My Birthday in Santorini

Today is my birthday. I’m in Santorini for my 61st birthday! Yeah! It is a beautiful day out. We have to catch a cab at 6:30 this morning to get to the port. Our ferry was waiting there and after a brief check in we are ready to board. They have luggage racks to store our stuff. The lounge is nice with wide seats and tray tables similar to an airplane. They have The History Channel on to watch as well. There is a place to get croissants, baklava, pizza and other pasties as well as coffee and juice. The girls head upstairs to take in the roof top. I sit inside have a croissant and coffee and then do my knitting. The crossing was about 2 hours and poof we’re in Santorini.

At port the girls are able to get a sim card for their phones so they are now able to communicate with the real world without paying an arm and a leg. Laura also finds us a car rental for the 4 days we are here. This time it is a Nissan Mica; small but efficient. While the girls hit the souvenir shops, I sit at the open-air restaurant and have a Sangria. We get a bite to eat before heading out to our BnB. Laura has to make due with a fruit plate, Nicole finally gets her gyro and I do a calabrese sandwich.

After loading the luggage (I’m surprised it fit) we head off. Santorini is basically a mountain that got blown half off by a volcano about 2000 years ago. It is steep and there are not really any plateaus to live on. They have switchbacks for roads leading out of port. Sharp turns, narrow roads and if you go over you die. The views are breathtaking though. Laura of course is a little daredevil and loves this (check out the grin as she is driving!).

We make it to where we think we should be. We get out of the car and take a look around. We see the white houses and the blue domes of the churches. An older gentlemen parks beside and asks if we know where we are going. I reply probably not. I show him our map but, in the end, call the host and let them talk to him. We, of course are not in the right spot. He tells us to follow the road until we see a church with a big tree and that is where we park. Now if you look over the side of the hill the church is a 5-minute walk (through cacti and scrub, downhill) in a car it is 15 minutes through hairpin (blind) turns. Our host actually lives in Athens but has someone here to look after the house. Their son is waiting to greet us. Thank goodness for that. The house is uphill on cobblestone (more slate and cut out from the rock) streets about 100 meters from where the car is parked. The young man takes the two heavy suitcases and I take my carryon and CPAP machine and start to head up. He of course has no issue, I’m huffing and puffing half way up. The girls have stayed behind to have a smoke. Yeah, we meet them half way down and Nicole had to stop half way to get out her puffer. These streets are a killer no matter what the age. This is not a place for the mobility challenged.

Whew, finally made it. The place is cute as a button with the blue shutters and white wash façade. They are having an issue with water today in Santorini and the cleaning staff couldn’t clean the patios but the inside is all done. I’m not sure how to explain the place really. They are houses built into the side of the mountain. You have two windows at the front and the door but that is all the light you have coming in. Past the kitchen, dining and living area the bedrooms are to the back. There are no windows at all in them. The bathroom is also windowless. You can notice an immediate temperature difference when you walk further back as you get more into the mountain. This is how people built the houses after the volcano erupted to protect themselves from further eruptions. The rooms are a generous size and the girls have a nice wardrobe in their room. I have a beautiful bureau in my room which has all the main doors locked. There are 3 hooks on the wall and that is the extent of my closet and storage area. Looks good but useless.

I have often said (and will probably continue to say) that I wished these hosts would actually live in their own rentals for a couple of weeks. So here are my observations. The bed in the master bedroom is at calf level, the girls room knee level. There is not one plug for the kitchen sinks or the bathtub. How do people fill the sink to wash dishes? Or take a bath? There is no shower curtain. I probably don’t have to explain the issues with that one. Although there is a drain in the floor outside the tub. The tub itself is a nice deep one. It is a little narrow and short but a nice tub none the less. The windows and door have no screens. There is a beautiful breeze that comes through this area but also a lot of flying insects like mosquitoes. We have to make do with the air conditioner which really doesn’t have a great fan on it. The stove and frig work well as do the toaster. The coffee pot however is another story. First no filters, second the pot must have been replaced from the original because it is too short to engage the drip from the filter. So, you have to stand there holding the coffee pot up to allow for the coffee to drip. There is a washer here and it works very well and with the breeze outside and sun things dry quickly.

The girls head off to the get groceries and shop and I get to nest. After a dinner of roasted chicken, green beans and salad we relax for a bit before heading off to bed.Read more