Santorini - The Entire Island is Basically a Post Card

After spending a few days in Athens, I really wanted to see one of the famously beautiful Greek Islands. Sadly, time and money limited me to one island stop. I definitely want to visit more of the islands, but the one I've been wanting to see for years was Santorini.


View from the hotel rooftop

My taxi driver on the way into Athens said of all the islands Santorini was his favorite, and the one he thought was the most beautiful. That was encouraging, and made me even more excited to see the island.

I had only planned on one full day in Santorini, thinking that would be enough time to see the main sites. I was wrong.

If you ever go to Santorini, spend at least 2 full days. One day for hiking around the island, and one day for doing all the boat tour stuff out to the volcano, and just boating around the island. Because I was there during the off season, boats didn't run as regularly, so we were very limited time wise. And sadly we missed out on doing the boat options.

Next time. Because I will most likely be back there at some point
Anyway, I found a nice little place to stay in for a really good price. Turns out it was on the exact opposite side of the island where all the main sites are. However, that hotel was right on a beach, and had a bus stop right by it as well. That made getting around the island very easy.


Our host was wonderful. Very friendly, very casual, and very kind. He shuttled us to and from the airport, and gave us tips on what to do and see while we were there. He even gave us Santorini magnets for staying there. He was also very Greek. Very proud, very confident, and of course the Greeks are the inventors of everything. He was so wonderful. I'd definitely stay at Magma Rooms again.

The weather was quite nice, but extremely windy. Apparently the wind is bad once a year for about a week. And we happened to be there during that special windy week. It was still amazing.

We got up early for an amazing breakfast, then hopped on the bus to the main city of Thira. It was only about a 25 minutes bus ride (including the bus stops) to the main bus depot which is in the central part of Thira. From there we could catch other buses to anywhere on the island. It was very tourist friendly in the sense it was easy to figure out what bus would get us where.
 We spent the first part of the day wandering through Thira. It was some steep and windy hiking along a nice walking trail through the city. We saw beautiful churches, and of course spectacular views from every angle.
 
 We did a little shopping as well.




Most of the buildings here are either hotels, restaurants, and lots of shopping. It is a very touristy place. And I can see why with the view from every angle.

After our stunning view of Thira, we were told Oia was the pretty part of the island. That is also the place to go to watch a spectacular sunset.

We jumped back on the bus for another 20 minute ride up the windy island roads to Oia. This is even more of a tourist spot. With really ritzy hotels, and mostly shopping, we still enjoyed walking along the windy paths and taking in the amazing scenery. We wanted to stay and watch the spectacular sunset, so we splurged and sat at a restaurant overlooking the water. We watched the waiters chase the many stray cats out of the open restaurant, only to watch the strays sneak in from the other side of the restaurant.

We saw a fun and quirky book shop, and even got the local cat to pose next to the Rent a Cat sign. I love Greece.

Sadly during the sunset the clouds were thick, but it was still spectacular. Definitely a photographer's dream.

The Food of Athens

Obviously anyone who knows me knows I love. Also considering the title of this blog mentions pastries, you have to have caught on that I like food. A lot.

Greece had the amazing food that I was expecting. And luckily two wonderful eatery options were only a few minutes walk from out hotel.

The first was the amazing local gyro place that I mentioned in a previous post. Can never get enough of a good gyro. And if you've never had one, you need to rectify that. The square yellow food next to the gyro in the pic is a local regional cheese that is oh so amazing. I absolutely cannot remember the name if it for the life of me. It's essentially fried cheese, which you then sprinkle some lemon over. The texture is a bit rubbery, bit it's just delicious.


The other place we frequented was a nice little restaurant called Alexander the Great. The owner was very personably and friendly. He came and talked with us, and gave us lots of free baklava. By the time we left Athens we didn't need to eat baklava for a while. It was delicious.

This is also the restaurant were I got some wonderful moussaka, a fantastic eggplant appetizer, and some tzatzik. I love Greek food!
  




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While walking through the more central city part of Athens, my friend took my to this other little spot where she promised they had some amazing food. I wasn't at all hungry, but I was going to fit in as much of the good stuff as I could. She took me to this little place called Oven Sesame.


They have a variety of sandwich type options that are all made and toasted on this happy face shaped bread. The genius part? That bottom part of the happy face lip is a handle. It's a bread handle you can hold onto while you eat the sandwich part. Genius!! And of course the sandwich filling is also fresh and yummy veggies, meat, and spices. All at a really affordable price. They're strawberry fruit juice was also pretty fantastic too. I wish the states had more places like this around. Fresh, cheap, and delicious.

Athens Greece - 2 Days in the Actual City

 





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Athens Greece is a place I've wanted to visit for a long time now. Not just because I wanted to do the marathon, but because it's Greece. There's so much history to such an ancient history. Ideally I would love to spend a full two weeks just touring Greece and the Islands. That just wasn't possible, so I had to edit. Hence three days in Athens. There just wasn't time to see outside the city, but that's ok. I plan to go back at some point.

Obviously one of the main sites to see is the Acropolis. Sitting high on the mountain and overlooking the city, it's quite the monument. I went in November, and because I was going to the Athens Marathon it was still very crowded with tourists and people. While I can't imagine this place every being not busy, at least it wasn't the height of summer. That would just be miserable.

It was a bit of a hike to get up to it, but definitely worth it. And once you get to the top it really is a spectacular view of the entire city. The Greeks knew what they were doing when the built it where they did.






We took our time wandering through it and taking about 1000 pictures of the view. Can you blame me though?






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We then wandered through flee markets, the famous Arch, the food markets, parks, and so on. The weather was beautiful, and the whole city was fun to see. I'll continue to let the pictures just speak for themselves.