24/04 Santorini, Greece

We woke up at 0600. And i needed to pack my stuff into my suitcase. The day before yesterday, I washed my clothes and most of them were dried luckily but some were not yet dried. But I had to put it in my suitcase. We took metro to pireaus where we could take the ship to santorini. We went to Blue Ferry Office to take our boarding pass. Then, we got on the ship. This ship was like the one we took from ltaly to Greece. It took around 8 hours to get there. We arrived at Santorini around 1530.

Once we got out of the ship, wow, there was a really rugged mountain in front of us, right behind the pier. The relief was really high-tech and it was very steep. Many cars and coaches were parked at the pier to pick up their customers.  Since yesterday's night we sent an email to our hostel to tell them we arrived at Santorini around 1530 so that they could arrange a pick-up service for us, which was free.

We searched for the sign of our hostel. The nice Guy led us to his vehicles and we three jumped inside. The car went from the bottom to the top of the mountain. The roads were really steep and they were zigzag. The view was really beautiful. We could see the Aegean sea which was breathtaking and a volcanic island next to Santorini. We could also see the big bare rocks and many huge cracks on the mountain. But today it was a bit cloudy. The car arrived at the top and headed to Thira, where our hostel was located. On our way, there were some white houses on both sides of the street and the island was really big.

We got off the car and checked in. Our room was quite nice with strong WiFi signal but no kitchen here... Our hostel had a small swimming pool too and the staircase was also white.

Then, we went outside to the centre of Thira. We saw many white and blue houses and churches which were very Greek and beautiful.

We went inside a church. The church in Greece was really different from those in ltaly.

The wall and dome paintings mostly were portraits of Jesus and other people. Maybe because of different religion between Greece and other European countries. But it was interesting to see different styles of churches in Euorpe.

When we crossed an ally, someone riding a horse was leading a group of horses to somewhere else downhill.

But, it was a bit smelly. We arrived at the centre. There were many Greek restaurants, sourevin shops, ice cream and yogurt shops and of course grilled shops.

We went inside some sourvenir shops and the sourvenirs were quite cheap like the magnets, models of white houses, lamps, sunglasses and many things else. When we passed through some restaurants, we saw the view of the Aegean sea, the volcanic island and many white houses on one side of the mountain, which was really magnificent. 

Santi and I felt a bit hungry and then we bought a Greek Gyro which was like the Turkey kebab. I ordered a pork gyro, which had slices of pork, onion, French fries, salad sauce, a bit different from kebab and It was also tasty and cheap. Only €2.3 !!

Then we walked higher to get a better view. But the wind was getting stronger and chillier.

We all felt really cold. After taking some pictures, we walked back to the hostel. On our way, we saw the sunset in Thira which was very beautiful with the reflection of the sun on the sea and the layers of sea wave.

However, we got a bit lost as it was getting darker and there was no sign or direction. We went ask a Guy in a hotel nearby. Fianlly we backed to hostel and asked the receptionist about the details of the excursion for tomorrow.

Then, we ate out at a restaurant near our hostel. The waiters there were very nice and we ordered traditional Mousaka which was eggplant, potatoes and minced meat, Stuffed tomatoes and pepper with meat and potatoes inside and a grilled sword fish.

There were all delicious and the atmosphere there was really good. The waiter even asked us where we from, what places we wanted to visit here and gave us some suggestions with a map too. They were really nice. We had a good dinner there and it was not very expensive,  just €10.5. We then walked back to the hostel and got some rest.