Santorini Archives • Folksy Travel by Bill Smale

Santorini is one of the significant islands off of Greece with tons of tourists. It has an airport and the transportation is really very good but very packed. If you come during the summer season you have a lot of competition for space but I found a number of places that were not so crowded in the main city of Fira. I stayed in the Villa Roussa Hotel Which was actually pretty nice and the people were there were extremely interested in making sure everything was in good shape and working properly. It is not an expensive hotel to stay in And it’s right next to the bus station which is the center for 20 to 30 minute interval travels to the different parts of Santorini. I found a few restaurants that were serving good food at reasonable prices. This place is very expensive Considering the economic Situation Greece is in. They are charging more in most restaurants than in large tourist cities in Italy. I was planning on island hopping to Turkey before my 90 days in the Schengen area We’re finished but the other islands Had the cheapest hotels priced at more than $200 per night and that was for a budget Hotel. I don’t find that attractive at all so I decided to fly out to Istanbul and come back to these islands when it’s not the tourist season which people tell me is around March and April and again in September and October. Between October and March people on Santini have told me they shut down for Lack Of business. If you want a good taste of the Aegean sea Beaches, the nice little islands around and the beautiful white buildings with some blue domes which are so often pictured as typical buildings on these islands, Santorini is a good place to get a taste of all of that. But even during tourist seasons you can find accommodations which are reasonable.

Fira

Sunset viewing — This is the area where everybody comes in the evening to watch the sunset

Terraced area Moving Around Santorini — on the west side of Fira most of the city is terraced down to walkways with shops and restaurants so it’s easy to get slightly disoriented but eventually if you go back towards the main streets you’ll find your way back no matter how far north you go on this terraced area

Old Harbor steps Moving Around Santorini — The steps will eventually take you down to the old harbor

Beautiful stone on the walkway Moving Around Santorini — just one of the stones on the walkway which I thought was very beautiful

Indian and Thai food Bill Smale — Very often in Europe you find “Asian food restaurants“ which give you their own ideas of food based upon some basic Chinese, Japanese, Vietnamese, Thai and other food. But in increasingly I see these Indian and Thai restaurants. I’m sure they are set up by Indians since Thai people are not interested in making Indian food.

Cruise ship Bill Smale — The cruise ship was all lit up

Terracing Bill Smale — You can see how intricately the terracing is done

Nighttime Fira Bill Smale — The West, sunset side of Fira

Asti wine Bill Smale — I left Asti weeks ago but here they are with a nice wine from that

Pajama guy — While sitting at my often frequent breakfast restaurant, the magma city Café, this fellow walks by and what I thought were his pajamas

Westside approach — Walking up toward the sunset west side by the Orthodox Church

Gathering for the sunset — And you see people are gathered to take photos of the sunset

Winding pathways — You can walk on the windy pathways up to the top of this little city

Boat at sunset — You can see many boats in the harbor sitting out there to watch the sunset.

I want to add here I met a very nice lady on Crete telling me I can go to Santorini for two nights, watch the sunset and then leave for another island indicating that’s all that was interesting on Santorini. Actually I found the island a kind of interesting although overly touristy Fira There are places and beaches to go which are very quiet and relaxing like the place I stayed for four nights in Kamari.

Cruise ship — The cruise ship in daytime

600 steps down — You can see the number 572 on this step. There are about 600 steps to go down to the old harbor, or you can take the cable car down

Here you can see some of the winding steps going down and the southern part of Fira

Man-made object — This looks like something man-made. I didn’t check to see what it was

Metropolitan Church of the Presentation of the Lord

Different color houses — People are painting their houses to show different colors to interest visitors

China famous foods restaurant — China Famous Foods 溢香居. The one Chinese restaurant had adequate food at reasonable price prices.

Mocha with coconut — There are so many gelato shops with products that are double or triple the price of what I found in the smaller cities in Italy. But this is a tourist Mecca. This was a mocha with coconut

What a combination. That’s kind of like having German, French and England food in one restaurant.

These Greek style pretzels were very nice, soft and delicious.

Small island — One of the smaller islands nearby

Interesting lighting — The light here at this time was obviously planned

And you can see where the light is coming from

Two dimensional art — I find the orthodox churches to have more two dimensional style artwork than the Roman Catholic medieval art

Open space — Not everything is buildings on the island. There is some open space

Peressia

Not interesting — There doesn’t seem to be much at this village except some places on the beach. I didn’t find it interesting at all

Clever sign — But this sign is very clever

Tasty squid — The squid was very tasty but also very expensive

Kamari

Crowded bus — On my way to Kamari. You can see how crowded the bus gets during the tourist season

Nice beaches — The beach is not Sandy, it is pebbly. You need to find a place that doesn’t have too many large pebbles which are difficult to walk on but this is a big area with very nice swimming so I stayed here for four nights

so if you look below you see the prices. This is something you can do in Thailand for free at some rivers. You put your feet in the water and the fish come to feed on the bacteria and whatever you have on your feet that they like and it tickles.

One thing people know about the islands in Greece is that a lot of things are white. Of course that keeps things cool but I find it almost blinding.

I thought I had given up the days when I was carrying my tank to the water but here we are again.

After several years I went on a dive trip which was through some caves and passageways which were very narrow. It was an interesting and shallow dive and the people managing the dive we’re fairly good at customer service but the briefing about some details was lacking. Overall the dive was good.

I think these are bougainvillea. There’s a very pretty flowers around the island.

This was the magma special omelette for breakfast at the local café which was very delicious. of course I had to bring it up to my level.

Necessary food — And of course I had to have one of these. Occasionally this is necessary food for me

Tholos is the center of the volcano which created Santorini so you can say it’s the Santorini Volcano. to get there from Santorini you have to either climb down 600 stairs or take the cable car down for €10 one way. I decided since I’m going to be walking on the volcano I will save my steps and take the cable car down which only takes a few minutes but it is a very steep few minutes.

Old port Santorini Volcano — This is called the “old port” where many of the island tours which are very close will board.

Cable car Santorini Volcano — Here you have the cable car arriving

Very crowded port Santorini Volcano — it was very crowded not only with people getting on tour boats but also with the cruise ship visitors getting off to visit Santorini.

Many touristS Bill Smale — You can see how crowded these tour boats get. Many people are enjoying the sunshine. I was trying to stay out of the sun as much as possible

Volcano ship Bill Smale — Our very nice sailing ship taking us to the volcano

Volcanic strata Bill Smale — You can see the strata from the different volcanic layers

Close to the crater — We are coming close to the crater

Docked at the crater — Here we have docked with two other ships between OURS and the dock

Largest crater — The largest crater on the volcano. This volcano last erupted in 1956 was such a large Force the seismic activity leveled much of Santorini

Steam from below — You can feel the warmth from the Steam coming out and the smell of sulfur

Santorini view — Santorini behind the different volcanic rocks

Thirasia can be visited of course but you have to climb all of those steps from the port up to the village

Activity measurement equipment — There are many monitors on the volcano to measure activity

Hot spring — Just to the left of the temple which is on the lower left, the white building just above the waterline, we went swimming on Nisis Palaia Kameni. you could see that very close to the shore is Brown water. That is the heated hot spring so you get to experience the warm hot spring water and also the cooler ocean water on your swim

Wisconsin people — Here we are going back. You can see these people here from Madison Wisconsin

Long lines at the cable car — in the afternoon the line to get on the cable car went on for many hundred meters. It would’ve been a long time waiting in line to get down to the old port. I’m glad I went in the morning. There was nobody in front of me. And coming back in the afternoon also was not crowded. So if you visit you might want to plan your trip accordingly

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