not all those who wander are lost: greece: santorini, fira

greece has been on my bucket list for a long time. and with my trip to rome, i couldn't really resist the chance to take some personal time and hop over to greece for a week. i did a "highlights" tour - as in, i went to the island of santorini and athens - just to get a taste and whet my appetite for a future trip here with iván.

[greece: athens and santorini marked]

[and oh my goodness. i kinda overdid with it the photos and am having a hell of a time sorting through them. so i'm going to end up dividing these posts like crazy to make them manageable - even though i was only there for a week. so stay tuned.]

so i flew to santorini, a.k.a. thira, from rome and arrived at sunrise. i had a hostel reservation in fira (the main city) and took the bus over there. my room wasn't ready, so i left to go wander around and was .... kinda disappointed. i mean the ocean was pretty, but it wasn't the white-washed buildings and cliff that i was expecting. so i'm walking aimlessly around the streets (mind you, it's 8am and no one is around) and follow a cobble-stoned path up a hill...

and OH, i realize, i've been facing EAST when the caldera is to the WEST. and oh.my.goodness. it is stunning.

[this is literally the first photo i took. no editing]

[map to help you orient yourself}

so i spent the morning stunned at the view and beauty of this place, wandering through the cobble-stone paths that hug the caldera rim (there are no streets on the caldera side - no room for them. basically its just paths leading to restaurants and hotels (and some shops)).

[so many cruise ships]

[cliffside path]

all of those little paths mean that there are no street names and it is horribly easy to get lost in the chaos of fira - souvenir shops, boutiques, jewelry, and restaurants (as the guy at my hostel told me, people come to fira to shop, eat, and party). i often walked by a shop where i thought "i should come back here later" to then be unable to find it until hours later when i would restumble upon it. what's impressive about this is that fira is not large by any definition and combined with my generally good sense of direction, it's just a bit indicative of how winding and turning and the quantity of all those shops. restaurants paste signs all over buildings in an attempt to direct lost tourists

you may notice the sign at the bottom there, for the donkey station. the cliff down to the old port is quite steep and although there are paths, most/many would find it a difficult walk. there is a cable car that you can take or you can ride a donkey! i did neither. next time.

[lines of donkeys waiting for riders]

[path down to the old port]

as the morning progressed, more and more people and tourists began pouring into the streets, and i left the bustling center. in the afternoon i walked to nearby firostefani, which is basically more of the same, but smaller and with less people. i stopped for a greek coffee at what most be the cafe with (one of) the world's best views.