Day 8 – Naxos – Santorini

After 2 successful days in Naxos, it was time to move on to the ever popular Santorini. A slight deviation to our plans as Ios was actually more expensive to stay in than Santorini and so we skipped that island out.

After dropping off the keys to the apartment and our bags, it was time to walk around the old town of Naxos. This was perfect timing with the hottest day of our trip so far. We had to walk up the ancient steps to the castle and old town and by the top, could have slid back down them like a water slide due to our excessive sweat. The old town was completely different to the tourist areas as it was empty, albeit there were about 6 cats in every direction you looked.

With our hair and body dripping, we needed some air conditioning fast, and this coincided with our breakfast – waffles and crepes with chocolate today. With Anna, cold air is usually not enough to cool her down and she needs cold in a liquid form – may it be a fountain, hose or sea. So, whilst we waited for our ferry, we dipped our legs into the salty water and watched a few crabs fighting it out down the pier, getting uncomfortably close to us at a stage.

It was time to get our Blue Star Ferry again. We even ordered a burger and chips on board for lunch. We were really treating ourselves today. There were two things I never knew about Santorini. 1. That it is built miles above sea level and 2. That the port is ridiculously busy and messy. We had asked our hotel for a port transfer and they said it would be €20. Pfft, we’ll just get the €1.80 bus and walk the 15 mins from the town. Well weren’t we wrong. With almost 500 passengers disembarking, Santorini only thinks of putting 1, maybe 2 40-seater public buses on…through the chaos that ensued, we managed to get ourselves a bus transfer (which cost €10 each anyway) and slip through to the front and get the bus straight to our hotel.

When I say straight to our hotel, I say it lightly. We were dropped off at the start of a narrow alleyway in a town in the middle of nowhere. He called our hotel and we had no idea what we were going to have to stay in tonight. If you’ve ever watched the Inbetweeners Movie, it was just like that. We were told to walk to the end of the lane and thankfully, we were surprised with a white, perfectly cleaned and professional looking hotel. Aldea Hotel was like a 5 star hotel constructed within an area that resembled 2002 Iraq.

It really was a great find and we were overjoyed with it. Just everything seemed clean.

A 15 minute walk took us into the heart of Fira where we walked along the strip and along the narrow white-washed streets to find a good place to watch the sunset. The view was spectacular and quite hard to describe through words, even by an up and coming writer like myself. Perhaps the pictures would do it more justice. We even heard the applause and cheering at a nearby proposal once the sun went down.

With the main town explored, a quick take-away dinner and a short trip to the supermarket for water, we were back at the hotel sitting on our balcony. As we booked our accommodation for the next 6 nights (it’s great what you can do with wifi) we were serenaded by a Greek band playing in the distance, possibly in Fira itself, but the sound carries well in the heat.

Big surprises for tomorrow!