Oia Oia update

Hullo everyone.  A and I seated in bar next to the beach watching the sunset - as you do in Santorini. 

Have been thinking of Micaela who was here recently.  Nice to know there is a definite Buchanan presence here now.  More Buchanans must come!

Thanks also to Mandy Denby for honeymooning here and inspiring us to come!!

Instead of uploading the pics individually from our visit to Oia last night I thought I would cheat and put up a collagey thing so here goes...

Day 7 and 8 - Santorini fun continues

Yes very amazing here and gets more amazing every day as you will see from the pics. Yesterday we went on cruise - supposed to be for only 25 people -  make that 250 people or more! This aside it was fantastic - Alan walked to top of volcano -then we visited Thirassio, a small island off Santorini with a few fishing villages.  Here we had lunch, a swim and took photos, then back on boat bound for Oia at top of island and sunset.

We caught a donkey ride from port up to town - laughing all the way! Wish you were here James - you would have loved it.The town was mega amazing - never seen anything so beautiful in my life. Watching the people watching the sunset was almost as good as the sunset.

I am typing this in a restaurant overlooking Perissa beach where we have been relaxing on our beach lounges, taking occasional dip, watching the scenery  and scantily clad people and having a foot massage.  The little ferry that takes you around to the next beach has just arrived again, Greek music is playing loudly, the wine is chilled - what more could one want.  I have ordered grilled sardines and salad and Alan has order grilled squid for lunch.  Mmm.  We seem to be spending about 15 to 20 euros a day for lunch and between 30 and 40 for dinner.

This afternoon we will drive to Akrotiri archaelogical dig further down island. Would you believe we have seen pottery cups and gold sculpture of a strange animal in the local museum that are over four thousand years old. The volcano eruption which created Santorini as it is today caused a giant tsunami which effectively wiped out Crete and the Minoan civilsation.

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Day 6 Santorini (sigh)

Despite our trepidation about our accommodation we sleep well. The room is actually large and has a white marble floor, blue shutters and air-conditioning so is cool and airy. It is also very quiet.

Wearing our newly purchased thongs we walk the 50m to the beach for our early morning swim. We are the only ones on the beach and discuss how all the young things are probably still asleep after a late night partying followed by hours of lovemaking (many couples on the beach yesterday seemed to be into public displays of languorous foreplay). We return to Glaros and a motorbike turns up at the shed opposite where our caretakers seems to reside. It is fresh bread from a bakery and yogurt and fruit for me. While we are showering we hear them setting up our breakfast in the alcove outside our room.

We feel much better now. Our hosts are making an effort to make us happy. This is a real guesthouse after all – even though we think we are the only guests! We discuss how really one only needs a few simple things to make one happy – bread, fruit, a cup of Liptons tea, a good night's sleep, sunshine...

Not long after we are handed a set of car keys and with sign language told this is for the small green citroen. There are no papers to sign, no insurance deals, no money transaction – perhaps we just need to get more into the Greek way of doing things.

We have a fabulous day. Alan does a great job of driving well on the wrong side of the road. We visit Fira (breathtaking), Perissa and Kamari and book a cruise for tomorrow...

Day 5 – Santorini

We arrive at the port in Santorini after a pleasant 5 hour trip on the SeaJet hydrofoil stopping at a couple of islands on the way. The owner of Glaros Traditional Guesthouse, Christos, had told me to phone him on our arrival so he could come and pick us up. I do this but have a very confusing call. Christos thinks I am ringing to make a booking but I insist I have a booking and he should be expecting me. He tells me he will pick us up in 15 minutes.

A Greek man called John arrives and says he is friend of Christos. His English is poor and when we arrive at Glaros Alan and I are a bit shocked by the place. Humble is about the best way to describe it. Basic room with one sheet on the bed, a door with a handle that falls off when we open it etc. No other guests. Quite picturesque in a rustic kind of way but all very dodgy and John now asking for money and saying he is the new owner. Alan is a bit stressed but we pay the money anyway – John promising to return tomorrow with a car deal for us – cheap only 20 euros a day! We are in the lap of the Gods.

This slight puzzlement aside Perivolous is rather magnificent. Long stretch of black beach with umbrellas and deckchairs and bar service for many miles all along the beach and restaurants and cafes opposite. It is a strange sensation to be at a beach with pop music blaring and bar staff. The majority of folk on the beach are young and beautiful and Alan is definitely enjoying the view. We are slightly tense from wondering if we have been conned but relax into the afternoon with several dips in the lovely water and a bask in the sun. The sand is very coarse being volcanic rocks and hot hot hot to walk on.
We have a fabulous dinner at one of the more low key restaurants along the beach front. We choose it mainly because it isn't playing loud music. Our meal is fantastic and we come home to dodgy abode satisfied.

Day Four – Athens

Breakfast is as daggy as our room at the Phidias but it is sunny again - we are told it is always sunny in Athens – and we walk up the hill, past the Acropolis and around to the Acropolis Museum. It is a very modern building with a glass floor, which enables us to watch the archaeological dig going on underneath.


From the Museum we wander into the Plaka – and spend a couple of hours looking at all the little shops. A shopping fix for Lee and then more ruins to explore - Hades Gate, the Temple of Olympian Zeus, the Theatre of Dionysus. We keep stumbling upon more ruins.


We spend a full day roaming and I remark to Alan how despite the temperature being in the mid-30s neither of us is burnt. Makes you realise the ferocious intensity of our sun in Hobart.


We train it to Piraeus and avoid the dodgy taxi drivers to find our hotel, which is quite okay despite being very cheap. We venture out for dinner and find a very hospitable young Greek restaurant owner who goes overboard bringing us out more food. Not really my style of cuisine as a bit greasy but he introduces me to metataxa, which I like!

Getting there - part 2

Dear Emirates, forget all bad things I thought about you the day before. As I lie stretched out in my roomy business class seat ( a free upgrade) I think you are the best airline in the world. Silver service, amazing lunch, staff hovering to fulfil our every need. Alan, feeling ultra relaxed, buys two watches on board as the hostess whips out the visa card machine to process the payment. The Spanish man across the aisle gets sozzled on repeated fill ups of red wine as his grumpy son sleeps through the flight.


On the train ride into Athens we meet some lovely young American girls just off the plane from Santorini. They give us heaps of advice about things to see and do when we get to the island. One of them opens her iPad and forwards me a cheat-sheet email of Santorini highlights. Ah, I love travelling in this age of instant communication.

We exit at Thissio and find the Phidias Hotel just up the cobbled street-way, which has open air bars and cafes all along both sides. Amazingly the Parthenon is perched on the hill just above us.

The hotel receptionist is a hip young Greek guy and after checking in we cram ourselves and bags into the tiny lift and shudder our way up to the third floor. Our room is so small and quaint we are a bit taken aback. From 5 star to 2 star (ha I doubt the daughters would even give it that many) we are grateful the bed has clean sheets. The colours of the decor are so daggy and Greek they are almost but not quite cool.


It is late afternoon but we decide to follow the cobbled road up to the Acropolis. It is a perfect time of day to view the Parthenon and surrounding ruins and the amazing view of Athens around us. There is a golden hue over everything and I feel sufficed with happiness. Alan remarks on the sleeping dogs all around the ruins. We start counting them. Six, seven, eight... none lifts a head when we walk by. We walk carefully on the marble steps on the site – they are slippery. Then it is back down the hill to our hotel for a lie down and shower before dinner.


The bars and cafes are more crowded now and there are market stalls selling art and jewellery. It is a great atmosphere. We decide to have dinner at what looks to be the least fancy place along the street – the Greek kitchen. Two American women are having a major debrief about some falling out with a friend, then a fat Italian man in a suit arrives with an attractive woman in a nice dress. Dinner is pretty good – Greek salad, bread, lamb chops for me, chicken for Alan. The wine is awful, warm and perfume-tasting served in glass tumblers. Skinny cats wind in and out around the tables.


After dinner we walk down the street taking in the sights around us. We watch some young boys play soccer on a field beside the street. They are very good and we think of Jac back home who has also learnt some of these very fancy moves.

Our restaurant - the morning after

Getting there

4 September 2010 - We are finally on our way after months of planning, weeks of stressing and numerous packing conundrums.

It is wild and windy weather aka a terrifyingly bumpy flight to Melbourne. It is nice to catch up with Claire but there are still hours to wait at Tullamarine before being crammed into our back-of-plane seats on Emirates night-time flight EK507 for Dubai. I am seated between husband and a pleasant but very large Maori lady who oozes over into my allocated space. 13 hours is a long time to spend sandwiched like this, willing the plane to stay up, trying to watch a movie or two, contemplating the incredible durability of the lipstick on the Emirates hosties and snatching minutes of sleep only here and there.

At Dubai airport I am impressed with both the vast and amazing architecture and the handsome young Arab customs officials. We are met in the terminal by our smiling Radisson Blu representative who whizzes us in minutes to our hotel overlooking the 'creek' in the old part of Dubai.

It is only 6.30 am and I am not sure I can sleep but after a shower and a lie down on the king-sized bed in our glamorous room, we both fall into a deep slumber until mid-morning. We venture out to walk down the street and catch a wooden punt to visit the old fabric market on the other side of the river. All very fascinating but my major preoccupation is with the incredible heat – it is 44 degrees with no breeze. Ramadan means no drinking or eating in public so we feel very dehydrated. Forget sight-seeing – spending the rest of the day in the hotel seems like a good idea. We have lunch before a swim in the pool (disappointingly the water temperature is over 30 degrees) and slumber around in our hotel robes (so fetching with my leopard skin eye mask - thank you Anna) before high-tea on the 10th floor overlooking an astonishing scene of an ancient scene juxtaposed with a modern world The busy activity around the wooden junks and barges below us is like a scene from Ali Baba and the 40 thieves and yet over the other side of the creek there are many strangely-shaped sky-scrapers and the long thin spire of the world's tallest building.The Nepalese man who comes into our room to check the minibar supplies tells us he has been with the hotel for 20 years. He sees his family back home in Nepal for only one month each year. The Indian driver who takes us back to the airport the next morning has a very similar story – 20 years with the hotel and family back home.