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.

Yes, I Am A Canadian On Santorini

All right, so Lianne and I climbed down the stairs to the car depot where our heavy luggage was left and waited for the ramp to connect with the port's dock. It was kind of surreal, because us passengers were all waiting and the back of the boat with the ramp was out in the open... I can't really explain properly (I'm sorry) but, you could see outside and the massive cliffs of the Caldera and by God, it was out of this world!

 Once the ferry was docked the view was again, surreal:
The Port was overflowing with departing tourists and arriving ones and it looked like a scene straight out of a movie where a character arrives in a foreign country and thinks, 'Skata! What the hell?!'
My God, it was a little intimidating...

Nevertheless, I went into 'Let's Go' mode and had my eyeballs scanning for some info place that could bring us to our hotel. One thing that I've learned about Greece is even if the shops and service places look like shanty town --- the customer service is fantastic.. or the food is out of this world.

Some American working in the shuttle shop hooked us up for 5 euros (BUENO!)  We had 4 Aussies behind us and I wanted to clock 'em one in the head when they said we were 'probably Americans... No wait, we're Canadians.... Ah... Oh Canada.'
Oh my God, damn imbeciles.

We were at our hotel in no time, but we were too early to check in.... The owner was very welcoming though and gave us the password to the free wifi and offered us to have a seat and chill in the AIR CONDITIONNED lobby. BUENO!  His wife came out with glasses of orange juice too so we just chilled for an hour --- no biggy.

The room is very lovely --- white doors with blue shutters, TV (although I haven't watched a single minute of TV in over a month now), fridge, A/C, full bathroom and WIFI!!  We are only a few steps away from the Black Beach and the main square of the village we are in is just a minute away!

I think we've got it made, once again!  No time restraints and VACATION TiME BABEYH!