Day 11 - Santorini

Mostly a travel day. Joey our new best friend taxi driver picked us up at 8:30am and took us to the Malta International Airport. It has to be an international airport because you can't leave the island without going to another country. Anyway, the airport is well tiny. We had been told to get to the airport 2 hours ahead of time in order to be ready. We were obedient and got there just before 9 and our flight was at 11:05. She was wrong, when we got there they were just finishing checking in a flight that left at 9:30, so we could have slept a little later, but oh well. The nice airport agent lady offered to check our luggage all the way to Santorini....this made us happy because then we didn't have to worry about picking it up at our two airport stops today. We got in and found our gate and spent our last Maltese money on European Chocolate. We sat just outside our gate and read for over an hour. Then we headed to inside our gate and waited to board. We boarded and had a nice flight. Again on Air Malta they offered us a full meal which at lunch is just a sandwich and a dessert but that is more than many American Flights offer during much longer flights. Alison had been dying to try Kinnie all week. We thought it was a Maltese Beer, but it was soda. They happened to have it on the plane. It was like a lighter thinner version of Moxie, with the same bad after taste.
We landed in Rome and headed to find the Alitalia Transfer Counter. We found it and our gate for Athens and waited to board. While waiting we met two college aged kids from the states and chatted with them for a few minutes. It turns out one of them has spent time in Amherst...it was kind of funny. We were surprised that out of all the towns in NH, and for a kid to goes to University of Hawaii to have spent time in Amherst. Anyway, we headed from Rome to Athens with little problem...except that we left late. All because a woman sitting in front of us was complaining about her luggage and wouldn't stop complaining long enough to let all of the attendants sit down so we could not taxi until she stopped arguing. Once she stopped, we were off and the pilot made up some time.

We landed in Athens and had to figure out where to pick up our last flight to Santorini. We got all the way to the gate and the lady there told us that we needed to go check in, so we headed back out of security and back to the ticket counter. We checked in and all was fine.

We land in Santorini and the airport is well more than tiny. It is so small they only have one baggage claim and no incoming passport control. We waited at the baggage claim while all of the other passengers picked up their luggage. We waited and waited, except ours did not come. We went to the ticket counter to make a claim and now we wait. We got to our hotel and they were very nice. They got us into our room very quickly, after complimentary wine that was smooth, so that we could get to the supermarket before they closed so that we had some toiletries to get us through the night. After the supermarket we headed to dinner at the Pizzeria next to the store. There we acted like locals and watched the Greece Soccer team play the Spain Soccer team. When we left, Spain was winning 1-0. They say we should have an update about our luggage by noon tomorrow. We shall see.

We are anxious to see Santorini in the day light, it feels beautiful. The houses on the cliffs look awesome during the night. Again four wheelers are street legal, we may rent one of them or a scooter tomorrow. Also on our walk we passed a cemetery very small but cool with some of the graves having lights that last all night.