Superb Santorini

Every guidebook, poster, and travel agent will bombard you with slogans about "Spectacular" or "Stunning" Santorini. I wanted to avoid both of those adjectives, but I can definitely tell you they're right!

I woke up absurdly early in the morning thanks to my inconsiderate roommates getting up and ready to go at 5.00 AM, and after they had departed I found myself unable to get back to sleep. The ferry was at 9.45, and there was a bus at 7.15, which would have given me ample time to get there, but once I was awake I started to worry and decided to see if I could make the bus at 6.15. I wound up getting up at 5.45, and since I was already packed up I hopped straight in the shower, whereupon the power immediately went out. It was still dark out, and there weren't any windows in the bathroom, so I took a wonderful shower in the pitch black. At least it kept me from dawdling! 

I made it to the bus with minutes to spare, and who should I find but my inconsiderate roommates, who for some reason left before 5.30 to catch the 6.15 bus... Which was less than a 15 minute walk from the hostel. Regardless, we all hopped on the bus once it arrived, and made it to the port by about  8.15. I really don't understand why they got up so early, but I was happy to see that they were not staying in my hostel when we got to Santorini! 

The ferry ride was less than two hours, though it was of course running late, so I got in in the early afternoon. By then, I was feeling super excited about Santorini and the things I wanted to do there, and starting to experience the "going home soon have to cram as much as I can in" anxiety that often riddles me at the end of trips, so I checked into my hostel and then quickly turned around to hop on a bus and head into Thira, Santorini's biggest town and the major tourist spot. 

Easy to see why. 

Tonnes of cruise ships dock there, so it can be absurdly busy. 

I spent a few hours in Thira, popping in to the museum and then finding a nice patio overlooking the water to chill out on for a few hours. When the sun was starting to angle downwards, I hopped on a second bus to get to Ia, world-famous for its charming, windy streets and incredible sunsets

This is literally on the cover of my guidebook. 

All the streets are heavily terraced, so you're always climbing up and down in random rows, and it's quite easy to get lost. 

The walled stairs will take you down to the water. 

Gorgeous, isn't it?

I did watch the sunset in Ia, but decided to witness it myself rather than through my camera viewfinder. Let me assure you, it's really beautiful. 

In the morning, still jazzed with my "must see it all" attitude I got up reasonably early (though nothing like the 5.45 of the day before) to hike up to Ancient Thira, about a half-hour's hike up a hillside only a couple of kilometres from my hostel. It was a reasonably easy walk, but a couple of times the wind picked up so severely I nearly couldn't move. I was glad it was a headwind on my way up; a tailwind on the descent would have been truly dangerous! 

The town from a few metres up. Strangely, nearly every hostel and hotel there had a pool. 

You can hire donkeys to take you up. This donkey was headed down, completely at his own pace, with no one around to get him moving. I guess the guides know they'll wander down eventually?

A little further up now. Not bad, is it?

There's a monastery on the other side of the hill. It's a little hard to see here though. 

Ancient Thira itself is, not surprisingly, a ruin, but it dates back to something like 1700 BCE, and some of the excavations are quite interesting. This was a temple that became a church that became another kind of church?

This was another temple, I think, though how they determined that I'll never know.

The Ancient Greeks... Same as the modern people, I guess.

I have completely forgotten what this was. Bound to happen eventually.

The site was overrun with these adorable geckos. He was slow in more ways than one, not only did I manage to take his picture, but somebody managed to take his tail!

The view from the highest point. The beach looks weird because it's actually covered in beach chairs - completely necessary as the sand gets too hot to sit on, even through a towel.

On the way down, I took a little detour to this church, which is like a 15 minute climb uphill. I can't imagine walking that far every Sunday...

That's the church from below. Quite the climb, eh?

I had signed up for a boat trip around the island in the afternoon, so I headed home to shower and get ready for that once my hike was through. They picked me up at 2.00, and soon enough I was on board a little tourist boat in the blazing Santorini sun. First, we headed to the caldera in the middle of the island, which is part of an active volcano and grows nearly ten inches a year. 

The main island viewed from the caldera.

The white-walled town makes it look snow-capped, doesn't it? But it's something like 35 degrees out.

You can see the sulphur coming out of the ground here. There was also smoke in places, and if you dug a few inches into the ground it quickly became too hot to touch.

After the volcano, we went to some natural hot springs on the next island. 

They're the discoloured water on the right. Also " hot" is something of a misnomer, they were more like tepid springs. 

We got in and went for a swim there, so I didn't take all too many photos. After, though, we headed to the next island, Therasia, and took a dinner break, where I had my now-traditional plate of tzatziki and a can of sprite. 

There's not much to the island, just a beach and some restaurants nearly in the water.

I was curious about what was at the top of the hill, though not curious enough to go up there and find out.

After dinner, everyone clambered back onto the boat for the sunset portion of the tour. This consisted of going around in circles so that we could see the sunset from a dozen different angles. It felt a little silly, but I have to admit it was pretty nice to see. 

Ia from the water. 

Look, the sun is setting!

Setting on a different island!

Setting on no island! I have like a dozen of shots of the sunset. 

It was dark by the time we got back to the port, and we headed straight back to Perissa and to the hostel. I was too tired to do much else, so it was off to bed with me, to get ready for Athens in the morning!

Calming Crete

I flew to Crete from Tirana, via Athens. I could also have taken the bus, which was about half the price, but it would have been at least 21 hours... if everything went according to plan. This way, I was steping off the plane in the early afternoon. I think it was the right call. 

That said, I can't explain why, but for some reason being in the airport in Athens made me so cripplingly anxious I had trouble breathing. I checked my gates a hundred times, went through security early so I wouldn't run into any problems, and ultimately made it out of there with ease, so it was all for naught. I hope I'm not as anxious when I sit there waiting for the first leg of my trip home Friday...

Regardless, once I was there, Crete was lovely. I wasn't thrilled with my hostel, but the island itself was beautiful, and the people I met there were quite nice and welcoming, so it was an easy place to travel around. 

My first afternoon, I headed out in the early evening to see the Venetian fortress overlooking Rethymno - which is really hard to spell correctly, and also spelled differently in every second writing. It was an easy climb up a hill and offered some cool sights. 

The view from the fortress. 

A mosque inside the compound. 

A guard post inside a turret. It looked so cool and shady, but it smelled terrible. 

It was a pretty nice spot. 

Upon leaving, I immediately got lost, but I managed to wander down to a neat view out over the water. 

God I love the ocean. Why did I go inland in Albania again?

There was also this cute little statue... But I really wanted the globe to be on Atlas' shoulders. 

I spent the next day chilling around the island. Crete is really lovely, and it was nice to take it easy for a day and relax for a while. 

Hung out here for a while... Though the water looks nice it was actually full of crap and quite disgusting. 

The next morning I got up at 5.00 am (it was excruciating) to go on a hike through Samaria Gorge. I'm not sure it was worth a start as early as that, but it was quite cool. 

From the top... Fortunately we only had to walk down. 

Baby goat!

I really liked this sign... So if I walk fast enough I can avoid rockfalls? Seems safe. 

It was a 16 km walk, and it was quite tiring... Plus incredibly hot. 

This way the payoff at the end. So beautiful, and the water was awesome! The sand was so hot though, I think I actually burnt my feet on it. 

It was a nice day, but an exceedingly long day. Since I had to get up early to catch a ferry to Santorini the next morning, I wound up going pretty much straight to bed when I got in... And then still wound up getting up at 5.00 am again the next day thanks to my hopelessly inconsiderate roommates! Two days of 5.00 am starts were not very pleasant, I have to say. 

Agonizing Albania

Albania sucked. No two ways about it. I was there for two days, and I was miserable for both of them. There are probably quite a few ways I could have made things better for myself, but at the time I was much too hot to think of them, so I just suffered through my 48 hours and nearly wept for joy when I landed in Athens and knew I didn't need to deal with Tirana anymore. 

Why did it suck so much? Let me tell you the ways:

- did I mention it was hot? I think maybe I've told some of you... Regardless, it was pushing 40 both days. And the aircon in my room was broken. It was like existing in a sauna, only there was no relief. There was nowhere I could go for any reasonable length of time to cool down. I also basically couldn't bear to be outside for more than 15 minutes at a time. I have never in my life been so consistently hot, and I hated it. 

- there wasn't really anything to do. Maybe I should have done more research, but between hiding in shady spots and drinking litre after litre of water, I did head to most of the tourist spots outlined in my Lonely Planet and online and... They were just really really underwhelming. 

- Albania has its own currency (leke, at about 100 to the dollar) and since I was only there for two days I didn't want to be stuck with a tonne of leke when I left. So maybe it's my fault for being such a cheapo but still... I never really found anything to spend the money on anyway! 

- the roads were insane. Worse than anywhere but Morocco, and honestly quite a lot like Morocco in fact. Lights and stop signs were really just suggestions, parking was wherever looked handy (in the middle of the road at times!) and even one-way streets were really just formalities. And even if things looked clear, there were never any guarantees that a moped wouldn't zoom down the road just as you stepped out. 

- there weren't very many women there. Of course, there were some women - working in shops, driving cars, occasionally walking down the street. But anywhere groups converged? Places I might sit for a drink or to read my book? Not one. Large groups of men sat in parks, in cafes, in restaurants and on benches. But there were never any women in those groups. It made me feel uncomfortable. The men would stare at me as I passed by, and while no one ever said anything, I couldn't help but feel like I was not supposed to be there. It really added to my unhappiness there. 

So... Yeah. Tirana sucked, and while I have heard good things about Albania from loads of places, my experience there was really just awful. I was so glad to get out of there. I did manage to snap a photo or two though...

This is a fountain. Do you see the line of wet footprints on the cement at the front of the fountain? As I was getting ready to take this, some dude stripped down, hopped the fence, dove in, swam around for a minute or two, then hopped out and went back to his bench like nothing at all had ever happened. It was bizarre. 

This was the one and only half interesting thing I found in Tirana. The segment of wall is from the Berlin Wall, the bunker guarded the entrance to the communist leaders' section of Tirana, and the arches are from a gulag enemies of the state were sent to during the Soviet regime. It's just at the corner of a park, for some reason. 

Listen I have no idea what this building is but I'm pretty sure it's a UFO. There are like twenty satellites down the right hand side. 

Horseman statue! Actually fairly nice. If there had been a lick of shade anywhere nearby I would have bee happy to sit there for a bit. Assuming there was a corner where I could hide from all the staring dudes. But of course, there was not. 

The museum and a mural, which actually depicts a female leader from an earlier time. I think. 

Annnnd... That's all. No joke. So glad to get out of there.