S.O.S.

We began our second day in Santorini with a morning stroll through the busy touristy streets of Fira. I was looking forward more to see Oia, expecting it to be less crowded due to its more remote location on the island. Well I was half right - it is less crowded, but still pretty touristy. I probably would’ve enjoyed the town a lot more if it wasn’t so soaking hot. I did not bring sunglasses with me and my eyes were really hurting from the bright sun. It didn’t help that all the houses are painted bright white. But the town was extremely photogenic. If we hadn’t already made plans for the late afternoon, we would probably have stayed a little longer.

Before we left for the trip, we had booked a sunset cruise in Santorini with our friends CC and Ian who are staying in Santorini for a few days during their European vacation. The cruise starts at 3pm so we headed back to Fira soon after lunch in Oia. To go to the old port from Fira we decided to walk down the stairs down the steep hill. Not only was the walk longer than I expected (1+ hour), it was quite difficult as all the steps slant downwards, which prevented us from speeding up.

After visiting the Nea Kameni volcano as the first stop of the cruise, our boat anchored about 50m from a hot spring. A number of us decided to jump in and swim for the hot spring. The water was cold and I hesitated to continue. In hindsight I probably should’ve turned back seeing that I’m not a particularly good swimmer. When I reached the hot spring the water was far from hot. It was luke warm at best. Soon after I started the swim back my foot cramped up. Although I didn’t feel like it at the time, I was probably physically spent after the long walk from Fira, the hike to the top of the volcano and finally the 50m swim through cold water. I yelled out to Chris who stayed on the boat. She got a staff to throw down a donut and come rescue me.

Chris was of course concerned about how I was doing, but she quickly found out that I was completely fine when our boat sailed to Oia for the sunset. While most couples sat together to watch the sunset, I spent most of the time taking photos. Sorry honey :-( In my defense I did sit with you to watch the sunset, albeit for only a few minutes :)

Embarrassment of the day: being rescued in front of a whole boat of people.