Finally sun! And a very beautiful island

The challenge!  We booked a ticket with the Ferrycat 4 to visit Santorini. Most people suggested that we should take the full tour, which means a bus is picking you up at your hotel, and the transfer in Santorini is also arranged because there are not much taxi’s available. But of course we did not listen and wanted to do it by ourselves. We already knew that it could take some time to reach Heraklion by bus, but if we leave soon enough we will make it on time to catch the boat on time.  Oh oh, stress!!! The first bus to Heraklion at 07.30 we missed. The next bus was too late. So a bad start. Of course in the morning a lot of people are willing to go to Heraklion, and therefore the bus was stopping many times during our trip. Time really was running out, and the traffic had become worse. There was a girl sitting next to us, and we explained what we were planning to do. She suggested to get out of the bus now, and take a taxi immediately. And that is what we did. (there was a taxi place where we got out of the bus). He took us to the harbor, just in time!

Finally the stress could float away, and time for relaxing had began. Wrong again! Mandy became seasick and was not feeling well at all! We were lucky that the crew of the boat were so very friendly, they let us sit on the stairs outside of the boat! On the stairs outside of the catamaran! What a very nice experience. I was very glad mandy did not feel well, because we had the nicest trip ever! After two hours on the boat we reached Santorini, the distance is about 184kilometers.

Seeing the shore of Santorini is special. You really can see that this once was a big volcano. You also can see the busses slowly moving uphill, very high! I was glad we could take the only taxi there was, and this was high enough for me as well. He took us up to Fira, this is the main capital of the island. This place is touristic, but nice. After the long trip we really liked some coffee and dinner(I had to use the credit card for the starters dish!) We found an amazing place to sit, with an amazing view over the whole volcano! The houses are build on the edge of the volcano. In the middle there is a small island, and that in fact is the crater of the volcano. The other 2 islands you see are the remaining of the other side of the volcano. And in between the sea has filled up the volcano! If you think back in time, about 2000 years ago, this must have been a very big eruption! Glad the volcano is asleep at the moment. And hopefully it will sleep forever. It would be a shame if all those beautiful white houses and blue paint will be destroyed.

After a while we saw a very, very dark cloud over Santorini, and too bad it started to rain. Not normal rain, but no, the streets were flooding! So again inside a tavern and have a drink. We still had several hours left before we had to go to the boat, and only Fira was a bit boring. We made a deal with the taxi company and they drove us around the island.

On the boat again, the same story, we ended up sitting towards the door of the catamaran with the crew. Again a nice time on the boat, only a bit colder!  At 20.00 we arrived in Heraklion. This was the last day the Ferrycat 4 was sailing. End of season!