|
Page 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 Tuesday, October 10: Lisa brought us the same breakfast of tea and cookies at 8:30. Jane stopped at a shop for yogurt and fruit while I went to the post office for stamps. We took the 9:30 bus for Kamari Beach, on the north side of the headland (MesaVuono) we had seen at Perissa the day before. We arrived before 10:00 a.m. Before visiting the beach, however, we wanted to see the ruins of Ancient Thira on the very top of Mesa Vouno. A very twisting road led from Kamari to a high point on, but not the top of, the mountain. Donkeys were available to make the ascent to that point, but we elected to ride in a van provided by a travel agent. Even from the top of the road, the rest of the climb was arduous and sometimes dangerous. We couldn't help but think that, back in the States, they would never allow people to enter such a dangerous area. This was the warmest day we had yet in the islands, but it was still very windy, which added to the danger. It was hard to believe anyone had built a city in such a place. The earliest inhabitants of Ancient Thira were Dorian Greeks who arrived in the 9th Century B.C. A century later Theras, a ruler from Sparta, brought a group of noblemen with him to settle the site, and the island took its official name from him. (Santorini, the unofficial name, came into use in the 12th Century as a corruption of Santa Irini or St. Irene, for whom an early church on the island was named.) Ptolemy, who ruled Egypt after the death of Alexander the Great, took over the settlement in the Third Century B.C., and most of the ruins date from that time.
There was little restoration, so not much was recognizable, even with the fairly detailed diagram we had. There were many temples, houses, baths, and so forth, but they all were just foundations or low walls. The outdoor theater was hard to miss, though, hanging right on the edge of the mountain with a sheer 1000 foot drop to the sea. The views of Kamari to the north and Perissa to the south were spectacular. We made our way back down to the top of the road and caught our van back to Kamari. The town was much nicer than Perissa, more built up and better maintained. From the sheer face of Mesa Vouno, the black beach stretched out of sight to the north. We had a Greek salad and spaghetti carbonara at an attractive taverna. It was covered by arbors with pink and white bougainvillaea growing from the same vine, even from the same stem. After walking a little way up the beach, we caught the 2:00 bus back to Fira. We got to our room about 3:00, very tired from the climbing. We packed up for our flight to Crete that evening, then went back into town after 5:00 for a chicken pita since we would be traveling at dinner time. The weather was still pleasant, so we watched the sunset from the edge of the caldera before returning to the hotel. About 6:00 we went up to say goodbye to Lisa. Before he left, Toni had arranged for a taxi to pick us up at 6:30 p.m. Due to a misunderstanding, though, when Jane expressed the hope that the taxi would be there, Lisa called and ended up ordering another taxi. As we drove out with that taxi, the one Toni ordered was coming in, and the two drivers argued for a while. Nevertheless, we got to the airport by 6:45 for our scheduled 7:50 flight to Iraklion. Guess what? The flight was delayed. So was the flight to Athens that was supposed to leave a little earlier. We knew we would get to Crete too late to eat, so I tried to get us some of those delicious ice cream bars. All that was left, though, was a pint of Haagen-Dazs chocolate ice cream ($6.50), and I bought it. We made a valiant effort (especially I), but couldn't quite finish it before our flight was called at 9:00 p.m. There was a comedy of errors as the airline people kept changing their minds about which of the waiting planes was going to Athens and which to Crete. We got to the Iraklion airport after 9:30. The Avis desk was supposed to close at 8:30, but the attendant had waited for us. He even gave us a free upgrade to an Opel Corse, still the size of a roller skate. Next we went to the hotel information desk and arranged a room at the Asterion Hotel, only two kilometers from the airport on the main road. We found it with no problem. It was a category B hotel and undoubtedly had been very nice at one time, but it was poorly maintained. When I told the woman at the desk that we were illegally parked and asked where I could leave the car, she said "You don't have to worry about where you park. This is Greece!" We were exhausted when we got to our room at 10:20 and went to bed as soon as possible. Thank goodness we were finished with Olympic Airways! Page 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 |
