Moving Day - Krakow to Santorini 🇬🇷

A 10:30 am check-out and a short 500m walk to the bus stop. This was the better option to get to the airport without needing to change from tram to train. A slightly longer walk, but easier in the end.

Our flight wasn’t until 2 pm, but after seeing the long lines for security when we arrived, it had been a good idea to go straight to the airport. It’s a very busy place, with flights to far-off destinations I didn’t expect. Our flight time to Santorini was just over three hours, and we braved Ryanair again. The planes are quite cramped for me, but once again the service was reliable and on time. There are some small advantages to being Sarah’s height. 😉

We arrived at Santorini Airport at 5:30 pm, having “lost” an hour with the time zone change. Now you won’t believe this bit—we (yes, Aaron!) booked an airport taxi pick-up service. The public bus only runs once an hour, and at that time of day we didn’t want to hang around waiting. The taxi, booked via Booking.com, was $36 NZD, which I thought was good value compared with the apartment’s own taxi service at €30. FYI, the bus would have been €4, so yes—this was a departure from our Flashpacking ethos.

The taxi driver had a very fancy black BMW, and he drove it like he’d stolen it. 😂 After that came a short but steep, typically Santorini walk up the final 50m to the apartment. Ersi Villas is the name, and it’s very nice. We’re in Firostefani, which is connected to but just beyond the famous Fira. Oia is the other famous village, about 10 km away.

A quick check-in and “unpack” followed. (Unpacking basically means unzipping the backpack and removing one packing cube! 😂) We were both excited to explore Firostefani right away. Just a short flight of steps and a two-minute walk later, we reached a beautiful church (pic below). This was our first view over Santorini’s famous caldera. It even brought Sarah to tears—one of her big bucket-list destinations ticked off! 😢

We wandered the skinny pathways along the cliff edge, checking out the restaurants and bars perched there. Some were quite expensive, but still within reach—if we wanted to. 😉 We didn’t!

Instead, we did a short loop for photos and then stopped at Taverna Romantica for a cold beer. No caldera view there, but it was nice, and it came recommended by our host. We’ll probably eat there another night, as it’s meant to have good authentic Greek food. The waiter was very funny—he suggested we order three beers so he could have one. When I called his bluff and said, “Sure, three beers please,” he delivered only two. 😂

Now, I’m not sure I should tell you what we had for dinner. Sarah told me not to, but I think I will anyway. We had spaghetti pasta in the apartment—cooked with olive oil and margarine—plus crackers with Laughing Cow cheese. It was just food we’d been carrying in our bags, and we didn’t want to spend $34 on a pizza. Don’t worry—we’ll have a proper meal tomorrow!