July 13-16: Santorini, Greece (By Jeff)

After a couple flights and a windy road through the island we made it to our hotel in Santorini. Once again I must thank my Mom for planning this entire Greece trip with us as it saved us a tremendous amount of work and stress. She picked out a gorgeous hotel a short walk from the most picturesque part of Santorini, Oia. This island is world renowned for its gorgeous view of sunsets, various colors of sandy beaches, and amazing views of the Mediterranean as you sit high atop the water at many places on the island. We were plenty excited to have the next 6 days to truly relax and hang out by the beach as our scramble through European tourist sites had come to an end. While I had been here 4 years ago with my family for a few nights I was having trouble recalling what Santorini looked like but a short walk through town helped rekindle my memory. Our first night we strolled through Oia and immediately you get a great feel for how simple yet beautiful all the buildings are as all the main walls are white and the roofs are blue. You would think it is a building code considering that this pattern is seen throughout the entire island, but seeing it all uniform is what makes this style so unique and specific to Santorini. We sat down to our first authentic Greek dinner together where we shared Greek salad, spicy feta spread, Mousaka, and some baked beef and noodles dish. Our gluttonous standard dinner was delicious but made for a lengthy and strenuous walk home that night.


Gyros




The following morning we rented an ATV and took it out looking for a great beach. Our hotel manager pointed us in the general direction and we took off riding along the coast. We found a beach charging 7 Euro each for a pair of chairs and an umbrella and figured that was going to be the standard price in the area and took it. A major difference between Mediterranean beaches and those in California is the size of the rocks that compose the sand. Greece can have some rather large rocks that make it difficult to get in and out of the water as well as the fact that most of the ocean floor is made of what feels like an enormous slab of slippery rock. For those who do not like the feeling of seaweed on your toes, it can take a little getting used to in Greece. The water temperature on the other hand is hard to beat since it feels like a moderately heated pool. The rest of the day was dedicated to reading books, getting sun burnt, and swimming as we desired. Upon leaving we decided to go explore the rest of Oia on the ATV and came across this huge harbor area where they had several restaurants located right on the water serving fresh seafood. I then remembered this exact area from when I had previously come to Santorini with my family and the restaurant in particular that we had eaten at 4 years before. After having a glass of wine and watching the sunset at a hotel bar claiming “The best Sunset view” we headed down to that same restaurant for a delicious seafood dinner.

Our last day we headed to the other side of the island as they are known to have better beaches as well as some with red sand. We stocked up a couple beers in a garbage bag with ice at a local market and headed for the beach in Perissa that was known for its black sand. While it may sound like a cool idea, you have to make sure to hustle to the water as your feet will fry in seconds on black sand. It was another lazy day of lounging around and hiding from the sun today as we learned our lesson the previous day. That evening we headed into Thira (Fira), the capital of the island to walk around and find some dinner. We had stopped here earlier on the way to Perissa to have a quick lunch, Gyros…delicious. Tonight we found an affordable place where our waiter was plenty enthusiastic and made sure everything was to our liking. After dinner we went for a walk through the city being offered enough “free” drinks and happy hour deals to make for an impossible drive home…we chose to pass considering we had an early morning heading to our next island, Naxos.