Santorini

Saturday, June 14, 2008

Santorini 

A beautiful little island nestled in the Greek islands, in the Aegean Sea.  This island is very small and the majority of the structures are on the side of the cliffs.  There are two ways to get to the little town, the cable cars, which they have a different name for, or the donkeys.  Ariel and I decided to take the donkeys up the cliff side. Riding the donkeys was the experience of the day.  The local men were standing along walkway, next to the donkeys, and as soon as a donkey walked up, they helped lift us on, said something in Greek, and the donkeys took off.  Oh, did I forget to tell you there was no guide?  The donkeys have walked up the pathway so many times they know the way themselves.  The pathway was a bazillion switchback staircases, all along the edge of the cliff.  My donkey especially liked to walk as close as possible to the edge, where I thought he would dump me over the side.  They take these big large turns going from one side of the path to the other side.  They do not care if there are other donkeys or people in their path, they still follow the path.  There were several times that two other donkeys wanted to be the leaders so they charged ahead, making my donkey very upset.  He would nudge his nose under their saddle blanket then head-butt them.  If this did not work, he pushed them to one side until he was able to pass.  Of course, this just made matters worse, then the other donkey would do the same, then a third donkey started in as well.  Every time this happened, I got donkey saliva and donkey snot on my legs, which is rather gross!  This went on for the entire trip up the cliff.  As he drew nearer the side of the cliff, I tried convincing him that this was not where he wanted to walk and encouraged him to go to the middle; I didn’t want him going to the other side either because he would walk so close that my leg would rub against the wall, which did not feel that great.  The saddle edge curled up and rubbed my leg raw, had a bruise immediately, will be interesting to see how long the bruise will last.  On a few occasions, he would stop, for no apparent reason.  Then all of a sudden, he would start running-this was definitely scary.  Once one of the men came up behind us and yelled something in Greek and all the donkeys took off running-wish he had not done that!  There were many screams heard from Ariel as she freaked out because her donkey would take her to the edge, nudge ahead, or start running.  At one point one of the other women in the group asked if she was alright, just a tad embarrassing for Ariel.  (She actually told the woman that she just liked to scream for no reason and that she was fine).  I asked Ariel to take a picture of me but she wouldn’t, she wouldn’t let go long enough to get the camera out.  I don’t blame her, we were all holding on for dear life. One of the screams came when my donkey farted right in Ariel’s face, I can only imagine how horrible that smell was to her nostrils!      We reached ¾ of the way up the cliff when all of a sudden the donkeys stopped, just stopped, they were not moving.  Since there was no guide with us, our group all looked around to determine what we were to do.  There was no way these donkeys were going any further that was for sure.  Then a little man appeared out of nowhere to help us down, when I say help us down, I mean only the women, and he wanted us to hug him so he could lift us off.  I’m sure the hug was an added bonus for him and not exactly necessary, but whatever, he got me off the donkey so it’s all good.  We had to walk the remaining fourth of the stairway up to the top where Grandma and Auntie were waiting for us.  That was a strenuous walk let me tell you.  At one point Ariel commented that it was worse than walking the walls in Dubruvic. Many of the local people were washing down the walkway in front of their homes or businesses which made the climb up even more of a challenge since it made the steps slippery.  It was odd that they used seawater to do the washing, but it does make a lot of sense if you think about it.  Once we got to the top, both Grandma and Auntie told us we snuck and to figure out a way to wash up.  We eventually found a restroom, called a water closet or toilette, washed our hands a hundren times and I washed my legs-didn’t want the salvia and snot on my legs all day-that is totally gross!   All-in-all, riding the donkeys was an experience that we will not forget for some time, and will not ever need to experience again. We wandered through the little shops, found little places to look over the island, ocean, and other island-a beautiful view.  We saw many churches, as is typical over here.  Then decided to have a rest and soda on a cliff-top, outside, restaurant.  We sat on the lanai overlooking the crater and other islands, ate bread and pizza and just enjoyed the view and the rest.   There are three ways down, the donkeys, which I was not going to do again; walk down the donkey pathway, that is an obvious no; or take the tram (or whatever they call it) down.  I was not thrilled with taking the tram, but that is where we headed.  Six people were to cram into this car made for four at best, then off it goes.  It jutted out of the “terminal” down the cliff side on these little wires.  Every time you would go over, well actually under, the crossbars, the whole car would shake and you’d swear it was going to derail, in which case, we would all be dead!  It was shaking and at best a tad scary, but we made it down without crashing, falling, or sustaining any injuries, so I guess it’s all good.  I’ll tell you what, we had never been so grateful to reach our stateroom!