Previous Day (Mykonos)
Destination: Greece & Turkey
Duration: 18 Days 17 Nights (Aug 06~Aug 23, 2012)
Day 10: Santorini
We woke up in the morning with Nea Kameni graced our sight from our Very Obstructed Balcony. It was definitely becoming a habit of mine – looking out to the balcony every morning. Costa Atlantica would dock near the Fira port from 8am until 6pm today and we had to take tender boat from the cruise to Fira port.
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| Morning View from Obstructed View Balcony at Cabin 5146 |
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| A Zoomed Photo from Balcony |
We heard from the speaker during breakfast that there would be 6 cruise ships visiting Santorini today so long queue would be expected for cable car to get into Fira town. Oh my Gosh! 6 cruise ships?! *facepalm*
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| Breakfast - Just realised the Pastry is Great!!! |
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| Omelet! Long queue every morning for this... |
We collected our tender boat number and were ushered into a Pirate ship – just like that one we had when we visited Nea Kameni last October in Santorini (link)! This was definitely not what I had in mind for a tender boat. Hhaha.. Our pirate ship quickly closed in Fira Port and there was when we saw THE QUEUE! What a bad timing with 6 cruise ship passengers trying to get into Fira town at the same time! There was NO ONE taking the cable car at all last October! We didn’t even have to queue (link)!
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| Tender Boat Number |
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| On Board the Pirate Ship! |
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| A Pirate's Life for me! |
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| Skavros!!! Here we meet again! |
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| Approaching Fira Port |
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| Fira View - Port to Town is 900feet! |
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| What are these at the bottom? |
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| OMG!!! People queuing for Cable Car! |
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| This is our Pirate Ship! |
There were basically 3 ways to get from the port to the town:-
- Cable car
- Donkey ride
- HIKE!
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| Donkey Ride! |
Cable car was definitely out of the question due to the long queue. I was not too keen on riding on the donkey as well so the only option left was to HIKE! Well it wasn’t so bad! It was only around 600 stone steps and 900 feet above the Fira Port! It couldn’t be that bad, right???!!! Right??!!!
Well, the truth was:-
- The stone steps was STONEY – slippery, steep and uneven
- Donkey and riders were coming up and down on the same steps and banging into hikers
- There was gigantic donkey poo all over the steps
- It was freaking 600 stone steps and 900 feet above!!!!!! GOSH!!! *banghead* It wasn’t that bad, it was WORSE than bad!!!
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| Just started our hike... |
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| OMG! All the people swarming in Santorini! |
It took us an hour to get from bottom to the top, it was scorching hot, we were drenched in sweat, we smelled like donkey poo, we were exhausted! So don’t ever do this unless you are very athletic and like to mingle with donkey and its poo! Wait for the cable car! Or ride the donkey! Anything but this!!!!!!! *facepalm*
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| Just keep climbing, just keep climbing, just keep climbing, climbing, climbing... |
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| Look at all the cruise ships!!! Don't they have other destinations? *facepalm* |
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| Finally!!! |
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| Gosh! Don't do this again! |
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| A Panoramic View from the Top |
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| Yet Another View |
After we FINALLY reached Fira town, we walked straight to the bus station for bus to Akrotiri. Santorini public bus schedule was frequent and on time so it was a great and cheap way to get around the island. Bus ticket from Fira to Akrotiri was only EUR1.60 for one way. It basically took you from the center of the island to the south point of the island.
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| At Fira Main Street |
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| Lucky's is not opened yet! |
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| Getting the Bus! |
We were going to visit the Akrotiri excavation site – this site was closed last October and was only re-opened in this April. It was a associated with Minoan civilization in the middle of second millennium BC – one of the oldest civilization. The city was buried by a volcano eruption and the volcano ashes actually helped to preserve the city. This city was actually suspected as Atlantis as told in Plato’s description.
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| Akrotiri Excavation Site |
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| Getting into the Roofed Site |
The excavation site was covered by a modern roof structure to protect the site from further erosion. The entrance fee was EUR5/pax (If i'm not mistaken) and the site was not that huge if compared to Ancient Thira. The roof structure also ruined the atmosphere of an ancient site as well but it was necessary. There were pottery uncovered and even 2-3 storey houses there. However, the structures here were mostly labelled as Building A, B or C since I guess there is no way for archaeologist to properly identify who the houses being to in such an ancient site. Frankly speaking, I still preferred Ancient Thira than this place due to its natural setting (link).
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| A House |
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| Pottery |
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| Modern column among ancient structure |
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| Multi-storey houses |
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| More Pottery |
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| Taking a Photo among the Ruins |
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| A 2 storeys house |
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| Walking underneath some houses |
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| HOT! Let's get a drink! |
After visiting the site, we walked to the Akrotiri beach side to wait for the bus back to Fira. We were happy to see that Lucky’s Souvlakis had opened its door. We tried their gyros last time and we were dying to eat it again! Lucky (the owner) and the same worker were there and we purchased 2 gyros (EUR2.30 each). Funnily enough we still had the Lucky’s Souvlakis plastic bag from last October in our backpack and we showed it to Lucky. He was stunned and said: “this was an old design!” and he suddenly offered to give us their t-shirt for free! *shocked* Wow! That was a pleasant surprise!
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| Akrotiri Beach near Bus Station |
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| Back to Fira Main Street |
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| Lucky's is Open!!! |
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| This is Lucky! |
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| Thanks Lucky for the t-shirt! |
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| My favourite gyros!!! |
After lunch, we continued our journey by taking another bus to Oia (the north side of the island). We went there last year and really loved it there so a visit this time was much obliged. We were reminiscing our last trip and went back to the square, the blue dome and the fortress. The difference? It was scorching hot this time whilst it was chilling last October. We were being roasted alive there but we were still very grateful to be able to come here again.
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| At Oia Square |
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| A view from the Square |
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| A Panoramic View at that! |
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| Back to this famous spot at Oia! |
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| Sammy feels happy! |
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| The Doorway to nowhere! |
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| Doggies lazing around... |
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| F*ck Google, Ask me shirt! Can't believe i see this again! |
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| Sammy back to the Fortress! |
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| A View from the Fortress, Lovely as EVER! |
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| Photo Time!!! |
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| Oia at the North |
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| Beautiful View |
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| Sailing? |
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| Street in Oia |
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| Walking in a maze... |
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| Getting back to the Bus Station |
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| Lovely! |
Since Costa Atlantica last tender ship would be at 5.30pm at Fira port, we had to make haste to the town to reach the port. We’d decided NOT to hike down the caldera and would rather queue for the cable car. Thankfully some of the cruises had left so we were able to get into one after 30 minutes of queuing. We managed to catch the 5pm tender boat and said our farewell to Santorini.
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| The Queue to Cable Car |
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| Finally!!! |
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| This is actually scary if you are afraid of the height! |
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| Our tender boat.. |
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| Look at the trail - that was where we hike up earlier |
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| Goodbye Santorini! |
Did I mention that we went back Lucky’s Souvlakis before leaving Santorini to get another gyros to sneak into the cruise? *sssssshhhhhhhhh* We also begged Lucky to sell us another t-shirt so that we could have 2 different colors (after 1 was given for free earlier) and being the friendly guy that he was – he sold us one. Do bear in mind that the t-shirts were basically for their workers only and were not put up for sales in the shop. So now we could pose as Lucky’s workers! =)
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| Tea time sandwich at self-service restaurant on Costa |
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| A few shots from Costa Atlantica |
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| Costa Atlantica leaving Santorini... |
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| Nea Kameni with Fira at the back |
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| So long... |
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| Getting further and further... |
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| Sammy is happy with the t-shirt! |
This day was “farewell night” for the guests disembarking in Rhodes and Crete thus it was a formal night for Tiziano Restaurant. Thankfully people were not too dressy so we didn’t stick out like a sore thumb. =P Since it was farewell night, the menu was more special than normal night.
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| A Costa Atlantica Model |
Appetizer was steamed lobster with basil mayonnaise & vinegrette – oh mine! It was absolutely scrumptious! The pasta was Risotto with seafood sauce – all the seafood greatness!
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| Let's order some wine... |
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| Lobster!!! *swoon* |
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| Sunset View from Costa Atlantica |
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| It's purple too! |
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| Getting low.. |
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| Almost! |
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| The sea has swallowed the sun! |
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| It's actually 8pm++ that time.. |
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| Goodnight! |
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| Seafood Risotto! |
Then we had salmon fillet in herb crust with steamed potatoes and mixed vegetables – the crust complimented the salmon very well, basically the best main course we’d tried for the whole cruise. Another main course was roast pheasant served with smitane sauce, with roast potatoes, mixed vegetables and caramelized chestnut – just a normal dish.
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| The Chicken |
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| Salmon! Love this!!! |
There was a surprise of the night as we were all given a glass of champagne each as a sign of celebration. Hooray! The dessert of the night was wonderful as well thus it rounded up the dinner perfectly.
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| Complimentary Champagne for all guests! |
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| A show!!! |
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| I want more!!! |
After dinner, we went to the theatre for a magic show – which in my opinion, the most entertaining show for the whole journey. Basically it was non-stop action for 40 minutes. Thus this rounded up our “farewell night” with the ship now cruising to Rhodes.
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| Sammy is happy with the bed.. |
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| Magic Show!!! |
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| Sexy Girl!! |
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| What is he doing? |
Next Day (Rhodes)
Masterpost (Click this to get to day by day link)
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