Santorini

I loved Santorini!
Finally a part of our time away where we could relax a bit more. We arrived on late wednesday afternoon, with no real idea how to get to where we were staying, other then catch "the local bus". Turns out the bus system is quite chaotic yet surprisingly efficient. All buses go to Fira, the main town. You don't buy a ticket you hope on bus and the guy collects money. From Fira you can change buses to where ever you want to go by arriving in this terminal which is just people and buses everywhere with noone seeming to really know anything. Also the timetable is literally written out on paper everyday and posted in the Fira terminal. So good luck knowing when a bus will come from any other place..  Anyway Got to Perissa, the beach area where we stayed and had a supermarket dinner instead of going out. Torea bought some traditional Santorini "bread" - said with quotations because it's basically like a cracker in bread form. Yummy peppers and tomatoes and smoked herring and feta!
On Thursday we caught the bus into Oia, the town that is the pretty one overlooking the Caldera. Found a cute book store - exactly what we needed for our holiday and wondered the streets. Went back to Perissa for an evening swim - all in all a relaxed day. Discovered the bakery next door as well and had multiple deserts.
Friday we did a tour out to the centre of the island complex that is Santorini, where there is active volcano crators. Went swimming in thermal hot springs - it was weird because it was as warm as a bath with cold refreshing sea water ocassionally. The volcanic vents were very impressive - one was even releasing steam. Beautiful varying colours of volcanic rocks too, and a great veiw of the main island Thira, and the other 4 islands.
Went back and had the afternoon in Perissa, reading and swimming. Had a lovely dinner out, and decided we needed more swimming so went swimming in the dark to see the stars. Really beautiful water - there was so much phosophdiese! It was awesome.
Yesterday I had a lazy morning while Torea ran up the hill. Went for a final swim and then on the bus to the port to catch the ferry. So Santorini is this island, not all that big, but lots and lots of tourists. So lots of ferries and buses and private transfers. Only the port is really small. And the only road to get is a narrow ski field style road down the steep Caldera cliffs. Fun to go down on in a bus when not enough seats and you have to stand. So thankful we got there in plenty of time too, because at the last narrow bit our bus and a bus going up got stuck. Neither could move traffic jam stuck. For over half an hour noone could get in or out of the port as the buses attempted several maneuvers to get past each other. Finally we got to the ferry - and had a very long (7 and a half hours) trip to Athens where we are now!