Day 18: Santorini’s old stones

Trip

Greece 2022

Location

Santorini 🇬🇷

Date

September 13, 2022

We truly are on a touristy island. We met our first McDonald’s and Domino’s pizza. While those brands look to expand, we are on an island where, according to our host, 80% of the workers are not from the island and leave at the end of the season in November. While I find the round percentage suspicious, an eleven-year-old census puts the population of the island at a little more than 15,000 people for a 90-square-kilometre island.

It would make sense that a place that gets almost nine times its population (119,000 in 2021) in visitors during August needs help. It also explains why large brands could lure franchisees to the island to cater to some of the sensibilities of its guests. I‘m not sure why anyone would need them, but these incomprehensible people exist, and I judge them.

We started our first full day on the island with laundry. Our host was doubtful that the laundry at the end of our street would do a single wash service without drying, ironing and folding. Self-serve laundry services don’t exist here or are kept a closely guarded secret. For us, visitors, it’s either full service or no service. I’m hoping it’s a sign that washer ownership has reached 100% in the Thera population; Good for them. We went begging our local laundry service for a wash-only service and were greeted with the very positive attitude of any monopolized industry. We can provide less than the standard package for the same price. With the fond memory of our expensive 6€ laundry in our hearts, we paid the 20€ for a load of laundry. We were told it would be ready in an hour and a half, and we went for breakfast.

Breakfast at Iriana had an excellent view and decent enough food. It’s a recommendation from the one-hour class on the island we received yesterday, and maybe it's one of the good things to come out of that hour of our lives after all. We stopped at Kaffeine, a local coffee and pastry bar, to wait for our laundry to be done before picking it up. I went straight home to hang our wet, yet impeccably folded clothes, at our apartment, and Karine went to reserve a car for the day after tomorrow, where we’re planning on visiting wineries and sampling the local wine. Well… Karine will be sampling, as I don’t drink when I drive, but I’m sure I’ll get to taste different waters.

With the “work” part of our day done, we grabbed a bus and went to visit the archeological site at Akrotiri and grabbed a couple of pictures of Red Beach next door. The site was superb. Covered and well displayed, it does paint a great picture of what the city looked like pre-eruption. There’s a little information you can get while visiting. We were told that visiting the museum in Thera helps put the visit to the site in context. Sadly, we’ll be visiting it tomorrow, so we’ll know then. Good thing we took pictures!

We stopped to take a couple of pictures of Red Beach. We had no intention of going against the prohibition to swim there (unlike the crowd sunbathing and swimming there). The red cliffs that are the namesake of the beach are geologically interesting and contrast with the deep blue sea, an excellent view for minimal walking investment.

Bus back to Fira and onto apéro at Volkan on the Rocks. Being further in town than our previous spot, it had a different angle on the caldera. We had a sampling of local cheese with our wine to keep us going until our dinner reservation. The cheeses were perfect, and we made plans to stop for breakfast tomorrow, assuming that if they can do cheese so well, they should do breakfast well, too.

Dinner at Salt and Pepper was a different experience than any other we’ve had. The couple that owns and operates the restaurant deeply cares about their guests’ experience. The menu is pretty extensive for a kitchen operated by a single man. But every one of our dishes came out well executed and tasty. I think I’m decent in the kitchen, but I wouldn't be able to cook for about ten tables on my own. We enjoyed our time there. It was a good two hours, making it the longest dinner we’ve had yet.

Tomorrow, we'll visit the museum and then hike to the next town over. We have no plans to get up early tomorrow, and the museum closes at 15:00. We’ll make it our first stop of the day to ensure we don't miss it and can take it easy. We worked enough today after all.