Day 4: Oia & Ammoudi Bay

Due to projected high winds, our caldera boat tour to the volcanic hot springs was pushed back by a day, so we swapped our Wednesday and Thursday itineraries. After breakfast on the patio, we packed a day bag with books for the bus ride and took the sea path downhill to Fira and the central bus depot. We were just in time to get seats on the public bus to Oia. I had read a blog that suggested the bus would make a clockwise circuit, effectively giving us a tour of the northern half of the island, but judging from the fact that the sea was on our right going and then on our left coming, we must have avoided the towns on the concave side of Santorini by taking the outer rim both ways. When you're not at the cliffs, the land is mostly scrub brush, with way more palm trees and cacti than I had anticipated. There seemed to be a good deal of construction to offset the buildings that had clearly been abandoned. 

When we disembarked, I realized I had not yet mapped out the way from the bus depot to our destination in Ammoudi Bay, so my phone was of little help. So we followed the crowd to the central square and the famous Church of Panagia Akathistos Hymn. A woman was trying to do a photo shoot in a long flowing dress in front of the people listening to tour guides or jockeying for their own kodak moment.

Then I guessed left, and we walked until we found a jewelry store that looked like it might have earrings to match the necklace that Dear Husband brought me back from his first trip. I bought a pair of posts that looked close enough and asked the saleslady for directions; she pointed us back in the direction from which we had come.

We joined the throngs shuffling shoulder to shoulder through the narrow main walkway past all the usual suspects: souvenir shops, clothing boutiques, silk purveyors, and cafes. This was the main reason I had decided to come at lunch rather than dinnertime/sunset. As crowded as it was, I wouldn't want to stay in Oia and can understand why people say not to visit just for this.

The first 2 photos above are at the Panagia Agion Panton, one of the big blue domes. A little farther on, past a busker playing accordion, we separated from the masses at the 241 stone steps down to Ammoudi Bay, which I had read was a beautiful little cove and has a nice (n$$$ce) seafood restaurant as well as dock for a ferry and a couple of other businesses. Below are looking left and right where the steps end.

Due to the high winds, the water-side deck was closed, but the maitre'd enticed us to the (mostly) enclosed upper deck, where we had a front-row seat to the spray from white-caped lapis lazuli waves and tried to waft the cigarette smoke from the next table through the opening in the plastic. Somehow I had missed this crucial detail, but the prices were mind-boggling (sometimes 3-digits for a single entree). We ordered seafood rigatoni, deconstructed grilled cheese with fries, and sparkling water and managed to get out of there with a bill for <$100.

Eschewing the suggestion to call a taxi, we counted the steps as we hiked back up. Not quite ready to end the daytrip, we searched out the Naval Maritime Museum, which we had seen profiled on Bettany Hughes' Smithsonian Channel documentary on Odysseus's journey across the Mediterranean. Located in a tony former captain's house with marble floors down a long passageway, we felt virtuous about visiting their little museum until 3 classes of school children showed up who were way more interested in ringing the bell and (probably) making fart jokes than learning about Santorini as a center of shipbuilding and trade. We learned that wine was crucial to the Greek fight for independence from the Ottoman Empire in 1821, and that they used to grow cotton.

Below left: a "documentary" about shipping in Santorini that included some text from downstairs as well as a cartoon schooner from 1890 that traveled from the island to the Black Sea following a log from 1890 and projected on a large sail as a screen. Below right: a masthead from 1650. Bottom: the captain's library.

Below left: DH looks through the "real, working submarine periscope" in the garden (all there was to see was sky?). Below right: the largest of the model boats on display.

Finally it was time to buy several postcards and march back to the bus lot. DH held our place in line while I ran to the mini-market to get bottled water and tomato paste, since the local tomato jam looked watery and unappetizing. We arrived in Fira without incident and hoofed it back to Firostefani, where I washed the sand out of my hair and DH napped before we made another late dinner of pasta, canned fish, and Greek salad.

Missed Days 1-2? Day 3?