Category Archives: Travel – Santorini 2008

As we need to return our car to the rental agency, we decided to spend the entire day before our flight home roaming around the alleyways of Fira.

A multitude of fellow admirers cannot diminishes the impact of Fira’s stupendous landscape. Views from the edge of caldera over the multicoloured cliffs are breathtaking, and at night the caldera edge is a frozen cascade of lights. The central square is Plateia Theotokopoulou. It’s a fairly crowded place (though of course not so during the winter when we visited); the main road, 25 Martiou, intersects the square as part of a one-way system that just manages to keep the traffic flow going. Between 25 Martiou and the caldera is the essence of Fira, a network of pedestrianised alleyways.

The dawn of our last day in Santorini was rather overcast, with little hope of sunshine. We were a little downhearted, but determined to enjoy the day nonetheless.

As we venture pass shop after closed shops, we came across a group of donkeys! Laden with goods, they were making their way up the steep alleyway of Fira. We were a bit curious as on how they would know their way, since there was no visible person guiding them, and decided to follow where the donkeys go. The donkey station was located nearby the cable car station, where there is a pathway (Marinatou) leading down to the old port of Fira Skala. It was quite a funny adventure, actually, to follow the donkeys!

Marinatou, the steep, cobbled pathway leading from Fira town edge down to the old port Fira Skala, was quite a difficult descend. It took us close to an hour walking down. Halfway through to the descent, my knees started to shake from the impact of climbing down the stairs.

Oh, let me introduce you to Raki. We met him halfway during our exploration around Fira. At first we thought he was a rather fierce dog, but soon he started to follow wherever we go. He also responded to my calls, and seem to understand what I was telling him. I know it made no sense, as it all probability, the dog would only understand Greek and it was probably own by someone since he was wearing a collar. But he followed us, we enjoyed his company, and decided to name him after the infamous Turkish vodka, Raki.

Raki walked with us all the way down to Fira Skala. During our hour-long journey going down the stairs, he always keep ahead of us, like some sort of advanced bodyguard cum scout. When he went too far ahead, hiding in some bushes or something, I will call out to him, and he will come tottering to me. At the port, when I lied down by the waterside to rest, he tried to lick my face but I pushed him away. Not giving up, he decided to sit next to me and push his entire body next to mine. Ah, the joy of having a lovely dog like that. Did I mention that Raki was blind in one eye? You can see that from the photo above.

Oh, let me tell you something about the old port. Fira Skala was an old port serving the Santorini before the bigger port of Anthinios took over. This old port became a tourist hub of sort, a small town of seaside cafés, boat rental agencies and trinket shops. During summer times, there are tours going to the nearby volcano and hot springs, but of courses when we were there, we were the only tourists around. In fact, all in all we have seen only four other persons during the hour we spent enjoying its serenity and playing with Raki.

Soon it was time to board the cable car up the cliff back to Fira. There was no way we will climb up the steep pathway again. It was also then we had to bid a fond farewell to our new-found-friend Raki at Fira Skala. I felt bad leading him down all the way here only to abandon him for cable car. The ride up took mere minutes, and cost EUR4 per person. As you ascend up, one can’t help to admire (or gasp, if you are height-phobic like yours truly) how dramatic the caldera cliff is.

Click here to see the photos we took around Fira town as well as of Raki at Fira Skala.

By the time we reached Fira town, the sky has brightened up considerably, and the possibility of finally catching a Santorini sunset loomed over us. Since we had an hour or so to spare before sunset time, we zoom around Fira town using Liping’s super powerful camera, and found a café that is open during this time! Happily we made our way to the café, and had some drinks and rested there.

When 4 p.m. came around, I finally understood why Santorini is famous for its sunsets. The sight over the cliff looking out to the volcano with the setting orb was truly breath taking. We took a great many photos of this phenomenon (which you can view here on Flickr). We got a pretty good unobstructed spot to take photos near the cable car station. Stayed there for about an hour, in the process which four more dogs joined us. I really, really like the (stray) dogs of Santorini. I think during winter times they were starved of human attention they used to enjoy during summer, hence whenever they see someone like us, they will come over and be friendly.

By 5 p.m. the sun was covered with large clouds, and it was unlikely that we will see it sinking into the sea horizon. But nevertheless we were happy just to be able to catch one sunset, especially on our last day here. This is even better than the sunset I witnessed at Phuket.

We decided to head back towards main town square of Fira to catch a bite before taking the hotel transfer to airport. Out of sheer luck we spotted Tavern Noussa, and it was open! This eatery was highly recommended by Liping’s friend, and we decided to have our last meal in Santorini here, which turned out to be a good choice. The fish soup was absolutely delicious, and my grilled chicken was tasty despite being a tad dry. The friendly chef even came over to talk to us a few times, and offered some complimentary and absolutely delicious dessert which we struggled to finish because we were so full!

So we dined and wined and laughed and generally had a good time. The owner told us to tell everyone that Tavern Noussa is open all year round, and ask everyone to come here for dinner.

So I am doing that, right here :)

On a whim we decided to head to Town Café to check our emails since we had some time to spare. Which also turned out to be a good decision because the airline emailed us on a change of flight timing – yet another delay! – by Olympic Airlines. By then we were so immune to this sucky airline that we didn’t even react to the news.

Soon we were back to the hotel and the friendly owner sent us to the airport. The whole place was dead. We were told to hang around first while waiting for the luggage xray machine was turned on, for the check in counter to be operating… this got to be the most relaxed airport I am in ever.

Right now I am sitting waiting for the security control to open their gate for departure. The flight was effectively delayed by 1.5 hour, and we were not supposed to complain. Liping has worked out all the routes to get to Athens Backpackers, our accommodation for the next 5 days, when we get to the airport. Wish me luck!

We went to a tour agency yesterday to check for packages to visit some of the best features of Santorini: the volcano island Nea Kameni, the hot springs at Palia Kameni as well as the nearby island Thirasia. But silly us should have realized that ferry services are not existent during the winter months. There went our hopes to spend sometime away from the main Santorini island.

Since that didn’t work out, we planned for another day excursion around the island, using my faithful Lonely Planet as a guide but mostly just following our fancy. If you have the time to kill, just drive around the island. Trust me, you’ll have more fun that way.

First off we went recce around Fira, since most likely we’ll spending the last day here in the main town. I had always told Liping for us to head for the caldera edge, since we never did that in broad daylight. Our nightly walk around the mostly deserted walkways around Fira might not do the town justice.

And true enough, but just venturing a little further from where we used to frequent, the incredible sight above greeted us. Views from the edge of the caldera over multicoloured cliffs were breathtaking. Though it is not as serene as the sight that was Oia, it was a relief to find that Fira packed a punch as well, befitting its title as the main town of Santorini.

While walking around the quiet and almost as-dead-as-Oia town of Fira, I discovered that the cable service was still running! Okay, perhaps it was just carrying some empty cable cars up and down the cliff towards the old port of Fira Skala, but it was a relief to see it nonetheless. Later on I discovered that the cable service do run during winter, but only from 8.00 a.m. to 10 a.m. in the morning, and between 3.00 p.m. and 4.00 p.m. in the afternoon.

Check out my set of photos of my first trip around Fira; I’ll be back for more tomorrow!

We got started on our day trip and our first stop was Ancient Thira. This old settlement of the Dorians consists of Hellenistic, Roman and Byzantine ruins, which include temples, houses with mosaics, an agora (market), a theatre and a gymnasium. Okay, so that sentence was word-for-word from Lonely Planet, but it got me all excited to see some real Greek ruin at last! But like all things in Santorini during winter…

The bloody place was closed as well! We stopped our car somewhere before the start of a steep, rocky climb up the hill towards the site for these photos. From where we were, you have a splendid view of Kamari and the surrounding town. By now the wind was blowing very, very strongly and the chill of Santorinian winter started to bite into my bones. Soon we headed back into the car to drive down to Kamari.

And what a sight Kamari was! Kamari is 10 km from Fira and is Santorini’s best-developed resort. It has a long beach of black sand, with the rugged limestone cliffs of Cape Mesa Vouno framing its southern end. The beachfront road is dense with restaurants and bars, though everything was closed during our visits – I would imagine things get very busy here in high seasons.

This was the first time in my life I see a black beach in my life. The wind was very strong here, and the waves crashed to the shore with a ferocity that will put the fear into your heart. The sea was very treacherous at this time. I was determined to take a photo of myself with the big waves, so I asked Liping to shoot one while I perch myself on some of the large stones along the beach. I should have known better. A split second after the photo above was taken, the waves engulfed my legs and I was soaking wet! Worth the shot though.

Again, we had the entire beach to ourselves save for some exceptionally friendly stray dogs. I guess these dogs were very used to human presence during summer time, when this place will be packed to the max. So during the winter month, when tourists were scarce, they will approach whoever for some affection and perhaps some warmth.

Not that I minded, but Liping was freaked out one of them might just paw at her like the other night. LOL.

This set of photos taken at Ancient Thira and Kamari black beach definitely worth a visit, as you can see the true extend of the beauty these two places were.

Right after Kamari, we started to make our way to Oia again in the hope of catching the famous sunset view, making a few more unchartered stops along the way. Seriously unchartered because for the life of me I couldn’t identify where we were at times, but we just know the places were beautiful.

Our first stop was the Argyro’s Canava, one of the oldest wineries on the island and home to various wine museums and shops like the one pictured above. I had never visited a winery before and hence wanted to visit one, but alas most of these places were closed during winter so my search around this area was in vain.

We came across a sign pointing towards Pyrgos, and so that was our next stop. This wasn’t marked as recommended destination in Lonely Planet, and it is easy to know why. There is no interesting spot to take note of, but the sight at this hilltop town was pretty awesome. Look at the photo above. Churning sea, white-foamed waves and rolling dark clouds. Now close your eyes – can you imagine how strong the wind was? We couldn’t stay more than 10 minutes on the cliff because of the biting chill. Soon we were back into the car make our way to Oia, passing by the town of Fira again in the process.

And I just have to show you what a dangerous drive that was.

This photo was taken by risking the lives of Liping and I. See the steep incline to my left, right behind me? Now imagine a sheer drop to the sea with little or no barrier along the roadside, a wind strong enough to bend even the tallest trees, and a car so small that it rattled whenever the wind was too much to bear. That was the kind of stress I had to go through when I drive to Oia. At one point of the ride, I can see the Sea of Crete to my left and Aegean Sea on my right. That was how narrow that strip of the island was. Now imagine doing all that again under the cover of darkness on the drive back.

Gosh, that was one thrilling ride. Despite the horrendous I described it, I would still want to do it again. LOL.

Driving past our stopping point in Oia yesterday, we followed the road signs to reach the small port of Ammoudi. If you are driving, follow the signs that says “Bay of Ammoudi”. If you are walking from Oia, take the 300-steps down from the tip of the cliff (see the zigzag stairs in the photo, just above my head). This is a tiny port with some tavernas and colourful fishing boat. During summer, boats and tours will go from here to Thirasia (a neighbouring island) daily. During our visit, the whole place was deserted with no human activities to speak of (although I am sure there were people lurking around because of some parked cars). Ammoudi is worth visiting is you want to take dramatic photos featuring Oia (top of photo), red-stone cliff (mid of photo) and beautiful sea (bottom of photo).

After Ammoudi, we drove around area to discover more closed taverns and sunset view points. In fact, the weather was so gloomy that the probability of seeing any sun at all was close to zero. Admitting defeat, Liping and I headed to one of the very, very few shops still functioning in winter Oia. Like the café above, where I satisfied my craving for an oily, meat-laden omelette. The café was run by a very friendly family (they had their meal while we were there, a truly heart warming experience) and they use old-fashioned wood fire to warm up the place!

We went to walk around Oia one last time (no more photo taking since we have shot enough yesterday) just to enjoy the peace, and guess what we have found?

A bookstore. Actually I discovered Atlantis Books yesterday during our first visit. This photo was taken then as I find it very, very attractive to be nestled in a corner like this, with a charming shopfront display.

Today, when walked past, I realized there were lights on, and a sign was saying “If you are open, we are open”.

How could we resist? So we went down the stairs, and stepped into the world of my dream.

Handmade bookshelves. Well-loved books. Classical music. Staff recommended titles (with handwritten reviews!). Funny memorabilia (like letters between the shop owner and a debt collection agency; it was hilarious). Warm, soft glow. Living corners right there in the shop – dining table, sleeping beds, sofa…

There is a description of how Atlantis Books was stated on their website, so I won’t repeat it here. We met Chris, the owner-in-residence at that time, and two very friendly chaps from England. One was reading some very serious-looking paper but playing with a very adorable kitten at the same time, and one was very sportingly showed us how he could disappear through the roof and reappear at the front door, and then came back in through a hidden door. Such was the magic of Santorini.

In fact, it was during this visit that Liping and I vowed to come back to here again, specifically to Oia to experience its magic during summer. It had also revived my dream to run my own bookshop. I wish I could get to know the shop staff better, but it was getting dark and I still have to make the 16 km drive back to Fira. So we bade our farewell after buying some shop-produced postcards from them.

Hey guys, if you are reading this, we will be back!

Here’s the set of photos of my second trip to Oia.

Soon we were back to Fira and, surprise surprise! The whole town seems to come alive tonight! We spent some happy minutes browsing at some shops before I headed off to the nearby Town Café for some internet therapy.

Apparently, yes. When I was about to leave, the group of playful youths I met at Town Club during my first night here walked through the door, and the kid who asked to dance with recognized me and waved hi.

So we had a little chat. Christy was all of 17 year-old and he stays in Fira. He asked why I come to Santorini in winter and not in summer, when things wouldn’t be so dead? I asked him what he will be doing for the night, and he said he will be hanging out at Town Café (which is right behind Town Club) with his friends, playing and all.

True enough, they were still here when I return after a delicious but oversized dinner at the nearby Tarvena Simos (Note: This tarvena was run by a very friendly lady who speaks excellent English and can recommend great food. We had a delicious platter of fried calamari. I had the traditional mouzhuka and ouza, which tasted suspiciously like raki I tried in Istanbul). Some of the lads chatted with me, but all of them were very boisterous over something that I couldn’t understand. So I left them to it while I stayed online to chat with Cheryl who was amazingly awake at that time of the night (it was 4 plus in the morning in Singapore).

All in all, a pretty good night. But lethargy took over me, so decided to come back early, blog this and go to sleep.

After such a long day yesterday, Liping and I woke at about 10 a.m. After a coffee and a Santorini-briefing offered by the hotel owner, we decided to do a little road trip to the coastline of the island by renting a car!

“Dory” is a two-seater smart car that we rented from an agency in Santorini. It cost us EUR50 for two days, but I think it was damn worth it. At first I wanted to get an ATV, but considering the weather and the fact that we do have quite a bit of stuff on us, a car made more sense. With Dory we traveled the length of the island for the entire day.

Fantastic, fabulous Santorini deserves all the superlatives. Even the most jaded traveler succumbs to the awesome drama of this surreal landscape, relic of what was probably the biggest eruption in recorded history.

Santorini is famous for the caldera and its vast curtain wall of multicoloured cliffs is truly awesome. The village of Oia on the northern tip of the island is hugely popular sunset viewing site because there is an uninterrupted view of the sun as it finally sinks below the horizon. From farther south down the caldera edge, the last of the setting sun can be obscured by the islands of Nea Kameni and Thirasia.

During the excursion we ventured into nooks and corners of Santorini, making pit stops whenever we fancied so. As a result we took lots of photos of places we have no idea about, but stunning nonetheless.

The landscape behind me was very unique and I am pretty sure it was because of the earthquakes Santorini is so famous for. Minor eruptions have been the norm in Greece’s earthquake record, but Santorini has bucked the trend – and with an attitude – throughout history. Eruptions here were genuinely earth-shattering, and so wrenching that they changed the shape of the entire island several times.

Despite my smile, I was scared out of my wits sitting on the ledge like this. Hidden out of view is a sheer drop of a cliff that will…. kill me if I just slip and fall!

The first common tourist destination we arrived at was Perivolos Beach, one of the few black sand beaches in Santorini. Purely coincidental actually, as we intended to go to the southwest end of the island first, but for some reason we navigated our way to the southeast instead. With the exception of a few local anglers here, we had the entire beach to ourselves. We could almost imagine how pack this place will be during summer. Shops after shops lined the beachfront, with innumerable cafes and, of course, stray dogs. Many of them.

We backtracked our way to the southeast end of the island, to visit the prehistoric town of Akrotini. Excavations here at this Minoan outpost that was buried during the catastrophic eruption of 1650 BC, began in 1967 and have uncovered an ancient city beneath the volcanic ash. Buildings, some three storeys high, date back to the late 16th century. Such steep history on this dramatic island made the site a captivating visit.

During our visit, the site is closed, and not only because its winter. One visitor was killed and several others injured when a section of the roof collapsed during the summer of 2005, and the official investigation is still pending.

Next we went on to the Red Beach, which is located near to Ancient Akrotini. In my opinion, this is not really a beach, but rather a stretch of stony edge to the sea (ideal of snorkeling and diving), leading up to a hillside of truly stunning views. Red Beach has high red cliffs and smooth, hand-sized pebbles submerged under clear water. It was also here I acted out my “dream” – to sing The Winner Takes It All from the movie Mamma Mia on a cliff in Santorini. Had the time of my life here.

It was a magical moment for me, one that I will remember for a long time.

We made a few more pit stops after Red Beach (like the one above – you can see Liping at the far end of the cliff) after unsuccessfully trying to find the White Beach. Also managed to do a short video clip during one of my many pit stops. You can view more pictures from my day excursion on Flickr here.

After that Liping managed to persuade me to drive all the way up north to the famous town of Oia some 16 km away. The drive to Oia was truly hair raising. The way was steep and runs along high cliffs hugging the rocking terrain, with sheer drop to the sea on both sides. This was the first time in my life while driving that I can see the sea on my right and my left at the same time. As I was driving a left-seated car on right-sided road for the first time, I was in on a nerve-wrecking half-hour ride.

But the end destination was worth it.

The village of Oia (ee-ah), known locally as Pano Meria, was so devastated by the 1956 earthquake that it became something of a ghost town for a while. However, there is little evidence of that period because of good restoration work and upmarket tourism have transformed Oia into an attractive place. Though quieter than tourist-frenzied Fira, its streets still have their share of trendy boutiques and expensive jewellery shops. Built on a steep slope of the caldera, many of its dwellings nestle in niches hewn into the volcanic rock. Oia, believe it or not, gets more sunset time than Fira.

That was precisely the reason why we made the some 20 km drive to the northern tip of Santorini to visit Oia – to catch the famous sunset. However during our visit, the skyline was gloomy and it rained halfway during our trip here. There was no sunset for us. The place was literally a ghost town. Windows were boarded up and “close” signs were displayed everywhere as Oia residents went into hibernation during winter months waiting for the summer to come again. In fact, out of hundreds of shops here, I counted only three were open – a mini market, a restaurant and an internet café – no doubt to keep the town functioning but barely.

We had the entire town to ourselves, and we loved it. The whole place was so beautiful it took my breath away, and it was so peaceful I could barely bring myself to leave. The buildings here were built right into the cliff of the mountain overlooking the Aegan Sea. Shops were nestled into little nooks and corners, with cobbled and narrow passageway snake around the haphazardly built multi-coloured building. It felt like being oversized candy factory. The only sound I could hear was the cry of seagulls, the crashing of the sea, and my own breathing. It was an awesome experience I couldn’t really describe, and only Oia in winter can give me that.

Please check out my Flickr set of photos taken at the beautiful Oia, as words failed me to justify its beauty.

After a somewhat less scary ride back to the town of Fira in the gathering darkness, Liping and I had a nap before heading out to dinner at a taverna (Greek for café here) nearby. Walked around to check out the clubs and pubs we went to last night, but the entire Fira seems to be asleep. Perhaps it was winter Sunday. It was raining slightly and the wind was bitingly cold.

So we decided to head back to our room for an early night. I really hope Athens in winter will be much better than this. I loved the solitude, but a bit of a holiday crowd will make a good change to the pace of things.