Blue Rust

Highest position in Explore = #304 on March 4th, 2009, thank you!

Where does this interesting door lead? Do you dare open it?

Alright, true story. This past summer, I travelled to Santorini, Greece. This door is near the base of the 650 ft. cliff below the city of Fira near the harbor. There are three ways down from the cliff:
1. a mechanical gondola (cable car)
2. a donkey
3. on foot (thousands of steps)

Most people take the gondola ride down to the base of the cliff (smart). But not me, I wanted to hike down, so I could grab some great pics of the donkeys (dumb). Well, the donkey pics were fun, but the journey turned out not to be the pleasurable jaunt I had envisioned. After I was 1/3 of the way down, I realized that the donkeys don’t move out of your way when they are coming up the hill. They are steadfast and determined in their climb and march in a single line. Worse, it was VERY difficult to get out of their way as the ground was slippery… and smelly. That’s right, these donkey’s can’t hold it all the way to the top. So my picture taking was cut a bit short and the game was on… dodge the donkeys while taking care to not slip and fall in the… yeah, you guessed it.

At long last I reached the bottom, donkey collision averted. Even though it was 100 degrees outside, hotter it seemed after I had walked the 1000 stairs, I just had to stop and take a picture of this door. I was fascinated by it. It’s crazy to me how something this rusty and clearly worn can be so beautiful!

Anyway, two morals to this story:
1. Take the gondola if you go to Santorini :)
2. Sometimes going off the beaten path and getting a little dirty in the process pays off in the end

You really need to see the large version to appreciate the detail in this photo.