As most of you have read, we have been super impressed with Santorini. The caldera(deep hole left from the volcano eruption) marks this scene as so spectacular. I don't think Arthur Frommer (my best source of all travel information, even though he makes some mistakes) was wrong when he said Santorini, in his opinion, is the most beautiful island in the world. Yesterday we took our time going through the town of Oi. It was mostly destroyed by an earthquake in 1956 and they have taken decades to rebuild. They have been very true to the original and I think it is the prettiest town on the island. Most of the postcards and famous pictures come from here. Most of the dwellings are built right into the rock and it is a famous honeymoon location.
We drove down into the harbor from there to take a look. It is a long windy way down. It was worth it though. An older couple was at the bottom and hitched a ride back up with us. They had walked down and didn't know there was no way up but driving or walking and they had no transportation. We gladly gave them a ride. They were from Columbus, Ohio. On the way up an exhausted girl was also bumming a ride. She was from Manhattan and was here for a yoga convention. All three appreciated the lift.
From there we went all the way over to the other side of the island to have a look. When we got there out on a desserted road going to Red Beach another couple was begging a ride. We stopped and talked to them and they asked for a ride back to where we had just come from. They were a young Chinese couple on there honeymoon. They were swimming in Red Beach and she felt pain in her leg and her leg turned red and swollen from mid calf to mid thigh. It looked very tight. She said she had been swimming near a rock when it happened. It was painful too. Anyway we took them to the hospital and dropped them off. She had been teaching Chinese in Poland and are getting ready to go back to China. She lives about 200km from the earthquake. She knows a lot of people that have been affected. Anyway Red Beach is defined by tall red cliffs going down to the water. We went back later in the day to see it. Needless to say I didn't go swimming there. It was very pretty though.
Today we wanted to get out of town and out of the heat and headed to a couple of the outer islands. We stopped first at the volcano itself and Ricky took the hike up the mountain to see it. Quite amazing. i had never seen lava before and the whole island is covered with black rock. It last had a little eruption in 1960.
We then went to another small close island where 200 people live and had a picnic lunch together. I think food always tastes better at a picnic.
A few other things about Santorini. They don't have any fresh water sources. They have to import it all. They have a big desalination plant where they do something to the sea water. All the running water is from there. It still seems to be very salty to me. When you take a shower and taste it (just a little) it seems very salty. My hair never really seems clean to me. The people all seem very friendly and laid back. I don't see the poverty here that I saw in Crete. There doesn't seem to be much crime. The rental car company told us to drop our rental car at the airport, leave the door unlocked and the key under the mat.There seem to be very few giant villas for the very rich. They seem to tightly control the building. This is the nicest place we've seen and it has an absolutely awesome view.
We have seen nothing but a cloudless sky since we left Budapest last Sunday. And I mean not one cloud. It has been something. Today has been very windy, which is helpful for the heat. I guess it tends to be windy here.
Tonight we went to a great place to see the sunset and then we headed into the main town of Fira. I had eyed a little crepe shop there on Thursday night and I wanted to sample their wares. We both ate until our stomachs were content and boy were they good. They served them a little differently, kind of folded in fourths and standing up in a small cardboard container so you ate it like finger food. Too bad we don't have these available much at home. It was unlike the crepes that are common fare in Croatia. These were the full crepes that were stuffed full with either savoury or sweet. We fly from here tomorrow afternoon and get into Athens about 3:30pm. I'm sure we'll make the most of our limited time there. We do have wireless there so maybe I'll get two more posts out before this trip ends.
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You were missed at Campmeeting today. We only stayed until mid afternoon--the old are getting older and unfortunately seems like quite a few people are in the same type of predicaments with their parent's declining health as we are. Sad to see. But for a campmeeting Sabbath the weather was perfect. Not too hot and very pleasant. Charlie slept in your tent last night--he is staying up there all weekend through Michael Card's concert tomorrow night. Our church (the praise team) is in charge of all the praise music and Charlie is delighted to be playing the piano. I was glad to be able to see Barney Bolton and personally give him my condolences--it was a doubly tearful time.
Hope your remaining few days are just as great as the others.
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