I Heart Santorini

Unfortunaly, our stay in Santorini has come to an end.  Last night was a late night: Lianne talked to her loved ones back home and I was online talking to my peoples on various chats. 

We were set to leave at 10AM from the hotel, thinking we’d have enough time to get to the port for 11AM.  At the front desk, we asked if they knew of any shuttle because cabbing it would’ve been more expensive due to all the bricks we’ve been carrying around.  The owner (he’s awesome) looked at us and said, "you won’t make it for 11AM with a taxi!”

SAY WHAT?!

It doesn’t think very long, but I guess we hadn’t considered the fact that there are OTHER people who are leaving Santorini too….. OOPS.

SKATA.

The owner, bless his heart, offered to drive us himself to the port.  I totally recommend staying at his Villa.  It is wonderful --- although I think because we were right next to the small street, we had a bit more noise --- but whatever.

On the ride to the Port, we talked about his visit to Vancouver, how we loved the island, about his livelihood and how the island looked like before the tourism industry kicked off with a BANG. 

We thanked him for the millionth time, shook his hand and said our goodbyes. 

Although the ferry to Piraeus came 2 hours late… I personally didn’t care, because the view was incredible.  The port, the ferries, the pirate ships, the SWITCHBACKS filled with huge tour busses going up and down the caldera took my breath away.

Now on the ferry, I’ve recounted my adventures in Santorini in short form, but well enough, I think, to give you an idea of what my vacation has been like.

My fedora is still glued to my head, the volcanic rock ring is still on my finger, the whitecaps are crashing against the waves and islands are passing by.  

Next stop: Piraeus where will be our main living quarters,  a return visit to Nafplion and Athens to finish our vacation together and to the beginning of my last week in Greece.

HAIL IT, LIANNE!!!

After Mama’s House, Lianne and I walked 2 mins to the taxi depot and waited for the next available taxi --- they are dispatched here and are all over the freaking island… Obviously, because it was 10:30PM people were out and about and there was a shortage of taxis.  So once one would show it’s front lights, people would fight over who was next. 

At first, Lianne and I stood back and let them fight…. Greeks vs. Hindus.  Aye Carrumba!

When both parties were gone, we both got closer to the road… We clued in that the only way we were getting home was to stand at the side of the road and forget about standing in the actual depot. 

I told Lianne to hail the next cab, once we saw one….  AND THERE IT WAS.

“LIANNE! HAIL IT!”

Lianne flagged it down and once he got close enough, I shouted, “PERISSA?!” He nodded and I shoved myself into the backseat, hoping Lianne would have enough time getting in before a honking big woman would get to her first.

The second she shut the door, the woman was screaming her head off at the driver and from what I caught from the yelling, he was an asshole and she was a biotch. 

That was fun --- Lianne and I high-fived each other and ended up telling the driver where WE were staying…   

GO CANADA!

Cats, Dessert and a Fedora

Last, but not least, the ship brought us to the Oia, the village at the northern tip of Santorini.  THIS IS WHERE ALL THE FREAKING POSTCARD PICTURES ARE TAKEN.  By God, I was getting discouraged about not finding the houses on the side of the cliffs and the numerous blue domes churches.  But here they were! 

When we were docked, Lianne and I walked….CLIMBED up the switch-back stairs up the caldera to the village.  I feel bad because we could’ve gone for a donkey ride, but I just wanted to save my money for other things….  Needless to say we stop at every turn ‘to take-in the scenery’ (we did…but it was really just to catch our breath!)

Once we got to the top, the narrow winding maze-like streets welcomed us with a variety of shops…  many, many, MANY were jewellery shops (AYE DIOS MIO!) and many more sold silk scarves and the obvious little souvenirs.  Lianne loves scarves so we ended up going back TWICE for a few items… I even found something: a wallet made up of silk patches; fancy schmancy! At one point though, Lianne blurted out, “I hate being a girl sometimes!”  Oh, I feel you homie G! Scarves, dresses, RINGS…  

Oh Mon Dieu!

I even bought a fedora…  It was supposed to be for someone else, but I fell in love with it, so I think El Fedora Is El Mine

It was still pretty hot around  6:30PM and we had 2 hours to kill until the sunset.  Did I mention that that was the reason why the ship dropped us off last in Oia?!  Mmhmm!  It is the prime spot to see the sunset --- the sun sets in the sea, as opposed to behind the usual mountain or house or octopus… I don’t know, you get the idea!

We went for DESSERT! At a pastry café and enjoyed our delicacies while taking in the view which including at one point…get ready for it! A cat by the iconic churches.  Mmmhm!  Wait ‘til I show you that picture! It is out of this world!

After replenishing ourselves with too much sugar, we headed towards the castle, at the very tip of the village to catch the sunset. 

Out of this World!

We made our way through the maze of Oia one last time and got on the bus that would take us back to Fira.  To celebrate the success and the end of our vacation, Lianne and I went back to Mama’s House for Greek Salad, Pastitsio and Red and White wine. 

BUENO!

I Think I Found Fred's Domain!

Anyone who knows me knows that I am a great swimmer, but detest swimming at any spot when I cannot see what is at the bottom.  You know what though, when will be the next time that I swim in the Mediterranean?  Let alone the Hot Springs in SANTO freaking RINI! 

So yes, I jumped ship… Lol, I didn’t walk the plank… and Thee MU! The water was AMAZING.  The minute I got in, Lianne and I justified the cold-ish temperature with the fact that we’re freaking Canadians --- we can do anything… Especially when it involves COLD! 

The water was such a nice light aqua colour and if you looked down, you could see as far as your own feet…. So I was good…ISH!

We reached the hot springs in no time and you knew for sure when you had reached them!  The water turned all mucky clay-ish brown-red and the water was nice and Whirlpool-ly.  I couldn’t  stand touching the goo-ey bottom, but I found a rock to rest my feet on and Lianne and I enjoyed the moment.  Some people were giving each other mud baths at the shore, but the water was much too nice to go anywhere else.

At one point, Lianne and I were kidding around about finding Fred’s domain, “Oh Fred!!!!  We’re here! Come and get us!!! “ “Hey Olga you old geezer! Nah, nah, nah, nah, nah-nah!”

We swam back to the ship and continued our adventure at sea.

 I’m so so so so so happy I just went for it and jump into the water --- I said this already, but it was absolutely GORGEOUS and it was such a wonderful way to cool off after hiking up Mt. Non-Obvious!

We were all getting pretty hungry and the ship’s next stop was to the neighbouring island of Thirassia.  It is the most traditional island still around with a population of only (approximately) 200 locals.  There were a bunch a taverns by the shore and we had a few hours to kill, so Lianne and I went to lunch where I had swordfish souvlaki ---- holy cow!  Delicious!

This stop was really to re-energize and take it easy… And thank goodness for that because our next and last stop was full of wonderful (?) little surprises.

Volcano Swag

For 38 Euros, Lianne and I embarked a sweet-looking pirate’s ship dubbed ‘Hermes’.  First on the agenda: Hiking up the Nea Kameni VOLCANO!  I swear, I never thought I would ever have the opportunity to climb up a volcano … let alone in GREECE!

The excursion provided a tour guide who explained to us why this volcano’s crater doesn’t look like the iconic volcanoes we all see in pictures.  I say this because once we reached the top, I hadn’t realized that the massive hole I was staring at was the freaking crater!  Remember:  I’m on vacation, k?!

The guide dug a shallow hole next to the rim of the crater and went around the group with soil in his hands that was HOT! Let’s see:  darkish black grainy soil with tints of gray, red and orange… hahah!

The view up there was amazing:  you could see a 360 degree view of the whole of Santorini.  In the near distance, the southern tip of the island of Thirassia is shaped like a crocodile --- because of the magma and so I took a picture of that since the tour guide wouldn’t stop raving about it :P

I stole some more rocks --- you aren’t really supposed too. There are signs that read (something along the lines of), “Please do not remove or break off the rocks; it is Prohibitted”.  Yeah, prohibiTTed. (I was later talking to a person of mine the night of, and he justified my rock stealing by the signs, not able to enforce rules properly due to bad spelling.  CHYEAH! Works for me!

I gots Volcanoe swag now Homies!

After we climbed down the volcano and got back on the ship, the next thing on the agenda was to SWIM IN THE HOT SPRINGS!!!  This was at the Palea Kameni (Old Volcano) and because the ship was too big, it could not dock directly at the hot springs.  This meant that those interested had to swim about 40 metres IN THE SEA to reach the springs….! 

" 'X' MARKS THE GODDAMN SPOT"

Our first day was less planned than this second one.  We had arranged to go on an excursion out to sea for our second full day in Santorini when we had first arrived. 

A tour bus was included to bring us to the port from Fira at 11 AM.  We had decided to head to Fira extra early in order to do some tourist shopping… Aye Dios Mio! 

Honestly, do I need more huge-ass rings?  OHI!

But, did I buy more?  NAI!

When 10:45AM came around, we walked down to the small bus depot and looked for our marked bus.  The lady at the ticket office had given us a map of Fira with clear directions as to where to found the bus. 

Ok, cool: but where’s the bus????  No one knew what the hell I was talking about when I was asking around… Until I noticed the freaking marked ‘x’ on the map the lady had coloured in, as Lianne was asking some other Greek. 

Lianne and I book it down the road --- where the bus was parked ---

“‘X’ MARKS THE GODDAMN SPOT, MAN”

We had to cross a freaking street, but car after car, after car, gave us the impression that we would be standing here for the rest of the day.  Oh My God I was about to blow a fuse. Lianne waved her hand to the bus driver and this seemed to work because he waited for us.

I was about to just start walking in the middle of the road --- I seem to think that everybody and anybody will stop, just like that, when I’m crossing a road… Whether it be in Canada, or in Greece…. Or dear Pylos --- you nearly killed me a few times! But, the cars were slowing down…. There was a traffic jam --- SO WE BOOKED IT to the bus.

The clock read 10:55AM.  What happens next?  The bus left for the port with 5 minutes to spare for any other poor soul fighting Greek Time and TRAFFIC. 

We both sat down and just looked at each other --- DAMN.  That almost gave us a déjà vu of our first excavation day --- WHEN WE ACTUALLY MISSED THE DAMN BUS.

Aye Dios MIO!

Practically At Our Doorsteps...

To end our first day,  Lianne and I did it simple by getting gyros for supper in our village and walking around….  The one thing we absolutely HAD to do was to visit Black Beach. I mean, it only almost at our doorstep, you know?  Haha. 

The scenery was amazing.  Obviously, the beach was black --- and I stole more rocks.  Woo!  The sun set on the other side of the island, but the  view on our side was out of this world --- Cliffs were dropping into the sea on to our left as we were staring out to sea, and the beach seemed to continue on forever to our right. I wrote a few hellos in the sand to my peoples back home and Lianne and I merely enjoyed the moment:

 

Being in Santorini, on vacation, with nothing to worry about at all.

More Wine Anybody?

The second thing we did on our first day was to visit a wine museum.  The modern village of Akrotiri was a 2 mins bus ride from the Seafood Restaurant…  We went, we saw, we left.  There really wasn’t much to see ---  but I can say that I’ve visited the cute little village at least!

For a dirt-cheap price, you toured the cellars below where 1600-1900’s winemaking artefacts were displayed and scenarios were recreated to help us visualize everything. Then, we did a wine tasting!!!  Seriously?  Wine tasting in Santorini??  Get out of here!!

As much as the exhibits were fabulous, the second part of the event took the cake… Teehee!

We first tasted a great white wine.  I’m not a fan of white wine, but this was Great!  Next, we tasted a red wine --- Now we’re talking!  It had aged in oak barrels and by God, was it ever good!   Then, we tasted two dessert wines.  Now, I have a sweet tooth --- everybody know that.  The first one was an exclusive wine only available at this winery --- HOLY SKATA!  BUENO MI AMIGOS!!   The second dessert wine was fabulous too….but damn, that first dessert wine was SWEET!

I never expected to have done anything like this… let alone in Greece/Santorini!   

Aye Dios Mio, our first day on this beautiful island was fantastic!

I FOUND FRED!!!

After Red Beach,  Lianne and I were both pretty hungry.  We found this very nice, quaint little seafood restaurant by the sea and decided on that one since it offered it’s special was for two people.  So good, holy cow! What made this lunch sweet was that there were lobster/sea creature traps by the shore…. The joke became known as, “ I FOUND FRED! We caught him!!!!” 

For Pete’s Sake, he even had company 5 metres away!

Didn't Anybody Tell You Not To Play With Your Food??!

Lianne and I totally treated our trip to Santorini as a vacation.  It was so easy to get taxis to bring us wherever (and whenever..) we wanted to go and our stomachs loved us for what we treated ourselves for lunches and dinners.  You got a small glimpse of the food in Pylos… Let me tell you about Santorini:

The day we arrived, we spotted Mama’s House and by God, it was heaven on Earth!  Lianne had her favourite Greek Salad and Moussaka, and I had y beloved Tzaziki and Pastitsio… mmmmm!  Let’s not forget EL WINE!!!  Lianne: White.  Me: Red.  For 3 Euros, we each had a cute little jug (.25 L) of wine.  It gave us a good 3 and ½ glasses each of VINO.  BUENO!

After going to Red Beach and failing to visit Akrotiri, we stopped at a seaside (literally) seafood restaurant.  Holy SKATA! For 30 Euros, we had Greek Salad, TZAZIKI!!! And fresh fish!!  I don’t know how many times this will come up, but damn! It was heaven on Earth!  The dinning area was on the water and there was a small portion of it that really went out onto the water.  

Now, the fish was AMAZING… but I thought Lianne and I were little too amused by the eating situation…  I think this picture is worth a million words!  Yes, the fish had teeth.

Regardless of us clowning around, lunch was fabulous and picture perfect. 

Later that same day, we walked in the village we stayed in and got simple, but great gyros… of should I say ‘hyros!’. 

On our last day, we had lunch on the island of Thirassia -- -across for the main island --- and I had swordfish souvlaki.  HOLY Skata! Yum Yum Yum Yum Yum!!!

When we explored the village of Oia later in the evening, we ‘settled’ for dessert at a pastry café.  Best decision EVER! Yes, the caramel cake and Amarettino (yes.  Amaretto in involved here!) were both exquisitely great, but the VIEW was unforgettable!  The famous blue domed white churches were right in front of our eyes and at one point, a cat lounged in the shade next to the church closet to us…. Iconic and Picturesque --- BUENO!!!!!

 

Our last meal in Santorini was at Mama’s House, again, back in Fira.  We both had the wine (duh!) and Lianne ahd the huge salad while I ‘settled’ for the Pastitsio. YUM!

We totally didn’t starve while on vacation --- No Way JOSE!

Water, Soil and Boulders, Oh My!

Let me just start by saying that when I first introduced the idea of visiting Santorini with Lianne, I had no idea what we were going to do as far as planned day-trips on the island.  All we knew when we decided to vacation here was that we had a roof over our heads and a ride back to the Mainland. I think these next two days were even more fun than we had both anticipated, because most of our adventures were done on a whim --- ‘Spontaneous’ is the word that can best describe what you will be reading my homeslices!

I really wanted to visit the ancient site of Akrotiri --- who wouldn’t want to, right??!  We both knew that the site had been closed for a few years, but word was that it re-opened this year… ERRRRR WRONG! 

We decided that since the island is so damn small that we would cab from destination to destination.  We wanted to do as much as possible --- on OUR clock and didn’t want to deal with late island busses and precious lost time… I mean, we are living on Greek Time. 

We found out that Akrotiri was still no bueno when the driver dropped us off 1km away to Red Beach.  All right… I guess we’re beaching it for a bit then!

No regrets though --- damn! It was picture perfect: the sand was a darkish brown red (dear God.  I sound like an archaeologist describing soil… Where’s the Munsell book when you need it!!)  

Going to the beach first ended up being the best thing ever, because it was 11AM and the sun was hot enough for these pretty Canadians who live in snow for half of the freaking year!

The water was beautiful though.  We didn’t actually go swimming, but I did go in the water --- technically!

The hike to and from the beach was interesting, but gorgeous! It brought a bit of Canadiana into the fun --- dodging rocks, uneven sand/gravel, prickly bushes, BOULDERS, steep slopes…. You get the picture!

To finish: a glimpse of CRETE – in the far far distance! YEAH HOMIE Gs!  I totally caught of glimpse of Crete! 

How About Some Pastitsio?!

 After settling into our room, Lianne and I planned our next two days here on Santorini...
She made the phone calls... Everyone knows I detest making phone calls... And we had arranged for an adventure on Tuesday.  What is it?  You'll have to wait!

Anyway, we had to pick up our tickets so we cabbed to Fira, and hoped we would find the office, since the lady on the phone hadn't given really good directions.... May I add that there are no real STREET SIGNS.  It's more of 'after this building' or 'past this square somewhere' or 'in this so and so village' --- Good Luck!

Aye Dios Mio!

We told the cab driver to bring us to Fira's main square.  After walking a short distance, I spotted the office.  Thank God.


The lady was nice and we gots our tickets, man!

Ok, then hunger started setting in... We hadn't eaten since the our 'breakfast' on the ferry. I had noticed a restaurant on our way to the ticket office so I suggested that we check it out... Sure enough, it is our favourite restaurant now: Mama's Restaurant.

Now that we are familiar with traditional Greek dishes, Lianne and I are going all out when ordering dinner.  For Lianne: Greek salad and Mousaka.  For myself: Tzaziki and Pastitsio!!!
AHA! BUENO!!!!!
 We ordered wine too... white for Lianne and red for me. It either came as .25 L or .50 L and we both asked for a .25 L of both...  MMMMMMMMM!!!!!! That was good enough for about three glasses each.  I love Greece!

The server was super.  She was practicing her English with us, which was too too cute and all of a sudden, she starts trying to speak in French!

Dinner was fabulous!  In all I think we had a long day full of great little adventures that ended with a nice dinner on a wonderful island.

We cabbed back to the hotel and after small deliberations decided to watch.... wait for it:

Dirty Dancing.

Mmhmm!  Lianne had the movie on her computer so we totally watched Patrick Swayze and Jennifer Grey dance the night away. Ha, it sort of reminded me of my last night in Pylos... but in its smaller little Greek version --- teehee!

Good night my peoples, I'm out.