Oia Vey

We killed about two hours at our hotel in Mykonos before it was time for us to catch the boat. The boat ride was reasonably fast. We arrived in Santorini early in the evening. So far, I would summarize the island as misleading. There are two main towns on the west coast of Santorini: Thira and Oia. Online, our hotel is shown as being right in the middle of the town of Thira. In reality, it's kind of in the middle of nowhere. We were told it was only a mile walk to the town. This was also a lie. This so-called one mile walk aka trail of tears, took us by such fascinating sites as gas stations, industrial parks, and enough weeds to aggravate my allergies substantially.

When we finally got into town, we ate at a place called Mama's House. We got the bill just in time to see the sun setting behind the clouds. One of the things I was most looking forward to on this trip was renting a scooter. It was not to be. Apparently to rent a scooter on Santorini, you must have an international motorbike license . . . This applies even if you just want to rent an ATV. Problem is, we need some way of getting around the island. The situation was even more dire now that we realize we must take the trail of tears just to get to and from the town our hotel is supposed to be in.
Ultimately, we ended up renting a Nissan Micra. Problem solved, right? That would be too easy. There's really only one road between the town and our hotel, but we managed to find about 6 other roads that kept taking us into the hills. It was turning into a very frustrating evening. 3 hours later, we made it back to the hotel, where I promptly ordered a drink.

Unfortunately tomorrow will not bring you video of the folks barreling down a hairpin turn in an ATV. Tomorrow will be an indicator, however, of whether or not I am able to drive stick in a Nissan Micra. Hopefully tomorrow is a bit more relaxing than this evening was.

Location:Θήρας-Μεγαλοχωρίου...more than one mile south of Thira