Year 5, Day 168 “Living the Dream”. Wednesday, 10/15/2025 – Day 9 of 30 day trip to Rome, Italy with a Mediterranean cruise and a transatlantic cruise back to Bayonne, NJ. Day 4 of 10 night Greece, Turkey, and Italy cruise on Odyssey of the Seas. Kalimera from Santorini, Greece – 7:45am to 7:15 pm.
As you can see from the below itinerary, we are getting a little taste of different cultures on this trip. That is the good and the bad thing about cruising. You get a taste of different cultures, but not a full immersion into the life of the people living there.
Santorini is an active volcano and is situated on the rim of a massive underwater caldera. Santorini has a permanent population of around 15,500. Santorini is actually a complex of islands. These islands consist of Thira, Thirassia, Aspronissi, Palea, and Nea Kameni. They are located in the southernmost part of the Cyclades. Two of these islands are inhabited. It has eleven villages and three small towns. We met at the Theatre on deck 4 at 7:30am to head to our tour. We booked and paid $169.98 for the Santorini Villages & Canava Distillery excursion months ago.
In the theatre our group was assigned a number 7. Very interesting. The number 7 is very powerful as it has had significance in almost every major religion. Two examples are: 1 – The number seven is featured in the Book of Revelation. It mentions seven churches, seven angels, seven seals, seven trumpets, and seven stars. 2 – The Koran speaks of seven heavens. Muslim pilgrims walk around the Kaaba in Mecca (Islam’s most sacred site) seven times. Today is a tender day. The captain said the water is to deep to anchor here. It is a sunny day in Santorini. I am told that it is always sunny here. At least 300 days a year of pure sun. It is a cool morning. The sun is behind the clifts. We leave the ship in the tender boat.
We are tendering into nothing but clifts. OMG – I see buses coming down that steep hill road. Okay, I am getting nervous. We are going to be coming down that hill later in a bus I think. We departed the tender boat and boarded a motor coach for that steep windy up the hill trip. We left our ship parked in the middle of the Volcano. Our guide is an archaeologist. We rode up the side of that active volcano. What a view of the center of the volcano. The last volcanic reaction was in 1950. The ride up that steep hill was crazy scary.
Then we saw lots of grape vines. The vines are twisted and the grapes grow in the middle. They do this to protect the grapes from the winds. Some of those plants are 200 years old. Everything is grown organic here. Everything grown on the island is salty because of the night time dew leaves salt behind. Desalination plant water is used to do everything but drinking. Be aware that tap water is not recommended for drinking. Our first stop of the day is Charming Megalochori village.
This village is a labyrinth of winding alleys, whitewashed houses, and blue-domed churches with ornate bell towers. Houses here are walled in to protect them from the wind. There are cats everywhere to take care of the rats.
There are cute alleyways with colorful doors. 90% of the people work in touristry. Three million tourists visit in nine months. There are no crimes due to tourists bringing in money. Everyone is employed and make a lot of money. At the top of the hill we left the bus and we walked down through the main living street.
Cats are vaccinated by town officials. There are 338 churches on this island in 29 square miles. Santorini is 29 square miles.
This town is very quiet in the morning and the streets are really clean. No litter. Our guide says in the evening there are lots of people out and about and the streets are very crowded. Then the town comes out and cleans early in the morning. Littering is a problem in the evenings.
We then moved on to another area. In this area, donkeys are still being used to transport heavy stuff. They move goods to and from people’s homes located at the top of the villages. The donkeys also go around and collect garbage to bring down to the road access. Santorini has numerous inaccessible paths, countless stairs, to which a donkey will bring goods to their destination. Donkeys have been a reliable partner for transporting goods for centuries. They have also been the main means of personal transportation around the island. Food is imported to feed the donkeys. We walked up those steps to the top of the village. There, we saw a man with donkeys collecting milk crates. Our guide told us you call them like a taxi. They move things for you to and from your homes high on the steps. To purchase a house on those narrow stairs would cost about 400,000 euros. In the more popular flatter villages they cost around 1 million euros.
There is a blue eye glass ornament sold everywhere here. It is believed to protect the wearer from a curse cast by envious people. Eucalyptus trees are plentiful as they keep away the mosquitoes. There are also a lot of Pistachio trees and olive trees. We walked up and down so many stairs today. We then visited Kanava Santorini. It is a family-run distillery in Messaria, Santorini, established in 1974. Ouzo is produced there with the traditional slow process in the handmade copper double slow distillation pot. Here we had a tasting. The expresso anise flavored liquor was the best. The traditional Ouzo was very strong. Then there was a little Greek dancing. Afterwards, we were on our way to the capital city, Fira. We had a little free time there.
Fira is the picturesque capital of the island perched on the top edge of the Caldera, 260m above sea level. What a breathtaking view of the Aegean Sea we had. We walked around for awhile looking into shops and then headed back to the tender boats. Everything here is imported except for wine. More and more people turned to tourism as employment. Therefore less and less is produced or made on the island. Religion is a huge part of Greek culture, with 98% of Greece’s people being Orthodox Christians.
The bus ride down the two-mile-long switchback road was definitely as scary as I had anticipated. The road, carved into the cliffside to the main ferry port (Athinios Port), had me on edge. The experience was quite nerve-wracking. It is really narrow and has seven hair pin turns/switch backs. This road has a 20% grade (or a 20% decline). That means the road drops 20 feet for every 100 feet of horizontal distance, which is a steep grade.
We got back to the ship. We spent a lot of time enjoying the views from the Lime and Coconut bar. We seem to find ourselves there every afternoon enjoying the music and views on and off the ship. Of course we did discuss a different house plan and my limited family tree information.
Cruise Compass Day 4 of 10 – Odyssey of the Seas Santorini, Greece – 7:45am to 7:25 pm
Things to ponder today! Have to leave you thinking.
Here’s a link to today’s Amazon recommendation: https://amzn.to/4o5yM9I Wood 3 in 1 Chess Backgammon Table: Look at this great table. Can’t wait to set it up in our balcony area. This board game table includes a backgammon board and a chessboard. Chess pieces are included.
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