Santorini

Santorini, like Cappadocia, was a spot that Mila picked out. Pictures on Instagram are often enough to pique her interest. I need history or something culturally significant. I have to admit, I thought the pictures were really pretty too. 

I interrupt this blog to say, well, the rest will likely be hurried. I started a Master's class on Monday and will likely not have the time to put in the research and editing I put into the Turkey posts. Sorry Jordan.

Like Cappadocia, I didn't have a detailed plan drawn up. In fact, I had no plan at all. We looked at the map of Santorini and grossly underestimated its size. In our minds, we could rent some bicycles and be on our merry way. I had Mackinac Island in mind.

As I wrote in Istanbul Part 3 we had an 8-hour layover in Athens where we crashed at a hotel close to the airport. The hotel employee dropped us off at the airport at the last minute, so we rushed through and hopped on the plane to Santorini. The Aegean airlines stewardesses are a throwback - all young, pretty women dressed alike with matching hairstyles and makeup. We landed in Santorini's small airport, unsuccessfully looked for the driver that may or may not have been there to meet us, and grabbed a taxi for the airport. We noticed on that drive that the island was bigger than we had expected. Well, this should prove interesting. We arrived at Maistro's Village and were greeted by Dimitros (I'm guessing on spelling here), the nicest guy I have ever met. We didn't realize a couple things about the place we were staying. First, even though we got the room for very cheap, it was a 5-star hotel. Secondly, the reason we go the room so cheap was that we arrived before the season starts and were actually the first customers of the year. Dimitros insisted on taking the bags from us and then, once we had settled in, setting up something for us to do later in the day. We had arrived in the morning but, as we were the only guests, there was no breakfast set up. Dimitros had the cooks specially make our breakfast for us and we relaxed in our nice room before heading out. He had set up a personal island tour with a local driver, Poppy. While we waited for Poppy to show up, Maria (the other concierge) made us drinks and pastries on the house. How nice is that?

Poppy arrived with her daughter in tow and set off. While the Kaymakli tour guide had me saying "comfortable tunnel" for a while, I think Poppy's catchphrase, "Listen to me," will stick with both of us for a long time. She took us north first to Oia (ee-ya). If you have seen photos of Santorini pop up on travel sites or Instagram, this is one of the two places that you're most likely to have seen. It was very windy, so it made pictures a bit more difficult for those of us with hair. 

A note on the Santorini pictures, most of these will look very similar and they do a lackluster job of capturing the beauty of the place. The contrast of the white and blue buildings with the blue ocean and rocky land was truly stunning.

There were a few versions of this picture, my eyes look closed in all of them

St. Georgios Church

Church of Panagia Akathistos Hymn

looking out at the caldera

Santorini was once a much larger island until 3,600 years ago when one of the largest volcanic eruptions in human history took place.

You can go to the islands in the center, we just didn't have the time or the desire due to the weather.

I think Poppy learned that Mila does timelines her own way. Poppy'd told us 30 minutes for Oia. We took closer to 50. 

From Oia, we went south back to Thera (or Fira) where we were staying. The other picture you have probably seen is overlooking the Three Bells of Fira. Don't worry, we got that shot too.

Three Bells of Fira

wow

As we drove, we noticed that there was really no free space on the island except for cliffs. While there are 14 villages on the island, they are interconnected. For an outsider, it is impossible to tell where one ends and the other stops. Tourism is by far the largest industry, but fishing is still a staple for the southern portion of the island. We also noticed the unique vineyards with their birds nest vines. The  wind would ravage normal, taller grape vines. However, farmers have just devised a way to grow them in a circular, low-to-ground shape that protects the grapes from the wind. Donkeys are populous on the island and are highlighted on many souvenirs.

Poppy took us to many different stops with the same basic spiel at each one. "Listen to me, you go X way and take your pictures. They will be beautiful pictures." And she was right, so we kept listening to her.

We kept going along at a good clip climbing up and down hills and mountains and winding through small villages. We noticed something else about Poppy that we noticed in other Greeks we spent time with - her phone was going off constantly. Not that I understand Greek, but it seemed like it may have been the same couple of people calling for 30-second bursts of conversations and then calling minutes later for another. 

The next stop was red beach, so named for the color of the rocks and sand. "Listen to me, you follow the trail and take pictures. Do not go up, it is too dangerous. Do not get into the water, it is too dangerous. Just take pictures." OK Poppy

Some people didn't listen to Poppy. It was pretty cold too!

of the 8 pictures I'm in, my eyes are closed or close to it in all of them

There was a group of 20-somethings next to us. What was funny was one-by-one, they'd take their shirts off, quickly snap a few sexy bikini pics then quickly cover up. The things we do for the Gram. Or Snap?

Agios Nikolaos Church

I kept trying different angle but couldn't really get the shot I wanted with enough of the church but without the other people up there

Until we started to walk away

After Red Beach was Black Beach. The beach is bordered by the typical tourist beach spots - little bars, ice cream shops, umbrella rentals, and souvenir shops. However, they were all empty.

Hey, it only took two tries this time. I'm getting better

one of us has plenty of ideas for poses. the other does not

There's a lone monastery at the top of the highest point of the island but Poppy said it was dangerous to even drive up there due to the wind. She took us to another high point for our last spot.

looking out towards the Aegean Sea

After exploring the island a few years ago on Assassin's Creed, I definitely got video game vibes. In a 5 minute drive, you could get to a point where you see the entire island. Once you get into those little clusters of white buildings, however, you feel like you could become lost after two turns. The juxtaposition of being so big and so little at the same time was interesting.

Poppy dropped us off at a great spot for dinner Kokkalo where we were "treated" to a free shot of ouzo upon arrival. Ouzo is a popular Greek anise. We also ordered what became my favorite food in Greece - Cretan pie. It's goat cheese in a flaky crust with honey drizzled on top. 

It was still afternoon, so we decided to walk around Thera. Close to us was a point of interest according to Google Maps, the Three Bells of Fira. We didn't realize that it was the spot we'd been to earlier until we climbed up the hill.

why do they always seem to like me?

on the left, far in the background you can see Oia

We walked around the main drag in Thera for a bit, stopping into souvenir shops.

ummm... what?

We took the 20ish minute walk back to the hotel, stopping to fight a dragon...

many of these windmills were built in the 17th and 18th century and were used for milling grain. There are a few dozen still standing around the island

...and a bakery and grabbed some sweets for the night and settled in for a relaxing night.

Dimitros gave us a free bottle of local wine for being the first customers of the season. Unfortunately we didn't really like it. 

The next day we had an afternoon ferry, so after our breakfast and Mila's attempt at Greek coffee.

Not a fan. It's similar to Turkish coffee but not as strong. My guess is they use the same method and same amount of grounds but 2-3x as much water.

Another hotel employee drove us back to Thera to explore one last time. We'd hoped to go check out the ruins of a village that was destroyed during the big eruption, but didn't have time.

A heavily graffitied alley in Thera. I thought it was interesting but it was just a precursor for Athens.

We walked around the town taking pictures of the views and grabbed lunch.

some would call her my muse

It started raining just as we were headed to the port. We spent about 30 hours in Santorini. In better weather, I could have spent an extra couple of days lounging on the beach, exploring the excavation, and sailing around the caldera. 

To try something different, we'd decided to take a ferry across the Aegean to Athens. I wasn't ready for the sheer size of the boat and we watched multiple semi trucks load into it. I couldn't help but think of the Titanic but we had better luck.

Bye Santorini

Luckily, the rain stopped and we were able to go take pictures before leaving Santorini completely behind.

There were a few stops along the way, including Naxos and passing another island we'd considered visiting - Mykonos.

pulling into port in Naxos

As the sun went down, we grabbed a last few pictures before settling down in the lounge for the night time portion of the trip.

taking it all in

The ride was very comfortable and I'm glad that I didn't need my Dramamine here either. Apart from some annoyingly loud phone conversations around us, it was smooth sailing. We arrived at Piraeus port in Athens late at night and headed to our hotel.

Santorini was a relaxing interlude between two large cities chock full of history. Hopefully I'll be able to get the first Athens post out within a week.