Santorini Day 2

We started the today with one of the best breakfast spreads I have sat down to, see Riley's blog entry for details.  That food was the fuel that we used for a four hour hike between Fira and Oia here in Santorini Island.  The hike might be best described as Eco-Urban. You began with long walk through the narrow winding alleys lined with shops in Fira and ended with much the same in Oia. Along the way you were treated to some beautiful views of the Aegean, the Santorini Volcano, and some pretty fantastic dwellings.

Lots of interesting doors...

Fun alleyways going up and down...

My retirement home and accompanying yacht...

Iconic blue domed churches...

The Black Mountain to scale...

Waters to overlook...

The final decent...

A little girl time...

Many scenes impossible to capture...

Finally, there was the creepy marionette store.

We were contemplating the return hike, but the girls did so well and we needed an excuse to wimp out.  We all thought the bus back to Fira, our starting point, was a good idea until we found the bus station. We arrived in time to watch the last sardines jam into this big rolling can and then pull away. It was stuffed with folks that came in to Fira on cruise ships and were now heading back for their departure.

We stepped in line and were chatting with some nice fellows from England who had said they had missed the last two buses and had been waiting an hour already.  Apparently, they were unable to sequester their western etiquette enough to push their way onto the bus.  Each time, the Asians who were also returning to cruise ships squished them out of the way.

This is no offense to Asians, but we learned in a hurry with our China experience that pushing is part of the culture and you will not beat them so you must join them. Patti said "Let me show you how this is done."  But she never had the chance, because there is always someone hawking rides to those who just missed the public transport and are willing to pay a little more. So we got in another coffin on wheels and down the mountain we careened all the way to Fira. 

The reward for a good hike was 2 scoops of Gelato for the girls. The decided to split their consumption and have the first one in a Fira and the second one later in Kamari. I of course need to have Gelato any time they have it so I can make sure it is of the highest quality. Patti, Mrs. I cannot eat anything tasty, is not enjoying our enjoyment. 

The Gelateria had another section that combined two of my kids favorite things, food and swings.  The table behind us got a kick out of how swingy Tara and Riley were able to get in that limited space. 

With the Gelato now only a memory, we had one more bus to catch to head down to the sea from Fira to Kamari.  Now that the beach was a bust and the pool was frigid we found our water-centric lounge time had drying up.  We still had another day and we were factoring how we would come back to Fira to watch the sunset on the next evening when Patti went all in on renting ATVs.

Now we take the mean streets into our own hands.  We stopped by a few shops and chatted about price until we found a deal which was pretty easy to come by at 5:00 in the evening. With our 24 hour rental came extensive training for Patti and none for me. He must have sensed that Patti had some experience crashing things. 

We were given a very basic map with lines for the major roads (no names) and gas stations along the way. Prominently featured in more detail than anything else in the map was a section called 'Useful Numbers'. They were listed in this order - Police, Hospital, Pharmacy. Away we went down the mtn only getting lost a few times and with only one wrong way on a one way street. 

For dinner we had the closest thing to street food that we could find in town at a Souvlaki joint. Good stuff. Then we wandered in some shops and then called it a night.

Images in 2015 Santorini Day 2.