Fira - A tale of two halves!

The path between Fira and Oia literally passes just below the entrance to our room. Today we headed to Fira, with beautiful views of the Caldera to our right and the blue doomed churches ahead. These are the familiar views of Santorini that adorn all holiday brochures. The atmosphere at the start was authentic Greek, small delicatessens with spinach and feta pies, olives and lemons.

We looked down from the path and could see the massive floating human hives with 6,000 worker humans aboard. They wait for the drone tenders to pull alongside the hive and take the workers to the nectar shops. After spotting the hive we passed

the vernacular pods used to raise the workers from the drone tender docking area up to the nectar shops at the top of the caldera where Fira sits. From this point on the vibe changes dramatically. Now the shops are selling, diamond rings, expensive watches and designer swimwear. Suddenly we become aware we are amidst the worker bees, swarming around sovereign shops and photo opportunities. The views and buildings are just as spectacular as they were a moment ago, but now it’s different, 20 Japanese tourists under umbrellas for shade, 40 Caribeans in bright flamboyant clothing and other worker bees from all over the world trying to extract the nectar from the town as fast as possible before returning to the hive.

I’m knocking it now, but how long will it be before we have to succumb to a floating hive/hotel. Looking out to sea again, I notice that the Odyssey of the Seas, has a pod that rises up above its 9 decks to provide its occupants with a 360 degree Panoramic view of their surroundings. I think to myself, that’s obviously the Queen Bee looking down on her drones and workers and ensuring all is going well. Then the ship upped anchor and buzzed off.

We had a lovely time, but decided to head home before disappearing into a swarm of worker bees, umbrellas and selfie poles.

This makes us realise that Imerovigli was a good choice. The same views as Fira, the same beautiful architecture, but too far for the bees to reach.

We returned home to our hotel with a sigh of pure contentment. Anyone thinking of coming to Santorini, please look at Absolute Bliss as an accommodation, a small Boutique Hotel. Our room is enormous, almost as large as our bathroom. The shower is to die for and the views from the rooms are just mesmerising. In the photos you will see photos from the balcony at dawn, with fluffy clouds and tips of Island’s poking through, I could have spent the rest of my life looking at these views. It’s crazy to say that the hotel is Absolute Biss, when it’s actual name is “Absolute Bliss” . It will be particularly appealing to Led Lepplin fans as the stairs down the side of the Caldera to reach the rooms make me think of ”Stairway to Heaven”, although it should probably be “Stairway to Hell” at our age!!