Santorini Trip Report

Monday 20th October

We woke this morning to more rain, but decided to persist with our day, since we only have two full days here.

Breakfast was served to our room, a beautiful spread of yoghurt, honey, fruit, hard boiled eggs, brown and white bread, croissants and sandwiches of all things that were really nice. Plus of course freshly squeezed orange juice and a pot of coffee.

After breakfast we met our driver who we had pre-arranged transfers with, also from Santorini’s Best Driver, and he drove us to Oia so we could stroll around. Two cruise ships were in, at first Oia was pleasant but then vast numbers of people with headsets and numbered stickers on their lapels simply took over the village. It started to rain at that point, luckily, we were right outside a café so we popped in for macchiatos and a shared baklava. I don’t normally enjoy baklava as it is far too sweet, but this was really good.

When the rain eased, we wandered for an hour or so seeing all the Instagram spots, but really the view was as good if not better from our own terrace and we have no crowds so we called the driver to take us to Fira, the capital.

More time was spent strolling here, but then the rain came back so I was forced to shop and buy an umbrella or risk getting soaked. At least I got one with the Greek evil eye, so it’s a souvenir of sorts. The rain was a great excuse for G to purchase a cap to keep his hair dry, plus a waterproof jacket that will share space with the ten others he has at home.

G wanted octopus, but only one place seemed to have it at a ridiculous price. Maybe it’s out of season, I have no idea. I just felt like a burger, so we found a spot with yet another great view and were served one of the best burgers we’ve ever had. It cost three times what we’d normally pay, but that’s the price of Santorini it seems.

We walked back to our hotel which was about a twenty-minute walk. Almost the entire way we were walking past literally the biggest queue I’ve ever seen, it had to have been at least a kilometre long. This was the queue for the poor cruise souls, stuck for hours in the rain trying to return to their ship. In the heat of summer, it would be even worse! I think I’d taxi to the airport and fly to the next stop. They all looked very miserable indeed, it seems that the walking path was closed due to land slips, so it was the cable car or nothing.

We then spent a very relaxing couple of hours in the hot tub, watching the tenders slowly take people back to the two ships. It’s now wine o’clock so time for pre-dinner drinks.

We walked to Onar Restaurant, literally two doors from our hotel and had a table overlooking the caldera and the beautiful lights of the towns nearby.

I had another serve of fava, and a good fish with potato flakes baked in a tagine. Absolutely delicious, but you could have fed three people with the large serve, so I wasted a lot. G loves octopus, so tried a smoked then chargrilled octopus tentacle, served spectacularly with smoke coming from under a glass dome. He had chicken risotto for his main course.

Tuesday 21st October

This morning breakfast was different, again served on our balcony, and again far too much. The local cats, which of course are everywhere here, must love the guests’ leftovers.

We were served yoghurt, honey, a banana plus a bowl of chopped fruit. Then there were two eggs with a sprinkling of chopped bacon, mini cheese pies, pain au Chocolate, plus bread and jam.

This breakfast doesn't get ordered, is just brought to our balcony and included in the room rate. Needless to say, we did not eat it all.

This morning our driver picked us up for our Santorini day tour. We started at the light house at the end of the island for views, before visiting the pre-historic site of Akrotiri, another town buried under volcanic ash from the explosion in 1610BC.

We learned from Michael, our guide, that not only did the ash bury Akrotiri, but the resulting tsunami destroyed the entire Minoan civilisation living on Crete.

I preferred Akrotiri to Pompeii, and of course it is far, far older and from the second worst volcanic eruption in known history.

We really enjoyed this.

We then visited the village of Megalachori, with underground caves, a blue domed church and there was even a Greek wedding going on.

After the village we went to the famous black sand beach, which is really black. At the end of the beach, the driver dropped us at a fish tavern, where, you guessed it, we had far too much for us. The cats sat next to us though, waiting for the scraps of which there were plenty.

I ordered a fish dish that I'd never heard of called tope. It was explained to me as a small piece of fish with one small bone and didn't come with sides. Although I wasn’t terribly hungry, I didn't think that would be enough, so ordered a big green salad to share with G's fried squid and baby octopus, as well as a portion of skordalia.

They were right about the small fish, about two to three inches long. What they didn't tell me was that they were giving me more than ten of them.

There were some very well-fed cats near the black beach that day.

We went to Prophet Elias monastery next, on top of the highest point of the island with spectacular views and another lovely church, before another beach called Kamari, where we went for a long walk.

Kamari is a black pebble beach resort on the opposite, flat side of the island away from the caldera.

The day finished with a wine tasting and tour at Estate Argyros.

We then enjoyed our final Santorini evening on our terrace before dinner at the island's oldest restaurant which is two doors away in the opposite direction.

Finally, we got to see a famous Santorini sunset and it was amazing, although I feel the ones in Naxos were just as good.

I had little appetite on the last night, I ordered a lamb shank which in Australia generally doesn't have a vast amount of meat, but this was massive. It must have come from the biggest sheep that ever lived. I could only manage barely half along with a few mouthfuls of the orza (or risoni for Australians). G had sea bass with steamed spinach and really enjoyed it.

We had a fun evening as we got chatting with a couple from England. More wine was ordered, and we all had a laugh, particularly about learning not to flush toilet paper which we found very difficult and they did too.