Another day - Another paradise

We felt a bit sad leaving our comfy studios and friendly staff at the Paros accommodation. We were happy to leave the mosquitoes there though. The trip to Santorini was long, yet interesting – we just wouldn’t want to do it every day... The queues waiting to get on the ferry were tiresome, hot and stuffy. The ferry itself was the same ship as last time – we ended up in the same area which was hot and yet again full of smoke from our health conscious locals. Ro spent pretty much the entire time on the wind blown, yet sun drenched deck. In actual fact the wind of 2 days ago has dropped off significantly, the sea this afternoon had mirror like sheen to it. And yet there is still some freshening gusts to cool the sweat off our brows as we walk around (it’s almost perfect weather – gloat, gloat etc...)..

Our new residence is not central to the “action” of the major towns of Thira or Ia, it does however, have a very local atmosphere, this time we have kids running around, playing down ball and screaming and yelling as they have fun after a long week at school. Everyone seems to know everyone else. The young waitress at our cafe was running late as she’d obviously been hangin’, out with her friends a bit longer than she should’ve been and was quite happy to share words with the locals as they wandered by. Our room is amazing – one room with a loft level (containing the girls’ beds) which has a low domed roof. The balcony downstairs overlooks the sea towards Ios, Paros and Naxos, whilst the one upstairs has a 360 degree view of the entire north side of the main island. The most significant noise here is the sound of scooters, motorbikes and ATV’s as they zoom around the place (or struggle up the hills under the pressure of overweight tourists).
As I type this I reckon we just had an earthquake. Maybe the sleeping giant is not so sleepy tonight...
It’s impossible to ignore that we are sitting on a volcano. The cliffs plunge into the water with a blaze of recently formed geographical colours from incredible heights. And the locals just seem to delight in building their residencies in most precarious positions. As they are all painted white – from a distance it looks like the mountains are snow capped.

Whilst Dad stayed up to watch the moonset over the town (and test the capabilities of the camera to its limits) – more earthquakes – maybe this is why they build everything with arches and domes and don’t go too high up ?