Santorini

Six am departure from the hotel this morning in order to make the seven am ferry to Santorini.  I woke up just after four and so am pretty tired now.  The ferry was about four and a half hours, which was longer than I had anticipated.  My foggy brain had taken 7:00 from 11:30 and gotten two and a half hours somehow.

The town of Thira (or Fira) is a small town with only about 4 roads, perched on the side of the volcanic crater looking down into the sea.  It is horrifically tourist oriented.  There are likely ten to fifteen times as many tourists as locals, probably more, and the economy of the town reflects it.  The first place we stopped for lunch had prices easily 10% or more higher than any we have yet seen.  Mind you, that restaurant was situated with a beautiful view of the caldera, or crater.  In any case, we felt it a bit too rich for our blood and looked elsewhere.

Thira, looking northwest

Another lovely lunch spot in the shade!

I was thinking that when I hit Greece, and particularly the islands, I might find some of the culture and small town feeling I remembered from 30 years ago, but sadly, so far, everything is commercial and tourist.  I know it was rather naive of me to think that I could recapture some of that feeling, or that nothing would have changed, but it is nevertheless somewhat disappointing.  I've been told that Turkey is more like what Greece was 30 years ago, so we may yet experience that.

For tomorrow, we have booked a tour that will take us to the black sand beach, the red sand beach, and to an archaeological site of a town that was buried under volcanic ash when the mountain exploded.  We will be able to swim at the black sand beach.