Athens and Santorini

After finally boarding the 16 hour ferry to Patras, Greece we organised ourselves in our "Airline" seats and ended up sleeping on the floor instead - our camping mats came in handy. Arriving in Patras felt a lot like Brisbane with the humidity and sunshine. We had no trouble finding the train station, and even had time to enjoy a relaxing lunch. Upon boarding the train, we were informed that we would have to change trains twice, as opposed to the once we were expecting, due to changes in service. Thrice turned into four times as we had to change on to the Metro as well. Arriving at the hotel I caught up on sleep while mum booked our further travel and accommodation.

All of the next day was spent exploring Athens: The Acropolis and Ancient Agora in the morning and Archaeological Museum in the afternoon. We then had time to do a quick grocery shop before heading for our Ferry to Santorini (another sleep on the floor gig).

With a temple in the Ancient Agora

At the Santorini Port, in the harbour created by the volcanic crater, George from Pension Livarodos picked us up and drove us back to Karterados. His hotel had a lovely homely feel - like you were staying with family. We both napped until the afternoon (ahh the rigours of being on holiday) then went to a local restaurant for Mousaka, chicken Souvlaki and Greek Salad. We then had a nice long sunset walk down to the black sandy Karterados beach and back.

The next morning saw us hiring a 4-wheeler or dune buggy and hooning around the island. We visited Kamari and goggled at the people supposedly tanning their already lobsterified skin. We took a wrong turn on our way to Perissa and prayed to the dune-buggy gods that we would make it up the moutainside of Profitis Ilias (max speed uphill = 16k/h full throttle). The trip was worth the great views. We then drove through Megalachori to Perissa, and had dinner at nearby Perivolos beach. After our dinner overlooking deep blue ocean we were back to our hotel for an relaxing evening swim. Wish we could have stayed longer.

Let´s go!

l
R
x
and Judy

P.S. It is so awesome how everyhting in Greece is spelled with the Greek alphabet (duh). All those letters I learnt in Maths actually make sense e.g. "Oh, it's a phi... and an ipsillon a rho and an alpha... so ph-i-r-a ooooh Fira!"