The ferry trip to Santorini took about four hours. We had already decided that because of its beautiful setting, Santorini would be our splurge hotel. We were only staying for one night so it would not be too expensive. We wandered off the boat into the “tourist” information station only to be confronted with three hotel “deals” in the town of Fira, about 15 minutes up the road overlooking the sea. We chose the most expensive one at 100 euro, 150 dollars for us which seemed reasonable considering what we saw on-line ($3200/night at one place).
Our room was in the famous cave hotels of Santorini and it was perfect for us. The view was stunning (see pics), the room was clean and the owners were very nice. We met an American who owned the market close to our room and she told us about the beaches on the island and the outdoor movie in th Oi (prounounced “eeaa”). All of the towns along this part of the island are connected by a walkway along the see, it is a great way to see the surrounding area while always having the sea on one side.
We caught the bus to Perissa to catch a swim, the sunset and dinner before coming back to Fira for the trip to Oi and a movie. We barely made it to the movie after wandering around town trying to find it and sat through a terrible Jack Black movie named “Be Kind Rewind” But the space was cool and we shared popcorn. We bused back to our hotel and drifted off to sleep blissfully aware that we had no where to be the next day except the ferry at 3:30am.
We awoke to a great breakfast that came with our room and a dip in our mini pool. We headed to Kamisa to buy a new sarong from our French friend we met the day before who worked at a shop in Kamisa. The beach was not that impressive so we headed back to Fira for a little sightseeing and to catch the sunset at Amoody, a little at the water’s edge about 15 minutes walk down from Oi. We had a little dinner and watched the sun drift into the sea from our table at water’s edge; literally I could almost touch the water with my foot if I had been a little taller. We caught the bus back to Fira and had already checked out of our hotel but the owners let us stay at the pool of their other hotel until the bus left for the port at 2:30am. So we showered and took a little nap before heading to the ferry. We caught the ferry at 3:30am and once on board found the sweetest sleep spot for the four journey back to Crete to sleep under the stairs. You would understand how important these spots are after having ridden the Greek ferries enough times. Back to Crete.
