Why People Come to Greece (Santorini/ Naxos, Greece)

Santorini is the tourist blockbuster. It’s Greece’s main event, and the head lining act of all the Greek Islands. And because of this I tried not to let it be the highlight of my stay in Greece. I went in biased because it’s so utterly overdone. But I was helpless against its appeal. I’m ashamed to say that, yes, Santorini was the absolute highlight of my two months in Greece.

I should have known I was going to like it so much – it’s a goddam volcano! The landscape is just amazing, and a hike I did along the cliff tops looking down over the caldera on my first afternoon will stay with me forever. It was truly epic. The hike took three hours, and I took a photo every two or three minutes.

The trail finished at a town called Oia, which has a world famous sun set. Like Santorini, I was expecting the sunset to be disappointing– you know what hype does. But holy shit, it was the best dam sunset I have ever seen, framed nicely by an old windwill perched on the cliff top.

The towns in Santorini clings to the cliffs, and combined with the landscape it all looks like it could be the setting of some sci fi movie set on another plant. It’s just so unique, so unlike anywhere I've seen the world over.

 

 

Here I cauifght up my friend Carol, who I had met on the Russia to Turkey leg of my trip. She is a pharmacy owner who is travelling for an extended period like me and by coincidence we were in Greece at the same time so we arranged to meet in Santorini. It was great to talk to someone familiar again, especially after my solitude in Crete, and we had a great couple of days together, seeing the island, watching sunsets, watching moon rises, and drinking local wine. This trip has been great for meeting and becoming friends with people I would otherwise never have a chance of befriending in ordinary life.

 

 

We did a tour out to the freshly formed (2000 y.o.)  crater and swam in some hot springs from the thermal energy of the volcano (photo of me on crater, photo of crater below). We didn’t catch the donkeys back up the cliff – spared ourselves and the donkeys the indignity (and us some money), by legging it up one painful step at a time.

 

 

On the other side of Crete are some great, tranquil beaches, one of which abuted a cliff which I climbed higher and higher for a place to jump off. Stung the feet and bruised my bum, had salt water rush up into my nose and down my throat like a burning a spirit, but it was great fun (in the photo below I look like I'm standing but I'm in mid air).

Santorini was a tough act follow, but Naxos, an island to the north of it and one I chose to visit purely because it had a X in its name, was a real surprise. More surprising was how nice the $22 a night accomadation was, and that the hotel owner was waiting for me at the port to show me to the place!

Naxos town was pretty, with an old venetian castle remnants in the middle and the nicest ‘old town’ ive seen all year. And ive seen more ‘old towns’ this year than I can remember. It was like a labyrinth of narrow streets and little tunnels and of course the standard blue and white Greek colour code. Also cool was the ruin of just the doorway to a great hall which sits on a bluff next to the town and looks over the Mediterranean.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

One day I got the bus up into the mountains and walked around quite country roads and along narrow paddocvk alleys through a series of villiages. These alleys were fences by old rocks and looked like they could have been the same 1000 years ago. Also, my exploring took me through tunnels, past olive groves and grape fields, past ancient abandoned churches that jumped out at me suddelnlyfrom behind tree’s, and to several quaint villages with their own character. It was all as real and as untouched by tourists as Greece gets, as Naxos is large enough to sustain an agricultural industry.

 

Naxos ended up being the perfect desert to the main course of Santorini, and a perfect way to end my two month trip around Greece.