Greece > By boat to Santorini

We get up later than usual. We have to check out of the room by 11:30, so around 10:30 we quickly get some bread. Meanwhile, the phone is already ringing, asking if we are leaving today or not. Yes, we are! But first, breakfast must be eaten and a few postcards written. Exactly at 11:30 we go downstairs.

Greece - A small church in the old city center

Here we discover that we cannot pay with eurocheques. With cash, we are just a few drachmas short. Luckily, Monique has Traveler’s Cheques, so we can pay after all. We leave our luggage at the hotel and walk through Athens once again. Each time, the city feels different. The Dutch embassy is closed. We consider going to the KLM travel agency for information about Turkey, but first we try the Turkish embassy. Most likely, it is also closed. In front of the Turkish embassy, we find a heavily guarded building. It looks closed, but via a camera we are already spotted. A cracking little voice comes through the speaker: “Can I help you?” Moments later, we are inside. After a flattering speech about the good relationship between Turkey and the Netherlands, blah blah, we receive the necessary information about visas, trains, and, to great amusement, about possible adjusted clothing for women in Turkey. This turns out to be unnecessary. After taking the relevant brochures, we leave the heavily guarded building. We even wave at the unusually large mirror on the way out. It is now decided: we will stay four days on the islands and try to reach Turkey via Samos and Khir. From there, we will go to Istanbul. However, we will be without travel insurance for a few days, as we will be outside Europe, but we accept this. The ferry to Santorini departs at seven in the evening. We walk back to the hotel to collect our luggage. Along the way, we quickly do some shopping and grab something to eat. At the hotel, we get our bags and buy the ferry tickets (7,500 Dr., about ƒ80). With our backpacks, we head to the metro. Well, metro…? A small train runs half above and half below ground to Piraeus, the port city of Athens. At the harbor, it’s full of large ships. After asking several times, we find the spot where the ferry should dock. The ferry hasn’t arrived yet. In a small park across the way, we prepare our food. The water for the macaroni is (Monique) fetched from the café toilet right in front of us. It takes over half an hour for the macaroni to start tasting good, mainly due to the strong wind. We try to shield the flame by placing our backpacks around the stove.

Greece - Primitive cooking in the port of Piraeus

Then suddenly the gas runs out. The macaroni is almost done, so we decide to eat anyway. Eating our meal on the sidewalk in the harbor draws plenty of attention from passersby and café-goers, but the taste is not bad. By six, the ferry is in the harbor and we board. The brisk wind is refreshing on deck. We sit on the top deck with a view over Piraeus. As soon as the ship leaves the harbor, the wind strengthens on the open sea, and the ferry begins to pitch noticeably. My warm clothes—jacket, sweater, and long pants—are at the bottom of my backpack. I can’t get to them quickly, and it’s getting colder. I decide to turn my backpack upside down and open the bottom. Together with Ron, I search for a toilet. However, none of the toilets have toilet paper. We move on to the next one, and the next, and the next. Luckily, it’s originally a Dutch ship, so we can clearly see that we are now walking through the crew deck, the engine room, and finally the car deck. Only on the deck beneath the car deck, five layers down, are we sent away by a crew member—but by then, we’ve found a suitable toilet. On the open sea, we decide to play cards. We find a spot out of the wind, one deck lower and behind a lifeboat. To prevent the cards from blowing away, we place them under a cola bottle. Everything goes well—almost. After a few rounds, it becomes impossible to continue; the ship rocks heavily in the wind. Ron is the first to gasp for air at the railing. I lie flat on five deck chairs to minimize the effect of the pitching. It’s completely dark now, and night falls before ten o’clock. I pull my sleeping bag over me to stay warm, holding it tightly to prevent it from blowing away. I think I sleep a little, but I wake again as the ship, an hour late, enters the harbor of Paros. We stay on board. I sit briefly with a guitarist, probably from Ireland, then try to sleep again. The new direction of travel makes it less cold. At the next stop, in the harbor of Ios, many passengers disembark. We continue to Santorini. Once untied, the ship turns relative to the wind. On the way to Santorini, the wind is directly against the ship.

Greece - The biting wind made the overnight stay uncomfortable

It becomes so cold that I stand up. At 4:45, nearly two hours later, the ship arrives at Santorini. It seems as if the entire population is on the shore holding “rooms” signs—but that wasn’t our plan. By bus, we wind frighteningly through the mountains to a village on the beach. The bus driver takes the hairpin turns very fast, scraping close to the cliff. The distance to the beach is much farther than we expected. At 5:45, the full bus reaches its final stop at the beach. Our luggage, on the roof, is unloaded. We collapse on the beach and roll out our mats. The beach is covered with small stones. On the horizon, it is already light. I had a short sleep. By 8:30, the sun is so warm that sleeping is almost impossible. We stay on the mats until ten, having breakfast in bed. We decide to take the bus to Thira, though none of us knows exactly what we can do there. The poor backpacks have to go on the bus roof again. In Thira, we find a good place to store them so we can explore the town. Thira is made up of small alleys lined with shops. The streets are mostly small stairways against the rocks. All houses are painted white with bright blue doors. We wander through the town and try to reach the highest point… Only to realize the next day has already begun.