Ok, Santorini. I try to have enough discipline to write a post in a timely manner- like within a few hours of doing an activity or when something of note happens. At the very latest, I try to have it done within a few days. I have totally dropped the ball on this one as we are now at almost 2 weeks since we left Greece. And you don’t know anything about where we currently are (Bansko, Bulgaria) or the great hiking or the sheep herders here and I am dying to tell you all about it (seriously, so much good stuff- starting at the airport in Athens after we left Santorini. We landed, but were not allowed off the plane. For a really, really long time. People were getting feisty. When we were finally allowed off we had to show our passports to two plain clothes policemen immediately upon exiting the plane. Whoa. Unfortunately, we were sitting at the front of the plane and didn’t get to see if they got their guy-or gal- even though we tried to linger.) But you don’t even know how we got back to Athens. So, I can’t get ahead of myself and need to write about Santorini.
Santorini is incredible! Although, it is much more arid than the pictures would have you believe. There are several cities, all built into the cliffs over the water so there is not a bad view anywhere. The buildings are all whitewashed and provide a striking contrast to the deep blue of the mediterranean. Outside of the cities it is very arid and the landscape is mostly scrub brush and vineyards that look like scrub brush (more on that soon!). I can’t possible hope to describe it properly, the way it deserves, so here are some pictures:
We were picked up at the Santorini Airport by a man named Kostas from the place we were staying (Maria’s Place). It is such a luxury to get picked up! When we were in Athens we took the train from the airport and then a taxi. The taxi took us to the wrong place! We hailed another cab and called our host who spoke to the driver and tried to give him instructions in Greek. The driver agreed with him, and then told us that he would not be taking us there, turned around and kicked us out! So, needless to say, it was very nice to not have to worry about that in Santorini. Because our plane was late, we had to pick up some other people whose ferry was arriving. It wasn’t a big problem, even the port was beautiful. We finally arrived in the city of Oia (pronounced e-yuh) at Maria’s Place and met the very charming, sweet and knowledgeable Anna. She gave us a map labeled with just about everything we would need- including Lolita’s, the best gelato place I have been, ever.
Our accommodations at Maria’s Place were very nice and included a tiny kitchen and a patio with an amazing view of a vineyard (which we only figured out after going on the wine tour) and the ocean. October was the perfect time to visit Santorini, it was crowded, but not overly so and a few days were uber windy, but most days were perfect and we spent most of our time sitting on our patio. We also met the resident cats, a few older cats (I think two) and several baby kittens (dubbed the micro cats- they were super cute!). Every morning and evening one, some, or all of them would visit us on our patio. My mom made particular friends with one who would come and sit next to her in the mornings and purred crazy loud (we called her Noisebox). Even highly allergic Nick fell in love (update from Nick: more like didn’t entirely hate) with the micro cats and was occasionally caught cuddling with one (and then washing his hands immediately).
We walked all over the beautiful city of Oia over the 5 days were we there. We explored the winding, narrow streets where everything was amazingly picturesque. We visited Lolita’s several times and enjoyed their seriously delicious and creamy gelato. We climbed down over 200 stairs to go to the seaside seafood restaurants recommended by Anna (whose every recommendation was spot on!). We went to Katinas on her recommendation and it was phenomenal- once we figured out how to order. We showed up after our hike down a billion stairs hungry and ready for lunch but we had a hard time figuring out the menu. There were salads and bread, but no fish dishes. Instead, it featured fish by the kilo. Our waiter took us inside and showed us the fresh fish that they had caught that day and told us to pick one out. Umm, I grew up in Colorado, where our only choice is trout (which they didn’t have). None of us had any idea what to order or which fish to pick, so we took our waiters recommendation and went for a fresh sea bream, which turned out to be a great choice. Our fish (named Fredopolis- because everything should be named) was brought out to us grilled. And whole. It was actually very cool to watch as our waiter skillfully removed his fins and bones at the table and left us with juicy fillets, covered with a blend of olive oil and lemon. He did caution us to watch out for remaining bones, it is a fish after all, he reminded us. Bones and all, Fredopolis was incredible and we ate every bite!! Nick even fished (haha) out his cheek meat- supposedly a delicacy- which was so tasty.
After lunch, we walked along a path near the water and sat at the dock with our feet in the water, working up the willpower to walk back up the 200+ stairs. The water was cold, the sun was hot and we had a delicious lunch sitting in our tummies. It was a perfect afternoon. Until we had to go back up the stairs. We started up and almost immediately came upon about 6 donkeys tied up, their backs to us. We looked at each other, the question on everyones lips: are donkeys like horses? Will they kick you if you walk behind them? Nervously, we started up, muttering kind words of encouragement as much to the donkeys as to ourselves. But, we made it, all in one piece and not a single donkey kick! We continued up the stairs, stopping to catch our breath and admire the view every so often.
One of the highlights for me was going on/to a wine tour/cooking class. We had a wonderful and knowledgeable (but in an accessible way, not a hoity-toity, snobby way) sommelier as our guide named Stomatis. He picked us up from Maria’s Place (such a luxury!), stopped to pick up a few more people and headed off to visit a winery called Boutari. We walked through the winery and out into the vineyard and stopped short, certain that we had been ripped off. This wasteland full of scrub brush was a vineyard!?!? Stomatis explained that the vines in Santorini are trained low, into basket shapes, to protect the grapes from the wind and the sun. I guess it was true since we saw one vine with shriveled up grapes on it. We toured the wine cellar and then got to taste several of the wines. I learned a little more about tasting wines, mostly that swirling releases more aromas, but I still couldn’t pick out what the aroma was to save my life. I also learned that when you salivate after drinking a sip of wine it is due to the acidity. Santorini wines are known for their acidity. Their acidity, mineraly flavors and saltiness were the main characteristics of Santorini wine. We were given some snacks to go with our wines. As we tried our wine we were instructed to try a different snack and we were surprised at how much the snack impacted the wine flavor. My favorite combo was the Vin Santo (a dessert wine that we all liked- despite claiming to not like sweet wines) paired with blue cheese- yum!!
After an afternoon of wine tasting, we were dropped off at a restaurant in Kamari called Nichteri. The chef there did a cooking demo for us. Once again, it as billed as cooking school (we were even promised the chance to cook ourselves! Hehe), but we only did pretend cooking. We cut up a few tomatoes for the Santorini salad and the tomato fritters (both exceptionally delish, by the way) and a few cucumbers for the salad before our knives were taken out of our hands and replaced with yet another glass of wine! However, it was an awesome class and we had some really good food. The Santorini salad was incredible and the tomato fritters with mint rocked my world! Our chef came across as one of the moody chef types, but every once in a while would laugh and was very nice about answering all of our questions. We sat out on the patio overlooking the beach and enjoyed the lunch that we had sort of made, plus some grilled squid over quinoa and a white chocolate panna cotta for dessert. Every single thing was amazing! It was a really fun day- we learned a lot about Santorini wines and cuisine and had a blast!!
A few more pics of Oia:
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