Published Thursday November 18th, 2004

As I continue to write, continuing where I left off the last entry, I find myself sitting at some cafe/restaurant at Athinios Port down in the caldera of Santorini. From where I sit I can see the towering, layered cliffs of the caldera and sprinkled of sugar dust on the tops of the cliffs where the villages/towns of Fira and Ia stand, each about 10 kilometres apart.. It's something truly beautiful.

Blue water sprinkled with small little boats hug the harbours edge. They seem to be sitting on a sheet of very clear glass, the water is so blue and clear.. It's absolutely beautiful!

The cliffs of the caldera are layers, each layer a different brown. Houses and buildings hug the ridges of the cliffs, their white, pink and orange washed colours a stark contrast to the brown caldera cliff-side. The sky is as blue as the sea, only a bit lighter. Not a single cloud pierces the sky.

Anyway, continuing with Friday, October 29th. Wandering through Ia, I came across some female photographer taking a shot of some fruit on a table with Ia as a backdrop. I walked by and continued on to some old Castro or fortress with a nice view onto Ia. Here I found more photographers. No clue what his name was, but he and many other people where shooting some photos of some fabric or yarn with which to knit.. So 2 models, one female from Germany who looked very much like my cousin Naemi, and a male model, wore these knit, ugly-purple sweatshirts in the 27 degree Celsius temperatures.. In Ia, the head seems to bounce off of the buildings so it was pretty hot.

I watched the people go about their business in the photo shoot and I was fascinated by it. I can only hope to travel to Santorini one day for a photo shoot. That would be awesome.

I continued to wander and explore this beautiful town which has no real streets, just small pathways leading between all the buildings. I bought some milk as I had finally discovered good milk and in which bottle to expect it in, as well as the Greek for "Full Fat".. I know what it looks like, but I couldn't write or say it.. heh.. Either way, I've been drinking a lot of milk the past 3 days in light of my discovery.. which has probably contributed to eating only 1.5 meals a day.. mmm, milk!

In addition to the milk, I also bought an apple and a kiwi for lunch. As I was eating "lunch" on some bench, two dogs came and lay down right next to me on both sides. They looked at me respectfully and then closed their eyes and slept..
I think the dogs here are so used to people, that the are almost uncomfortable or lonely when there are no people around.. The dogs I've encountered throughout Greece are the nicest and most behaved I've even seen on the streets..

After lunch and some more strolling around, I headed to the bus station to catch the 14.20 bus back to Fira.. At the square I counter 7 random dogs just laying around the vicinity of people also waiting for the bus..

The 14.20 bus soon became the 14.40 bus simply because the bus people felt like it. Santorini is beautiful, and the locals are nice with the exception of the bus people who are unfriendly, unhelpful, pain-in-the-ass imbeciles. I lost all respect for the bus people here on this island.

Eventually I got back to Fira where I went to my room, exhausted, and collapsed on my bed for a 90 minute nap to wake up at around 17.00. I got up, and headed into Fira where I sought out a nice place to view the sunset.

The sunset which I watched on a wall over-looking the caldera for 2-3 hour was spectacular. It was without a doubt one of the most beautiful sunsets I have seen in my life, if not the most. I have no photographs because I went without my camera, just for myself to enjoy. And this I did 10-fold.

With a beautiful view over the caldera, a small rocky island in the centre where a dormant volcano rests, the sun setting right between the volcano and another island-piece of Santorini.. It was too beautiful to comprehend, and definitely beyond my abilities to describe.

At around 19.00 I went to go eat dinner at the same place I had eaten the night before.. Mainly because the waiter recognised me as I walked by and offered me a shot of ouzo. I didn't have any specific place I wanted to eat, and the food was fine the day before, so I figured why not?

After dinner, I purchased 2 George Meis posters and then headed off to bed.

"They" always say that Southern California has nice weather.. Greece has much better weather. The entire time I've been here its been nice weather. Less than 1 hour of quick rain is about the most exciting the weather got in terms of change. Otherwise it was always 20-27 degrees Celsius day and night with an occasional calm breeze.. It's so beautiful here!
I got up Saturday, October 30th at around 10.00. After eating my breakfast of chocolate filled croissant and milk which I had purchased the night before, I headed to the bus station. Here, I learnt that Saturday is apparently a holiday, and thus all bus times are different than the day prior and because it's also Saturday, again, entirely different erratic schedule because they felt like it.

Irritated, I just took a taxi to Ia for EUR 12,00 instead of waiting for another 90 minutes for a bus I couldn't get a firm acknowledgement of its existence from any of the people working at the bus terminal. Upon reaching Ia, again, I wandered around. This time around I was armed with my tripod which I used throughout my time in Ia while taking photographs.

At some point I sat down for a milkshake and after, I continued strolling through the town. At 16.30 I went, hopefully, to the bus station for the time-table advertised bus from Ia to Fira,. A good number of others had the same in mind, and we waited for 30 minute and finally at a random 16.53 a bus came. The buses on Santorini are a pain.. At least, based on my experiences.

When finally reaching Fira, I quickly made a stop in my hotel room to freshen up, then headed to the same location from where I had watched the sunset the night before. I photographed the sunset for about 2 hours, filling a 1 gigabyte CF stick/card. The sunset was marvellous, but not as spectacular as it was the night before for there were more clouds on the horizon this night obstructing the sun. But, it was still beautiful.

After the sunset, I returned my camera stuff to my room and then went and had a delicious "stuffed burger" dinner.. It was like a cordon bleu but with beef instead of chicken. It was very good and cheap. Most food on the islands has been very cheap compared to the prices in Athens.

Upon returning to my room I took a shower. This was interesting because the water on this island has an odd sour-salty taste. From the first taste a few days ago, I knew it would be my last.

I watched some random movie on T.V. on a channel called S.T.A.R. with a more polygonal N.B.C. logo. Each night this channel brings a movie, and every time it's some Hollywood movie with the English audio track. It's not dubbed in Greek as it would be in many other countries in that countries language. Instead it seems the movies are always subtitled, poorly. There are often long sequences where there are no Greek subtitles at all even though many things are being said..

In the room next to mine I could hear some people speaking Greek. The Greeks as a generalisation, are very loud people when they speak. To me it seems as though two who are talking to each other are screaming at each other.. However, this is perfectly normal. Some practically eat their mobile phone or scare the thing to death when they're on the phone talking to someone on the other side who you can hear yelling through the mobile phones speaker.. It's quite amusing..

Anyway, I got up today, Sunday, October 31st at around 10.00. I got to the bus station an hour early because I had forgotten that winter time was no in effect. For once the bus was on time and thusly, Ive been here at the port of Athinios for the past few hours. I figured I'd get here early because I didn't know if the bus would leave on time or not, or if at all. My ferry to Paros, where I'll spend the night before continuing on to Piraeus, the port of Athens, leaves at 15.35.

The time now being 13.48, it would seem I still have quite some time to kill.. Heh..

Note that photos in this entry have not been altered and could possibly use some white-balancing, contrast, brightness, saturation, and hue adjustments among other touch-ups.