The Quinn Family Excellent Adventure: Goodbye Athens Greece 1 - Hello Santorini Greece

It was nice to have only a few bags walking out the door for a change. Using a taxi app we scored a nice person in like 3 minutes. The lineup to get on the ferry was already pretty big. We were lucky enough to still have good choices for a place to sit. Better spots were to be had with cushioned bench seats but we did not discover them until it was too late. At least we had a table, 4 chairs and a great view. We each walked around the ferry to see what sights and viewpoints were available. The lineup to board grew massive. It was fun to watch the foot traffic and vehicle traffic boarding from the height of the viewing deck. KT and Michelle played cards, read and had fun. I had plenty of blogging back logs. I grabbed multiple strong coffees, sat it a nice stiff backed chair and blogged hard core for 5 hours. It was awesome. We docked once at Paros and watched the massive amount of movement both on and off the ferry. There was even a single car that split from ours and jumped onto a soon departing ferry. Like within 20 seconds. These guys know how to do ferry's. After a few more hours we saw the beginning of the beautiful Santorini. It was kinda tough to find a clear photo shot of the white building atop the cliff faces. It looked like snow from afar. Warning to get ready to depart were plenty so we gathered up our stuff and heading towards the exit. It took awhile to make our way down to the lower deck. Hundreds of people were preparing to depart by foot. The staff soon started dropping the loading ramps showing us the welcoming Athinios Port Santorini. We walked off with the huge crowd towards a very tiny port hoping to find a bus stop. We wisely walked slowly and kept our eyes open to the sales offers. One was a taxi van for 25 Euros for all 3 of us. Deal I said. We waited for a while to let the crowd disperse and headed to a Sprinter style van. Nice. The road out of the port is very steep and probably 1.5 KM's of switchback. Santorini Breeze, the Hotel we chose was not a super fancy one and a little walk from the tourist part of Perissa. We were last to be dropped off and soon greeted by the wonderful Danielle. Santorini Breeze was perfect. https://www.hostelworld.com/hosteldetails.php/Santorini-Breeze-Studios/Santorini/21165 Nice staff, a pool, simple kitchen with fridge and a short walk to coffee, bakery, groceries and beach. Groceries were a priority. Not far away is a really nice spot with ATM, groceries and the best bakery/coffee around. The groceries were surprisingly more health oriented than Athens. We had no trouble finding what we needed for a day. I learned tomorrow is a big holiday and much will be closed. I was on a blogging roll so we went to the bakery/cafe to grab some java. We discovered the wonderful Santa Irini bakery. https://goo.gl/maps/sRtnueaWYaeLEb497 4 generations have run the place. Pictures of the place everywhere. The eldest member is a wonderful man warmly hugging and talking with all. He sneaks breadsticks into all of my orders. The route home passes by a shy donkey and a playful horse. We said hello on every passing.

Sometime in the evening or morning I recalled the crazy uphill climb from the port to the top of this island. I don't remember going down in the van on the way here. Does the beach require a crazy downhill? Let's find out. While KT slept, Michelle and I went out to discover. Nope, the beach is right there and just a few meters below our hotel. The sand is pretty gritty and black. Cool. Walking along the beach we discover many restaurants and locals are starting the cooking of lamb for the evening celebrations. We confirmed a restaurant will be available for dinner and walked to the end of the beach. It was so nice and quiet this time in the day. Tourists were still hungover I guess. As we had planned to take the bus to Oia apparently the home of the most beautiful sunset shots in the world. https://goo.gl/maps/zKo8hgWxnH4DNDqH6 it was time to get KT up the check it out.

Armed with backpacks, water, snacks and camera's we headed out to grab the bus. Yay. We waited, and waited, and waited. No bus. Holiday, dang. Time to blog I guess. The hotel had a sign on the wall for a volcano tour, 35 Euros each. After confirming it is running that became tomorrow activity. In the meantime it was time to plan an evening's dinner on the beach. KT was impressed with the beach. The restaurant orders were made and the girls skipped of to shoot the local church. As their food got cold I enjoyed an amazing Moussaka and watched the tourists pass by. After dinner it was time to prepare for our volcano tour.

Our hotel host recommended waiting at the bus stop for our ride to the location of our Volcano tour. We honestly had no idea if this boat was big or small. We waited on time for our 8:00 AM pickup
for whatever vehicle they were sending. It's fun waiting 15 minutes for a vehicle suspecting everyone that passes may be yours. Eventually a nice man in a car approaches us and we were cruising. He was an almost retired bus driver. We had a bit of a chat about weather, family and the crops planted in many places. They turned out to be grapes. Wow. They were so sparse and low compared to what we normally see as grape vines. These grapes pull moisture from the air and create a very special wine. Cool. We were soon driving back down to the Port and this time during the day. It's a long decent. We tipped the man and were dumped off in front of a beautiful wooden boat. Soon people were piling around. We boarded and met a couple from Romania. He was a nice professional photographer and his teacher wife was really sweet.

We learned our itinerary was as follows:

Visit Tholos Naftilos an active volcano for a hike
Cruise to Palea Kameni Hot springs
Thirassia Island for lunch and chill time
Cruise back to the port.

Soon after departing the evidence of the volcano is obvious. Black rubble looking almost man made surround this part of the island. We pulled into a pretty busy little Volcano port and advised of a 1.5 hour hike opportunity. The entry fee for the island was a few Euros each. The hiking was a little uphill and soon we were experience totally awesome views. We had to keep an eye on the time in case our boat departed without us. It was awesome and we were so lucky to have excellent clear skies. Once back on our boat we learned the "Hot Springs" required a swim from the boat. Time to jump into the soon to be crowded boat and jump into some trunks. Not many chose to dive as the water was kinda cold. I grabbed my underwater camera and dove head first into the 10M deep water. Man it was chilly. Hopping for warmer water I headed where everyone else is. There were pockets of warm water here and there which was cool. As we only had a half an hour, I only got about 90% of the way to the hottest part of the hot spring. It was interesting but almost not worth it. At least I was seriously refreshed. After the hot springs we warmed up in the sun on the way to Thirassia Island. I was concerned about the magnitude of people being dumped onto such a little village for food. One local restaurant had the process down serving cafeteria style food. After a yummy lunch we had about an hour to explore the small but very beautiful beach. Some ventured up the steep hill to the upper part of the village. Finally on board we cruised past the Oia side of Santorini towards the port. Bummer we missed Oia this time around from above. Oh well. Next time.Once back at the port we tried to follow the tour coordinator as she explained where to go for each of the different sources of hotel people. As we were driven by a custom driver, it was a bit tricky to determine where we should go. Suddenly a young man interrupted out search noticing the writing on our receipt as her mothers. He was our driver and was looking for us. That was kind of random but fun. It turned out he was the son of our morning driver. Super nice guy. As we were curious to try a famous "Giro", he indicated the best place in Santorini beside the church. OMG these things were huge. Kinda too much actually. Easily 2 meals. We kinda felt a little gross after so much salty food. Oh well. It was time to head back for our final pack. Our ferry was departing at like 1:30 AM. We arranged a taxi ride for 12:15 AM. I blogged write through to our departure time. The girls each tried to nap. The taxi was bang on time and we said goodbye to Santorini in the dark. It was weird approaching the port in the dark. Huge numbers of cars/buses were descending the hill leaving a pretty large crowd. This ports structure was not very well done apparently. Ferry wash and rain had knocked out the footings from the main docking area. An alternative location meant awaiting people had to board criss crossing with cars. Fortunately the boarding was simple enough and each armed with cabin tickets we headed to our respective homes for a few hours. It was super comfy, dark and flat. Nice. We knew we were arriving in Athens at 8:30 so we planned to get together in my room for 7:45 for a nice morning breakfast. At 6 AM a loud announcement comes on saying get up and get out of your rooms. They need to clean them and make the beds for the next crowd. Dang. Walking out into the main boat area were a hundred or so people simply standing waiting for departure. It was almost impossible to find a seat just to chill and eat something. Pretty stupid design. I noticed we were approaching a completely different part of the port. After departing it was clear the bus/taxi design is really dumb. About a 50 people are waiting for taxis what come in dribs and drabs. The bus is a confusing gong show that had to transfers to get away from this section of the port. Plus there is no place to purchase the required ticket. We abandoned standing like idiots for a rare taxi and while walking toward the bus stop a taxi approached passed us. I gave him the thumbs up and we were in. This guy knew how to avoid the morning rush and drove kinda scary fast. We were home in like 20 minutes and ready to take yet another nap. Learned lots on that tip. Santorini is awesome but the return trip can be a bit bumpy. Do your homework