Santorini - A Morning Walk Around Fira and An Afternoon Walk Around Pyrgos

A quick breakfast and out the door at 8am to walk along the caldera walkway towards Fira. Without the sun setting and shining straight into our faces the views were far better than last night. They were pretty nice then too, but now we could hopefully take better photos.

The Norwegian forecast had predicted a high of 25°C and a starting temperature of 24°C. In reality, it felt slightly cooler to start with and ended up slightly warmer. We saw a few extra spots compared with last night: more churches, plenty of blue and white, and—unlike the classic postcard images—plenty of yellowy off-white mixed in as well.

We also got a better view of where the donkeys head down the cliff trail to bring up a few travellers. At least, we assume that’s what they do. We only saw them being led down in a line behind their keeper. We could definitely smell them though, as they left a few deposits behind. 😂 A man with a bucket and shovel arrived just as we did to partially sort that out.

We walked along the cliff edge to the far end of Fira, where there was a supermarket and a pharmacy—both things we needed. Food supplies plus a few Panadol. The supermarket was small but had a good range and reasonable prices.

On the way back, we did a loop to check out different streets. These included a few tourist shops and yet more restaurants. We also came across quite a few cars, bikes, and trucks since that stretch is part of the island’s main road system. We were keeping an eye out for a bakery closer to the apartment but never found one.

We got back just after 9:30am, so we didn’t need to wait long for the official pool opening at 10. Until then, we sat beside the pool and enjoyed the free coffee provided by the apartment complex. I also introduced myself to Ilias, the manager, who had already messaged us a welcome via WhatsApp the night before. One of his staff had checked us in when we arrived. Ilias gave us more ideas for places to see and things to do during our stay. A really nice guy.

The pool was quite cold but very refreshing. It will be even nicer later in the day as things heat up. We spent the morning reading and relaxing until after midday, then walked into town to catch a bus.

The main bus station is basically a tight parking lot that holds six or seven buses. They pull in, back into a space, and then staff shout out destinations. There is a timetable, and we hoped to catch the 12:45pm bus to Pyrgos. It’s the Perissa bus that stops at Pyrgos on the way—though you must not take the express bus to Perissa, as that skips Pyrgos. Both Sarika (from Sealord) and Ilias had recommended Pyrgos, and Trevor (from King Salmon) had visited just a week earlier on a cruise excursion.

The bus station was organised chaos, but eventually a bus arrived and left at 1:10pm—“Greek Island time.” Not quite as punctual as Corfu, which was closer to the published schedule.

Pyrgos is a traditional Greek village perched high on a hill in Santorini—not clinging to the cliffs like Fira and Oia. It might even be the highest village on the island? (Sarah confirms it is. She also informed me that Pyrgos was a Venetian Castle! What?!) Pyrgos

Since we hadn’t eaten lunch yet, food was priority number one. Google showed a bakery just 150m from the bus stop—and it turned out to be the bakery find of the trip so far. Wonderful food. We had a potato pastry, a sausage pastry, and a chicken pastry (note: the last two were quite small—we aren’t complete gluttons). But we did also add a small vanilla donut and an apple pastry. OK, maybe the jury is still out on the gluttony accusation. 😂

Inside the bakery, we met an elderly Greek man sitting in the corner—about as Greek-looking as you could imagine. He smiled and waved when I caught his eye. I said, “Hello, how are you?” and he smiled more, replying in Greek. None of us understood each other. My usual approach is to say where I’m from, so I offered him a handshake, which he accepted warmly. I pointed at “New Zealand” on my hat, but of course that meant nothing to him. So I pulled up Google Maps and zoomed out, panning down to the bottom of the world. The shopkeeper—maybe his daughter—joined in, translated, and at that point international relations were officially established! Time to enjoy the baked goods. 😁

We sat at the bus stop, under the shade of a tree, and enjoyed every bite.

To work off some of those pastries, we started exploring Pyrgos. The walk went straight up the hill—no gentle slopes here. We didn’t have a planned route, just spotted a church at the top and thought, “It must be that way!” We were right. A lovely walk through narrow alleys and picture-perfect Greek scenes.

At the very top was a beautiful church we couldn’t go inside, as far as we could tell. But just behind it was an incredible view back over the island toward the airport. Not as pretty as the caldera views, but amazing in a stark way—dry, barren land with scattered houses and very few trees. Surprisingly, we haven’t seen many olive trees here. Mostly, they seem to be eucalyptus or gum trees somehow surviving with almost no water.

The walk back down was hot, so we took a different route, hoping to see new sights—which we did. The “master of navigation” (without consulting Google Maps) managed to bring us back within 50m of the bakery. Luckily, they still had three vanilla donuts left, which "we" saved for later.

Back at the bus stop, Sarah said the timetable showed a 2:45pm bus. I joked that the timetable really meant “a bus will come at some point today.” 😂 We waited, and waited. Eventually, one did turn up. So technically we were both right—Sarah’s bus was just 30 minutes late. 😉

Sarah suggested we walk the cliff edge again. Not sure that was the best idea in the heat of the afternoon sun, but it gave us some reverse views and new angles we hadn’t seen this morning.

Back at the apartment, it was "straight to the pool room" time. Oh, so nice to cool off after a hot day. Could it get any better? Yes, because Sarah then appeared with cold beers and the salty peanuts we’d bought earlier. Pure bliss.

Our apartment has a basic two-element kitchen with enough pots and pans to cook—a rarity in Santorini. But that’s the flashpacking way: comfort at a reasonable price. Tonight’s dinner was chicken with our secret spices, plus lettuce and tomato. Definitely an improvement from last night’s spaghetti with margarine. 😂

After dinner we walked to the mini Mart as we needed more bottled water. Yep back to playing that game again. We were almost too late to enjoy the sun setting behind the caldera but popped up there anyway. Just managed to see a bit of orange before it disappeared.