snapshots from our road trip north [part one]

volcanos, red sand & tomato fritters

after our epic day in athens, when we exhausted ourselves trying desperately to see everything we possibly could, we woke up for our first morning on santorini ready to continue the extreme touring madness.  we found this to be an excellent strategy for travelling in greece.  we wore ourselves out at the beginning and enjoyed relaxing later on in the trip.

i was stunned by how much there was for us to do on santorini.  the island has such a reputation for being a relaxing paradise, i think it occasionally gets a misleading rap for being just a pretty view.  while you’ll certainly still enjoy yourself on santorini if all you want is cliff-top scenery, there were definitely more amazing activities than we were able to squeeze in to our time on the island.  while we were there, we had to skip the local wineries, and we did not make it to any of the black sand beaches or the ruins of ancient fira.  we didn’t try our navigational skills on a four-wheeler, nor did we get to do the hike between fira and oia.  oh well, just means we will have to go back!

now in light of all those amazing sounding things we missed, what we did do was absolutely fabulous.  our first day, marios from hotel Antonia (i seriously cannot oversell how helpful marios was) booked us tickets on a boat trip to see the volcano of santorini.  on our way to the port, we picked up a hot sundried tomato and feta breakfast pastry from a gelato shop.  it was unbelievably delicious (we went for another the next morning too).  we had no idea what to expect from our boat trip, and thus, flip flopped and swimsuitless, we boarded one of the gorgeous tall ships taking tourists out into the blue caldera, to the sounds zorba the greek and other traditional music.

when our boat docked at the black, ashy volcanic island in the center of the santorini caldera, we learned that we could hike to the top for some natural history lessons, sulfur stank, and breathtaking views.  though we hardly had the footwear for such an occasion we trekked to the top of “new burnt island” where a panorama of the entire island of santorini waited for us.  but 360 degrees around we were able to see more than just santorini.  across a suspiciously brownish orange channel of water, we could see “old burnt island,” which looked like something out of a tropical middle earth style fantasyland.  the island of therasia lay not too far off as evidence of the atlantis-legend ancient eruption that sunk most of santorini.  it was, as the tour guide promised, breathtaking.

after our hike we were taken to swim in the brownish orange channel, which is the hot spring created by the active volcano.  we weren’t as prepared as most of our shipmates, but decided to jump off the boat in our underwear anyway to swim in the lukewarm water.  a saltwater-in-contact-lens fiasco took place, but other than me looking like a victim of violence for the mascara-smeared afternoon (thank goodness for big sunglasses) the boat tour was a total hit.

in the afternoon we rode the bus down to the village of akrotiri to visit the famous red sand beach.  akrotiri is a hidden gem on the island in my opinion.  it seemed like the village is probably busier in summer months as it has a very “beach town” feel.  it is a small trek from the bus stop to the red sand beach and there are some really wonderful sights and smells of fresh agean seasfood along the way.  it’s quite the rock climb getting to the beach, and the “sand” is really more like pebbles, but the view was one of the best of our entire vacation, if you ask me, and the beach itself was definitely one of the coolest places i have been in my life.  there are mysterious doors into the cliff that i can only hope lead to incredible cave dwellings where steve and i can stay next time we go.

after the beach we stopped for a drink with growltiger the one eyed cat of akrotiri (as christened by myself) and by the time we got back to fira we were absolutely starving.  fortunately marios (that magical human fountain of knowledge) had hooked us up with the what’s-what and we headed out to carboload on homemade bolognese and tomato fritters at o souvlaros, a very sweet little family owned taverna in fira, where our english finally did us no good!  fortunately pointing to the menu worked out fine, and let me just repeat the phrase “tomato fritters,” because no amount of gushing about how amazingly delicious they were will do them justice.  we continued to eat them at every opportunity, but i am certain o souvlaros were the best.

so yeah.  day one on santorini was pretty darn good.

fira heights

our first stop on the island of santorini was the main town of fira.  we spent our first two nights on santorini in fira at a really charming little place called hotel antonia.  they were extremely well reviewed on trip advisor, and for good reason.  priced extremely affordably, we were welcomed by marios with wine and a quick map-rap session where we were directed to the best restaurants, views, and things to do on the island.  truly, the hoteliers of the greek islands are absolute gems.  we always felt like the most well-treated guests.

after enjoying a little welcome wine on the spacious balcony of our room at hotel antonia, we continued the somewhat lush, dionysian evening with a stroll through the winding staircases, considered to be streets, per marios' recommendation for the restaurants with the best views in fira.  we stopped for a few big mugs of mythos at a caldera view bar, to give the sunset a little catch-up time so it would be part of the entertainment at dinner.

of the many delicious looking restaurants over-looking the caldera in fira, we settled on fanari, where we enjoyed incredible service, local wine, and a sampling of the seafood specialties we would spend the next week eating.  i had my first taste of grilled octapus at fanari and life has genuinely never been the same.  goodness gracious is it ever fantastic.  i'm also pretty sure the waiters on santorini all have training in photography.  they are pros at capturing that view.

it's still pretty mindblowing to think the trip only got better from here, but our first night in fira really set an unimaginable tone.  if ever you're looking for a spectacular value in fira don't hesitate to check out hotel antonia.  we felt incredibly welcome and centrally located between all parts of the island we ultimately visited.

these are probably getting boring, but oh well, i'm going to keep posting one day at a time!  happy new week everybody!

SANTORINIBOAT!!!

there are a lot of ways you can travel between the greek islands if you ever decide to make the best choice ever and go.  the best methods probably depend on how much time you have in greece to spend getting from place to place.  steve and i experimented with almost every option, standard ferry, high speed ferry, and a flight via agean airlines.

more on options 2 and 3 later, but if you are planning to travel from athens to santorini i must insist you take the standard (read: not high speed) ferry.  when i booked our tickets on the blue star ferries out to santorini i was a bit worried by the 8 hour sailing time.  not only does 8 hours on a boat seem potentially claustrophobic, but when you're in a place as amazing as greece you don't want to waste an extra moment cooped up en route to your destination.

little did i know the blue star ferries are like a day trip attraction unto themselves.  this is not your average ferry boat.  our ship, the blue star delos (though we booked our tickets for the blue star naxos so i'm not sure why the name swap) was really more like a luxury cruise line.  besides it being the only ferry with open air seating (as opposed to the high speed lines) we had no idea it would also be stopping at ports on the islands of paros, naxos, and ios before docking in santorini.  basically we got a espresso and photo filled boat tour of the cyclades before getting to our second hotel.  it was such a wonderful surprise!

after a very early morning cab ride from our parthenon hotel to the port of pireaus, we watched the sunrise over athens as we headed out into the agean sea and ate breakfast and lunch on the ferry getting the grand tour of other islands we know we'll need to return and check out.  since we were up so early it was a welcome benefit that there were coffee shops all over the boat and the weather shifted from a pleasant morning breeze to sun that made the water around us glitter.  the view from the ferry approaching santorini was absolutely breathtaking and when we rode in our hotel shuttle up from the port to fira we got our first unbelievable view of the caldera from over the cliff.

more to come!!