Our first real destination in Greece was to the island of Santorini. We arrived in Athens the day before, but skipped all the tourist activities and devoted the day to errands, laundry, and on-line work. The ferry ride to Santorini was long, about seven hours, and not particularly enjoyable. We opted to save a few bucks and ride in the economy class, which ended up being similar to spending seven hours in a floating Burger King with 90% of the people around you smoking. Our outlook on life improved once our boat landed and were picked up and taken to our hotel for three nights, Manos Villas. Our room was huge, with a nice balcony overlooking the pool. It was a nice and comfortable place to stay for a few nights.
We got up pretty early the next morning, eager to see who had won the election. Our 13-inch big screen TV had about six channels - all in Greek (you know what they say). We couldn’t understand anything they were saying, but we saw Obama waving and smiling from the stage with Jessie Jackson and Oprah bawling their eyes out in the crowd, so it was pretty apparent that he had pulled it out. It was a good start to the morning. After a leisure breakfast on the balcony, we hopped on the bus to the town of Kamari on the eastern side of the island to get some beach time in and catch a few rays before we get roasted in Thailand. Since it was the low season, Kamari was a ghost town, but we lounged around for a little while and relaxed on the rocky beach. We rode the bus back to the main city of Fira where we walked along the western edge of town which is beautifully cramped with bone white houses perched on the cliffs high above the sea. The town and views were amazing and it finally gave us a good feel for what the Greek Isles were all about. We spent a good amount of time walking through town, and then watched a lovely sunset before heading back to the hotel.
The sun was a little brighter and a little warmer on day two, so we took advantage by getting some good pool lounging time in. The weather was even warm enough to entice Jim into taking a dip in the pool – a very cold mistake. That evening, we took a taxi up to a little town on the northern tip of the island called Oia (pronounced ee-eh or ee-ah). Apparently Oia is world renowned for their spectacular sunsets, so we figured we had better check it out to see how they measure up. It was a very cute town, like a smaller quainter version of Fira, with little white homes hanging off the cliffs in all directions. We (with the help of our dog friend who had taken a liking to us) scouted out a nice spot to watch the sunset. It was just OK. Not the best we’ve seen. Not even as good as the night before in Fira, but still pretty good in the grand scheme of sunsets. I guess the Whidbey Island sunsets have spoiled us a little over the years.
The weather didn’t cooperate for more sunbathing the following day, so we packed up our bags, checked-out and got a few hours of work done in Fira. After lunch, we headed back to the ferry terminal to catch the boat to our next island destination of Naxos. In Naxos, we stayed at a guesthouse called Pension Sofi. It was a nice little place and they showered us with hospitality the entire stay – beer and cheese on check-in, Haley a rose, home made wine and olives, gift wrapped souvenir magnet and Greek coffee.
We kicked around town that evening. It was a surprisingly large downtown area that was really bustling for that time of year. For dinner, we went with Pension Sofi’s recommendation of a small local taverna. The food was just OK, but the clientele was a riot. When we walked in the door, one of the patrons, a regular, greeted us loudly and asked where we were from. When we told him NYC, he started going on and on about our new president. Turns out he lived in Toronto for a number of years and just recently moved back to Naxos. Throughout dinner, he would occasionally strike up conversations with us from across the restaurant, mainly asking us questions about Obama. He finally moved from his table to ours and started telling us a few interesting stories about his tough times in Toronto. He even bought us a beer and invited us to a local bar that was set to open in an hour or so. We told him we may stop by, and bought him a beer on our way out to return the favor. Him and his friend shouted an enthusiastic ”OBAMA!” as we walked out of the door. Kind of a weird and interesting first night on Naxos, but nice to see that the US’s international relations have already improved.
The following day, we explored the marble filled old town, a maze of almost tunnel-like streets leading up through castle walls to a catholic church at the highest point of the hill. We also walked out on a small peninsula to take a look at the Temple of Apollo. We opted out of a car rental to explore the interior of the island, and walked to the beach instead. It was a soft, sandy beach – a nice change from Santorini’s rocky shores.
We boarded the ferry the following day to travel back to Athens for a day of sightseeing. Jim wasn’t feeling the best, and to make matters worse, the waves were huge and really rocking the boat around. It was a pretty woozy trip. We didn’t do much in Athens that afternoon. We put in a few hours at the internet cafe and spent a good amount of time looking for a restaurant that served something other than kebabs and souvlaki. You can only eat that stuff so many days in a row.
The Acropolis was the only real tourist activity on our list, which we were able to check off the following morning. It was pretty interesting, and the views of sprawling Athens were nice from up top. The ruins were surprisingly disorganized though, especially considering the Olympics were held there just four years ago. You’d think they would have done more to clean it up and at least make it look somewhat nice and put together. After the Acropolis, we meandered through some other ancient ruins, walked through the charming Plaka neighborhood, and that was about it for Athens.
For dinner our final night, we had a tasty meal of noodles in preparation for the next leg of our trip – Asia.
Posted by haleyandjim 
