Greece - Day 1

I think some of you have been following the weather in London this summer. It absolutely, positively sucks. Jon and I literally walk around in sweatshirt and sweatpants at least a few times a week – and I have been making some serious use of the throw we bought at Home Base when we moved in!

So, it was time for a trip with sun, beach, relaxation and minimal touring. We’re off to the Greek Islands!Sorry in advance for the plethora of pictures in our Greece postings – I think we fell in love with the islands and will surely be back as soon as we possibly can.

Any morning flight cannot compare to this one – 7:20am out of Gatwick, required a 4am wakeup in order to get there in time given all the transportation. Yuck!

Anyway, it was absolutely worth it – we arrived in Mykonos and had a few hours to spare before our flight to Santorini, so we decided to visit Hora, the island’s capital city. So we got on a taxi line and waited. And waited. And waited with everyone else from our flight. Good thing I picked up the free Mykonos guide in the airport and had the sense to buy a Greek SIM card when I visited Athens in May – soon enough a taxi arrived for the guy in the red shirt and we were off!

Clearly, walking around the islands with suitcase in tow couldn’t be fun for Jon, but adding the 40°C (check here for the conversion), so gold star to Jon for zero complaints.

Our mission: find the best gyro in Hora. We were given directions to such a place, and wouldn’t you know it we hauled our stuff all the way there and found it closed (only in Greece). Good thing we aren’t easily deterred, because we found this great hole-in-the-wall and weren’t even put off by the photo menu (which usually rings crazy bells for me).

After the best €2 gyro I have ever had, we wandered around the narrow streets of the city for a while more. At one point we happened across this interesting creature surrounded by hoards of tourists (center picture). I think it is a heron, but let me know if it is not!

Our flight was scheduled for 5:30pm, so we figured if we hit the cabstand by 4pm, we would be fine. I wish Jon took a picture of how distressed I got, but believe me it was not pretty when we didn’t have a cab by 4:30. All I have to say is good thing Jon makes fast friends, because soon enough we were on our way to the airport with Philip.

We nearly melted watching some sun before our flight, but happy to be at the airport nonetheless!

On our way to magical Santorini - a small plane but not as small as to Singita!

Santorini is truly a magical island. Thousands of years ago it was shaped like most islands (roundish), when there was a huge volcanic eruption and the island split into several parts – today the main island of Thira is shaped like a half moon and we are staying in a place called Oia (pronounced ee-ya), that is on the tip of the crescent-shaped island. This area is on a cliff and presumably once upon a time was at the center of the island.

This is a picture of the volcano, which is now its own separate island:

Getting a hotel in Santorini, in Oia with such short notice literally took us an entire day. We arrived at Katikies Villas with baited breathe. There were not a lot of pictures of the property online and we originally called for the hotel, but they had no rooms available. They told us about the Villas and we searched and searched and searched for information about it but there is not a lot out there. There are only 7 units and it is literally run like you are visiting someone’s home. It actually sort of reminded me of the service at Singita. Yes, that good! We were upgraded to a suite - yipee - but I am sure that each and every unit there is amazing.

The manager’s name is Antonia and she couldn’t have been nicer. After we settled in, she came to our room with fresh fruit, a bottle of wine and two glasses of champagne. She knew how long we had on the island and gave us a great overview of how she suggested we spend our time. Then she pointed out the cell phone on the mini-bar was for us to use during our stay – to contact her whenever we had a question. I could go on and on and on about our stay at Katikies, but I’ll do that off line. Honestly, if you are ever in Santorini, don’t think about staying anywhere else. The hospitality was amazing! Here is a picture of Jon at the hotel:

After our introduction to the island, we decided to walk around Oia, which is beautiful and quiet. There were people milling about, but relatively quiet, which was later explained by the fact that it wasn’t yet the weekend – either way this town has wonderful shops filled with non-touristy trinkets and great restaurants, each with an endless view of the ocean.

I don’t think we have ever seen sky or ocean so blue as on Santorini. Today, we even picked up some local tomatoes and before you make serious fun – they are known to be the most delicious – they are grown without ever watering them so the flavor is much more intense. So the Greeks may have a one-up on tomatoes from the Italians.

Here's a picture of the beautiful town of Oia; it is built into the cliff so nearly everywhere you stay has an amazing view of endless seas.

Antonia made a booking for us a great restaurant for dinner called Ambrosia and Nectar. And since, I know you were all counting on the details of every morcel, here goes. We got the feta wrapped in filo and a traditional Fava dip for starters which were both amazing. Then we had an oven baked lamb and moussaka for mains, which might not exactly be local, but are quite Greek and delicious!

On the way to dinner, Jon spied this ridiculously tempting bakery - how is it that everywhere we go, we find ridiculously good bakeries? We decided to take out two samples (not sample sized thank goodness) and ended the evening under eating dessert under the stars on our private balcony.