Thursday, 22nd July 2021
Whakaputaina: 23.07.2021
What a start to the day
First, I couldn't fall asleep because I was worried I might oversleep.... so I lay around. Around 2 o'clock I slowly became calmer and tired. But then things started happening at the hostel. The party-goers came back and just kept being funny in the hallways. Around 3 o'clock it was so loud that I had to go and ask what that is supposed to be. Then there was silence. For about 30 minutes....! I was wide awake. So I lay around. Around 4 o'clock my roommate came home and at 5.30 o'clock I had to get up. = Not a minute of sleep that night! Bingo.
At 5.50 the bus was supposed to pick me up in front of the hostel. 6.05 I thought to myself, I wait another 5 minutes then I call them. But the minibus just came around the bend. So far everything okay. Then it went in only 1 hour to Rethimno where in front of the check-in counter already a long waiting queue formed. In the Greek way the people were assigned. What made some tourists not particularly fun. Smile. For me, this was nothing new and so I could handle it easily. Then through the ticket-check, then through the covid-check and then on board. There it went on with another ticket-check and then the temperature-check. That was a piece of cake! Smile
Inside the catamaran it felt 15 degrees cold. Everyone covered up or, like me who had nothing with me to cover up, froze for the whole 2.5 hours crossing. I spent the time listening to music and playing majong. The sea was very calm and the trip accordingly pleasant.
As soon as the big access gates to the back opened, we were expected by a heat wave. Whew. What a difference in temperature!!! There it becomes one almost dimly before the eyes. But soon there was another refrigerator in the shape of a bus. I had been assigned bus number 14 with the English tour guide. Doesn't matter, I understand a bit of English. But, there were also French people. And they didn't understand anything. And they didn't understand why they weren't assigned to the French bus. Because they found out about this possibility at the end of the trip and were correspondingly unhappy. But hey, since the microphone of our bus didn't work properly and the unclear pronunciation of the tour guide plus the mask the poor guy had to wear didn't exactly contribute to a better sound quality, all the info was just an incomprehensible mumbling anyway. So the French didn't really miss much.
The drive to Oia (Ia, as the Greeks say) felt so familiar. It felt like I was just here on vacation and not almost 3 years ago already. Some things have grown and yet I could recognize a surprising number of things. Arriving in beautiful Oia, the tour guide tried to coordinate the restless bunch. Not very professional he tried to find out who wanted to do after the 1.5-hour stay either A (drive to Fira and there about 3.5 hours stay) or B (drive to Fira with 1-hour stay and then bathing stop in the bay with the black sand) or C (drive to the port and then the tour to the volcano with bathing stop).
A chaos of people who spoke bad to no English and those who understood the language but still did not understand what they had to do now. Since I also had a special request, I was near the tour guide and thus in the middle of it. Translating and helping to explain. What else! Daniela is just Daniela! Smile
I informed the tour guide that I will not do any of the 3 variants, but stay here in Oia and only in Fira again join the group. First he was a bit surprised. But when I told him that I know Santorini well and I know where the public bus runs, it was for him okay. And poof I had as the only one of our bus whole 4 hours stay in the most beautiful place of Santorini. Juhuiiiii!
And I enjoyed every minute of it. An incredibly breathtaking place. My heart and soul goes out here.
I guess 90% of all the stores are still the same as they were back then. But there have been a few new buildings where classy boutiques or bars/hotels have taken up residence. Here, too, everything is going in the direction of growth. The numerous souvenir stores are so trimmed for mass tourism. Most things are made in Asia. Actually a pity. But for the watchful eye, there are still a few great stores with handmade, unique, Greek goods. I've been hanging out in those. Two I can remember very clearly because I browsed or even shopped during my last stay. The store with the handmade dolls in the shape of fairies (incredibly lovingly made) and the store with the special jewelry and ceramic works (the pearl ring is still one of my favorite pieces and the ceramic picture hangs in my apartment).
This time I found a very special and quite hidden craft store. 'Steps to Art'. There they make pictures and jewelry out of old wristwatches and sand from Santorini. The artist is mega nice and had a huge joy that I was so interested in his work.
Since there was very little wind today, it was extremely hot and wearing the mask became even more tedious. I must say that all the stores adhere to this and even talk to you if you don't wear the mask. And many tourists wear the mask. Some even outside.
The hours flew by and at 3:30pm I grabbed one of the last seats on the bus to Fira. There I arrived on time, found my bus no. 14 again. Actually, so far everything was good. Almost..... 20 meters before the bus I had to cross a street. And there the ground had a rise. I had deep shoes on and despite that I cracked off with my right foot. Ouch! ((And immediately I remembered that the same thing had happened to me a few times during my last stay. Here it always has such gullies in the ground and elevations!)). On the boat, I held my toe against the cold seat bracket of the front row of seats. So it went with the pain. (In Chania, I will then go straight to the pharmacy in the neighborhood to get myself a cooling cream.)
The return trip was the opposite of the outward journey. It was mega hot! The air conditioning was turned off. A tourist complained and so I could hear that the reason was that the rear doors to the small outside deck were open and therefore the air conditioning could not run at the same time. Bingo. People were getting restless and the kids were squawking. I had sweat running down my face. Unpleasant! After about half the driving time, it suddenly got cool and the fellow passengers applauded!
At 8 o'clock arrival in Rethimno. Just in time for the sunset. Then a ride back up to the hostel. With obstacles. Just before the hostel, the bus driver had to stop, blocking all traffic. He had wedged himself between the cars parked everywhere wrong in the traffic circle itself and the motorcycles parked too inaccurately in front of the tavern. So 4 men lifted and moved the motorcycles. Then, fortunately, we moved on.
The Pharmacy had already closed and the supermarket too. So no cream and no food. I was already so hungry on the catamaran! And the foot hurt. And I was sooo infinitely tired..... Pha! At least there were sandwiches in the hostel. Juhui!!!! The 2 toasted sandwiches with ham cost 4.50 Euro together. Just as much as 1 mini-frappé in Oia!
Now shower and then sleep!
First, I couldn't fall asleep because I was worried I might oversleep.... so I lay around. Around 2 o'clock I slowly became calmer and tired. But then things started happening at the hostel. The party-goers came back and just kept being funny in the hallways. Around 3 o'clock it was so loud that I had to go and ask what that is supposed to be. Then there was silence. For about 30 minutes....! I was wide awake. So I lay around. Around 4 o'clock my roommate came home and at 5.30 o'clock I had to get up. = Not a minute of sleep that night! Bingo.
At 5.50 the bus was supposed to pick me up in front of the hostel. 6.05 I thought to myself, I wait another 5 minutes then I call them. But the minibus just came around the bend. So far everything okay. Then it went in only 1 hour to Rethimno where in front of the check-in counter already a long waiting queue formed. In the Greek way the people were assigned. What made some tourists not particularly fun. Smile. For me, this was nothing new and so I could handle it easily. Then through the ticket-check, then through the covid-check and then on board. There it went on with another ticket-check and then the temperature-check. That was a piece of cake! Smile
Inside the catamaran it felt 15 degrees cold. Everyone covered up or, like me who had nothing with me to cover up, froze for the whole 2.5 hours crossing. I spent the time listening to music and playing majong. The sea was very calm and the trip accordingly pleasant.
As soon as the big access gates to the back opened, we were expected by a heat wave. Whew. What a difference in temperature!!! There it becomes one almost dimly before the eyes. But soon there was another refrigerator in the shape of a bus. I had been assigned bus number 14 with the English tour guide. Doesn't matter, I understand a bit of English. But, there were also French people. And they didn't understand anything. And they didn't understand why they weren't assigned to the French bus. Because they found out about this possibility at the end of the trip and were correspondingly unhappy. But hey, since the microphone of our bus didn't work properly and the unclear pronunciation of the tour guide plus the mask the poor guy had to wear didn't exactly contribute to a better sound quality, all the info was just an incomprehensible mumbling anyway. So the French didn't really miss much.
The drive to Oia (Ia, as the Greeks say) felt so familiar. It felt like I was just here on vacation and not almost 3 years ago already. Some things have grown and yet I could recognize a surprising number of things. Arriving in beautiful Oia, the tour guide tried to coordinate the restless bunch. Not very professional he tried to find out who wanted to do after the 1.5-hour stay either A (drive to Fira and there about 3.5 hours stay) or B (drive to Fira with 1-hour stay and then bathing stop in the bay with the black sand) or C (drive to the port and then the tour to the volcano with bathing stop).
A chaos of people who spoke bad to no English and those who understood the language but still did not understand what they had to do now. Since I also had a special request, I was near the tour guide and thus in the middle of it. Translating and helping to explain. What else! Daniela is just Daniela! Smile
I informed the tour guide that I will not do any of the 3 variants, but stay here in Oia and only in Fira again join the group. First he was a bit surprised. But when I told him that I know Santorini well and I know where the public bus runs, it was for him okay. And poof I had as the only one of our bus whole 4 hours stay in the most beautiful place of Santorini. Juhuiiiii!
And I enjoyed every minute of it. An incredibly breathtaking place. My heart and soul goes out here.
I guess 90% of all the stores are still the same as they were back then. But there have been a few new buildings where classy boutiques or bars/hotels have taken up residence. Here, too, everything is going in the direction of growth. The numerous souvenir stores are so trimmed for mass tourism. Most things are made in Asia. Actually a pity. But for the watchful eye, there are still a few great stores with handmade, unique, Greek goods. I've been hanging out in those. Two I can remember very clearly because I browsed or even shopped during my last stay. The store with the handmade dolls in the shape of fairies (incredibly lovingly made) and the store with the special jewelry and ceramic works (the pearl ring is still one of my favorite pieces and the ceramic picture hangs in my apartment).
This time I found a very special and quite hidden craft store. 'Steps to Art'. There they make pictures and jewelry out of old wristwatches and sand from Santorini. The artist is mega nice and had a huge joy that I was so interested in his work.
Since there was very little wind today, it was extremely hot and wearing the mask became even more tedious. I must say that all the stores adhere to this and even talk to you if you don't wear the mask. And many tourists wear the mask. Some even outside.
The hours flew by and at 3:30pm I grabbed one of the last seats on the bus to Fira. There I arrived on time, found my bus no. 14 again. Actually, so far everything was good. Almost..... 20 meters before the bus I had to cross a street. And there the ground had a rise. I had deep shoes on and despite that I cracked off with my right foot. Ouch! ((And immediately I remembered that the same thing had happened to me a few times during my last stay. Here it always has such gullies in the ground and elevations!)). On the boat, I held my toe against the cold seat bracket of the front row of seats. So it went with the pain. (In Chania, I will then go straight to the pharmacy in the neighborhood to get myself a cooling cream.)
The return trip was the opposite of the outward journey. It was mega hot! The air conditioning was turned off. A tourist complained and so I could hear that the reason was that the rear doors to the small outside deck were open and therefore the air conditioning could not run at the same time. Bingo. People were getting restless and the kids were squawking. I had sweat running down my face. Unpleasant! After about half the driving time, it suddenly got cool and the fellow passengers applauded!
At 8 o'clock arrival in Rethimno. Just in time for the sunset. Then a ride back up to the hostel. With obstacles. Just before the hostel, the bus driver had to stop, blocking all traffic. He had wedged himself between the cars parked everywhere wrong in the traffic circle itself and the motorcycles parked too inaccurately in front of the tavern. So 4 men lifted and moved the motorcycles. Then, fortunately, we moved on.
The Pharmacy had already closed and the supermarket too. So no cream and no food. I was already so hungry on the catamaran! And the foot hurt. And I was sooo infinitely tired..... Pha! At least there were sandwiches in the hostel. Juhui!!!! The 2 toasted sandwiches with ham cost 4.50 Euro together. Just as much as 1 mini-frappé in Oia!
Now shower and then sleep!
Whakautu
Ripoata haerenga Kariki