Aegean Odyssey Day 8

SANTORINI, GREECE -- Got up at 6 a.m., packed out of the Grand Leoniki hotel in Rethymno, Crete, and took a cab at 7 for the port in Iraklion, about an hour and 15 minutes away. Picked up our tickets at the ferry line office and boarded a high-speed ferry a little after 9 for Santorini. 

Arrived in Santorini about 11. Port an absolute mess, with thousands of people pressing on an off boats. Vendors at the port absolute swine, trying to sell 25 Euro shuttle rides to hotels and ignoring people who asked even simple questions like where the city buses were. We bypassed them and managed to find the public transportation to the village of Fira, which cost us 2.90 Euros each. 

Checked into Hotel Atlantis, which is on the rim of the ancient volcano and thus overlooks both the volcanic caldera and northern Aegean shore of the island (our room is the one in the upper left corner of the picture at right, just above the word "Hotel"; our view from the balcony can be seen above right). Had a note from Laura and Richard Allan waiting for us but could not find them right off and went to have lunch about 1:30, opting to eat in the place we had gone to when we were in Santorini in September 2006. Had a half liter of red wine, nice fresh fried calamari, a shrimp, cheese, and vegetable dish called saganaki (below right). Laura called as we were finishing our lunch and wondering whether to order more wine and we could see here waving to us from her balcony. They came over to join us and we had a great time catching up with them (the view of the caldera from the restaurant appears at bottom). 

After lunch we went back to our patio at the hotel and shared a bottle of local white wine Richard and Laura had picked up and continued chatting. Richard and I brainstormed a reality show involving us, a decrepit hotel here in Fira, and two Albanian minions. We also sketched out details on an exciting new technological innovation and trademarked the term "Thalassojet," all of which we are hoping to test and market in conjunction with Costa cruise lines. 

Rested for awhile and then went out to dinner at restaurant overlooking the caldera. Bad Internet connection in room and was too tired to go down to the lobby and so turned in fairly early, sometime before midnight.