with people holding candles. The ritual is to pass the light at midnight from the service to the people outside who keep passing it back in the crowd. Then you are supposed to walk home without losing your light. It was a windy night so this was a chanllenge. However, there were pros out there who had tin foil wrapped around their candle for extra security. The best part was that as the candlelight was being passed back, all the bells across the entire island starting ringing and fireworks were set off. It was pretty special to be part of!

Sunday it poured and we started walking around Fira but we got soaked so we bagged the rest of the day and hung out reading and listening to music in our hotel room. It was actually a good down day of just relaxing.


The next day we decided to check out the rest of the island so we rented a car and explored. We checked out the rest of the towns including the black sand beaches at Kamari and Perissa and the red sand beach at Kokkivn. They were nice but truthfully the special part, and best part, of Santorini is the towns on the caldera. Santorini is one of the most unique places there is and we definitely enjoyed being there but it was time to get back to the mainland.

We flew the next morning to Athens, picked up a rental car (which was an experience) and headed off to the ancient city of Delphi in the Northern Peloponnese. The drive thru the Greek countryside was very nice and the city, perched on the slopes of Mount Parnassus, was in an amazing spot. Even the ancient Greeks understood the value of location, location, location. This is, as Rick Steves says in his guidebook, the big enchilada of Greek sites and we enjoyed walking thru the ruins. The stadium where ancient games took place was remarkably preserved.









Next stop, Nafplio in the lower Peloponnese. The coutryside in this area of Greece is filled with olive and orange trees and road side stands selling local olive oil and oranges are everywhere.

Nafplio itself is a definite tourist destination but it is beautiful, especially at night. There is a harbor to explore and many cobblestone streets with restaurants and shops. Sitting in the town square watching all the kids playing reminded us how much we really miss all the kids! It was a great place, with restaurant tables all throughout the square and it was a nice place to sit in the morning sunshine after coffee planning our trip to the airport and Croatia.






THINGS GREEK:
Churches and chapels and chapels and churches and bells
More Bells and churches and chapels
cheap Greek wine
The absolutely best, yogart with walnuts and honey
Great tomatoes
Better strawberries
Ouzo
Methos beer
Still NO PRETZELS
great Gyros
street vendors
motorcycles and scotters
very easy to pronounce Greek names.........
donkeys
mandatory to ignore all speed limits, lanes and no passing signs
people smoking everywhere including restaurants
horn honking
more churches and chapels and bells
Yamas!...