I have to say, when it is winter in Santorini, it is a lot quieter than in the summer. We haven’t been to Santorini in the summer but lots of residents say it is crazy busy then. The reason it is quiet for us is because we are in the super low season and because most people are still in school. With less people, prices are lower and the lines are shorter. Also since it isn’t tourist season, lots of gas stations, restaurants, shops, and services are closed. It’s like you’re up early and little is open yet, except that the places that are closed will be closed for a month more. It wasn’t bad that lots of places were closed because there are still more than enough places for the locals to function normally.

Winter weather seems to be hard on buildings in Santorini. When we were walking around we could always hear construction going on. We saw all sorts of construction going on, fixing roads, cleaning up debris, fixing power lines, and repairing buildings. I would say the most common type was probably fixing the roads, there were few roads that weren’t either being worked on right then, or were in some state of repair. Many of the roads and walkways were different than I have experienced before. All but the main roads were made of cobblestone and looked labor intensive to repair because they have to do it all by hand. We also didn’t see any large road work machinery, the biggest machines that we saw were small cement mixers that you dump the materials into. Construction might also be a reason why lots of places are closed because buildings need some sort of repair work done on them for the coming summer.

When we were down at the docks getting ready to get on the ferry, lots of supplies were being unloaded from large boats including the ferry, probably for building with. Also, some of it was goods that have to be imported because they can’t be made on the island. Some of the items we saw were paper, wood, pipes, stones, bricks, and many more items that were in boxes and closed containers. It was really cool watching all the supplies unload because some of the trucks unloaded pre-packed trailers from the ship and put them at the dock, while others took the supplies up the hill to be distributed. We also got to see the trucks connecting and disconnecting from their trailers numerous times, which was a first for me. I really enjoyed my whole trip to Santorini and want to come back in the summer, and I wouldn’t mind coming back in the winter either.