We are sitting in a cafe in Mykonos, sipping overpriced cafe drinks for the “free” wi-fi, and passing time before we jump on our overnight ferry that departs at 2:20 AM (ouch!). Tomorrow we arrive in Kusadasi, Turkey after switching to another ferry on the island of Samos. It’s going to be a looonnnnng night. But we are listening to Spanish jazz, and all is good.
We arrived in Mykonos after spending four nights on Santorini. Glitzy, glamorous Mykonos was a bit of a shock after the understated luxury of Santorini. Strolling around the maze of narrow white streets here is overload on the eyes. This is a place where all those absolutely unpractical clothes from the fashion catwalks get a chance to get off the hanger and onto a model’s body for some facetime in the real world. And how women walk around these uneven streets in six inch heels, I just don’t know.
We are here because Mykonos is the jumping off point for the island of Delos, one of the most important archaeological sites in Greece. For Greek mythology buffs, Delos is the birthplace of the twin gods Apollo and Artemis. The entire island is essentially a national park and no overnight stays are allowed. The site is large and we only saw about half of it in our three hour visit, but what we saw was impressive. Delos was the center of the world for trading during Roman times, and at its height over 30,000 people lived on this tiny little island. Slave trading was a major industry too, where up to 10,000 slaves a day were sold. The ruins include beautiful mosaic floors, a 5,500 seat theater, cisterns, and a public latrine where engineers had funneled a flow of running water under the latrine benches, creating one of the first sewer systems. Lucky for us, a Royal Caribbean cruise was in port and had several English-speaking tour groups on the island…so we shamelessly tagged along.
Ruins at Delos
Back to Santorini. This is the one island everyone must see if they come to the Greek islands. We were strongly encouraged by our guidebooks to make reservations before arriving because we’re deep into high season now. We found a highly recommended place on TripAdvisor and were able to get in, no problem. BTW, we rely on user-generated reviews from TripAdvisor MUCH more than our guidebooks to get reliable information about lodging (are you listening Frommer’s and Lonely Planet?).
After settling into our place in Fira (the main town), we did what probably everyone else who comes to Santorini does first: we walked to the caldera’s edge and looked out. And down. Santorini was the site of a major volcanic eruption around 1,500 B.C., which literally blew out the entire middle of the island, leaving a near-perfect circle around an enormous ocean-filled caldera. The eruption generated a tsunami that is believed to have wiped out Minoan civilization on Crete, over 60 miles away. Many of the towns on Santorini – Fira, Oia, Imerovigli – are perched on the caldera side of the island, some more than a thousand feet above the water. The views are <insert any superlative here>.
Looking back to Fira (Santorini)
The next day we rented an ATV to tour around. We probably ought to have upgraded to the slightly more expensive model, because ours turned out to be a gutless 50 cc wonder that got up to a whopping 15 km/hour when going uphill. That speed would have been fine if we had the road to ourselves, but it was not so good with a local bus on our tail.
Mark and the gutless ATV
Our first stop was the Volcan Wine Museum. Santorini is known for its Vinsanto wine and unusual growing conditions. The vines are not trellised as they are in the U.S.and the rest of Europe; rather the vines rest on the ground, and are woven into a round basket shape, which the grapes then grow inside. This protects the grapes from the extremely arid and windy conditions. The only water the vines receive is from Santorini’s limited rain and dew. No irrigating or hand watering! Yields are low, averaging only 10-20 percent of the yields per acre grown in California and France. We were impressed at the persistence and ingenuity of the early winemakers – to figure out how to grow grapes with no water and high winds required vision.
Woven "basket" grape vines in Santorini
Another day we walked ~1000 feet down to the old port and took a tour to the little island in the middle of the caldera. This area is the site of the most recent volcanic activity. The tour was kind of dull (“here’s another pile of lava”, whoo hoo), but the tour was cheap and the views of the caldera and the island were worth it. Being out in the middle of the caldera gave us a perspective on just how much of the island was blown away during the eruption. Immense. Gigantic. When we got back to the old port, we opted not to take the cable car or a donkey ride to the top, and walked the 550+ steps up. The donkey guys told us at would take an hour to walk up, but it only took 20 minutes. We figure every hill counts towards Nepal training, right?
A cat we met on the walk to Oia
Sunsets in Santorini are an event, with bars and cafes advertising “sunset specials”. The picturesque town with the most sunset time is Oia, a small town about seven miles from Fira. A path connects Fira to Oia, and we decided to walk there with the goal of arriving in time for sunset. The walk was beautiful, winding through Imerovigli and along the cliffs. We saw lots of lizards and cats. Even a pack of dogs followed us for a stretch. We underestimated the time it would take to get to Oia, and so found ourselves alone at a small Greek Orthodox church perched on a hill a half mile from Oia when the sun set. It was there we saw a rare sight – a small owl landed a few feet from us. About six inches tall, it swiveled its head back and forth, did a couple leg stretches, and after a few minutes of mutual contemplation, it flew off to start its night. Magic.
While waiting for a table at the restaurant Skala in Oia, we were reminded how small the world is, as we ran into a couple from San Francisco. Brendan and Alyssa were staying in Oia, and Brendan had a story similar to Mark’s. He had visited Santorini eight years ago as a shoestring budget backpacker, eating gyros and staying in dodgy lodging, and vowed to come back and enjoy the island when he was a little more flush. Coincidences continued as the evening wore on over post-dinner ouzo (Alyssa’s first ouzo!) and rose wine, as Brendan had also interned at Parnassus Investments, the same firm Mark and our friend Andrea had interned with. Fun, fun evening.
Running into Parnassus interns all around the world
The next morning was not so kind, as the combination of ouzo, cheap red wine (Santorini red wine = bad; white wine = good), and rose had me out of commission for most of the next day. Much pain. Hangovers suck. Mark was fine, of course!
Time to end the novella and go find some food before settling in somewhere for the World Cup final. Go Netherlands! Tomorrow brings Turkey, and we plan to visit Ephesus in the next few days before we join up with our Fez Travel bus for a circuit around Turkey. We’ll probably be the oldest people on the bus, surrounded by early Aussies and Kiwis in their early 20′s. Further adventures await!
