Santorini

Had somewhat of a frustrating day the day we went to Santorini. First of all, ferry was delayed a few hours (due to rough seas caused by the wind), then we were herded in disorganised chaos into the bowels of the boat (made in Australia by the way) and arrived in Santorini to find to that it is (a) nothing like I expected and (b) has black volcanic sand beaches (I don’t like volcanic beaches). And it is a rather large island, much bigger than I was expecting.

On arrival at the hotel we discovered that … the blue domes are in another part of the island … there has been far too much volcanic activity on Santorini for my liking and by the sounds of things, it’s probably due for more any day now … our hotel room has a toilet that doesn’t flush properly … a broken shower (water pouring out everywhere except where it should be coming out) … and the only light in the bathroom has some wiring fault that causes it to switch off and stay off after about 5 mins of operation.

We were staying in Fira (Thira) the capital city of Santorini, and fortunately, the disappointment didn’t last long. Stefanos took us to see sunset from the top of the island and we then took a walk to the other side of town to look back over the city to see what it looks like after dark … a magical, sparkling city.

We had the option to go for a Quad Bike ride of the island the next day or a boat ride to some other islands to see Volcanos – we and a few others opted instead to catch the bus to Oia (pronounced “Ee-ah”) in search of the Santorini we have seen in all the brochures.

There are literally about half a dozen (max) blue domed buildings in Oia (we were feeling somewhat duped and cheated) 🙂 but again, it quickly grows on you. Lovely town to walk around, heaps of shops, restaurants, pools and beautiful views. So, we can recommend a visit to Santorini, just don’t expect it all to have blue domed roofs and white-washed buildings. Lower expectations and all that.

Decided to go for a bite to eat, and to rest our legs at midday and landed up staying for about 3 hours, eating, gossiping and enjoying the sea view. Had an absolutely yummy lunch of tzaziki and pita bread, tomato balls and deep fried spinach pie.

Returned to our hotel, went for a swim and after many hours of frustrating research, decided to book a flight from Turkey to London (after our tour of Turkey). It has become increasingly difficult to find countries to explore as numbers have started increasing in Europe and rules about who is allowed in where change on a daily (sometimes hourly) basis. We had to have a flight out of Turkey before boarding our flight into Turkey (Turkish Government rules) so we decided to just go to the UK, have some down time and give ourselves time to research and plan things properly. Also, no quarantine requirement on entering the UK from Turkey.

I then received an email from the tour operator in Turkey advising that they thought our flight in two day’s time had been cancelled. I hadn’t received anything from the airline or the booking agency (like I had the first time they were cancelled), so told them I thought everything was fine.

We returned from dinner and drinks at 11pm and I decided I should perhaps make some enquiries, long story short – yes, flight from Athens to Istanbul cancelled! This is the second flight that has been cancelled, and has nothing to do with COVID by the way, has to do with political fighting between the two countries since March this year. Both the airlines and the booking agencies know that flights aren’t allowed into Turkey from Greece, but they continue to advertise and sell flights in the hope that the ban will be lifted and when it isn’t, they just cancel the flights a week or in this case less than 48 hours before the flight is due to leave.

Then you get to spend hours on hold trying to speak to someone about getting your money back which either (a) isn’t going to happen (b) may happen in 3 to 4 months time or (c) you’ll get a credit to use at some point in the future, but that takes anything between two and 30 days to be issued.

Spent five hours on Friday trying to find an alternative route into Istanbul to join our tour that is already booked and paid for … but flights were going to cost four times the amount that I originally paid, because I am now booking only one day in advance. After many hours on the phone and the tour company agreeing we could have a credit we could use to book any tour, any time until December 2021, we decided to pull the plug on Turkey for now and return to London and quarantine.

Flew with British Airways to London. Not only were staff not enforcing the rules of wearing masks/wearing them properly, but there was no social distancing like we’ve had on flights with Lufthansa (spare seat next to everyone on the plane). BA had booked every single seat and the plane was packed. Anyway, suppose we should be grateful that we could get on a flight at such short notice. Plenty of forms to complete online prior to entry to the UK and plenty of warnings of fines etc for non-compliance with providing info/not following rules but once again – not a soul in sight on arrival at Heathrow. Automated border control (scan your passport and walk through) and no-one at customs. Not complaining though (quick and easy arrival for us) – you’d just think that they may be a tad more pro-active given the COVID situation, the numbers in the UK and the fact that an entire plane had just arrived from what is meant to be a high risk area.

We are now in London (in quarantine) for a week then we fly to Turkey on Saturday (third time lucky, hopefully) to go on the same tour we had booked previously, just a later departure date.