Ano Mera and Agrari

We arrived in Mykonos yesterday afternoon and spent the evening getting settled in and learning to area a little bit.  Had a nice dinner at a local taverna.  Today (Saturday), we rented a car and drove around the island.  The roads are really narrow, windy, and steep in a lot of places.  Most of the island seems to be arid, rocky hills and valleys.  Lots of rock walls and shrubby ground cover.

Anyway, we headed toward the center of the island to a town called Ano Mera.  Nearby is a place called Paleokastro, which is home to a monastery and the remains of an ancient castle.  The drive up to Paleokastro was kind of crazy, but the view was nice, and the scenery of the drive was cool.

Bougainvillea near out hotel entrance.  These were all over Santorini too!  Really beautiful AND cool because the pink parts, which look like flowers, are actually modified leaves (bracts), surrounding tiny white flower clusters.

Wider shot of the entrance

Another view

The roads of Mykonos.

Overlooking Panormos Bay and Ftelia beach

Remains of the old castle.  The monastery is hidden on the other side of the hill.

A panaoramic, just in case :)

Once we'd had enough of old castle remains, we headed back down to the main square of Ano Mera and had a snack.  Had something called ekmek during lunch, which seemed to be a Greek version of the Australian "snot-blocks".  (Tasty.)  The town seemed to be crawling with little cats.  At lunch, the waiter taught me a few Greek phrases, including "eisai gata", which means "you're clever/smart/cunning", but directly translates to "you're a cat".  Makes sense to me.

Here's a cat selling souvenirs

And being pet

Cat sleeping

A little church.  Part of the nearby Panagia Tourliani monastery, I think.

Cat sleeping

Guarding the restaurant

Being cute

Doing their thing

After Ano Mera, we headed down to Agrari beach, which was a nice spot to sit and paint a little bit.  Pretty water and a nice view of the surrounding hills.

Towards the end of the day, the sun is setting in the opposite direction,
lighting up this hill and making it very orange.

Tomorrow: a tour of nearby Delos island.

Nea Kameni, Palea Kameni, and a schooner cruise

Thursday was mostly taken up with a volcano hike and boat trip.  We started in Santorini's new port, Athinios, where we boarded a schooner called Afroditi and headed toward Nea Kameni, the newer of the two volcanic islands in the middle of the Santorini caldera.  For 2 euros, I hiked up and down the island, which was pretty barren (not surprisingly) with a bizarre mix of black, red, tan, and sulfur-yellow colored rocks and a few scrubby plants.  Also very hot, with a few sulfur-y gas vents within the rim of the main crater of the volcano.  I was't with a tour guide, but I eavesdropped on a nearby group and learned how, by digging a shallow hole in the gravely surface along the hiking path, you can feel the heat/hot gases produced by the volcano.  There were several shallow holes created all around the crater rim, and everyone was sticking there hands, then pulling them out quickly due to the heat.  I tried it and it was definitely hot.  And smelly.

I remember when we hiked the glacier in NZ, our guide pointed off to the distance on one side of the moraine and explained that we should avoid that area, because a sulfur vent had recently been disturbed and exposed, and it wasn't safe to get too close.  Wonder why nobody seemed concerned about a similar set up on the volcano?  Maybe less concentrated gases?

View of Nea Kameni and Palea Kameni from above Athinios port

Boarding the Afroditi

Coastline of Santorini

Stopping at Nea Kameni

View of the main crater (click to see larger)

Rocks and shrubs

Another view of the main crater.  Probably not obvious in the photo, but gases are
coming up around those yellow-green rocks to the left.

Cairns and Fira in the background

Colorful rocks

Anwyay, the volcano was not beautiful, but it was very interesting, especially considering its history.

Next stop for our ship was Paleo Kameni (the older volcanic island, adjacent to Nea Kameni), where we were able to jump into the water and swim to the hot springs.  Hot springs were kind of more like warm springs and they were also pretty smelly, but it was cool to see.  The water was orange-yellow.

I'm somewhere in there, making my way toward the hot springs.

Hard to tell from the pic how orange the water was as you got further back

Back on board, heading to Thirassia

Mom, Oia in the background.

 We moved on to Thirassia for dinner, and then toward Oia to once again enjoy the sunset.  It was interesting to see Oia from below, including all the people huddled near the western tip of the town trying to capture the sunset.  To be honest, while it was beautiful, it didn't seem all that amazing to me.  I guess I am spoiled with those Boston sunsets :)  (Actually, Plain City, Ohio offers a pretty nice sunset.)  It was very scenic though, with several boats, the sunset, and Oia up on top of the cliffs.

Heading toward Oia

Bottom of the cliffs

Cute boat

Looking up at Oia from the water

More Oia

Port of Amoudi in Oia

Another shot of Amoudi -- nice red cliffs!

Looking northwest

Sun is setting

See the sun rays?

Tiny island off of Oia...wonder who lives there?

Sunset

Sunset -- I think my phone sometimes takes better pics than my camera

Catamaran

Looking northwest

Today we spent a few hours traveling from Santorini to Mykonos.  More exploring planned for tomorrow...

Church -- Agios Nectarios (back in Kamari, near our hotel)

Aegean cat on the beach :)

Fira and Oia

Today I was super excited to go visit the archeological site of ancient Akrotiri, sometimes called the "Minoan Pompeii".  Then I learned over breakfast that there is a strike going on in Greece, meaning that all government-run operations were shut down, including Akrotiri.  Supposedly, this strike will last through tomorrow, too.  So, no chance to go before we leave Santorini.  Not happy.

Instead, we rented a little car and ventured out to explore the island.  We drove first to Fira town with a plan to book a trip to the volcano.  Fira is the port town, where all the cruises dock, so it was packed with tourists and souvenir shops.  Driving into and around Fira was crazy, partly because we didn’t really have any directions about where to go or park, but mostly because the streets were narrow and windy and packing with huge buses, tiny motorcycles, and oblivious pedestrians, and the car didn’t exactly drive smoothly.  BUT, we got in and out without any problems and reserved a trip for tomorrow, including the volcano and view of the island at sunset.  Should be romantic J

Our little yellow Chevrolet

View of the volcano from Fira

Looking over Fira town

Then we drove up and around the top of the island toward Oia.  Very pretty town with white houses stacked in clusters all along the cliff walls, looking out over the rest of the caldera.  We wandered around and saw lots of dogs (sleepy), cats (annoyed), blue-domed churches, tourists, and souvenir shops.  Had a tasty dinner and watched hordes of people flock to the farthest tip of the town to view the sunset over the water.  Guess what’s common in Greece?  Peach juice and Morello cherry juice.  Awesome.

Lots of pics of Oia!  Tomorrow, I will be double-checking about Akrotiri, just in case the strike miraculously ends.  Either way, I will be hiking the volcano.

Looking west over Oia

View of the colorful buildings

Sort-of sunset

Oia at night

Looking southeast over Oia, tiny lights on the right in the distance are probably Imerovigli

UPDATE: I asked someone else about the strike, wondering about the chances it would be done by tomorrow.  He had no idea what I was talking about.  Then, when I explained, he said these strikes happen all the time in Athens, but never impact commerce in Santorini.... I hope this is true so we can go tomorrow, but also, if it is true, why did our travel rep tell us otherwise?  I am sure they know.

Is it possibly some sort of strategy to keep me away from ancient ruins?!  If it is...I will look like this grumpy cat we saw in Oia:

I watched a woman smush her face up close to this clearly-unhappy cat to get a photo.  It swatted her in the face.  She still posed with it for a pic.  This is the aftermath.  (I like him!)

Made it to Greece

So, Greece is 7 hours ahead of Boston time.  I think I have been mostly awake since...8am Monday morning.  Definitely very tired.  But, it's nearly time for bed here, so I should get in sync pretty quick.

We got into Santorini at around 2pm Greece time and fairly quickly found our hotel, the beach, and lots of delicious feta.  The island is really cool.  It's a caldera formed when the volcano in the center of the island (which is still active) erupted around 1600 BC, called the Minoan Eruption.  Phyllis Forsyth says it was "one of the most violent volcanic eruptions ever since human beings have been on this planet!"  Apparently, it was quite the event and even trickled its way into Greek mythology.  (Hear Leonard Nimoy narrate part of the history here.)  Anyway, the result is really interesting -- I'm hoping to get pics tomorrow or Thursday.

In the meantime, here are pics from today:

View outside our room (Ancient Thira sits at the top of the hill in the distance)

View from inside our room...kinda pretty

Kamara black sand beach, Anafi in the distance. 

Nevermind about the whole gluten-free thing...

This one goes out to Trevor, who appreciates the artistry of photographing your dinner :)

Feta, wrapped in phyllo, fried, drizzled with honey and sesame seeds.  There are no words to explain how delicious this is.  As good as sopapillas, Aubrey.

View from the balcony