The Plothows: Greece - Part 3

Wednesday, August 11, 2010

Greece - Part 3 - Santorini

On Thursday morning, we took another ferry from Paros to Santorini. This time the ferry was smaller and faster. It was called the Flying Cat 3. No cars or trucks, just people... and a lot of luggage!

The ferry stopped at Ios first, which is a total party island. Like Spring Break craziness all the time. On Mykonos, the party started at 1am. On Ios, the party starts at 1pm and goes all through the night. A lot of the young folks got off the ferry at this stop.

The hotel we stayed at on Santorini was near Oia (pronounced "e-ah") and called the Anoemessa Villa. The owner was named Irini and she was a total sweetheart. She made the place 100 times better! She arranged for someone to pick us up from the port and bring us to the hotel.

The cities here are built up high on the cliffs and the roads circle around them, literally right next to the edge of the cliff. I had to close my eyes a few times going around the corners on our ride to the hotel. I thought for sure we'd drop right off.

Oia

Our first day there, we just strolled around Oia, grabbed lunch at a place called Mezzo, and then veg'd out by the pool for a few hours. Oia was like a postcard.... the pictures don't do it justice!

One of the big things to do in Oia is walk to the end of the island and watch the sunset. We did this the first night, along with the hoards of other people. It was crazy packed! The sunset was beautiful, but it was pretty hazy.

Another sunset

Matt and me after the sunset

Getting back afterwards was a challenge!

We went to dinner at Neptune that night. Very good food and an excellent view!

At Neptune Restaurant in Oia

Our hotel included breakfast. They have a menu you order from and they bring it to your balcony every morning at whatever time you want. The food was really good! They had the best Greek yogurt that you mix with honey and fresh fruit. I loved it!

Our room was really cute - it was called a "maisonette" and it had a little kitchen area on the first floor and a lofted bed. Of course, the ceiling up there was low. I may have bonked my head a couple of times. And those ladder stairs take some getting used to.

Our "maisonette"

On Wednesday, we took the bus to Kamari Beach, the black sand beach. The sand was super hot!

Kamari Beach

Matt enjoying a Mythos on the beach

After spending the day at the beach, we cleaned up at the hotel and walked into Oia for dinner. We saw this dog just snoozing away on top of a building. So cute!

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzz

We didn't brave the crowds to watch the sunset, so we went straight to Feredini Restaurant for dinner. The food was amazing, the setting was beautiful, the waiter was super friendly... it was one of our favorite dinners we had on our trip!

Feredini Restaurant in Oia

Thursday was our last full day on Santorini. We started off the day by going to the Boutari Winery. Not exactly what I expected, but it was a nice stop off. We saw a video presentation that we thought would be how they make wine, but it was an artsy type film with all sorts of pictures.

Since we were the only ones there at the time, the guy showed us around the experimental vineyard and the wine cellar. Then we got to taste a few wines.

The wine was pretty good!

This donkey stared us down and watched us walk by the entire time... creepy!

After the winery, we caught the bus to Red Beach. We waited for the bus a while and then it took a while to get near the beach. We weren't quite sure how to get to the beach from where the bus dropped us off. But we saw a bunch of people jumping in a water taxi so we did that.

About a half hour later, we actually ended up at the Red Beach. The water taxi was chaos. People jumping in and out of the boat, and it didn't stop at the Red Beach on the way out, so we had to ride the route to get to the beach. By the time we got there, we were so ready to be off that boat! We found the way to get back to the bus stop without taking the taxi.