What a lovely way to spend a Thursday evening enjoying sunset with several glasses of red overlooking the volcano from a terrace in Oia.

This adventure involved getting up at 6am in Kokkino Chorio in Crete and driving to Heraklion (2 hours) to catch the Fastcat to Santorini. We had booked accommodation at Nectarious Villa and the lovely Katarina met us at the port with her card for her hotel. It was an enlightening introduction to Santorini as she drove us up the twisty turny road up to the town of Fira at the top of the mountain with the phone in one hand and changing gears with the other hand and the car somehow finding the way while she tooted to everyone along the way to say hello. (worse was to come).

We had a misadventure trying to go to Ancient Thera - we got the bus to Kamari at 2pm and after waiting for the connection to Thera for half an hour we were told that they don't go in the afternoon. So back to Fira and jump on the bus to Oia for a memorable journey to Oia. I do try to avoid roller coasters at all costs but I was not prepared for a (big) bus to be speeding along precarious roads on a cliff edge for about half an hour - Erika told me to close my eyes but it was impossible. To everyone's surprise the side flap of the bus flew open and the bus came to a halt much to everyone's relief. It took a while for the conductor to fix the problem and then we continued our journey without further interruption. I think the bus drivers must have lessons in terrorising the tourists as the one coming back home was not much better (in the dark).

The rest of the evening was very enjoyable and we even had the pleasure of observing a wedding on a balcony which we could see from our chosen restaurant. Unfortunately the sunset was a non-event due to cloud but we had a wonderful evening nonetheless. Despite the tourists Santorini is an enchanting place and quite unique.

Even though it is the second half of October the place is still full of tourists and we are told it is a very good October compared to previous due to the good weather.

Tomorrow we are hoping to visit the volcano on an old sailing boat - Captain Giannis. More to follow!