Greece Day 6: On the Ferry, back to Athens

The next morning, after a relaxed breakfast, we went for a walk until checkout time (noon) . We intended to walk to the beach, but although it is probably only 2 km away, the way is on hills. TIP: Later, we learned that renting a motorcycle was about €20 /day, somebody told us he got a car at €15/day, and this would have solved the up/downhill problem. But then, there are others such as safety for the motorcycle as Greek drivers are known for being pretty reckeless, or place to park a car (there are some, but not many). However, in the time spent so far here, I haven't seen any car accident or reckless driver. Actually, it seems pretty safe to drive so far. Still, bus is cheaper of course. Also, the few buses we took have been on time, although we were warned that they could delay 20-30 minutes from the scheduled time.

We spent the rest of the day walking in OIA , enjoying every inch of this place. The front desk of the hotel has a schedule of buses on display, and we started walking to the stop about 30' before departure. The bus was on time, we drove to Fira and from there we would take the bus to the New Port, where the Blue Star ferry to Athens departs . The next bus, would leave at 2:30pm and our ferry departed at 3:30pm. We had arrived shortly after 1:30pm to Fira, and it was going to be a long wait. But also, I had been told by the Blue Ferry agent that we needed to be at the port one hour earlier, so we just took a cab (€14 from bus station in Fira to the new port).  The taxi stop is around the corner from the bus stop. TIP: Since many people will take the ferry at the same time, it is easy to find others willing to share a cab ride and slit the costs. Somewhere I read that the taxi driver would charge each party the full fare, even when they ride the  same trip. Therefore, it might be better to make as if all of passengers were part of the same party. We  arrived to the port early, giving time for a quick lunch and beer.

Blue Star ferry

A reference fost for the restaurant is a 12'' pizza for €10, and a 500ml beer for €4. TIP: Try Mythos beer, available almost anywhere. I tried 3 different types of Greek beers, but Mythos is the one I liked the most. The cost of Mythos is between €3.5 - €4 in restaurants, and €1.2 in small convenience stores or kiosks.

Mythos - One of the Greek beers

Also, now that I remember I should mention that the tap water in Santorini is NOT potable. It is potable on Athens and other places, but not on some islands. Santorini has a water shortage, they either gather rain water in cisterns, or bring it from somwehere else. This is something for considering, showers should be short, and water saved. Almost everywhere (Athens, islands) a small bottle of water (500 ml.) is €0.5, and a large one (1500ml.) costs €1.

The ferry departed on time, and it arrived at 11:30pm to Athens. On the way, it stopped at a couple of islands.

It's interesting to see the whole loading/unloading process. Also, we could see a very nice sunset on the way back, however, not as good as the one that can be seen from OIA.

The quality of the ferry trip exceed my expecations. Some highights:

• Ship looks pretty new
• Clean
• Safe
• Not crowded (we're still on low season; it isn't Summer yet)
• WI-FI available (although I didn't try it): 120 minutes for €3.
• Fast food restaurant on board, having sandwich, hamburguer, gyros among others. Average price is around €7 with  a soda. They also have beer for €2.2 (quite good price for a ship, actually).

The ship offers business and economy class. The benefit of business is access to the business lounges, which are nicer, less crouded, and have comfortable seats. The business ticket cost is €52, about €14 more than economy. We actually spent  the time on economy area, talking to other travelers and looking at the sea. Economy should be just fine for the trip.
Something I read on the guide books, and confirmed by other travelers that went through the experience, is that ferrys will cancel the trip in case of bad weather conditions. If this happens, somebody would get stuck at the departing port, or at an island on the way to destination. Passengers can remain and sleep on the ship, or go out to town until it departs. Also, it's hard to find a central place with the latest schedules for all ferries. For my trip, I just took the chance and purchased it online some weeks ago, without any problem. There are two ferry lines. Helenic Seaways and Blue Star. The schedules are available online.

In Athens, the public transportation stops at midnight. The ferry arrives after 11:30pm, and there's little time to catch the last train to the city. It can be done by just walking fast to the station, but although we were able to get into it , we had to stop at Plaka and walk, as we missed our  connection at the metro. TIP: If  taking a late train from Piraeus, make a hotel reservation close to a green line stop of the train green).

The next hotel, were we would overnight and leave early in the morning, wasn't at the most convenient location for us. From Monastiraki metro station at Plaka, we had to walk about 40' to the Acropolis Select hotel, which lies two blocks away from Acropolis. Although it was late at night, it didn't feel unsafe at all. Also, there are many cabs on the way.

Hotel Acropolis Select - Athens

Hotel Acropolis Select - Athens

The Hotel Acropolis Select looks pretty new inside, perhaps recently remodeled. But it has one big drawback, the rooms -at least the 506 that we got- face an avenue that has traffic the whole night. We were pretty tired after a long day and could sleep, but the place is quite noisy. Besides, the hotel includes TV (also some in English, one in Spanish) , air conditioner, includes good and abundant breakfast, safety box in room, and other standard amenities.  TIP: the hair dryer is under the desk!

Greece Day 5: Santorini, OIA and Red Beach

We stayed at the hotel in Firestofani during the morning, slowly taking breakfast and enjoying the awesome and relaxing view of the Caldera. Later, we took a bus to the south of Santorini with the intention of visiting the Akrotiri ruins which reopened just one week ago. From Firestofani, just walked to Fira and took the bus there (€ 1.8 per ticket). Unfortunately, on arrival to Akrotiri, we found out that it, as all museum in Greece were closed on Monday. Boomer. We missed this one. There were a bunch of people on the same situation, and the funny thing is that nobody at the bus station in Fira told us when inquiring about the bus tickets to the excavation place.

The Red Beach is located about 20 minute walk from the Akrotiri bus stop, which by the way, is the last stop of this bus line. The beach is nice to visit if somebody has time. The color of stones is red, only on this beach. The other beaches have black sand I was told. Actually, rather than sand, they are small stones. Santorini is a great place to visit for the views, but not a main beach destination IMO.

We walked end to end of the beach, and came back to the bus stop in order to take the next bus. In total we probably spent about one hour from the time we arrived.
We drove back to the hotel in Firestofani, picked our bags, we had checked out in the morning, and continued to our next stop: OIA, also known as IA. The two ladies at the Agani Houses hotel reception called the bus line to know at what time the next one to OIA  stopped by (the bus stop is just accross the road from the hotel entrance).BTW, the hotel reception (and also rooms) are hanging of the cliff. There are about 60 steps from the street down to the hotel. It's a very good exercise, but kind of exhausting if somebody not fit has to carry the bags. Fortunately, the hotel has a porter (strong and well fit guy!) that will take care of the luggage.

While waiting the bus for OIA, which lies about 18 km. north, a cab stopped and told us whether we needed a ride. Since we were waiting for the bus, we denied, but he offered to take us for €10. This was hard to resist, and in less than one minute we were up. It was worth of it. The sun was hitting hard, and we didn't know whether the bus was going to be on time. TIP: The taxi fare is negotiable; the difficult part is to know the reference prices. But in particular in Athens, it's better to agree on a price before getting into the taxi (as I've been told by other travelers met).

OIA (IA)

The taxi dropped us at the OIA bus station, about 300 meters of the next hotel, Aethrio .

Hotel Aethrio - OIA

Hotel Aethrio - OIA

It's located behind the main church of OIA, very convenient, but it doesn't have any view from the room. However, there's a high terrace, where the receptionist told us, we could watch the famous sunset without having to deal with the croud that goes to the old castle at the north of OIA (eveything's walking distance). Since it isn't a high season for tourism, we were planning to enjoy the sunset at the famous place and not use the terrace anyway. Some highlights of the hotel:

• Very large room
• Nice shower
• TV (every hotel so far had a few English channels, one Spanish channel)
• Air conditioner and heater.
• NO safe box in room. But the place looks very safe anyway.
• Breakfast included . Very good and abundant. Open until 10:30am.
• Very nice and helpful front desk.
• Free welcome drink, either alcoholic or non (equivalent to up to €3 per guest)
• Nice swimming pool.
• This hotel doesn't give a bottle of water or leave one on the fridge. The front desk closes at 9pm. Therefore, remember to get something to drink as tap water isn't potable in the island.
• Something unusual: there is a small chapel (church) lies inside the hotel.
• Yhey have several Santorini and Athens books and tour guides on the front desk.

The way of the hotel is not paved, but with stones (not dirt). The roller bags had a hard time there, and needed to be carried. I think that the hotel offers a porter if asked, but I just took care of them. It wasn't too much for a couple of hundred meters.

After accommodating us on the hotel, we spent several hours walking all over the place. IOA is a unique and beatiful place, that pictures can't really capture it. Small streets, lots of nice views of the town . Lots of shops with high quality art works. Also, lots of souvenirs and  fine art works in this town.

The sunset view is something really unique (check my videos bellow). Lots of people gather on the north part of town at around 7:30pm, to watch the sun go down gradually. BTW, in this island, even after sunset, you get sunlight for about one hour more.

TIP: On Summer time, I heard that the place gets really packed and it's even hard to find a spot and people start gathering at about 6pm. The options would be to get there early and wait, or get  an hotel with  a view to avoid the crowd. But some of the magic of the place could get lost, unless the hotel with view is also on the north cliff , facing the sunset.

From above, we could see the small port from OIA on the bottom of the island, and lots of steps going down there.

OIA Port

We learned that one restaurant was open at this time (up to 3 during summer time) , and decided to walk down, take a look, and have dinner. Walking down is nice and easy, specially after sunset where you still have light but it gets cooler. The test of fitness is going back up, about 240 steps, harder with a stomach full of fish and beer.  Still, this is another must do activity for OIA. The tavern on the port is quite expensive, but some apetizers are about the same cost as above...TIP: try the fried calamari for €9, it is worth the deal.

Restaurant at OIA port

OIA port

After dark, we started our way back to the hotel. All the way back to top is iluminated, and we crossed people doing the same. In general, we felt that Santorini was safe everywhere we went, day and night. While walking back to the hotel, we noticed how many cafe (bars) are open. But not much people is seen during this time of year. Perhaps, also influenced by the economic problems in Greece which have absolutely no impact in traveler safety and experience. All the contrary, restaurants and hotels seem to be very happy to receive guests and they make an extra effort to give the visitor a good service.

After walking the whole day, plus climbing the 240 steps from the port, we were ready for a rewardining night of sleep.

Greece Day 4: Santorini, Fira and Firestofani

The ferry schedule was pretty bad, as it departed at 7:30am and we had to be there one hour earlier to get the tickets. Therefore, I went for the practical option of just flying. Aegean airlines departs from Athens international airport at 10:30am. The flight only takes 45' and the view of the islands from the air is awesome. Of course, it's more expensive than ferry, about twice the cost.

Aegean Airlines

TIP: During the wait at the airport, I noticed that the souvenirs at the Free Shop cost about the same than on the shops at the street. Still, on the street it's possible to do some bargaining. But in case of being short of time, this is an option to consider.

I booked a hotel in Firostefani called Agali Houses.

Hotel Agali Houses - Firestofani

Hotel Agali Houses - Firestofani

It's about 15' minute taxi drive from the airport (cost around €15, I asked the hotel to arrange pick up to avoid wasting time looking for a taxi). The hotel is beautiful, with rooms on the side of the island with direct ocean view to the Caldera (center of the island). Some quick highlights:

• excellent service
• ocean view *very unique place*
• free wi-fi
• air conditioner, heater
• non smoking
• kitchenet, fridge
• safe in room
• ample spaces
• clean

I don't regret the choice, this is one of the best places around. Here's the view from my room:

TIP: north of the hotel, on the small street, you can find some small grocery shops with low cost beer (the same that can be found at restaurants) and food items.

Close to the hotel, there are several restaurants, cafes, and shops. This place is very quiet and beautiful (I'll probably will repeat this word lots of times in Greecer).  We could walk from her to IA (north of Santorini) in 2-3 hours.. but will most likely take the bus tomorrow :-)

Firostefani

Walking from Firostefani to Fira takes only 10 minutes.

Fira is a very nice town, with small streets full of shops, bars, and restaurants.

Fira town

Fira town

Fira town

Fira town

Fira town (top) and old port (bottom)

In the evening, we just sat and contemplated Firestofani's sunset: