The ship trundled through the night. SOME of us (me) had a terrible night’s sleep in our horrible fold-down bed, and SOME of us (me) complained about it like big giant babies all during breakfast. We ate breakfast NOT at the trough buffet, and it was quite nice.
Then we arrived!
Now when we were planning this trip, when I first saw the list of excursions, I saw that one of them was climbing the volcano at Thira. The three of us were on the phone, when I said, “Now, I don’t want to sound like a jerk, but I figure you guys don’t want to climb the volcano, and I really do, and…” “I want to climb the volcano!” my sister said. “We HAVE to climb the volcano!” Mama said.
Silly me.
One of the best things: tender boats! I know that this is a maritime term and it does NOT actually mean gentle, friendly boats, but TOO BAD. In my head, that’s what tender boats are.
Ours looked like a pirate ship:
We took our tender pirate ship to Thira. Lo and many years ago, the whole island was called Thira, and it was quite large. Then it blew up, and now there is the semi-circular island of Santorini with the remains of the Thira volcano in the middle and a few other smaller islands around what used to be the edge of the whole thing. Look at the town perched up on the cliff: isn’t it wonderful?
Most of the island was covered in this black volcanic rock. It was hot, bleak, and beautiful.
The last major eruption was in 1950, so this is approximately 60 years of regrowth.
The views were gorgeous.
Like really, seriously gorgeous. (That’s the town of Oia in the distance.)
Jaw-dropping, really. (Also, my sister is a good photographer. These are all her pictures.)
We had a hilarious tour guide. He said, “I’m half Greek, half Italian. It’s hard to be perfect.” He gave enough nerdy vulcanology information even for me.
The plants were neat.
This bean-looking plant is so cool. Anyone know what it is? Daisie?
I stuck my hand in a steam vent. I’m very glad my unders aren’t showing here.
It was a HAUL. Parts of the day were simply trudging uphill in loose soil under the hot sun, with an occasional whiff of sulfur. But wow the views. And WOW a volcano. Some people were miffed that they climbed all the way to the top and didn’t see any lava. I briefly considered kicking them into the ocean.
Dusty Ladies Triumphant!
Wasn’t it neat? We have climbed up an ACTIVE VOLCANO IN GREECE!
So cool. I can’t wait to go back!
One step forward, slide 1/2 step back. What a walk/slide/marvelous adaventure!
I wish I knew what sort of bean it is, but I have no idea! Fabaceae is such a big family. I can say that it’s not a lupine 🙂
I know I’m supposed to be commenting on how beautiful that place is, and it is! But man, that is one LOVELY hat!
I was there 3 days ago! Alas, France, like the US, has no good taramasalata.
The only thing not awesome about the Cyclades is trying to drive on them. It’s like the locals and the tourists are in a competition to see who can be more dangerous and thoughtless.
It’s kinda spooky sailing through the caldera, imagining all that rock that used to be right there, over your head.
I love those little pirate ships too. Although this one is just silly.
Daisie: Well, until I have better data, I’m just going to think of it as The Volcano Bean.
Erze: Thanks! I would have roasted absolutely ALIVE without that hat. It saved my delicate cave-worm skin.
Richard: I was delighted, every time we were driven around in Italy and Greece, to find that the driving was just as alarming and crazy as I had always heard. I agree about the spooky-shiver feeling of sailing through the caldera. I thought it was spooky in the best possible way.
(Also, how hilarious are we with our holster bags?)
You all look marvelous! And the holster bags identify the smart people on holiday. You climbed a volcano!!
Holy smokes! You climbed a volcano! Great story.