santorini life

We've been here a few days, and are starting to settle in a bit. Today, I'm up at 8, on the balcony overlooking the caldera and typing away. I never get tired of the view, it's simply astounding. The notion that it's a giant volcanic crater always makes me think: EVEN COOLER! This was definitely a good choice venue-wise, I want to come back to this hotel again and again over the years, hopefully next time with friends or family.

With The Locals

My friend Baydra from Seattle came to Greece on vacation last spring, and at my suggestion, she visited Santorini. On that trip, she met a guy from the island, named Kostas. She hooked us up with Kostas over email, and two nights ago, we met him and his friends for drinks.

me and kostas

We went to a taverna near Oia, where a bunch of his friends were gathering for dinner. The taverna was a typical Santorini joint, white walls with coved ceilings and good simple food. The style of dining was typical southern European, with lots of little dishes shared by all, and wine drunk from little glasses. The local wine is red, sweet, and clearly not casked for very long. It's different from what I'm used to in wine, but still enjoyable. There were about 10 people dining with us, seven men and three women. All were musicians of one sort or another, and everyone had long hair, with the men wearing ponytails. Kostas told me later that long hair for men is traditional in the Greek isles. One guy sitting across from us was a big beefy archaeologist, and if you put him on a low carb, high steroid diet, he could have made the cast of 300. As the evening progressed, everyone got drunk, and one of the girls (Elektra) started singing Greek standard songs... I never figured out if they were old pop songs or folks songs or what. They all used weird scales that Americans think of as "middle eastern", and never really seemed to repeat motifs. We were told that many were sad songs about loss and death. There were a few other people dining in the taverna, all Greeks, and they joined in singing with Elektra and the gang. Kostsas kept telling me, "this one is by the very famous composer..." so and so, and he would always seem a little surprised when I hadn't heard of him. I found the whole phenomenon interesting, it seems to me that singing these songs provides the Greeks with a quick way of connecting with their fellows in the room. I suppose they all knew them from childhood: everyone seemed to know the lyrics, and they all seemed to be moved by them to one degree or another. The maudlin themes seemed to evoke emotional responses which everyone could share in. By the end of the evening, the whole taverna was sitting at our table toasting one another, talking, singing, hugging, etc. This was a neat cultural trick that I've never really seen before... American folk songs are usually pretty goofy, and aren't well know by the general populace, and American pop music tends to be more divisive (I like punk, she likes rock, he likes blues, the other guy likes R&B, etc.), so this concept doesn't really translate to our culture. By the 1AM, we were tired and the bartender was kicking us out. Reba and I exchanged email addresses with our new pals, hugged goodbye, and walked home.

singing greeks

dancing greeks

drinking greeks

greek aftermath (not so different from english aftermath)

The Dogs of Oia

We are staying in the town of Oia, which is on the northern tip of Santorini Island. Oia, and I suppose Santorini in general, has a large population of feral cats and dogs. The locals seem to tolerate them, and they are generally tame around tourists... "lovable mutts" looking for a handout. Both are often seen lounging in the sun on ledges and outcroppings, and will approach diners cautiously mewing (or whining) for a handout. The dogs have the habit of walking along with tourists in an entirely collegial manner, so that all of a sudden you may find yourself the temporary member of a dog pack on patrol. They spar with one another, bark and play as they walk along... it's all very cute. We were treated to a darker side of these animals on the trip back from the taverna, however. A pack of 4 dogs picked up with us as we walked along the deserted main street of Oia toward our hotel. At one point, the whole pack galloped off to an empty street front cafe, hackles up and noses down. Finding a young cat sitting on a chair tucked under a cafe table, they started barking and biting at it, whereupon the cat began spitting, hissing and slashing at the dogs. Flushed from it's chair, the cat ran across the street with the pack in hot pursuit. Jumping over a short wall, the cat tried to climb a wall that sloped up to a curved roof. This was a big mistake. The slope, for whatever reason, was too hard for the cat to climb, and it slid back down, seconds before the dogs arrived. The cat turned, crouched, and eyes wide, lifted a tiny paw in defence. Instantly, a dog had grabbed the cat in it's jaws, and began shaking it in that way that dogs do with small animals caught. They took turns ripping the cat from one another's mouths, each shaking it violently. The cat's spitting and hissing rapidly turned to yowling and crying, and as it began to stop fighting, the dogs slowed down their attack as well. Finished, the dogs bounded back over the short wall toward us, ears up and happy, leaving the cat lying on it's back, twisted in a rather disturbing position and crying in a sick, low voice. The entire episode took less than 1 minute, and frankly, left Reba and I a bit shocked. We left quickly, wanting nothing more to do with vicious dogs or dying cats, but the pack bounced happily along with us. As we got close to the turnoff for our hotel, they surprised another dog, which immediately began yelping and ran down the street, with the pack in heated pursuit once again. Glad to be rid of them, we turned off and went into our gate. This episode upset me for what seems to be several reasons. 1) I have an aversion to uncontrolled packs of dogs, I have always known and loved dogs as well trained, solitary pets, and the wild side of dogs in packs seems foreign and somehow wrong to me. 2) attacking another animal and leaving it for dead seems wrong as well... I incorrectly assumed the dogs were going to eat the cat, and for whatever reason that seems reasonable (if gross) to me, but just leaving it broken and dying seems like such a waste. It seems they simply killed it because it was in their way and they could. 3) If I would have thought more quickly, or known what was about to happen, I would have tried to help the cat escape. But, it all happened so fast that all I could do was stare. In retrospect, I suppose that I was like the wildlife photographer who watches a gazelle fawn be eaten by a hyena... it's sad, but it's also nature, and it's hardly my place to intervene. That cat fucked up big time: it was hanging out in an area constantly patrolled by dogs, it ran across open territory with dogs in pursuit, it passed up several other walls it could have climbed, and in the end, it passed up a short wall it could have easily jumped into the darkness and rocks, instead trying to mount an unclimbable sloping roof. That cat was stupid, and nature culled it. It will never go on to make stupid kittens, and thus the cats of Santorini will be smarter in the aggregate... at least this is standard logic that should make me feel better. Certainly, if I had thought quickly enough to intervene, it would have gone on to make similar mistakes with the same result. Even so, the whole scene upset me, and when I saw that same pack of dogs come bouncing up last night, a couple of well aimed kicks sent the lot packing.

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