Santorini

DAY 1

What a nice treat it was to be picked up from the airport by Stelios, the owner of Stelio's Place Hotel.  He greeted us with a smile and began the drive with a little commentary of Santorini and what we were passing by on the drive to Perissa Beach.  

We finally got to have some eggs and bacon for breakfast and then immediately hit the black beach...where we stayed all day.  We napped, read, swam and loved the breeze blowing off the ocean.

When we finally headed back to the hotel we had to drop off our laundry at the local bakery/laundromat and get changed into the one clean outfit we had left before it was dark and past dinner time.  We obviously were not going to miss out on dinner our first night in Greece, we had be anxiously waiting to try some authentic greek cuisine, espcially after a diet full of bread and cheese the past few weeks.  We went to a nearby restaurant, Yazz, on the beach strip where the waitress recommended a delicious tasting of greek food.  We also had the best greek salad, our first serving of vegetables in weeks.  We finished our bottle of wine while sitting on the beach and headed to bed.

DAY 2

We picked up our laundry and some baked goods before boarding a bus to Fira, the main village.  The buses around Santorini are coach buses filled with tourists and locals climbing the narrow and windy roads up to various villages.

Fira was our shopping destination.  After not having much luck in Rome we were excited to wander the small streets of the village that were packed with all kinds of small shops.  4 hours, 2 gyros and multiple shopping bags later we decided to board another bus heading to Oia to watch what they say is the most beautiful view of the sunset of all of the villages.  We had some time to kill before the sunset so we wandered again the small streets filled with shops.  Oia was beautiful, it sits on the top of the mountain and looks across the edge at the whole inner crescent of Santorini.  It is filled with small hotels whose pools and patios hang off the edge of the cliffs.

Before we knew it the crowds of tourists were squishing through the tiny streets to the edge of the village where they would sit and watch the sunset.  We grabbed some of the local beer, Alpha, and a seat on a few steps and waiting for the sun to begin dropping into the ocean.  

The whole sunset lasted about an hour with the last moments taking only seconds before the sun disappeared into the ocean.

Tonight we strolled along the beach strip, Alex stopped and pet almost every day we passed, and got a beer at a bar with a live band.

DAY 3

We were up early today to board a sailing ship to the volcano and Therasia.  The bus took us all the way down the windy road along the coast to the port where we were lifted onto the deck of the sailboat.

A funny little comedic voice spoke on the microphone to welcome us on board and give us information about what we were about to embark on.


When we reached the volcano we stepped onto the rocky island and started the climb.  20 minutes later we were atop the active volcano.

We witnessed the sulphur steaming out of holes in the ground and felt the high temperatures under the rocky surface.  We were assured that although the volcano is expected to erupt again one day today was not that day.

We had lunch on the very small island of Therisia and then boarded back on the boat to the port.  Erika was very ready for a nap on the way back, wasn't she worried about getting sunburnt?

Later that night our friend Renee, an aussie we met on the boat, met up with us for drinks on the beach strip.  We had a drink and met up with some travellers that she had met on another island earlier in the week.  We learned about friends from Africa that have pet cheetas, that the Pink Palace in Corfu is insane, and that, according to them, we should never visit Ios.


DAY 4
Sadly this is our last day in Santorini.  We decided that the whole day would be dedicated to working on our tans one last time before heading away from the South.  We peeled ourselves out of bed early and made it to the beach before falling back asleep.  Another relaxing day on the sand and in the water came and went and a little sunburnt later we hit the beach strip again for our last dinner.  We listened to Dorothy and went to a restaurant called The Volcano where we ate delicious food and drank the worst wine we had ordered all trip.  At the end of the meal when everyone else asked for their bills they received some sort of small desert, when we asked for our bill we received a shot.  Erika had already sucked it up and drank the whole bottle of wine herself so the shot went down relatively easy for her, Alex sipped it for a while and amused Erika with distasteful faces.


On our way to the bar for a few last drinks in Santorini we ran into some friends and they joined us.  The bar had a surprisingly good band playing while we got to know one another a bit more and shared our last drinks in Santorini.


Again we were left with only 3 hours of sleep before having to get on yet another flight.  The sad part is we think our bodies are actually getting used to this.