Santorini is just surreal. It’s a beautiful place.
My parents and I decided not to do the cruise tours here, so we set off on our own. The ship was anchored offshore, so we rode tenders in, and took a cable car up to the town of Thera. The alternative is to walk or ride donkeys up the side of a cliff. Which might not be that bad, except apparently the smell of donkey butts is pretty intense, so… no thanks. My parents and I spent the morning walking around. After my parents got tired and went back to the ship, I rented a car to explore the rest of the island.
I drove to the town of Oia, which, I think, is where most of the stereotypical images of Santorini are from. It’s the town with all the blue domed churches. I went through a few other towns, notably, Akrotori, the location of a Bronze Age settlement that was destroyed in the Theran Eruption of 1627. It was buried in volcanic ash, and preserved- much like Pompeii.
I had an interesting conversation with the guy who rented the car to me. A younger Albanian guy, who grew up in Santorini. Migrant kid, hard worker. I think this is something I’m going to see a lot of around Greece and Italy. I also think, frankly, old-school European communities aren’t very well equipped to handle immigration and migrant/refugee crisis. Economic crisis certainly does not help either. I’m not entirely sure the US is much better, but… I think the history, identity, and relative youth of the US makes it a more hospitable place in some ways. I mean, I’m a child of migrants, and things turned out pretty good…
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