Greece - Santorini

Still haunted by my driving experience in Ireland, I was hesitant to rent a car in Santorini, and in my mind, I pictured navigating tight, undulating roads while enduring the screams of my passengers.  Thankfully, I’m married to a practical girl equipped with the right amount of optimism and well-rehearsed at talking me down from the ledges of life. Other than my compelling visage and chiseled physique, I don’t know how she puts up with me at times.  Our Ryanair flight left Athens at 7:00 AM and landed in Fira, Santorini thirty eight minutes later.  Our brains were in the throes of a heavy fog induced by a 4:00 AM wake up and the tiring machinations of traveling by air, but the car rental process was easy, and I tentatively pulled out of the airport in our seasoned Nissan Micra.  After driving just a few kilometers, I felt a sense of relief due to the excellent condtion of the wide roads, and thanks to the offseason, there were few fellow motorists with which to contend.

On the way to the village of Perissa, we pulled into the parking lot of a bakery hoping for breakfast supplies, and sensing our state of exhaustion, the no-nonsense ladies behind the counter hooked us up Greek style.  While one got busy brewing a double espresso for me, the other loaded a bag with buttery pastries for breakfast and an assortment of sandwiches for lunch, and we drove the rest of the way to Perissa already enjoying the look of the landscape with the contrast of the deep blue Aegean.  GPS navigation on Santorini is partially helpful, but only in finding the general area, and we got a bit lost trying to find our host, Despoina, but she met us at a central landmark, and we followed her to our villa located behind the Perissa cathedral at the base of a towering mountain.  After stowing our bags, Joseph and Deveny immediately went to bed while Deena and I sat on the porch with Despoina and her precious two-month-old baby girl, Maria.  She spent a lot of time with us marking important locations with on a map and praised our decision to rent a car due to unreliable bus schedules during the offseason.  Flush with all the information we needed for a fun stay on Santorini, Deena and I also went to bed, and thanks to the double espresso, I stared at the freshly painted ceiling of our villa for two hours, contemplating two thousand years of Greek history while my bride slept peacefully beside me.

After centuries of volcanic eruptions including a big one that initiated the decline of the Minoan civilization, Santorini consists of a caldera left over from all that thermal activity.  We polled numerous people and spent a good amount of time researching the Greek islands before choosing Santorini as our destination in the Aegean, and boy did we make the right call.  This place is spectacular with its unique geology, sweeping views of the sea, and picturesque cube-constructed villages clinging to the high cliffs and coated with whitewash made from volcanic ash.  Since it’s the offseason, over half the businesses are closed, but there are more than enough places open to keep us in supplies for three days.

We decided to stay close to home for the afternoon, and walked out to the black sand beach where we relaxed on comfy lounge chairs and listened to the sound of the surf.  The sunsets on Santorini are legendary, and we wanted to experience one on our first evening, so we drove the Santo Winery located high on the rim of the caldera; a location recommended by our host as the number one spot to spend an eventide.  In addition to tourism, the economy on Santorini is supported by the wine industry, and the indigenous grapes grown in the volcanic soil produce quality, world-class wines.  Despoina told us there were vines all over the island, and having glimpsed nary a vine so far, we figured we just weren’t looking hard enough.  Turns out the vines are all over the place, but they’re trained to grow in low, basket-style rings in order to absorb dew, so they don’t have the towering, graceful look of traditional trellised vineyards.  

The vines on Santorini

The Santo Winery has a cliffside restaurant with a breathtaking view of the Aegean, and we practically had the place to ourselves as the sun neared its descent.  Deena and I sampled flights of excellent wine, and we all enjoyed a tray full of cheeses, crusty bread, puree made from sun-dried tomatoes, and intensely flavored olives glistening with rich oil.  We briefly left our table to walk outside and take pictures of the molten sun as it neared the horizon coloring  the clouds with pink and purple before melting into the sea.  We walked back to our table in a glory-induced trance for which the only cure was chocolate souffle and raspberry cheesecake.  What a fun evening—our repast was surprisingly inexpensive, and we experienced a memorable sunset together in a truly unique setting.

The next morning I got up early and prepared our favorite breakfast of eggs-in-a-basket using thick crusty bread from the bakery down the street, and we had a long, lazy start to the day.  Our main mission was to drive to the village of Oia at the northern tip of the caldera, but we also needed to find a place to print boarding passes and a laundromat since we didn’t have time to wash clothes in Athens.  We drove back to the main town of Fira and found both places quickly, and soon we had fresh boarding passes and left our clothes to be washed at the laundry since the cost was the same as self-service.  Without having to babysit our clothes, we were free to spend all afternoon in Oia, which is the town featured on all the postcards with the gleaming white buildings dotted with blue-domed churches.
 

After an easy drive with great views, we arrived in Oia and found quick parking due to the low tourist census.  There are paths of volcanic stone which traverse the hills around town, and we started our journey through the village stopping occasionally to give right of way to donkeys loaded with construction materials as they slowly walked to jobsites.  Near the center of town, the volcanic stone paths end and the marble pavers begin marking the main pedestrian thoroughfares, and it’s impossible to be in a hurry here as every step brings another perfect photo opportunity.  With the combination of volcanic cliffs, otherworldly white buildings, and the dominating surround of the Aegean, this place is incredibly beautiful, and we’re thankful we got to enjoy it peacefully without the crush of a tourist crowd.  The sun was bright, and the temperature was in the low 70s during our time in Oia, and after strolling through town for several hours, we had lunch in a small cafe overlooking the sea.  We were the only diners in the place, and the owner cheerfully brought us steaming plates of roast chicken and beef with potatoes, and we enjoyed a salad with cherry tomatoes, cucumbers, and olives.  Again, we were pleasantly surprised at the low cost of the meal, and we slowly walked back to the car after a relaxing afternoon.

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On the way back into Perissa, we stopped to see our friend the baker, and while the rest of the crew worked on some dinnerplate-sized donuts, I had an espresso to keep me going through the evening.  We rested at the villa for a while before striking out in search of another sunset.  Despoina recommended a family-owned restaurant called the Good Heart for a traditional Greek dinner during our time on Santorini, and she said their caldera-rim location was her number two spot for viewing the sunset.  Anna, the owner of the Good Heart, greeted us at the side of the road as we pulled in, and since we were the only ones in the restaurant, we chose the best table in the house for our sunset dining.  Along with our starters of fried cheese and yogurt with garlic, oil, and capers, Anna gave us a complimentary tray of sundried tomato puree and marinated cucumbers with crusty bread.  We split plates of roast pork and lamb with herbs and potatoes, and we dipped the chunks of meat in the yogurt dressing—these Greeks do it right.  We wrapped up our dinner with complimentary honey cakes, and while a bit of cloud cover resulted in a slightly less spectacular sunset than the day before, we hardly noticed since the food and family atmosphere of the Good Heart were so rich.

We got back in the history mode for our final day on Santorini and visited Akrotiri, the site of an ancient civilization populated between 5000 and 1500 BC.  The excavation was completely covered by an elaborate roof system and wooden boardwalks circled the entire area allowing for easy viewing, and other than a couple of small tour groups, we had the place to ourselves.  Some of the frescos we saw in the archaeological museum in Athens came from this site, and while I understand the need for their preservation, it would have been great to have seen them in their original location.  The site was still fascinating, and we learned how earthquakes kept the Minoans here in a constant state of rebuilding, but their success with the copper trade made them wealthy, and they designed intricate water and sewer systems for their settlement.  The good life came to a screeching halt with the devastating volcanic eruption around 1500 BC, and the settlement was covered by pumice stone and ash until excavations began in the late 1960s.  It only cost twelve euro for our visit to this amazing site, and we considered it to be a real bargain.

The next stop of the day was the nearby Red Beach so named for the ruddy volcanic rock of the one hundred meter high cliffs and crushed stone beach sand.  We parked our car in the nearly empty lot and enjoyed a short hike along the rough stone trail, and were amazed as the beach came into view.  The surf is strong here, and the sight of the blue green water of the ocean in front of the ancient red cinder cone with the deep blue backdrop of sky is stunning.  We didn’t venture far out onto the beach due to the strong waves, but we sat for a while on the red rocks and just enjoyed being there with each other.  Lunch was tasty sandwiches and baklava from a nearby bakery, and we drove back to the villa for a nap in preparation for one more sunset.

With several sunset-viewing options from which to choose, we elected to return to the Santo Winery since it was close and the view was so amazing.  This time we just stayed in the car and watched the sun go down in multilayered display of color and fire.  Every sunset on this island provides a different show, each one spectacular in its own way.  After an intense few days in Athens, Santorini was the perfect place to unwind, enjoy nature like we’ve never seen, and experience some incredible cuisine.  Even with the rental car and eating out a couple of times a day, we’re still under budget and rested up for the upcoming week in the Peloponnese.  While the Greek Islands offer many benefits during the main season in the summer months, the November offseason in Santorini provided everything we needed for a fun, relaxing, and memorable time together.

Last meal on Santorini