Journal - Day 16

Day 16 - Thira/Oia, Santorini

May 28, 1997

Down for breakfast at 8:00 AM. Met by Eva with a handshake and a greeting. Ordered light breakfast: yogurt and honey for me, "tost" for Sue. I received a HUGE parfait glass of yogurt, honey, grapes and nuts and Sue got 6 slices of toast with jam, honey, marmalade and butter. Eva then brought us coffee and just for good measure 2 freshly plucked-from-the-nest eggs. Thira

Karlos drove us into Thira and we shopped and toured around and checked out the ferries to our next destination - Crete. Dad figures we will head there on Saturday. One problem, there is not a ferry that goes into the port of Agios Nicholas on Saturday. Matter of fact, the ferrys only go to Iraklion this time of year. Dad has a location picked out on the southern coast of Crete that his friends Gordon and Irene said was really nice. Some place close to Makri Gialos. Guess we'll just take a bus ride then from Iraklion. He says its quite a ways. Oh well. After figuring out our itinerary, we took a local bus (250 dr) to Oia for lunch on a terrace overlooking the ocean.

OIA A jewel in the Aegean Absolutely Breathtaking! This is THE MOST BEAUTIFUL village I have ever seen!! The white terraces cascading from the lip of the caldera down against the blue, blue ocean. I keep saying this, but it is just too Awesome! Every time I turned around I just HAD to take another picture. At one point, I walked down a few steps to get a different angle, and it was just SO beautiful my heart was just pounding. This is one place I will dream about for the rest of my life.

Santorini Terrace At lunch we ate at a pretty little terraced cafe with a table overlooking the traditional settlement of cave villas. These are houses/rooms etc. built right into the cliffs. You can even rent them. Hope the pictures turn out. While at lunch, Dad inadvertently went into the ladies washroom. There were pictures of ancient Greeks on the doors telling if it was Ladies or Gents. They were both wearing dresses - the Men's was like a Greek toga, and the Ladies looked like Athena -long flowing gown. I guess she had the most masculine face, so that was the one Dad chose.

We were walking along a narrow, walled (4 ft x 6 ft) twisting street when "All at once a herd of red-eyed cows he saw". Only these weren't cows, they were donkeys galloping full steam ahead toward us. A Donkey Stampede....and we were in the path! I pushed Sue up against the wall, and held out my arm yelling "Whoa". In the meantime, Sue had whipped out the camera and snapped the scene. One donkey had escaped from the 'train' and was running away, while the owner and all the other donkeys were racing along behind, trying to catch him. He did stop when he reached us, and the guy was able to scoop up the runaway's rope.

Sue in Oia We walked all along the cliff's edge taking so many "postcard" beautiful pictures. Then we had a lady take a picture of the two of us together, and Dad noticed that the lens protector on the camera did not open when she took the picture. Turns out it is not always opening. Now all those great shots I've been taking may be ruined. I wanted to Cry. What about donkey stampede? What about all my beauty shots? We decided we would take this roll of film in to get it developed once it is finished so we could see what luck we had. I was just sick to my stomach.

Caught the bus back to Thira and did some shopping there. I found the most beautiful art store. I really wanted to purchase this one piece. It's hard to describe, but it was made from an old window frame with two panes. (No glass) The frame had actually been recovered in a shed after the last earthquake in the '50's. Inside each pane were 3D plaques of typical architectural Greek houses. It was just gorgeous, but the cost was about $400 Canadian. Just too much money.

Headed home about 4:00 PM. Nuts and cheese on the balcony. While sitting eating pistachios, Dad got that silly little smirk on his face, and said, "well, I'm going to tell you something" I didn't know quite what to expect....he got up and went into the room and came out with a page he had torn out of his time-share book. Turns out he has rented a time-share in Crete for a Whole Week!! This was why he had been so adamant in the travel office about trying to get to Agios Nicholas on Saturday. He had even asked her if you could 'fly' there! It had seemed kind of strange to me at the time, when all along we've been so laid back about our travel plans. I gasped, and tears were running down my cheeks. My Dad! (and Mom was in on this too) Well, it's just too fabulous. I'm just choked for words.It's just been one experience, surprise, and wonderment after another. It I can't find the words to describe how I feel, why can't I stop writing?

Day 17 - Akrotiri/Kamares, Santorini

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