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Photoalbum Cyclades

 

Friday September 29, 2006: Departure

Everything is a bit different than other times. We don’t need to drive to Zaventem in the middle of the night, but have a later flight with Virgin. This means we still can do a lot of things. Nobody was at home to bring us to Zaventem and we had to create a ‘Help and Rescue plan’ for Cartouche. The first couple of days he will be transferred from different people to others, to Christine, Mike, then to Roel and An and later on to Maurits and Betty. Linda and Patrick had already left to Athens and Evia, Roel had a weekend with friends from Friday to Sunday, Maurits and Betty were on holidays from Thursday to Monday, so we had to improvise. In the end it all was fine. We get up at 08:30. Timo immediately goes for a walk with Cartouche and we make sure everything is OK at home. At 10:00 already Christine and Hans come and pick up Cartouche. The dog is very happy he can go along. Nothing to worry about. So we’re set to go. Because it’s a normal working day and because all friends and family are on holidays or weekends, we need to go to the airport with public transportation. That is something else than we’re used to. It will take some more time to get there, but we’ll manage. We take our luggage and walk to the station in Sint-Amands, take the bus there of 11:26 to Puurs. We first wanted to get off in Bornem, but the bus does not go to Bornem, because of happenings in the centre. So we get off the bus in Puurs and take the train to Mechelen. Take another train in Mechelen, switch tracks and go to Brussels North. About 20 minutes later we’re in Brussels and there is a train every 15 minutes to the airport. The connections are all OK and in the end we really don’t mind to go by bus and train. After two hours we arrive at the airport (by car it takes us only 45 minutes maximum) and we can check in immediately. Eef requests emergency exit seats and these are still available, so our vacation starts good. We still have a lot of time before the plane leaves, so we walk one floor up and have a drink at the Panorama bar: two Leffes blond. Very good. In the end our vacation has started. We don’t go to the gate immediately, only 15 minutes before boarding time we’re there. Because we had two Leffes we need to eat our sandwiches we prepared for today. At 15:00 we can board and everything is going OK and very fast and very punctual at 15:30 we leave. The flight is very good; there was no incident whatsoever. We  even fly over Kerkira. You can clearly see even the airport and the Pantokrator. That’s nice. My mother was on Kerkira and she had bad weather, so we dropped some of the sun we had with us. Off course we did not have the camera with us to make a picture of Kerkira, but we’ve seen it and that was nice too. After a flight of about 3 hours we land in Athens. The luggage is very quickly with us and we immediately buy cigars and cigarettes and a bottle of cola. We have to wait a few minutes for the bus to Piraeus and that bus leaves at 20:15. The driver makes it a very dangerous, but very fast drive and that is in our advantage, because it’s only 21:20 when we arrive in Piraeus. We buy a ticket for the boat to Ios. We take a cabin: a man has to try everything in his life, no? It is a lot more expensive (140 Euro), but now we will have some sleep, otherwise not a second. So we sit down on the terrace of one of the restaurants in the harbor, at Filokseno. We order 1 ouzo mini and 2 pita souvlaki kotopoulo (with chicken). The time goes on and it’s nine thirty, then twenty to ten and we still have only received the ouzo. The ouzo is almost empty, but no sign yet of our pita’s. That’s strange, because normally it only takes a few minutes and now already 15. So we ask; when it’s going to come. At 15 minutes before ten he finally says, that they have forgotten it in the kitchen. He will prepare it quickly and wrap it, so we can take it with us on the ferry. Cool. In less than 2 minutes it is ready and we take a sack with us with everything in it. It was done OK, but we have stress already and it’s only our first day in Greece. The ferry leaves at 22:00 and we make just on time. We are being escorted to our cabin and are stunned by this room. It is very tiny room with two beds n top of each other, but we think it’s great to just have done this once. We eat the pita, so it does not have the time to get cold. It tastes very good; we were very hungry already. There we go; our vacation can begin. With the Express Athina to Ios! We go to the bar to have a drink (Amstel, really bad), smoke a cigar and cigarette and go to bed at 23:00. The ferry will arrive on Ios at 05:30. Sleep tight.

 

Saturday September 30, 2006: Arrival on Ios, exploration and snorkeling

At 06:00 we are woken up by the mobile and at the same time by a Greek purser. During the night we are receiving notification through the intercom the ferry arrives at the ports of Naxos and Paros. We slept about two to three hours in total. The amount of sleep was not high, but the quality was good; we slept well in the cabin on the ferry. Very nice. The Express Athina arrives at the port of Ios-Jalos at 06:30. It’s still dark and we ask ourselves, what we shall do the next few hours. Are some shops, restaurants already open? Are we going to look for a place to stay? Have breakfast? We get off the ferry and the questions get answered immediately for us. At that time of the day there are about 5 or 6 people waiting for tourists to have their rooms rented. We walk past them at first instance, because we see an open restaurant. One of the Greeks follows us, not obtrusive, but just friendly and providing information. The rooms are located in the ‘village’, 2 kilometers higher up the hill. The name is Golden Star and he is really friendly and only asks 10 Euro per person per night. That’s not a lot off course. So he can persuade us and he brings us up with his van. After ten minutes we are in the village. Very beautiful rooms with a balcony, fridge, TV, three beds and a small bathroom. All is very clean and nice. We decide to take the room; otherwise we would have had a free ride anyway. Michalis (that’s the guy’s name) is happy and so are we. It’s seven in the morning already and we want to have some more sleep. At 09:00 Timo wakes up because he is hungry. We have breakfast at Chora (coffee, bread, omelet and paste of olives) in an Italian restaurant Vesuvio. We start exploring the village (in broad daylight now), go down to the port too and have our first frappe. While we’re sitting here three different ferries arrive and depart. That’s a really nice scene to watch. After a while it gets too loud on the terrace (Drinking Italians combining drinks with Mythos and Johnny Walker), so we leave the harbor. Back via the stairs to the hotel and there we take our snorkeling gear. There is a beach very close: Kolitsani. We only need to cross the street and then follow a road and then a sandy road through the hills. After 20 minutes we’re there: NUDE beach. Shit. There is only one Greek on the beach, staring at us. He still is dressed, but when we arrive on the beach he takes off his trousers. Is he being an exhibitionist? We really don’t care and just go snorkeling with our clothes on. It’s very good. The sandy beach is perfect to go into the water, slowly going down and from time to time there are rocks. We see a lot of different fish (e.g. garfish); Timo even sees an octopus this time. Eef is a little bit too late to see it. We snorkel for about half an hour and it gets chilly then so we go out of the water. Eef has some bobbles on her skin caused by the salty water. We return to the hotel, take a shower, rinse all our gear and enjoy the sun and ouzo on our balcony. Very nice: mmmmmm. We also start the diary. It still is pretty hot, but we’d like to walk to the next beach and then go for something to eat. This means we already need to dress for the colder temperatures of this evening. We go on foot in jeans to Milopotas, three kilometers down the road. It is a beautiful walk, always down and arrive at Milopotas in about thirty minutes. Way back at the end of the beach there is a little restaurant with a terrace and come tables close to the water. We sit down and have one ouzo mini, 1 tzatziki and 1 chtapodi. We have a good time and after an hour we go back to Jalos through Chora by bus. The first thing we do now is watch the sunset and then go to withdraw some money. We’re not lucky today. The only banking available does not contain any cash, so we need to get back to Chora. Only when we’re trying for the third time we are lucky and can withdraw enough money. So then we start looking for a good restaurant. We search for our way through the alleys and choose the roof garden of the restaurant Terrassini. We have one pizza vegetariana and a Greek salad with half a liter chima. It’s good here: food and atmosphere, so we stay here for a while: another half-liter chima. Then we pay (21 Euro) and go back to our room. On the balcony we drink some more retsina and we smoke a cigar and cigarette till almost midnight. Then we go to sleep.

 

Sunday October 21, 2006: Exploration of the island of Ios

At 08:00 Timo is awake already and he goes jogging to Milopotas and back in only 45 minutes. Shower and then relax, because it was not easy against the wind and uphill. We head to the village and look for the first rent-a-car we can find and that is Trohokinisi, right in the centre of the village. We immediately take the car and collect our stuff at Golden Star. Then we drive through Chora to Jalos to have breakfast. At the harbor we have at ‘Ios Burger’ a normal breakfast (Eef: bread, coffee and marmalade) and an English breakfast (Timo: eggs, bacon, beans – were not available) and for both of us fresh orange juice. Around 11:00 we’re leaving and we choose the direction of the grave of Homer. We drive to Kambos and then the road is ‘close’. They are asphalting the road, but we can easily pass. We encounter some huge cranes and some trucks. A drive of about half an hour brings us to the grave. The grave actually is nothing more than a plain hill with a few marble stones, with encryptions in different languages. We need to return to Kambos to get to Aja Theodoti. There is a beautiful sandy beach and the road to it leads through barren land and desolate landscapes. There are no villages: on the map there is a dot where some houses are built together. That is a village in these areas. We need to take the same road back and then drive to Psati. The only thing to see here is also a beach, but this is one where the caretta caretta lays their eggs. It’s about the time of the year when the eggs are hatching, but we’re not lucky today; we can’t spot any. Again we need to drive back to the “main” road and now drive without stopping to Manganari. Beautiful beach, but a lot of wind – as always here. We first try to look for a side road to smaller bays (for quietness), but we can’t find the side road and stop at the big Manganari beach. A quick exploration and we spot a small bay here to go snorkeling. M-a-r-v-e-l-o-u-s. Scorpion fish, damselfish and all different ones swim around here, even where it’s not deep. The total depth is about 4 meters and we see a lot of fish. Timo stays in the water a bit longer than Eef. We put all our stuff in the car and then go to have a drink: miso kilo chima at a restaurant nearby. It’s about 15:45 when we return to Chora. It only takes us 45 minutes to get back and now Eef takes the wheel. We have chips ‘rigani’, ouzo and Mythos on the balcony and then we get ready for diner. We take the car to drive to Jalos to eat something in a psarotaverna. We sit down at the first we see – blue chairs and a view at the harbor and the sea. They bring the menu, but we want to act like real Greeks and ask: “Ti echete simera;”. What do you have today? We’ll be sorry later on. So he says: 1 choriatiki, tzatziki, small fried shrimps and barbouni (red mullet). The food is great here, very nice. The shrimps are whole shrimps without heads, wrapped in flower and backed in oil. Very good. The main course is a total of eight fish. We eat it all, only bones, head and tail we leave for the cats. All done! We have with that two times miso kilo white wine and enjoy the food, the view and the nice fuzz here at the harbor. When it gets dark it all gets quieter and calmer. But then it comes: the bill. We need to pay 70 Euro in total. Fifteen for the shrimps and 40 for the fresh fish. We think this is too much, but the again it was very good. At 22:00 we return to Chora to our room and have a drink in our room. We call Mike to thank him to look after Cartouche and Roel too, but he doesn’t answer his phone. We’re a little bit worried, because we don’t hear from him, but it will all be OK. By midnight we go to sleep.

 

Monday October 2, 2006: Jalos, Chora and other

We sleep not very well till about 08:30. At nine Timo drives to the rent-a-car, but he needs to come back, because there is nobody there yet. At 10:00 we go together to the centre and deliver the car back at the reception. This guy is not very friendly, but indeed some Greeks behave that way. Everything is OK with the car, so we go to Jalos. We walk up to the monastery and enjoy the view. We stay at the harbor and walk around here and watch the ferries and people come and go. There are really a lot of people traveling by ferry here! We also buy our tickets to leave to Thira tomorrow. Around midday we walk back up to Chora and buy stamps, cards, bread 1 donut and some water. The walk is up the steep road and we’ve done this several times, which is good for the condition. We have bread and fruit on the balcony, but we can’t stay here long due to the heavy winds. Inside we write the cards, read Trotter about Thira and spend a few hours doing that. We go for another walk even higher to the little windmills and the theatre up the mountain. The view here is great. On the one side we see the bay of Milopotas and on the other side the one from Jalos and the houses of Chora on the hill. We silently walk back to the hotel and lie down some more, write the travel stories and check it all out about Thira. We choose some pensions and hotels that provide a possible solution for the next days. We prepare to go out again for diner pretty early cause we want to go to sleep early too. We need to get out of bed in the middle of the night and take the ferry at 05:45. Close to the mills we saw today there was a small tavern, very cozy. When we arrive there, they’re playing real Greek music and it is very loud. They put the volume down and we’re having a great time here. A plastic screen is protecting us against the hard wind. It needs to be there, because if there is wind here it is a hard one. This might be considered a drawback of the Cyclades and of Ios in particular. When we were close to the theatre this afternoon, we constantly heard the wind blow between the houses. Here because of the windscreen we don’t feel it. Perfect! A leg of a lamb hangs in the oven, but we choose something else: beans (Eef), salata Milou, soutzoukakia, and gemista. It all tastes very good, but in the end it looks like there is one plate too much. We pay – with the half a liter of white win – only 24 Euro/ that’s something else than yesterday. We return early to the hotel and watch some TV. A horror movie is showing at 21:00 and we see it till the end at 23:00. Betty sends a SMS to notify us, that Cartouche is doing great, so we are feeling perfectly OK now. By midnight we sleep.

 

Tuesday October 3, 2006: Transfer to Santorini (Thira)

Rise and shine at 05:45; Michalis is already waiting for us to take us to the harbor. At 06:15 we’re at the harbor and we wait for Express Athina. The ferry arrives 5 minutes too late and then we can leave to Thira. After about 20 minutes we see the sun rise over the sea and at ease with the rhythmical noise of the heave engines the trip goes to Thira. Already after 45 minutes we spot the island, but then the ferry slowly changes direction to Athinios, the harbor for the bigger ships on Thira. The first glimpse we have from Thira is Ia. White houses rising above the sea a few hundred meters. This must be one of the most beautiful villages on Thira. We pass along the island of Thirassia on our right hand side. This is a bit less high above sea level, but is also very impressive. We go more slowly, the engines only make silent buzz. The cliffs under Ia are really impressive. They’re very high and the different colors go from black over brown to dark red, yellow-brown to almost white: a very nice spectacle. De ferry moves on and now we can see the capital of Santorini, Thira, almost as impressive as Ia was; maybe with even more impact. On the right-hand side we pass along the black stones and rocks of the Nea Kameni (the newly burnt). This is the crater of the new volcano, where the last eruption was and where still volcanic activity is. Something that black we haven’t seen in our lives. Just after this island we arrive at the port of Athinios. The only thing here is about 10 buildings and 1 road leading to it from the top. The rest of the cliffs are being ruled by red and black layers of rock. The ferry stops and we can disembark; all the people look like a herd of cows. We try to get past the people standing here to rent the rooms and take the first bus to town. It costs us 3.20 Euro to get there. Everything is happening according to plan. But here in Thira there is not a bus earlier than within 45 minutes, so we take the risk of going on foot to Firostefani with the entire luggage. About 5 times a Greek wanting to rent his rooms bothers us. He first wants 10 Euro, then 7 Euro per person per night. We don’t want it and at 09:30 we arrive in Firostefani. And now the search for a room starts. Timo is a little bit tired because of handling the luggage, so Eef goes out to look for a place to stay. At Vallas Apartments there is still a room available, but it costs 76 Euro per night. Timo then goes out to check and Eef stays with the luggage. At Gaby Apartments there is no room, so looks on. At hotel Sofia Sigala (this was our third choice) there is still a room available for at first 40, then for 30 Euro per night. Timo did well today. He already gives his passport, but the room will only be available at 12:00 and then they still need to clean it up, so we need to return at 13:00. Ochi problema (no problem). We walk through the alleys of Thira and we look for a place where we can have breakfast. In a small restaurant Eef has a continental breakfast and Timo an omelet vegetariana with coffee and cola. Very nice. Here we have a view on the other side of the island, also very pretty, but the other side where our hotel is, is much prettier. After breakfast we go further down to the National Bank of Hellas to withdraw some money, we directly take enough. In the small streets are a lot of tourist shops and as a consequence a lot of tourists. We follow the streets up again to Firostefani. We arrive on the square of the village and sit down on a bench with a view at the caldera; this is the round shape just in front of Thira created by the volcanic activity. We stay here about an hour with some Mythos and enjoy the view. At 13:00 we go to the hotel. Our luggage was still here and we can enter our room now. The cleaning is still in progress, so we wait a while on the balcony. Then we unpack and rest about two hours. At 16:00 we get up again and drink coffee and ouzo on the balcony and we do everything very slowly. It is very hot here, so it’s very important to drink a lot. Eef takes some more rest and Timo goes for a walk. He goes to watch the beautiful view on the place where we were earlier today. At around 18:00 Eef is also ready and we go to see the sunset, really very nice variation of colors. The people from the tourist guides are correct, when they say Santorini is one of the most beautiful islands in Greece. We now find a route that brings us immediately to the cable car and from this point we look for a nice restaurant. According to Trotter Naoussa should be a good one. We spot it by coincidence and go up. We have lamb chops, cabbage salad, fried peppers, and miso kilo chima krasi. Very good, but it’s not really typical Greek anymore. It is not easy to stay Greek here, because of the herds of terro-rists here. It is good, very nice atmosphere, but as always here big business. We go back home through the dark alleys and are at the hotel in ten minutes. We drink some retsina and Mythos and eat some BBQ chips.  At 23:00 is gets a bit chilly and we go to bed and sleep immediately. Life is great on Santorini!

 

Wednesday October 4, 2006: Perissa

We get up at 09:00 and Eef goes to a zacharoplastijo and buys a croissant and a biscuit with raisins. Timo makes coffee and we eat and drink on the balcony. Our diary receives some additions and Eef is learning Greek lessons in a perfectly Greek atmosphere; it can’t be more Greek. We want to go to Perissa by bus today. There we want to schedule everything for our dives and maybe we can go snorkeling. We prepare all our equipment and we go to the bus station. We’re there very quickly and we only need to wait for about half an hour for the first bus. By bus it takes about 45 minutes, because the bus stops in Pirgos (we surely needs to stop here a few moments, when we’ve rented a car), then to Megalochori and then passing through Emporio and Perivolos to Perissa. First we go to the dive shop. We decide to have two dives on Friday – which dive sites will depend on the weather – and they are picking us up at 09:40 close to the hotel. To reach the dive center (Mediterranean Dive Center) we followed the beach road for a while and we found it very easily. So, everything is OK now and we’ve already paid 20 Euro now. They tell us a place where we can go snorkeling very nice so we go there, all the way back where we arrived by bus. We snorkel a bit, but it soon is very cold here. There is nothing special to mention here: the regular species of fish, sea urchins, rocks and so on. A moment we are frightened, when we hear a strange very loud noise. There is a boat coming towards us and that makes the strange noise. We still think it’s a very beautiful world under the surface of the sea. We lie on the black sandy beach and dry in the sun. It’s very beautiful here. The way the color of the black sand is in contrast to the white mountains that rise out of the sea and sand. To make the Greek atmosphere complete for the day, we drink two Mythos and eat a pita souvlaki each, and again it’s very good. We’ve just finished the food and we see the bus to Thira leave just in front of our nose, so we need to wait for the next one within an hour. It’s a bit annoying, but we can imagine worse place to wait for the bus than here in Greece. So after an hour we take the bus back to Thira and enjoy the beautiful landscapes of Santorini. The island is much more than only Thira and Ia alone; there are a lot of nice and beautiful places and villages on the island. We notice very much vines. It’s strange that they don’t grow up like normal vines, but they grow in circles on the ground (also something we need to check when we have a car). At Thira we go up on foot to the hotel. On our way up we make a reservation to visit the volcano on Saturday (10 Euro each). The hotel Sofia Sigala has a little swimming pool and we take a quick dive into the pool and after this cool down we prepare to go and watch the sunset. OK. Let’s go! Close to the hotel we watch the sunset but there is a lot of fog and it’s not that beautiful now. After Naoussa restaurant we try another one today: ‘I Elleni’. We have briam, calamari, tiri saganaki and kilo chima krasi. Very good, good service and food is great. Cool. We don’t stay out too late and return to the hotel at 21:00. We don’t stay on the balcony long, because it’s already dark and pretty cold. The clouds are close to us almost on the balcony itself. Normally we can see a church about 10 to 15 meters from us and now we only see dark grey clouds. This does not look good. At 22:00 we go to sleep.

 

Thursday October 5, 2006: Explore Thira by car

We get up at 08:00 and Eef goes tout to get breakfast: coffee with bread and marmalade and cheese. The tomato and nectarine were frozen with the bottle of water in the fridge. They are designated to be thrown away. After breakfast we look for a car at a car rental on the main road: Spiridakos. They have a Citroen Saxo today for 30 Euro and we need to return it this evening. We drive back to the hotel to get our stuff and then we go to explore the island. The first direction is to the south of the island to Akrotiri. In this village there are excavations of an old village under lava after a volcanic eruption. The excavation area is closed, so we drive on to the ‘Red Beach’. Here is a beautiful white chapel against a red rock. Over the hill there is a black sandy beach with red cliffs on the background. Very pretty. We then take the road to the lighthouse of Thira. From this point you have a very beautiful view over the caldera. We drive on to smaller villages like Emborio and Perissa. Here we then go to visit ancient Thira: an archeological site on the top of the hill above Perissa. A very nice walk (read: climb) up to the top. It only takes about an hour to get there and we check out the site: agora and a lot of ruins of houses; it’s rather large, 700 meter wide. We can’t do it all, but have a good impression of the site after a while. It was maybe a little bit dumb to walk up here, there was a road you can use by car from Kamari – the other side of the hill. It does not matter anymore. We walk down in the heat of the day and then take the car to Pirgos. Our stop here only is to check out the vines: they don’t grow in bushes, but on the ground in circles: that’s special. Through Megalochori, Messaria we move on towards Monolithos for refreshment. Timo swims in the sea and snorkels a few minutes and then we drive back to the hotel. Eef can now cool down too in the pool. We then take a shower and at 16:30 we drive to Ia. We have to be here to see the sunset on the most famous spot of Santorini. It’s a bit early still so first we have a drink on a terrace with a great view on the whole caldera and the island; we drink 1 small bottle of ouzo (Ploumari) and have tzatziki and bread with it. At 18:00 we walk to the furthest point of Ia and there we sit down on a wall waiting for the sun to set. It’s very busy here; it seems like the whole island is gathering here to see the sunset. It does not change the fact that it is very beautiful here: it is not a lie; indeed it’s a very good place to see a sunset. Just before the big rush home starts, we walk back to the parking lot and then drive back to Thira in the dark to drop off the car at the rental store. All is OK. It is also about time we need to decide to which island we’re going to go after Santorini. Timo had something scheduled, but it was not Heraklia, but Heraklion on Crete. And we were only there last year. So the other possibilities are: Anafi, Folegandros or Paros, we first need to see what trotter says about these islands. But now first something to eat: Santorini plate (domadokeftedes, feta, fava, egg with tomato, vegetable stew, maybe beans), small Greek fishes with two large Mythos. Again it tastes very good. We slowly walk the same way up to the hotel and decide on our balcony we will go to Folegandros, so we will book the trip tomorrow. We must not drink too much tonight, because tomorrow we’ll be diving. We sleep at 22:30.

 

Friday October 6, 2006: Dive

Our alarm was going off at 09:00, but we were already up at 08:30. Again we prepare our breakfast with Nescafé – the water boiler does its job very well – bread, cheese and marmalade. The weather is not good at all: very foggy. We almost don’t see the church in front of us. We ask ourselves if the dives will take place with this weather. We prepare ourselves and go to the square where we meet our dive instructor. When we arrive on the square the little van of Mediterranean Diving Club just arrives too. It’s Nikos, a Greek with dreadlocks. In Thira he needs to pick up some more people: Cathie, an American and Kevin and his wife – also American, his wife will not dive. We drive to Perissa to the dive club and arrive there at 10:30. Everyone is very relaxed. Have a seat, drink something. We all go to put our boots and wetsuit (7 mm) on. Ola kala. Ten divers are joining: Nikos, Emma, Jody and Ashley of the dive club and then Kevin, Cathie, 2 Mexicans (father and son?) and us. We are driven towards Vlihada by car and there is the boat. The Mexican mother stays on shore, because she would get wet, when she would join us. The boat is nothing more than a speedboat; everyone needs to sit on the side and needs to hold the rope or a metal bar. All the gear lies on the bottom of the boat. Nikos is using all the speed the boat has, so we need to hold tight. After 20 minutes we arrive at the first diving site Aspronissi: the white island. We are briefed, and then everyone receives his or her fins and the rest of the equipment. Eef needs to enter the water first, back-roll off the boat. All OK. Timo is next. How did we need to do it again? Never doubt, just do it. All OK. But then the tank starts to blow off, a little bit scary. Not good, Jody shuts is off. Timo stays in the water and gives it all back to the boat and then he receives a new tank. In the end everyone is in the water and we go down. Very nice, very good sight. And immediately we see a lot of fish. It’s a wall dive: this means we swim towards a wall, follow it for a while. Beautiful snails, stones, rocks, sponges and curious fish. We need to take notice we don’t go down too deep, because in total it’s about 2 to 300 meters deep and then no one will find you. We swim on along the wall and then return after 15 minutes. Same way back. The group stays together and we rise to the surface. Splendid first dive. We all crawl back into the boat (just like that without stairs, but very easy after some practice) and we swim to the white island, to the beach to have a snack. The people of the diving Club have brought a croissant and juice and water. We stay out here for about an hour and then swim back to the boat. Then we move on to the next dive location; Mesa Pigadia. It is a black lava rock with a lot of holes and caves. This is our cave dive. Again there is briefing. This time we go down with 6 divers, the others have to do some things for the next certificate, probably dive master. The dive is excellent, magnificent. We swim in and out the caves and small entries. Sometimes it’s very narrow, you almost need to squeeze through. We see a magnificent scenery of light and rocks. Inside the caves or swim-throughs it is dark, but the sunbeams come through the little holes. Really pretty. The fish here are not scared, they almost swim with us. The dive takes about 40 minutes, but it seems like it was only 10. Back on the boat we wait for the other three. When everyone is back on board, Nikos takes the wheel and races back to Vlichada. Everyone is really deeply impressed by (especially) the second dive. We arrive safely in Vlichada, where the van still is waiting for us. We drive back to Perissa, change and will out the logbooks. Cathie, Kevin and his wife, Timo and Eef go for a drink in the bar next to the club. At 16:00 we drive back to Thira – Firostefani. On the road we pick up three French people. The bus is full. At 16:30 we’re back at the hotel. We take a shower and start tow rite our diary. At 19:00 we go to Thira to book the trip to Folegandros and to call Sibomat (company building our house). They had left a message on the voicemail. We don’t do either of this things (not book to Folegandros nor call back), because we don’t feel like it. We go to eat at Dimitris. It has been delicious all the time and not too expensive, so we go there again. Today we have different choices. Eef has Mythos megalo and Timo miso kilo chima krasi. The food will be choriatiki, souvlaki kotopoulo and dolmadakia. Ola kala. We enjoy our almost last night on Thira. On the balcony is not a lot of wind today, so we stay outside a long time. Not very very long, because in the end we’re tired of the diving. The last dive Nikos swam with a fast pace of his fins, just like he was steering the boat. At 23:00 we sleep immediately. Tomorrow it’s shopping time and the volcano and all siga siga. Sleep tight!

 

Saturday October 7, 2006: To shop and to volcano

We get up early and prepare the bag pack, pay the hotel (150 Euro for 5 nights) and walk to the big supermarket in the center. There we buy a lot of thing to thank our dog sitters. For Christine we buy ouzo, Roel and An get peppers and olives, then we only need to find something for Mike, Betty and Maurits. For tomorrow we order a taxi at 08:00 (15 Euro) to the harbor and for now we withdraw some more money. Most of what we needed to do is already done. Eef takes the ‘groceries’ back to the hotel and Timo tries to book the trip to Folegandros. It’s not perfect, but we don’t have many options this late in the season. Tomorrow at 08:00 to the harbor of Athinios by taxi, then the boat to Folegandros. To return then to Piraeus we need to come back to Thira on Tuesday afternoon and then take the night-boat to Piraeus. Our other option –Anafi – is even worse, so Timo does the booking: 1 x 13.40 Euro 1 x 13.80 Euro and 1 x 54 Euro. We saw each other back at our restaurant at 11:00 and we start walking down through the donkeys to the old port. At 12:00 we can board the boat to the Nea Kameni. It only takes ten minutes to get there and the boat stops next to two other boats. We need to pass over these other two to get ashore. We walk through the black environment and pass along one crater, before we reach the active part of the volcano. It’s not really that much; there are only about 6 fumaroles. Sometimes smoke is visible and it smells like sulphur, but we have the impression that Nissyros still was a lot more impressive. In the end this is an expensive trip: 24 Euro: 10 per person on the boat and then another 4 for both of us on the volcano itself. The boat is very punctual and at 13:30 we leave to the old harbor again. We can go up three different ways; with the cable car (7 Euro), with the donkey taxi (no idea what the price is) and on foot. At the hottest moment of the day we decide to go on foot: 14 turns a few 100 meters upwards. We’re pretty tired when we reach the top. The restaurant of Dimitris is close to the exit, so we stop for nero megalo and 2 frappe. As we’re very thirsty we spend no time to drink the water and then we can have the frappe. We had to stop for the archeological museum, but we don’t feel like doing it now. So we return to the hotel. We buy something for Mike, Betty and Maurits, and also for ourselves for today on our balcony: retsina, Myths, chips (salt & vinegar). The sun shines very pretty and we keep on enjoying every second here on Thira. We drink Mythos, eat chips, smoke cigar and cigarette and write our traveling stories. Enjoy life, that’s what a person has to do! We had a marvelous vacation up to now and we choose Firostefani above Thira, because it is quieter. It only takes ten minutes to get to the centre and here you’re away from the business of town and away from the masses. The best! It still is a little bit early to go for diner, so we saunter through the alleys: we do this for only 30 minutes, typically us and then we’ve had it so we go to the restaurant of Dimitris. Today it can be a bit more: 1 liter chima aspro krasi and mix grill for two. As appetizers they give us a plate ‘on the house’ with three small portions: 1 tzatziki, second is tirokefteri (white spicy cheese salad) and a third is eggplant salad. Very good and we think it’s very nice they give us something on the hose. The mix grill is three chicken filets, 5 lamb cutlets, 3 meatballs, 1 steak and 1 souvlaki without anything like rice or fries, but it tastes very good. At 21:00 we say goodbye to Dimitris and we thank him for the excellent food and the nice talks and good atmosphere. Ten minutes later we’re at the hotel, everything was already packed earlier today, so we can rest and drink the last retsina from Thira on our balcony. We can let the candles burn outside the first time here: a good end of our stay here. Until midnight we stay up and we go to bed with a bit too much to drink: 1 liter of chima and 1 liter of retsina, what do you expect?

 

Sunday October 8, 2006: Transfer to Folegandros

We need to get up at 07:30, because at 08:00 the taxi is picking us up. We don’t need the buzz of our mobile, because the noise of the church bells wakes us at seven thirty. Taxi 29 (it should have been number 7, but it doesn’t matter) picks us up and drives like hell to the port of Athinios. At 110 kilometer an hour we arrive there in less than 10 minutes for only 15 Euro. We have breakfast in the harbor: 2 croque monsieur with 1 Nescafe and one cola. At 09:10 the Panagia Tinou arrives and we leave with about 20 minutes delay. It is again a boat with that name, just like the one in May this year we had a three-hour delay on Paros. The first stop is Thirassia, a very small village on the island just in front of Thira and we reach that in bout thirty minutes. After two hours we arrive at our second stop: Folegandros. At least we think we are. Apparently this is Ios again. Deep shit. The ferry has gone all the way to Ios instead first taking the direction of Folegandros. We will not be on the ferry for two hours, but four in total. This is stupid, if only we knew this up front, when we were on Ios, but we were still thinking we could go to Iraklia. We try not to let our cheerful mind down and we drink Mythos and water in the bar. We also have the Cheetos chips and try to keep us busy. Normally we should arrive at 13:00 on Folegandros and that is almost correct. Sometimes we’re lucky, sometimes were not. Timo waits in the harbor, watches some fish and Eef looks for a hotel. She goes to check whether Ostria still has rooms available. And indeed, she returns with the message there still is a room available for 2 days (25 Euro) with a view at the bay. Thank you, Trotter. We are OK and installed all by two in the afternoon and then first go to eat something: choriatiki, spaghetti Bolognese and two Mythos. We are located very good on a terrace with a view on the bay and the sun is shining. We can image worse places to have lunch. And I think we already said that earlier this vacation. We start to explore the village here: Karavostasi. It’s nothing more than one main street, 1 small road along the beach and 1 road with stairs leading to a beach. This bay on the other side of a hill looks very nice and we have to come snorkeling here tomorrow. After half an hour we’ve seen the whole village and decide to walk up to Chora. The woman from New York, who we met on the boat, went to Chora to look for a place to stay. We do this part up (sometimes very steep) on foot following the only good road on the island. It’s only 3.5 kilometer and we do this in only 45 minutes. Chora is located above high cliffs with a stunning view on the rocks, the sea and the islands close to Folegandros like Sikinos. At this time of the day the town is almost dead, we can’t even buy some water, not smart from us not to bring it. We walk through the streets and over the squares; there are about 5 nice squares here, but we can’t find an open restaurant or shop. It is dead here: 16:00 is siesta time. We then go back down to the harbor and enjoy the mountainous landscape. On the rocks almost nothing grows apart from a little tree, bushes with thorns and a small kind of pine tree. It is very quiet and calm this time of the year. We only meet about 5 people on the walk up and down. When we arrive at the harbor we immediately buy water and cola and drink it on our terrace. We’re a bit tired and we have a late siesta. Then it starts to get dark and we go to eat in the same restaurant as we had lunch at noon. There is not much available in the kitchen any more this time of the year, we take what the fishermen take from the sea. Tuna filet with a sauce of tomato, onions, and peppers with a portion of grilled calamari and miso kilo retsina, another time a different brand of retsina that we don’t know yet. And again it’s very good. Just before diner we bought some food in the supermarket at the harbor. Three bottles of water, 1 small bottle of cola, banana, prunes, hamburger bread and cheese. This is for our breakfast tomorrow and during our walk in the day. We light our candles and have some more retsina on the terrace and then go to sleep.

 

Monday October 9, 2006: Chora, walk and snorkeling

Timo is awake pretty early and enjoys the sight of the sunrise. We have breakfast at 07:30 (breads of hamburgers, cheese and coffee), prepare our bag pack for the hiking trip and we head for the harbor to take the bus of 09:50. Ten minutes later we arrive in Chora and we visit the kastro. The kastro is actually only a number of alleys and houses built on the remains of a castle. Guess who we meet here: the American woman we met on the ferry: Monica. We talk to her, she is having breakfast in the centre and is waiting for her friend to come to Folegandros: Michele. They had a good hotel here and Monica made a walk this morning to watch the sunrise on the hills today. It was worth the effort. At 11:00 we have to take the bus to Ano Meria. From this point we’re going to do a walk to the lighthouse. Actually this is not just a walk, but really a climb up and down. It takes us about two hours to reach the lighthouse, because we lost our track. We follow our guts and in the end reach the house and then look for a way up. We have now a good impression of the island, rocky with a lot of oleanders, wells and churches, even here in the middle of nowhere. To walk back up to the main road we use a bigger path than we followed down. This is a lot easier, especially when we can follow the red dots on the rocks and trees. The route towards the lighthouse was more difficult. We followed a small road and we lost track of that path already after half an hour. We choose to take the bed of a river over rocks and thorny bushes. The shepherds have erected walls here, s o we often need to pass over and avoid the walls. We’re lucky we brought three liters of water. You don’t see a living soul here, we encountered nobody the two hours we walked here, only goats, sheep a lot of larks and small grey and black birds (check which one, Timo). After a fast lookup on the Internet it appears to be a Sardinian warbler (Sylvia melanocephala). After the walk of the two hours we reach the main road, about one kilometer further than where we started. There is another connection between here and Chora now and we immediately take the bus, because it still is five kilometer to Chora. Once we’re in Chora we can walk back home in only 45 minutes. We walk down and are accompanied by a black dog. He follows us even to the beach of Vardia. There we go snorkeling. We like the animal, but it is a bit annoying he’s following us all the way. Snorkeling is very nice; it is magnificent ‘clear water’ with a lot of fish, crabs and fire worms. Timo has brought the underwater camera too. I’d like to see the pictures. The sun disappears early in the day and with the sun also the heat. We return to the hotel and clean all our stuff. Maria chases the dog away (he was still following us) and we don’t see him back for now. For now. We smoke a cigar and cigarette and check out what we want to do later today. Timo calls home and spends all the time on the card to talk to his mother. Very nice. In Belgium the weather is not bad, so everyone there is happy too. We check on our black ‘skylos’ how he’s doing. He’s still running around here and has a friend already. It could not have been better. We eat in the same restaurant as ever: Kalimnios. Today we did not have a choice; this was the only one open here. Today we have grilled fish (4 pieces), tzatziki, choriatiki and two times half a liter of rosé. It’s really great and the atmosphere is best. The woman at the restaurant has a hotel for us in Piraeus. She writes two notes in Greek. One to ask for the road to the hotel and another one to let them know we’re friends of her and that we need to pay the price for Greeks. It’s not very busy, so she comes to sit with us. We drink our second bottle of rosé and stay here to enjoy. In the harbor a few boats arrive now. The owner of the restaurant comes back from the fishermen with a bucket of some small fish: they’re even alive! Also they caught two tuna fish and they sell it to the restaurant. The fishermen come to eat something at the restaurant and just on the road they are selling and buying the fish. This is very cool. It really is a Greek atmosphere and mentality. Wed rink our wine pay the bill (only 26 Euro) and return to the hotel. On our balcony we have another bottle of retsina and some chips rigani with a whole lot of candles. We are having a good time. It’s not very later when we want to go to bed but the owner of the hotel comes to give us a dessert. It is rice-cheese pie and we have two large pieces. Eef returns the plates and does some talking to Maria. When she comes back it is already past eleven en we go to bed for the last time here on Folegandros. See you next time!

 

Tuesday October 10, 2006: All very quiet on Folegandros, to Thira and the boat to Piraeus

We sleep long and have our breakfast on the balcony. We only have leftovers from yesterday: sandwiches of the hamburgers, cheese light and coffee, self-prepared. We have used up a lot of coffee already, but off course everything tastes very well here. After breakfast Timo buys some fruit at the shop in the harbor (prunes, nectarines, apple and pear), Eef starts the packing. We’re ready at 10:00 and we can leave the luggage in the room for the time being and therefore we can start a walk through the village. We take the road to the other side of town and also the other side of the bay and we have a seat with view on the houses of the village. We see the water below us dashing against the rocks: the sound is very tranquilizing. At our right hand side we have the red, brown, white and black layers of rock rising from the water. We are sitting on a concrete stairs built in the rocks. In front of us the deep blue water starts and it ends in the beach in front of Pension Ostria with small tamarisks that provide shade to the rocks on the beach. At the right side of the beach we see the church protected by the shade of the tree next to it, after the church the mountains raise out of the sea and the village. Between the mountains is the road as a black tongue of the white village. It is that road that we have walked up and down already two times. We dream away with this beautiful view and can look back on a beautiful trip to the Cyclades. After an hour we return to pick up the luggage, say goodbye to Maria and pay the two nights stay. Kalo Chimona! A very good winter! It is about noon, when we arrive again at the restaurant Kalimnios with Alexandra. Now it is for lunch, just the same as when we arrived here on Folegandros. We have small Greeks fishes, 1 spaghetti Bolognese and three Mythos. Money is not an issue, as it practically doesn’t cost anything. Thos Greek fishes were the small ones we saw alive in the bucket yesterday evening. We absorb some more Greek sunlight and this time of the day it is very hot here. At 13:45 we take the boat back to Santorini. When we sail inside the caldera it’s almost night. Immediately after thee stop on Thirassia it starts to rain very hard; it even is cold now. The clouds are low; we have a problem to see Ia and Thira above on the rocks. After two hours in total we arrive in Athinios. We leave our luggage here and take a taxi to Thira town. This time Eef takes the time to ask a lower price and we arrive in Thira now for only 10 Euro. Cool! We race through the alleys directly to our restaurant in the rain. It only takes five minutes to get there and we are welcomed by Dimitris very friendly and we’re even kissed – Eef a least – and are almost treated as family. We take place at a table under the roof, so we don’t get wet. We still have a bit more than two hours and drink miso kilo chima krasi. After our first bottle the rain stops and the clouds clear away. Then we take a second bottle and order our food: briam, patates tiganites, domadokeftedes. Again it is very good and we learn a lot about Santorini from Dimitris. He has to live from the people coming on cruises from the beginning of May till the middle of November. They open their restaurants specifically when a ship arrives. The rest of the year everything is closed; shops, bars, hotels and restaurants. Only one shop and restaurant is open for the locals. Other villages like Perissa are ‘ghost towns’. After the diner we receive a third bottle from Leonardo, the second waiter here. We chat and laugh a lot and then it’s time to pay and say goodbye. The second time to say goodbye today and the second time to Dimitris. It is nice we could return here. We take the bread with us to eat it with the fruits on the ferry and take the bus at 20:00 to Athinios. We need to take the ferry at 21:00 to Piraeus, but the ‘Romilda’ is always late. A very big boat, but very slow, says Dimitris. We’ll what it will be. Eef buys some pills for traveling disease and we return to the harbor to pick up our luggage. We drink a glass of wine (we have enough to drink now) in the place where the luggage was. We also meet a very kind Greek man here who is taking care of a German shepherd, Linda, a beautiful animal, very kind, friendly and playful. We give him about two Euros for the wine and take the ferry to Piraeus. This one time the ferry is on time. On our way to the ferry Linda followed us and then it is bye bye Hellas, no bye Thira. We find a good place on the boat in a saloon and try to get some sleep on the long trip to the mainland. Next to us is Niko, a Greek military man on his way home to Meteora. He knows a little bit German and we talk about Santorini and Greece in general. That’s cool. After two and a half hours on the ferry we arrive on Ios, the third and last time. Timo goes to the deck and films with the small camera the storm hanging above Santorini; a lot of lightning, a lot of clouds and it’s a gorgeous sight. Timo then goes back to his seat and tries to get some sleep.

 

Wednesday October 11, 2006: Romilda, Piraeus, Athens and Piraeus

A good night rest we get on the boat thanks to the pills we bought: we get enough sleep now. At 07:30 we wake up and we were only awake for 1 or 2 hours during the night. We eat as breakfast the fruit we have from Folegandros and the bread from Santorini. We drink some water with from the bar. We sleep once in a while a little bit and the time passes rather quickly: the last three hours from Kythnos to Piraeus took the longest. At 13:00 we arrive in Piraeus, we’ve been on the ferry for a total of 16 hours, which is an adventure on itself. The weather is not good in Piraeus and we look immediately for the hotel Electra. We find it quickly, book 1 night for 45 Euro. Eef is a bit tired to do the complete explanation from Folegandros, she tries quickly, but it does not help. We leave the luggage in the hotel, refresh ourselves and take the bus to Athens. We need to wait for the bus about 30 minutes and it takes 1.5 hours to go to the center. The subway was not available between 13:00 and 15:00, so bad luck. Even before we reach the last stop we get off, close to Thissio and dot he rest on foot. We go and sit down with a Mythos and 2 pita and patates tiganites on the corner of the square at Thissio. Everything tastes very good and it all is OK. We walk through the streets and pass the flea market. We look at the Acropolis and the temple of Hephaestus another time – they still look the same as last year. It becomes cold and we return by subway to Piraeus. That is already a lot better. We’re packed like sardines and it only takes 10 to 15 minutes to reach Piraeus instead of more than an hour. We rest a while at the hotel, the pills are still working. At 19:00 we go back to the restaurant in the harbor: Filokseno. It was very good the last time, so we’ll also try it out now. We are not very hungry, but then again: 3 Mythos, 1 time beans and okra mixed on a plate, once gemista and once patates. There is a lot of noise here: football on the TV: Bosnia-Herzegovina against Greece. Just before first half time it is 0-1. Back at the hotel we immediately go to bed. The fuzz on the boat, Piraeus, the bus to Athens, we’re exhausted by all of this. Tired. We sleep like a rose.

 

Thursday October 12, 2006: Departure home

At 07:45 we need to get up. We pack the last things the last time, prepare the hand luggage and check out of the hotel. Our normal luggage was practically not opened, only the clothes to go home were unpacked. The ground floor of the hotel has a bakery: we buy 1 croissant and something that looks like a croque monsieur. We take the bus to the airport at 08:30. A Greek tries to rip us off and takes our luggage from us and brings it to another bus stop. He suddenly took the suitcase and went off with it, so we just followed. We give him 0.70 Euro, but this is not enough for him. Bad luck. He needs to be happy with what we give him and these were the only coins we had. The bus arrives in 1 hour and 30 minutes at the airport. We can already check in so that’s what we do and we don’t have the suitcase and the bag pack to drag with us. There is not along queue, which is quite nice. Luggage away, time to have breakfast outside the airport building, a cigar and a cigarette and everyone is happy. Or maybe not everyone, because we’re leaving Greece today. Half an hour before boarding we pass customs clearance, everything OK, wait a few moments for the airplane and we can board on time. Everything is going smoothly and well on time the Virgin Express flight with destination Vrikselles leaves. Three hours later we arrive in Brussels, so we are in Zaventem at 15:00.that was it: two nice weeks of vacation, three islands, nice villages, a lot of sun, diving, snorkeling, fish, the good food, the nice Greek atmosphere (especially on Folegandros), white houses with blue shutters and doors, bougainvilleas and hospitality. C ya next time!