It may sound silly to say that Tommy and I needed a vacation from vacation, but that’s really exactly what we intended when we booked four days in Santorini, Greece. While being in big cities filled with museums and ruins means rushing around to see everything and walking constantly everyday, a small island filled with nothing but wineries and beaches ensures a few days to sleep in and take it slowly.
How we found Santorini is a bit of a story in itself. It’s actually a very typical tourist destination in Greece, perhaps the most commonly visited of all the Greek isles, but we did not know that until we arrived. At home, when deciding where to go in Greece other than Athens, I asked Tommy, “You know those pictures you always see of blue-domed, white churches against the sea? Can we go where those are taken?” A quick Google search located Santorini, and our decision was made.
We arrived early in the morning by ferry, and our hostel picked us up from the dock. It was run by an extremely friendly couple. Since we were so early, we didn’t have beds yet, so we left our luggage and went out walking.
Santorini is a small island with a few little towns. It’s shaped like a crescent, the result of a massive volcanic eruption around 1600 BC. It left a steep cliff face on the inside of the crescent, called the caldera. It displays lovely layers of different sediments, revealed when the eruption cut away the island rock. We stayed in Fira, the largest town on the island. It is positioned on the caldera’s edge, with beautiful views and many homes and resorts perched precariously on the cliff. We walked along a path that hugged the side of he caldera, looking down into the porches and swimming pools of the hotels steeply below. The streets were quiet, almost deserted. Spring is not as touristy as summer for the island, but cruise ships frequently dock in Fira and drop off loads of vacationers. It’s worth noting that unlike the dock at Athinios where we arrived, the only ways up to the island proper from the Fira dock are by foot, by cable car, and by donkey.
Still, it was too early in the morning for cruise passengers or other tourists to be roaming the streets, and no souvenir shops had yet opened their doors. We enjoyed the quiet, narrow paths around the town. We spotted some of the famous blue-domed churches and managed to find vantage points from which we could snap some good photos. And we had what we understand to be a typical Greek breakfast of cheese pies.
Once our room was ready, we basically collapsed and slept for a good bit of the afternoon. We ventured back out in the evening for a dinner of souvlaki, a vegetarian pita, and tsatziki, to buy some groceries, and to see a little more of Fira.
The next day, we rented a 4-wheeler to get around the island in, as do lots of younger tourists. It was a great way to go. We set off to see some of the island’s many beaches. First we drove down to Kamari, a black sand beach. Unfortunately it was a little cloudy and chilly, certainly not warm enough to enjoy a beach properly. On our way out we paused at a winery and tasted some of their wines. Apparently most of the grapes grown on Santorini are varieties that will not grow anywhere else. Santorini has a unique soil and climate. The grapes are grown close to the ground, not supported by any kind of trellis. They weave the vines in a ring to protect the fruit from the wind, and most of the water comes from fog and not rainfall. They mostly produce whites, both dry and sweet. For the sweet wines, they leave the grapes out in the sun for weeks before juicing them. At the wineries we visited, they still stomp grapes the old-fashioned way for some of their wines, with bare feet! They don’t export much because the vineyards are small operations. Our favorite white at this winery was the Santorini, and we bought a small bottle.
Next we drove to Pyrgos and up to the highest point on the island. It’s occupied by a monastery and a military base. The view was nice but not extremely photogenic, as the day was growing cloudier. We were unfortunate enough to catch Spain and Greece during an unusually cold and rainy bout of weather. Still, we could see both tips of the island’s crescent shape, and the in-between of vineyards, fields, and terraced hills, graced by charming little homes and buildings.
Unable to find a cheap take-away sort of place like the day before, we stopped at a bakery and bought a huge loaf of piping hot bread for lunch. Then we headed for beach number 2, Perissa, an even lovelier black sand beach in the south. We rode its length, and on the way out find a great little fish tavern tucked away from the road called Paradisio. We went for dinner, but unfortunately they didn’t have most of what was on their menu (one of the downsides of being on the island during a non-touristy time).We made a good meal out of assorted Greek appetizers and really enjoyed it. Santorini has some culinary specialties, including fava, and fried tomato balls seasoned with mint. They were especially good.
The next day was Sunday, so we went to the Catholic church in Fira. Outside, a paper was posted with mass times that said that it was Easter Sunday. This was a little confusing or us. We knew it was Greek Orthodox Easter (usually held the week after Roman Catholic Easter, but on some years for astronomical reasons it is nearly a month later) because there were a lot of Greeks vacationing on the island for the holiday. But we both distinctly remembered being soaked to the skin at the Vatican on Catholic Easter Sunday. Before mass started, the priests came around to all the tourists, handing out some papers about this canonical inconsistency. Because the majority of Christians in Greece are Greek Orthodox, all of the secular calendars follow their schedule as far as work holidays, etc. Because of this and the fact that many families are mixed Greek Orthodox and Roman Catholic, the Catholic church in Greece obtained special permission to celebrate Easter on the same day as the Greek Orthodox Church. So, as the priest put it, “Two Easters for you!”
When we emerged from mass, it was raining. We groaned, because we had already renewed our ATV for a second day, and it was clearly now going to be pretty useless. It was late afternoon before the clouds finally cleared. We hopped eagerly on the 4-wheeler and drove north to Ia, one of the most picturesque towns on the island, known for having one of the most beautiful sunsets in the world. We bought some tsatziki and bread and went out to watch it. The sky turned a lovely pale pink color, but the sun and the rest of the show were unfortunately hidden behind the remnants of rainclouds. We resolved to go back the next day.
We started the day with a trip down to one last beach, the Red Beach. It was really unique and lovely. We stopped at another winery, but weren’t nearly as impressed with their wines as with he first place we visited. After lunch in Fira, we went back to Ia to see it during the day. There are two roads that will take you there from Fira, one low along the coast and one high in the hills. They both offer spectacular views. We spent some time in an internet cafe, mostly looking at Boston apartments and calling realtors, before returning to Ia one last time for dinner. Most of the restaurants overlooking the caldera are overpriced because you are paying for the view, but we somehow stumbled across the perfect one in Ia. The food was spectacular, the view was perfect, and the price was affordable. Full and happy, we finished the day with another sunset, this time with barely a cloud in the sky to block the view, and it really was gorgeous. A crowd gathered to watch it, and applauded after the last sliver of the glowing orange disk slipped below the horizon.
We had to pack up and move out of our room the next morning, but had a few more minutes to walk around Fira before heading to the airport. It’s a tiny little place on the island. We took a prop plane to Athens, where we had a four-hour layover before our flight to Istanbul. We spent it browsing the duty free shops, which put out free samples of some of their Greek products, including olive pate, cake, wine, and chocolates. The stores should know better than to put these things out when there are hungry backpackers around with time to kill. We even got to try some ouzo, a Greek liquor made from anis. We had been meaning to get some our entire time in the country and had never done it until then. Some folk may remember them drinking it in My Big Fat Greek Wedding… we tried to avoid references to that movie, even though it was the full extent of our knowledge of Greek culture prior to this trip, but it came on Greek TV on Easter Sunday so we figure they must have liked it too.