Travel Log: Living the Dream… in STRIKE! (Day 6)

Previous Day (Santorini - Island Hopping Tour & Skaros)

Destination: Greece
Duration: 9 Days 7 Nights (Oct 18~Oct 26, 2011)

Day 6: Santorini

We had breakfast in hotel again before walking to the main bus station in Fira to catch a bus to Kamari. This hotel was exquisite and all but one of the downside was its distance from the main Fira center. It got tiresome when you had to walk the same way to and from for many times in 1 day.

Our first destination of the day was Ancient Thira which was up at 393 meters high at Mesa Vouno between Kamari and Perissa. Once we reached Kamari, we registered ourselves with “Ancient Thira Tours” which basically provided you a mini bus ride to the hill top for a 2 hours exploration before taking you back to the office which located at the main Kamari bus station. They provided the mini bus ride hourly between 9am to 4pm everyday except Monday.

The Tour Agency

After the registration (EUR10/pax for return mini bus ticket), the agent suggested us to have a walk around the Kamari Beach and came back 10 minutes before our 10am ride. The beach was less than 30 meters away from the office. It was very similar to Perivolos Beach with black volcanic pebbles.

At Kamari Beach

Look at the Sea!

Cute Lil Dooggie!

The road to Mesa Vouno was uphill and narrow, we were glad that we paid for the mini bus. We did see other tourist climbing up the hill by foot during our ride though. My first impression of Ancient Thira was – it was super windy!!! The place was named after the mythical ruler of the island, Theras.

The Way to Mesa Vouno

At the Entrance of Ancient Thira

As mentioned, the ancient city was located on a hilltop thus stairs were involved again. The treacherous & steep pavement and stairs were located along the way of the outer ring of the city – this meant that it was just beside the cliff! The stairs reminded me of the stairs where Frodo and Sam climbed from Minas Morgul to Shelob’s lair (Yes, another Lord of the Rings reference!). The sun that time was crazy as well as the sky turned dark a few times during our climb due to cloud. The windy atmosphere kind of reminded me of the scene of Rohan of the Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers when Eowyn stood beside the Golden Hall with strong wind blasting with a despair expression as if there was no hope. In fact, this totally rang true with Ancient Thera as it was way past its glory and ruins were what it had left.

Stairs Again!

Nothing Much Left...

Look at the Treacherous Path!

Oh dear.. This is even worse..

Temenos of Artemidoros was one of the better preserved ruins where you could still see the carving of a lion (lion of Apollo Stephanephoros), eagle (eagle of Zeus Olympios) and dolphin (dolphin of Poseidon Pelagios) on its wall. We also walked past the Agora and Basilike Stoa (Administrative center of the city) but unfortunately nothing much was left there. Next up was the Private House of Tyche – you could see the outline and structure of the house from atop. There was also a theatre and more sanctuaries at the end of the track. We also walked past the residence area of Ancient Thera where we could see the structures and shape. The whole city was just so stunningly beautiful and I really couldn’t imagine what it would look like in its full glory.

Temenos of Artemidoros

More Stairs to the end of the world..

The Agora

They have their own Drainage system!

More Ruins

Private House of Tyche

Am i at Helm's Deep?

The Theater

More Walkway

More Ruins

Almost Reaching the End...

Almost...

A Sanctuary far away from center for its serenity

More Sites but Closed - due to steep pathway no doubt...

View from the Top

Sanctuary of the Egyptian Gods

Another View from the Top

Sammy makes an appearance...

Secret way?

The Residential Area of Ancient Thera

After Ancient Thera, we took the bus back to Fira to visit the Museum of Prehistoric Thera. The museum exhibited articles from Akrotiri archeological site – since the main archeological site was closed till 2012, we went to this museum as a consolation for not able to visit the actual site. The articles there were astounding! It was really unbelievable that people in prehistoric period were capable of such things!

The Museum

Vases

Wall Painting! Amazing!

More vases...

More Artifacts

More Wall Painting

Very Cute ibex figurine..

After the museum, we walked around the city of Fira and ended up going to the Fira Port by cable car (EUR4/way). There was a donkey path where we could hire a donkey to bring us down to the port but I was just too scared for it. It was a typical port and the view was pale in comparison with the Oia port that we visited yesterday.

Another church near the museum...

Gallery

Another Church

Doorway to nowhere?

The Donkey path

Cable Car to Fira Port

Scary!!!

Fira Port

Cave Houses?

More Views from Fira Port

Riding up again...

We bumped into some of our group members and they told us to find the church that always featured in Santorini Postcard. It was called the church of Ag Mina if I was not mistaken. Even though our group member told us it was near where we were, it was actually quite a long walk and we had to run back all the way from the church to our hotel to catch our 4pm tour for Oia Sunset. Since we did not have the chance to get any lunch, we bought the yummy gyros from Lucky Souvlakis to eat it in our bus.

Another Church on the way from our "Postcard Church" Hunting!

Here it is!!!

Kitty Enjoying the view...

Yummy Gyros!

A funny but tragic thing about the Oia trip was our tour guide was in an accident on the way to our hotel! The ground tour agent had to call for another tour guide last minute for our tour. We ended up waiting in the bus for another 30 minutes. The way to Oia also hosted the one and only narrow road which we could see both sides of the sea (Of Caldera and Outer sea) simultaneously.
  
There were lots of people in Oia, jammed in the pavement to get to the best spot for sunset. The view in Oia was like a postcard. It was amazing that we were in the postcard now! Oia was very famous for their cave houses. We climbed on to the fort to grab a good spot for the sunset but it was very apparent that it was not going to happen since it was really cloudy. We could see a lot of people were leaving and we’d decided to walk around rather than waiting for a sunset that would never happen. Luckily we already witnessed an awesome sunshine 2 days ago.

Look at all these people!!!

A Church in Oia main square...

Cute Dooggie again!!!

Dolphins!

Panoramic View from Oia

Oia is full of blue domes...

OMG!! Giant Silky!

The view from Oia...

Beautiful View from the Fort

Look at the Windmill!

Dooggie is enjoying the view!

At the Fort

Oh mine!!!

Where is the Sun?

Swallowed by the Cloud?

Misty Sun..

Nothing much left...

There was a windmill that we could see from the fort so we’d decided to walk towards through the labyrinth of Oia.  When we managed to reach the windmill, we realized that it was a private villa and it was dubbed as: “The Most Popular Site for Marriage Proposals”!!! Wow!!! I want!!! We also accidentally found the most popular spot for Oia postcard with the 3 blue domes. Such serendipity! =)

The Most Popular Site for Marriage Proposal!!!

There is no sunset!

Love this!!!

Another "Postcard" church!!

Of course i have to pose with it!!!

Our dinner tonight was supposed to be in hotel but since this was the last night in Santorini and I was craving for gyros even though I just ate it like few hours ago! We ended up buying gyros from Lucky Souvlakis again for supper. *facepalm* We ate some light meal in the hotel restaurant and found out that their fried calamari was awesome! It was chewy and fresh unlike those I ate in Penang where I couldn’t even swallow it down. Yummy!!!

FAT!!!

We would be leaving Santorini tomorrow morning by flight and I actually felt time was too short! We hadn’t even had the chance to go to the red beach, Perissa and Akrotiri lighthouse yet! What a shame! Let’s hope we had the chance to come back again next time. =)

Next Day (Athens Archaeological Museum)

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