October 11: Hotel, Fira, Caldera trail, Oia, Megalochori
The morning was misty, which I suppose isn’t surprising in a place surrounded by water but which nevertheless surprised me, so dry is Greece. Our outdoor furniture was wet, and my camera lens instantly misted over.
The little cat was still there, but she left when she discovered that we still had only cheese. We never saw her again.
Since hiking is our thing, our plan for the day was to hike the caldera trail. Santorini Dave gives a very thorough description of it. We thought this would be the best way to get a sense of the island in a limited time.
Getting to Fira
The first trick was to get to the trail’s starting point next to the Hotel Atlantis in Fira. Fira is the capital city and the center of the tourism industry, though tourism permeates every inch of Santorini.
We had no obvious way of getting there, though. There are reports of buses, but we had no idea where to catch one, how to pay for it, or what the schedule might be. Megalochori was on the wrong side of Fira, too, so we would probably have to change busses.
Our AirBnB was owned and operated by Grand View Hotel. Our best option seemed to be to just walk up to the hotel to see if we could arrange a driver. We hauled ourselves up the steep road we’d driven down the previous night, walked north on the main road, and eventually arrived at the hotel.
The manager first sighed, heavily: Why hadn’t we called ahead to arrange this? The drivers were so busy! Were we not aware that hotel guests needed to be shuttled to the port? And to Akrotiri? And Pyrgos? But then he acknowledged that there was, as it, a driver available to take us, right away, to Fira. For €25.
The price seemed fair. It’s not that easy to get around Santorini, especially if you don’t want to wait for buses that might only come every hour.
Fira seems nice enough, though I wouldn’t want to drive there; as always, the roads are so narrow, cars have to take turns using them, which would be maddening in August. Most websites recommend that visitors to Santorini rent a car, and I can see their point, but I also think driving in high summer has nightmare written all over it. No thank you.