What I learnt about Santorini:-

Santorini is a by-product of a volcano. The island is shaped like a croissant, and it was formed from the spoils of an eruption thousands of years ago.

Santorini’s real name is actually Thera. The capital town called Thera also confusingly called Fira. In the north, the town called Oia/Ia (written two ways, but both pronounced “Ear”) is where people normally head to see those spectacular views from balconies from apartments set in the sides of the cliff.

Its one of the most popular worldwide tourist destinations for Honeymooners. People come from all over to come here, but in October 2021 when pandemic was less disruptive, I saw and heard a lot of French, Germans, Spanish and Italians, and a small number of American visitors.

Its probably the most Instagramable holiday place you will recognise. Also in a lot of holiday brochures. The most expensive and desirable rooms and apartments include a hot tub and great views.

Greece has 2,000 islands. This might be the best and most famous though. It does have a small airport (which looks like it has a footprint of 5% of the island) as its medium sized and the smaller ones don’t. You can look out and see Ios and some of the others.

There are a lot of tiny churches. Some in funny places. This one was next to the airport runway.

It is on an earthquake fault and the Greek islands get quite a few of them. One happened whilst I was there.

There were political demonstrations happening. I’m not sure exactly what, nothing too scary. I think they people protesting might of been local teachers. Salaries for Greeks have always been a lot lower than other parts of western Europe.

It might be where the lost City of Atlantis is. There’s a museum here.

It is quite cheap to fly here. My flight with carry on luggage only was about £65 return from London Stansted. I stayed in a youth hostel.

1. One of many islands – 2. Familiar sights in Med countries – 3. What I learnt about Santorini – 4. soon….

This is in a main road from the airport. Santorini is not that big, no more than 7 miles long I think.

I didn’t get a tax or a bus, as I wanted to stretch my legs and saw lot of piles of abandoned machinery and a few vehicles including this bus.

Scrap cars often litter the Middle East and Africa, which makes me wonder why people don’t go and scrap these and get money for them. I think the supply chains of scrap aren’t as simple here.

In this part of the world, the middle east, north Africa and Southern Europe, people build their own houses, but don’t always finish them. There are several reasons for this. Maybe someone realised their budget would only make half the house, or, some legal quibbles of the planning permission, or, even, realising you don’t pay tax on a house that’s not finished.

Either way, this is something I saw happen a lot in Israel. And Palestinian territories, And Jordan. And Turkey. And Morocco.

The empty shell of the house made a good place for me to watch the sundown. Something I did every evening I was in Santorini and everyone who comes to visit.

1. One of many islands – 2. Familiar sights in Med countries – 3. soon….