We Made It Hun

July 05, 2021

We Made It Hun

Sitting on the deck of our apartment in Santorini, Greg comments, "We made it hun!" I can't believe we actually arrived to another country, particularly one in Europe, which has just recently started opening up to Americans. International travel has become a big piece of our identity in the past decade. It was so exciting and rejuvenating to take off in a plane again, to appreciate the view of our world from the skies above, and to touchdown on foreign lands. Overall, albeit tainted with COVID measures, it felt like a regular day of travel.

Our 23-hour travel day was The Great Mask Challenge - because as long as you are either in an airport or an airplane, you must have a mask on. The "challenge" made me think of the game we always play when we go through the long tunnels on the way to Yosemite: who can hold their breath the whole way (winners get to make a wish). Except in this game the tunnel doesn't end. The only opportunity you get to suck in unrestricted airflow is when you get to take your mask off to eat. We can't be relieved enough that barely a week ago Greece lifted its restrictions and no longer requires you to wear a mask outside. That's a pretty big deal considering the fine in most European countries for not wearing one outside is up to 1000 euros. Being able to sit on a beach or take vacation pictures without a mask on means our vacation might have some semblance of normalcy!

Masking up at the airport

It must be pretty frustrating to work at the airport right now - trying to keep up with each country's changing entry requirements. Kudos to those workers, who are doing a great job! Although our flight was ticketed straight through to Santorini, at each leg (Sacramento, San Francisco , and Munich) we had to check in at the gate to show our passport, vaccination card, and Greece Locator Form. Landing in Santorini's one-terminal airport was the easiest entry yet. The guy letting us into the terminal (you bus from your plane to the terminal door) only wanted to check our Greek Locator/Entry Form and count our vaccine cards. That was the entire extent of "customs". Then we were completely free to go! We grabbed our bags, walked out the doors and easily caught the bus that goes to town. (It costs 1.60 Euro.)

Greece has been on my bucket list since I was a kid and first dreamt of far off places to go. It is hard to believe with all the countries we have been to that it took us so long to make it here!

My expectations are a little out of wack because this trip was planned last minute instead of my norm which is much closer to 9 months in advance. We only booked our flights the first week of May, when Tauck cancelled our family river cruise through Europe. As of May 14, the only European country with any promise of opening was Greece, so we switched our flights to go there. Being less than 2-months out meant we didn't have all the housing options we are used to, which was even further and significantly narrowed down as I would only consider bookings with 100% refund policy. Santorini is world famous for sunsets, and the best place by far to watch them from is Oia. When you consider that the majority of tourists converge on Oia each night for those few hours at dusk, and how especially restrictive it is to get to that part of the island with hardly a total of 30 taxis on the entire island - you realize you want to splurge and stay in Oia. Too cheap to spend that kind of money for four nights, I booked our first two nights at Wisteria Apartments "15-minutes" walking from the main town, Fira (Thira). What you don't realize as you are sitting at home making these plans is that those 15 minutes - seemingly nothing - are less than desirable. We arrived tired and hot, and having to carry our luggage packs along the edge of the road where cars and buses are flying by with no regard for pedestrians - it was painfully obvious "15 minutes" was an exaggeration, or at least situational to what you define as the start of town. Despite the friendly management, given its location and odd layout (our double bed in its cave-like room with a rounded 5.5-ft ceiling is up a steep ladder staircase) I wouldn't recommend staying here unless you are on a very tight budget.

View towards the ocean from our deck at Wisteria Apartments

To end our travel day our goal was to get out for a bit in attempt to assimilate to our new time zone rather than crash on our beds from a tiring travel day. We went out to get dinner and see the infamous sunset view from Fira Town.