On to Santorini

April 10, 2017

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Today was our last day on Mykonos. The boat to Santorini was scheduled to leave at 10 AM, so we spent our last hours in Mykonos having breakfast. After packing and tidying up our apartment, we walked to Attica Bakery, an approximate 200 ft, to enjoy some pastries and coffee (and in Ryan’s case, a sandwich). We continue to receive free things and this is either due to the Greeks being extremely nice or saying ευΧαριστω – efcharistó (thank you) all too often [the omega should have an accent, but WordPress doesn’t support this for some reason].📷Goodbye Arodou 📷Attica Bakery 📷Pastry goodness…and a sandwich After breakfast we walked back to the old port to wait for the SeaJet to Santorini. It was scheduled to leave at 10 AM but it arrived about a half-hour late due to the choppy water. Knowing how much I love sea travel (lol), I was planning on being outside for fresh air and a clearly visible horizon, but sadly passengers are not allowed on the external portions of the boat while it is in motion. So for 2+ hours we sat inside on either side of the boat (we had assigned seats not next to each other) trying to not get sick. I surprisingly faired better than Ryan. We both had aisle seats so Ryan, using Google Translate, asked his Colombian neighbors to open the blinds a bit. When we finally made to Santorini, we were both very grateful to get off the boat.Santorini, unlike Mykonos, is volcanic and has dramatically different topography. The West side of the island, which faces the caldera, has sheer cliffs, while the East side is relatively flat with beaches.From the boat, we hailed a taxi ,which we shared with other tourists, and headed into Fira. Because of the cliffs, the road up from the port to the main road is 200 vertical meters of switchbacks. When we arrived in Fira, we discovered that our next place was slap dab in the middle of downtown. Platia Luxury Rooms is amazing, and the service, incredible! We were greeted by our host/co-owner Christina. She gave us a free upgrade to the largest room with a large balcony, showed us the rooftop balcony, and the fun features of the room. Since there isn’t a kitchen, and Christina has her own chickens, she has included little egg boilers in each room. Aside from fresh eggs, the rooms come with bottled water, juice, tea/coffee, and pastries, stocked daily.*Side-note: water on the islands is supplied by desalination, so drinking the tap is not advised and bottled water is standard. On a grosser note, plumbing on the islands is very old and therefore flushing anything other than bodily waste is not advised. So, yes, toilet paper ends up in the bin, conveniently placed next to the toilet and emptied regularly.📷Platia After laying down for bit, mostly to settle Ryan’s stomach from the boat ride, we went for a nice walk downtown and along the pedestrian path.📷Santorini Caldera 📷Its a long way down to the old port 📷Catholic Cathedral Church of St. John the Baptist 📷📷📷Agios Theodori Church 📷Obligatory selfie After a nice walk, we heading back to our room and ended up taking a nap (because, well, naps happen). For dinner, we went super causal and super lazy (across the street) to Lucky’s Souvlakis. We both ordered a sensible amount of pitas, 2 each (haha). Ryan had chicken and souvlaki, and I went for falafel. We decided to take our delicious pitas back to our room to enjoy on the balcony.📷Lucky’s Souvlakis 📷Nom nom nom….falafel goodness