Day 9 in Greece - 2024

Blue Star Ferry


We leave our hotel close to midnight and drive to the port in Heraklion. We park the car in Parking Port 2, and leave the key under the mat per the rental car company's instruction, and go to board the giant ferry. We walk on via a giant ramp, drop our luggage off at these shelves that strap our luggage in for the ride, and then head up these escalators. The escalators take us up to a lobby area of sorts. There's a help desk, and three other ways we can go. Straight ahead is the hallway to the cabins if you booked one to sleep in. We did not. Directly to the left is an entrance to a cafeteria, and to the left and behind us is the huge seating area. The seating area reminds me of a huge airplane with the way the seats are arranged. We choose a pair of seats in the back so that I can go out the back door onto the deck and get videos of us leaving Crete and arriving in Santorini.


It takes quite a long while for us to actually leave port, and we doze off and on. An announcement comes on over the speaker announcing our departure, so I exit to the deck. It feels cold outside in the night on the sea, so I'm glad I'm wearing a sweater. I take videos of us leaving Crete. No one else is on the deck except workers running around in their jumpsuits. I head back inside to a sleeping Jeremiah, sit down next to him, and doze off and on until 04:30 when our ferry stops.


We wake up to an announcement over the speaker system, and I head outside, confused if we are already at Santorini. No, we are at a port at the island of Anafi. We pick up a few more passengers, almost all of which look like Orthodox priests. This stop is very brief as only about ten people boarded on, and then we continue our journey to Santorini. Jeremy, who hasn't really moved from his seat, looks at me with his sleepy eyes, and I tell him we aren't there yet. He dozes back off into slumber, his arms around his backpack, and I sit back down next to him and doze off, too.

Interior view of a passenger ferry cabin showing rows of blue upholstered seats in an empty seating area.

Tataki Hotel


At 06:00, an announcement comes over the intercom again. We are in Santorini. Almost everyone gets off the ferry and heads down. There are so many cars there picking up their loved ones from the ferry, and I head to the line of taxis right away. I ask the very first taxi driver if he takes credit cards, and he does. He loads our luggage into his trunk, and we drive up this very steep road from the port up to the top of the island. He drives into the heart of Fira, a city on the island of Santorini, and stops at the end of a road. He can go no further, but he tells us if we walk straight ahead and then turn left, our hotel should be right there.


We retrieve our luggage, and walk up the way he directed us. He zooms away, I'm assuming to try to make it back to the ferry to get more customers, and we immediately feel lost. There's a sign with our hotel name on it - Tataki Hotel, but we don't know how to exactly access the rooms. There's no front desk, no check in area, nothing. We walk up the steps, following the arrow on the sign, and walk around aimlessly. I call the number provided on the listing, and a guy tells me what room we are in and that the door is unlocked. We walk around again, and Jeremy finds the correct door. Sure enough, the door is unlocked. We get inside of our room, lock the door, and just immediately lay down and sleep.

Fira


We wake up around 10:30 and are very hungry. We walk around the narrow pedestrian streets for a long time, hoping to come across a restaurant, but we manage not to. We pass several churches and are surprised to find that they are Catholic and not Greek Orthodox. The pedestrian street we follow takes us along the edge of the city with beautiful views of the island and the sea.


We walk down a main road and find a restaurant called Pelican Kipos. We immediately love it. It's like sitting in a garden. Jeremy orders the American Breakfast, and I get a waffle with Nutella and chocolate ice cream. Tiny birds greet us in the tree next to our table. It's incredibly enchanting.


My calves are swollen from all the travel, so we go back to the hotel. I watch the last few episodes of The Crown with my feet propped up, and then we play a few table-top games on the bed. We walk out into the night and have dinner at a place called Taverna El Greco. This is also an amazing experience - Jeremy orders the pork gyro, and I have the carbonara.


We walk around a bit afterwards, exploring, before returning to the hotel to sleep.

A small brown bird rests on a cobblestone or pebble-textured concrete surface.
Decadent chocolate ice cream scoops drizzled with sauce and toppings on a decorative plate.
A small brown sparrow perched on textured gray concrete among scattered dark stones and pebbles.
A collage of breakfast and brunch dishes including sandwiches, toast, eggs, and orange juice on various plates and settings.
Bright white minimalist room interior with sheer curtains, small table and water bottle.
Dimly lit vintage corridor with glowing pendant lights leading to a photoshoot area and display window.
A plate of spaghetti carbonara with mushrooms and fresh herbs served alongside another dish with french fries in the background.
Dimly lit indoor shopping arcade with vintage lighting and storefronts along a narrow corridor.
Panoramic view of white Mediterranean buildings with flat rooftops under bright blue sky and puffy clouds.
A white and tan church bell tower with a clock face rises against a bright blue sky with puffy white clouds in Santorini, Greece.
White Mediterranean style church buildings with domed roofs and bell towers against a bright blue sky with puffy clouds.
A black ornate metal door with glass panels stands against a beige stucco wall with mountains visible through the doorway.
A narrow alley with white walls covered in colorful graffiti stretches into the distance on a sunny day.
Close-up view of green olive branches with ripe olives growing among leaves in a Mediterranean grove.
Arched doorway entrance leading to a narrow alley with stairs and hanging laundry in an Italian residential building.
Sunlight streams through dense green foliage creating a natural canopy pattern of leaves and branches.
A narrow cobblestone street with white and yellow buildings leads upward between arched columns in a Mediterranean town.
White and blue church domes with crosses rise above tan stucco walls and green foliage in a Mediterranean architectural style.
A rustic blue wooden window shutter set against a weathered white wall creates a minimalist Mediterranean aesthetic.
Church bell tower with yellow walls and white trim against bright blue sky shows multiple angles of its architectural details.
A row of lush green trees with yellow blossoms lines a residential street with parked cars and buildings.
Traditional white Greek Orthodox church with bright blue dome and bell tower against clear blue sky in Santorini, Greece.
A series of rocky outcrops and stone walls with green vegetation growing along the edges and crevices.
Narrow whitewashed alley with blue doors and stone steps in a Mediterranean village on a sunny day.