Day 7- Santorini, Greece

Day 7- Santorini, Greece
Today we are at the island of Santorini. This is a small island that is in the shape of a crescent that surrounds a nearby volcano. It is also known as the caldera. The island was once inhabited by Thera, a king who built a beautiful, luxurious city, called Theros, at the top of the island. This city is rumored to be the lost city of Atlantis. The civilization thrived here until a massive earthquake forced the people to leave the island, fearing the imminent eruption of the nearby volcano. Soon after the people deserted their beautiful city, the volcano did erupt covering the entire island with pumice and ash. Theros was well preserved because of the pumice and ash and is now at the center of an archeological site on the island. 
Today we woke up extra early to go on the only excursion we booked through the cruise. We had a quick (terrible) breakfast in the park café and then met our guides at 6:45 at the theater to prepare for our tour. We then left the ship at 7:15. Santorini is a special place because most of the towns are on the very top of huge cliffs that go straight down to the sea. Because of this, the ship must drop anchor about a nautical mile away from the island and to get there we must take a tender, or a water taxi. Once we reached the island we then boarded a tour bus which took us up a steep, winding road up the side of the cliffs. The bus then took us to a town called Oia (pronounced E-uh). This was the most beautiful place that I have ever seen. The whole town was on the top of the cliffs and most of the buildings were built into the side of the cliffs. Every building was white and the churches all had blue domes on top. All of the streets of the town were more like walking paths, narrow and made of mostly stairs and cobblestones. It is hard to describe the beauty of this place. You will have to take a look at our pictures to get an idea of what it was like, even though the pictures don't do it justice. Oia, which translates to eye, was once the capital of Santorini. It was called Oia because from this point on the island one can see in almost any direction. The sailors who originally settled here were the ones who built the houses in the side of the cliffs. According to the locals, the captains built large houses for themselves further inland on the island to be protected from the high winds and any invaders that tried to attack. The sailors were left with the cliff and built cave like houses into the pumice. These are the houses that make up the beautiful town of Oia. We were told that most of these houses are now very high end, expensive hotels that cost a minimum of $1000 Euros a night to stay in. The beauty of this place comes from the contrast of the stark white houses against the gorgeous blue Aegean Sea. The views are breathtaking from the top of the houses and streets of Oia. The houses were not always painted white. When the Ottomans took over the island, they forced the people to paint their houses white so they could be seen from far distances on the Sea. Over time, the locals began painting the domes of the churches blue in contrast with the white buildings. These colors gradually began to represent the sky and the Sea: blue represents the Sea, and white represents the sky. After touring Oia for about an hour, we hopped back on the tour bus and went to a winery. Wine is one of the islands biggest industries. Because the entire island is covered in pumice, not many plants can grow. Grapes, however are able to take the water from the pumice and thrive on this island. Almost all of the locals grow grapes. Other crops include tomatoes and white eggplant. None of these plants are ever watered by the people. Water is so scarce on the island that the people have turned to desalination for their water. When we got to the winery we we able to taste three of the local wines. The first was Santorini's most famous wine. It is called Vinsanto and is a dessert wine. It is very sweet and almost syrupy because it is made from raisins. The second was a white wine called night wine. It is called this because the grapes are harvested at night. It has a very smooth, refreshing taste. And the third was a red wine that I can't remember the name of. None of us liked the taste of that wine. After tasting the wines, the tour bus took us to the current capital of Santorini, Firá. Here were ended our tour and had the rest of the day to explore the capital. We spent the time shopping in the streets and eating lunch at a local restaurant. The restaurant we ate at had an amazing view of the Sea and our ship below us. After lunch we walked the streets of the town for a while longer and then decided to head back to the ship. Because we no longer had a tour bus to take us down the cliffs, we had to either ride the island's only cable car or walk down the 600 longs steps to the bottom of the cliffs. The tour we booked included a ticket for the cable car, so we took it to the port below. Once we were back on the ship we all went back to our cabins and fell asleep. Mom and Sean slept all the way until the next morning, while David and Lyndsey got up in time for dinner and then went dancing in one of the lounges. Tomorrow we will be in Athens. See you then!