Blue, blue my love is blue........

I don’t think I ever appreciated the real inspiration for the 128 count box of Crayola Crayons before. I mean how many different colors of blue can there be? Since we sailed into the Aegean I stopped counting! I’ve always been a purple person, and lately more lime green, but these happy blues have left their mark. This ocean is a blue I never imagined.

I know this batch of photos from Santorini has many redundancies. I couldn’t help myself. This is how an artist must feel when she’s found her muse. The camera just kept finding something more beautiful in each new picture. Today I felt as if I was living in a Thomas McKnight painting.

http://www.thomasmcknight.com/poster.htm

I pray heaven looks like this.

Santorini Island is actually the top of a volcano. The eruption 3,500 years ago is said to be the world’s largest explosion. It killed the entire Minoan civilization on Crete over 75 miles away. What exists now is the sea flowing into the caldera, where our ship was docked. Picture Mt St Helen’s underwater, with just the top sticking above the water. The towns sit perched about 300 feet above the water, directly up sheer cliffs on the west side. To reach the towns, you can walk to the top, or ride the cable car or ride the donkeys. Be sure to check the scale on the picture of the switchbacks heading up the mountain. The best take on this is from the comedian Ron White in “You can’t fix stupid.” Look for it on HBO.

Ron White: So we make it to Santorini, and Santorini is on the rim of an ancient volcano. And for 2000 years, folks, the only way to get to the top of the rim on the port side of the island was to take a donkey 800 feet up these switchbacks, takes forever. Until 5 years ago, somebody installed a tram that does the same thing in 18 seconds. And I was shocked to see the donkey guy still in business because he had the worst sales pitch I had ever heard in my life. He says, "You can take the donkey to the top of the rim, or you can take the tram. It is the same price." That would be my biggest secret if I were you, buddy. I'd be lying to people as soon as they got off the ship. "The donkey is $3.50. The tram is about 2800 Euro."




We rented a little car and drove all over the island. We had breakfast at Mamma’s House. Mamma is famous for her yummy American style breakfasts. She’s a Greek who used to be a nanny in American when she was younger. She loves American’s and is just an overall character. An experience.

After spending the afternoon ogling the beauty of Oia on the far north end of the island (where most of the great pictures are from) we drove down the backside of the mountain and spent some time on the black sand beaches. The sand was incredibly soft and to top it off there were free pumice stones just for the taking! (Hey gotta save some money on this trip!).

Just enjoy these pictures. I know some of them are beautiful, but trust me, they do not even do this place justice. I’m already trying to figure out how I can get back there.



Santorini