Santorini

Since we have been on this trip I have started every travel portion of the adventure sleepy. We flew out on a Thursday after work, so I was tired on the plane, the night before each new leg of our journey I would be so hyped up that it would be hard to sleep. It has made it seem like I went to sleep in Toronto and woke up in Amsterdam, went to sleep in Amsterdam and woke up in Athens and now I went to sleep in Athens and woke up on the island of Santorini. Kind of a cool way to travel, sleep through the planes, trains, boats, and automobiles and instead just concentrate on the sights you're seeing. 

 Speaking of sights, I'm getting off of Art and History and moving onto the cultural side of our vacation. When we booked our accommodations for Santorini we were looking at Airbnb, and when Joani saw a traditional cave house, she was over the moon. Now whenever we travel the only specifications I look for is a private bathroom and cleanliness. Everything else is negotiable. So Joani wants a cave house, I don't care, I'm in. From the moment we have got here though I have thought," what a stroke of genius!"  Yes it is obviously very clean and has a private bathroom, but we are basically staying in a finished cave with a stone façade front on it. It is one of the coolest places we have ever stayed and my only regret is that when we planned our trip we hadn't managed to squeeze out one more day for Santorini.

 Now before any of you start thinking about booking a place like this, keep in mind that we are staying in a rustic Greek town where almost nobody speaks English. We have walked around the town a bit and there are no bars and we will not see any beaches until we pick up our rental car tomorrow. This is Greece as the locals live. I was lucky enough to get our local  contact to drive me to the grocery store to get some food for tonight's supper. The same contact ( a very personable guy ) is going to pick me up on a scooter tomorrow morning and drive me to the airport to pick up our rental car.
 We will be driving around this smaller island, checking out some beaches, a very famous archaeological site, and then tomorrow evening before we return our car, we will see the renowned sunset in the town of Oia.

 Photos.. The first shot is our cave house from the front door looking past the kitchen, dining room, and living room.

The archway in the back is the doorway to our bedroom, completely inside the cave.

 The second shot is a lava tube that is being used as a skylight in our bedroom.... Come on, how cool is that?

 Third shot is of the church right outside our front door.

  Next two, are just shots we took while walking on these winding, hilly goat trails ( sorry, I meant paths) that meander around the town we are staying in.

They show the old and newly refurbished houses.

 If you look closely at the last shot you will see a cliff face with caves.

These caves apparently, were originally just used as storage and then over the years turned into, housing that stays warm in the winter and cool in the summer. Using local materials to supply easy housing. How novel.

Everything here has been very cool so far and seems to be getting better.

 Garry