Day 584: Exploring Santorini, Good & Bad

Decided to check out Santorini today, since we're staying in one far-flung corner of it, and the most dramatic scenery is on the other side. There was a bus stop right near the hotel, so we hopped on at around 10:45 and waited as the bus wound its way around street after street, eventually an hour later arriving in Thera, the main town of Santorini. A direct drive would take 10 minutes max. At least it was cheap!

Spent a couple of hours wandering around Thera looking at various sights and enjoying the view. It's quite touristy though, the old town is packed in and just loaded with souvenir shops and places selling full English breakfast and the like. Found a highly recommended gyros place and had some lunch, then decided to head for Oia, the famous town right on the tip of Santorini and where all the famous sunset photos get taken from.

Hopped on a bus, and were then immediately kicked off the bus - apparently dogs are only allowed while they're in a bag! Why it wasn't a problem for the previous bus, I have no idea, and neither did the guy who kicked us off. After a few vigorous words with people (including each other) we went to one of the crappy souvenir shops and bought a 5 euro beach bag just large enough for Schnitzel. Smuggled him onto the bus and had no issues, though we kept him hidden from the conductor and driver.

Oia was a lot nicer than Thera - felt slightly larger and more interesting. Still very touristy, but it felt like there were shops other than those selling magnets and cheap paintings. Lots of sunset bars of course, and after a couple of hours wandering in the heat we retreated to a sunset bar and had a couple of drinks. Couldn't stay there for the sunset as they had a restaurant-wide reservation for 5:30, so we headed off looking for somewhere else.

But we never made it! As we rounded a bend, a cat came charging up to us and leaped directly onto Schnitzel, claws out. He screamed and started fighting back, I lifted him up by the leash and kicked the cat away, copping a bunch of scratches on my leg for my troubles. Eventually the cat retreated and we assessed the damage with the help of a couple of locals.

Schnitzel had a small rip at the tip of his ear about a centimetre long, plus a couple of other small scratches but nothing deep and his eyes were untouched thankfully. My leg was bleeding quite a bit from the scratches, and apparently dog ears have a vein running around the edges so there was a lot of blood around! Not murder-scene bad, but a lot. I cleaned up with some wet wipes and Betadine from a local, who gave us details of a local vet.

Forgoing the sunset, we headed back to the edge of town where there weren't any taxis, so ended up getting the bus back to Thera. I told the conductor in no uncertain terms that it was a medical emergency and we were getting on the bus whether he liked it or not, so he didn't protest. Waited for a taxi in Thera, where multiple drivers turned us down because Schnitzel wasn't in a crate! Pleas fell on deaf ears, and we ended up getting another bus to Emporio where the vet was located, not far from our hotel.

I'd phoned ahead to warn her, though between the language barrier and background noise she thought I'd said "car" instead of "cat", so she was relieved to see Schnitzel was in much better condition than she expected!! She patched him up, cleaned things and sent us on our way. No buses in this area, so we walked the 30 minutes back to the hotel where we just collapsed exhausted - and maybe a little cry as well.

I cleaned up, using the Dettol that only yesterday we'd decided against throwing out, grabbed a gyros for dinner and then collapsed exhausted. The best and worst of Santorini I guess.Read more