Santorini
I got a ride to the port from the hotel to catch my ferry to Santorini, where I will be spending 3 nights. The ferry boat was huge and there were a lot of passengers getting on the boat in Paros. The 3 hour ferry ride was pretty smooth and when it came time to depart for the island of Santorini, there was a very large crowd getting off the boat. The hotel shuttle was waiting for me when I got off the boat which was very nice especially on a warm day.
Santorini is a very popular island and hotels can be very expensive there, so I had to book far in advance to find an inexpensive hotel ($33/night) that was in a decent location. The hotel is a small family owned place that is a 15 minute walk to Fira (the main town on Santorini). It is an older place, but the room was clean and quiet with air conditioning. I didn't come to Santorini to spend a lot of time in my room, so I didn't need a fancy expensive hotel that overlooked the water.
Fira (or Thira), the nearby town is mainly a place to eat, catch a bus, and stay in a cheaper hotel on Santorini. The most popular place on the island is Oia, which is a small village about 6 miles away from Fira and is the place that you see photographed most often when people go to Santorini. So that is where I headed after checking into my room. After walking around Oia for a few hours, it was getting close to sunset, so I made my way to the best spot in town to get some photos of it. Unfortunately it was overcast & was intermittently drizzling, so not the best night for photography. I also left my tripod at the hotel since I was not sure if I could use it with so many people moving around. Here are few of my shots from that night.
In doing research for my visit to Santorini, I found out about a really cool hike from Fira to Oia that sounded great. I got up early and found the starting point for the hike in Fira. There are some signs along the way, but mainly you just head north along the water & look for other people going the same way. It starts out as paved walkways through the city & it eventually turns to rocky and cinder paths with some climbs until you reach Oia 6 miles later. There are a lot of great views of the towns and the mountain cliffs along the water, so there are plenty of great places to take photos. Overall the hike took a little over 2 hours and it was good that I started in the morning since there wasn't much shade along the way, although there was a nice breeze for most of the time that I was hiking. I had lunch in Oia and then took a bus back to Fira to go back to my hotel. Here are some of the photos that I took on the hike.
After taking a break for the afternoon at the hotel, I headed into town for an early dinner & to catch a bus to Oia to take some evening photos since the weather would be better than the previous night. Unfortunately even though I arrived at the prime spot 90 minutes before sunset, it was already packed with people. There was really no place to set up my tripod or even to sit down there. I decided that I would come back just before sunset & wait for people to start leaving once the sun went down. Here is what it looked like when I arrived back, it was crazy!!!
Here is one of my "great" sunset photos.
I actually was more interested in getting some nice photos when the sun went down and the buildings were lit up . I eventually did find a spot to set up my tripod, although it was a challenge since there were so many rude and pushy Asian tourists that were constantly getting too close to my camera and would lean over my shoulder to take photos. Unfortunately after I was done taking photos there was a huge line at the bus stop to go back to Fira & I had to wait for an hour before I could get on a bus back to the hotel. Here are some of my better photos that I took that night.
The next day, I decided to head to one of the beaches on the island since I had already visited most of the places that I wanted to photograph on my first two days. The beach was essentially gravel and large rocks, but luckily there were plenty of restaurants that had nice lounge chairs with cushions and umbrellas that were available for use if you ordered a meal or a drink from them. I found a restaurant with reasonable prices for lunch & a good location to spend the afternoon there. It was fairly quiet there except for the occasional person coming by offering Thai massages, tattoos, or fake watches. My pizza for lunch wasn't very good and I probably should have just ordered a sandwich instead. Overall I had a nice relaxing day and since the beach was near the airport, it was fun to see the different planes that were landing at the airport.
That evening I just stayed in Fira for dinner & was able to get some decent photos of the town at night.
On my last day in Santorini, I decided to take an excursion on a boat to a nearby volcanic island. I had to check out of the hotel & leave my bags since I had a very late flight (11:15 pm) that evening to Athens. There were several other people from the hotel going to the same place, so the hotel took us in their van so we didn't have to make the 15 minute walk to town. It was long walk (600 steps) to get from town to the port plus we had to avoid all of the people going on donkey rides from the port.
It was a nice sunny day to be on a boat, it was a good tour (not too crowded) for 20 Euros and it was a 20 minute ride to the volcanic island. We hiked up to the top of the island where there was still some "activity" going on which mainly was some smoke coming out of hole in the ground and some hot rocks. The volcano last erupted about 70 years ago. After getting back to the port instead of spending 6 euros and waiting in a long line for the cable car, I walked back up to town for lunch. It was a lot warmer than it was in the morning & by the time I reached the top I was sweating quite a bit, so I looked for a place to eat with air conditioning and that took credit cards since I was low on cash. Unfortunately that meant that I ended up at McDonalds for a Greek Mac combo meal.
I spent the afternoon in Oia taking some more photos before heading back to town to get some dinner. After dinner I headed back to the hotel to take a quick shower & change clothes before going to the airport. My flight left on time, but unfortunately my checked bag took longer than expected to show up on the carousel, so that meant a 50 minute wait for the next Holiday Inn hotel shuttle that only runs once per hour. When I finally arrived at the hotel at 1:15 am, the desk clerk at the hotel tells me that the 9:30 am shuttle to the airport is "full" & I need to leave an hour earlier (3 hours before my flight). I never heard of such of a thing before, the whole point of staying near the airport is for convenience. Hopefully things will go better on my two flights to get back home especially since I won't have much sleep (maybe 5 hours if I am lucky).
Overall I really enjoyed Santorini except for the large crowds of tourists in Oia. Here are a few more photos from my visit to Santorini.
Santorini is a very popular island and hotels can be very expensive there, so I had to book far in advance to find an inexpensive hotel ($33/night) that was in a decent location. The hotel is a small family owned place that is a 15 minute walk to Fira (the main town on Santorini). It is an older place, but the room was clean and quiet with air conditioning. I didn't come to Santorini to spend a lot of time in my room, so I didn't need a fancy expensive hotel that overlooked the water.
Fira (or Thira), the nearby town is mainly a place to eat, catch a bus, and stay in a cheaper hotel on Santorini. The most popular place on the island is Oia, which is a small village about 6 miles away from Fira and is the place that you see photographed most often when people go to Santorini. So that is where I headed after checking into my room. After walking around Oia for a few hours, it was getting close to sunset, so I made my way to the best spot in town to get some photos of it. Unfortunately it was overcast & was intermittently drizzling, so not the best night for photography. I also left my tripod at the hotel since I was not sure if I could use it with so many people moving around. Here are few of my shots from that night.
In doing research for my visit to Santorini, I found out about a really cool hike from Fira to Oia that sounded great. I got up early and found the starting point for the hike in Fira. There are some signs along the way, but mainly you just head north along the water & look for other people going the same way. It starts out as paved walkways through the city & it eventually turns to rocky and cinder paths with some climbs until you reach Oia 6 miles later. There are a lot of great views of the towns and the mountain cliffs along the water, so there are plenty of great places to take photos. Overall the hike took a little over 2 hours and it was good that I started in the morning since there wasn't much shade along the way, although there was a nice breeze for most of the time that I was hiking. I had lunch in Oia and then took a bus back to Fira to go back to my hotel. Here are some of the photos that I took on the hike.
After taking a break for the afternoon at the hotel, I headed into town for an early dinner & to catch a bus to Oia to take some evening photos since the weather would be better than the previous night. Unfortunately even though I arrived at the prime spot 90 minutes before sunset, it was already packed with people. There was really no place to set up my tripod or even to sit down there. I decided that I would come back just before sunset & wait for people to start leaving once the sun went down. Here is what it looked like when I arrived back, it was crazy!!!
Here is one of my "great" sunset photos.
I actually was more interested in getting some nice photos when the sun went down and the buildings were lit up . I eventually did find a spot to set up my tripod, although it was a challenge since there were so many rude and pushy Asian tourists that were constantly getting too close to my camera and would lean over my shoulder to take photos. Unfortunately after I was done taking photos there was a huge line at the bus stop to go back to Fira & I had to wait for an hour before I could get on a bus back to the hotel. Here are some of my better photos that I took that night.
The next day, I decided to head to one of the beaches on the island since I had already visited most of the places that I wanted to photograph on my first two days. The beach was essentially gravel and large rocks, but luckily there were plenty of restaurants that had nice lounge chairs with cushions and umbrellas that were available for use if you ordered a meal or a drink from them. I found a restaurant with reasonable prices for lunch & a good location to spend the afternoon there. It was fairly quiet there except for the occasional person coming by offering Thai massages, tattoos, or fake watches. My pizza for lunch wasn't very good and I probably should have just ordered a sandwich instead. Overall I had a nice relaxing day and since the beach was near the airport, it was fun to see the different planes that were landing at the airport.
That evening I just stayed in Fira for dinner & was able to get some decent photos of the town at night.
On my last day in Santorini, I decided to take an excursion on a boat to a nearby volcanic island. I had to check out of the hotel & leave my bags since I had a very late flight (11:15 pm) that evening to Athens. There were several other people from the hotel going to the same place, so the hotel took us in their van so we didn't have to make the 15 minute walk to town. It was long walk (600 steps) to get from town to the port plus we had to avoid all of the people going on donkey rides from the port.
It was a nice sunny day to be on a boat, it was a good tour (not too crowded) for 20 Euros and it was a 20 minute ride to the volcanic island. We hiked up to the top of the island where there was still some "activity" going on which mainly was some smoke coming out of hole in the ground and some hot rocks. The volcano last erupted about 70 years ago. After getting back to the port instead of spending 6 euros and waiting in a long line for the cable car, I walked back up to town for lunch. It was a lot warmer than it was in the morning & by the time I reached the top I was sweating quite a bit, so I looked for a place to eat with air conditioning and that took credit cards since I was low on cash. Unfortunately that meant that I ended up at McDonalds for a Greek Mac combo meal.
I spent the afternoon in Oia taking some more photos before heading back to town to get some dinner. After dinner I headed back to the hotel to take a quick shower & change clothes before going to the airport. My flight left on time, but unfortunately my checked bag took longer than expected to show up on the carousel, so that meant a 50 minute wait for the next Holiday Inn hotel shuttle that only runs once per hour. When I finally arrived at the hotel at 1:15 am, the desk clerk at the hotel tells me that the 9:30 am shuttle to the airport is "full" & I need to leave an hour earlier (3 hours before my flight). I never heard of such of a thing before, the whole point of staying near the airport is for convenience. Hopefully things will go better on my two flights to get back home especially since I won't have much sleep (maybe 5 hours if I am lucky).
Overall I really enjoyed Santorini except for the large crowds of tourists in Oia. Here are a few more photos from my visit to Santorini.
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