Oh my gard, Jim....

Today is our second full day on Santorini. We arrived two days ago very late in the day after a delay in our departure from Athens by a full hour. In a demonstration of how not to look after customers that would make even Jetstar look like amateurs, passengers sat in the departure lounge waiting while everyone else’s flights boarded and departed. There was not of word of communication to passengers on our flight what was happening, and when it came time to finally board, the assistant came out as if nothing had happened. Note to self (and anyone else reading this); avoid Volotea airline like you would herpes!

We are staying at a place called Finikia, which is about a 15 minute walk to the tourist village of Oia (pronounced E-Ah, just in case you’re ever over this way). Oia is a lovely little village on the tip of the island with spectacular views of the island’s caldera and volcano from one side, and the Aegean Sea from the other. It is also pretty upmarket, with shops that would be at home in Neutral Bay or South Yarra. I think it’s fair to say this is where the wealthy tourists stay on the island (by contrast, we’re staying in a place more suited to your average boilermaker). We also went by bus to the island’s biggest centre, Fira, where we bought lunch (one chicken and one pork souvlaki and a cold beer) and strolled the ridiculously crowded streets. Fira is where the cruise ships come in, and there were at least four of them anchored in the lagoon yesterday. This means a few thousand tourists, many of them American (‘Oh my Gard Jim, will you look at that, an Adeeedas shop’, from a hundred different directions) fill the narrow lane ways making it almost impossible to walk.

The view from our balcony towards the village of Oia

Up-market Oia looking towards the caldera. Most of the buildings are whitewashed

The view from Fira looking towards the volcano and the cruise ships which dominate the lagoon

As a testament to the different cultural norms, on our bus trip to Fira yesterday, the bus pulled in to a service station to fill up with diesel. This is a little bit strange for us Australians, as you’d imagine this would be done at the depot before the shift started. However, Alison and I had to look in disbelief at each other when both the driver and the guy taking the fares returned after paying for the fuel with coffees in their hands. The whole exercise had cost us commuters fifteen minutes, but those in charge of the bus didn’t seem in the least bit concerned. I’m very much getting the impression that’s how things are done in Greece. When things work at all, and they often don’t, it is at a pace which reflects the very laid back Greeks (I used the term laid back, but I could have thought of more descriptive ones).

A lovely little Greek Orthodox church in Oia

The weather has been a bit disappointing. Yesterday was cloudy but still; today is sunnier but blowing a gale (although the Greek guy who runs our villa doesn’t think it’s windy at all – it is an island, all said and done). We were going to go to the beach, but it’s definitely not beaching weather. Many of the beaches on the Greek islands are nude, so we’ve both been working on our tans and I’ve been toning up my muscles just in case they’re needed.

The village of Oia, just as evening is descending, and the millionaires emerge from their daily hibernation

I really like the evening strolls here. Looking back over the villages with their lights on against the black sky is really something. Like most places tourists go, Santorini is not how we imagined it. For some reason, I thought of quaint little Greek fishing villages, full of quaint little Greek fisherman making lewd comments in Greek to each other about women’s bottoms as they walk by. It’s not like that at all (well, the bit about the lewd comments most definitely is). Instead, it is a fully-fledged tourist extravaganza, not really any different to any other tourist hotspot anywhere in the world. And when you bear in mind this is not even the tourist season, one can only imagine the place in full swing.