Sweet Success on Santorini

The four of us reluctantly dragged ourselves away from Naxos and caught a ferry to Santorini. We were picked up at the port by a bus and we wound our way up the sheer cliff to the top.

Forgive me if you already know this, but Santorini is famous for its spectacular views of the sea, islands and villages from the top of its cliffs. The cliffs were formed when a volcano erupted about 3,500 years ago. That eruption was so big that it created a tidal wave that is reputed to have wiped out the entire Minoan civilisation, which was based on Crete, about 100 kms away.

We made it to our accommodation and were blown away by the views from our terraces.

We were four very happy little Vegemites :)

We spent a lot of time just chillin' on the terraces.

Santorini is a photographers' delight. There were picture-perfect views everywhere.

We decided to watch the sunset on our first night from a great little restaurant right on the water. The problem was that there were 250 steps between us and the water. We just took our time heading down. These mules were ready to take people back up that found it too hard although I'm sure they find it hard too!

People flock to our little village of Oia for the sunset. The tiny streets get ridiculously overcrowded from mid-afternoon onwards. Many people head to the old castle to watch the sunset and I took this photo from beneath the castle as we walked down the long staircase. There was hardly a spare spot on the castle walls as people sat on them. There were crowds of people standing below the walls behind these people.

The walk down the long staircase was very pretty.

Down on the water's edge, we had a lovely dinner while the sun set behind us.

Ok, the sunset wasn't actually this colour but that's the way my camera photographed it!

Our waiters were all real characters. We had lots of fun with these guys!

With full stomachs we then had to slog back up the 250 steps. We just took it slowly and it was fine, especially when Oia was lit up so beautifully.

 The crowds in Oia during the day were incredible! They came in from cruise ships in large groups, following flag-waving leaders. They came from other villages and they came from Oia as well. We learned to time our outings to avoid the worst of the crushes.

We were up early most days as this was the quietest time. The sunrises were just as beautiful as the sunsets.

Check out the number of churches so close to each other!

One afternoon, John and I went for a big walk. It was beautiful looking back on Oia.

There is a gap between Oia and the other villages and, in typical Greek fashion, there is a gorgeous whitewashed church on each exposed hilltop. We met an Aussie girl called Lauren along the way and we ended up walking together. She then joined us for much of our remaining time on Santorini.

There are some very fancy and expensive places in Santorini. This one certainly had the wow factor!

And of course, as this is Greece, there are cats.....

One thing I was very excited about was meeting another scrapbooking friend! Poppie is the only scrapbooker on Santorini. John and I met her first then Fads and I went to her house and we had a lovely hour or so together. Like Valia, Poppie was a really lovely and welcoming person. Maybe it's just that all scrappers are awesome! Lol! It was great to meet you Poppie!

Again, we hired a car for a day and the four of us plus Lauren set out to explore the island. First we went to some 3,500 year old ruins. Like Pompeii, this village was preserved when it was covered in ash from one of the many volcanic eruptions they've had here. The village had been abandoned not long before however, so nobody was killed. The whole village now has a protective roof over it and lots of archaeological work was going on.

We then drove up to Ancient Thira which we visited on our last trip with the kids. It was every bit as windy as last time too!

With the serious stuff out of the way, we had a fantastic lunch then headed to the Crazy Donkey Brewery. The boys and Lauren tasted the various beers. There was Yellow Donkey, Red Donkey, White Donkey and Crazy Donkey. Yellow Donkey got voted the best and half a dozen were duly bought.

Next up was a wine tasting at a winery that has been on Santorini for many years. I was expecting a small, local set-up but what we found was huge, slick and very commercial. We ordered two 12-serve flights of wine between us and they delivered the entire lot at once! This wasn't ideal as the whites got warm. It really was just easier for them. Disappointingly, the wines weren't all that great either.

The views were spectacular though!

We stopped on our way home........

..... to photograph yet another spectacular sunset. What (or who) was John getting excited about in the Jeep? The answer lies further below.

We had some lovely meals out but Santorini isn't cheap so we evened things out with lots of yummy, and very cheap, gyros and souvlakis. Mmmmmm!

Now I must tell you about the Chinese bride thing. We don't know the whole story but it's the in-thing if you're Chinese and about to get married that you jet to exotic locations like Santorini and get lots of fashionable photos taken. The brides-to-be pose in their wedding dresses but also in other beautiful dresses. Sometimes the groom poses as well. They don't seem to actually get married here though. Most of the time they hover in strategic locations, completely blocking the way for the hoards of tourists that are trying to pass. Strangely, the brides-to-be usually wear slippers or runners on their feet as they walk around the villages. This one must have been on a budget - she was catching the local bus back from Oia at the end of her day!

The guy who owned out apartments was called Zac and he was a great guy. He spent an evening just chilling with us out on one of the terraces and we learnt a lot about Santorini. After talking to him we felt that there actually was more to Santorini than just tourism and crowds.

We were up early on our last morning for a very special day. John's Australian football team was playing in the Grand Final for the first time in 35 years! This is what John had been getting excited about for weeks! Firstly, I went for one last early morning walk though.

 Back in our room, we settled down to watch the big match. Our team went in as the underdogs but we were in for the fight. The first quarter didn't look promising but things picked up in the second quarter. Things got very exciting as the game went on and we ended up winning! Unbelievable!

The face of our team's hero, Dusty Martin, said it all when the final siren went.

As the game started at 7.30am, John didn't have a drink. We packed our bags then we all had a few quiet drinks to celebrate. John was, and still is, in shock but he was very happy to celebrate with a Yellow Donkey beer and his Tigers towel!

We left this beautiful place and went to the airport where the four of us left Greece and flew to Rome. We then left Fads and Mark as it was time for them to go home. It had been such a wonderful trip with them. We all had an amazing time and I'm sure we will all treasure these special memories for a very long time.

Heather and John

Naxos - Heaven on Earth

As I write this I'm sitting in a cold, expensive and not very good B & B in Italy. I just wish I was back in Naxos!

We arrived in Naxos via ferry from Paros, and Fads and Mark arrived an hour later from Mykonos where they had had a great time. Our rooms were fantastic! We were right on the beach, overlooking the restaurants and bars set up on the sand. We had French doors that opened onto a small balcony. The view was amazing!

On our first evening we were happy to chill on our balconies and watch the sun set.

We were worried that the bars and restaurants would be noisy but the bars closed early and the restaurants weren't noisy anyway - just pretty with their lights on!

Unfortunately, Fads, Mark and John all felt unwell at various stages over the next couple of days. There didn't seem to be any clear reason why. We had a quiet day on the first full day, with some people heading out and some spending the day in our beautiful rooms. I went for a walk along the beach and found a very cool peninsula with a ruin on it. I felt a bit like I was on my own deserted island. Very cool!

John managed to hire quite a good bike so he had lots of fun exploring the island. 

Over the course of our four days there, we all got to see, among other things, the Temple of Apollo. It sat out on a rocky peninsula near the main town and was quite striking. It didn't feel right to me though. I'm quite convinced that it's not supposed to look like this. The temple was never finished but I reckon these pieces are not meant to be columns and a lintel but some base pieces or some other part. Got to google that.

There were great views from the temple back over the town.

There was a busy square near us where all the Greek men would sit on one bench and all the women would sit on another bench. It's funny how they were so segregated but this is fairly typical in Greece where men often hang out drinking coffee all day.

Fads and I visited a pharmacy (in an attempt to fix some of the upset stomachs) and the inside of the shop was amazing! The walls were lined with antique, custom-made cabinets and the top shelves were filled with old ceramic jars, the type that they used to store medicines in in past centuries.

The old part of town was gorgeous - all white-washed buildings and narrow streets. Of course, there were the obligatory Greek cats......

The ruins of a restaurant were perched on yet another rocky peninsula and it was cool to explore them. As we looked through the glass-less window frames we could see straight into the crystal clear water.

We spent every evening on those lovely balconies.....

When everyone was feeling better we hired a car to explore the island. Not just any car though - it was a convertible from Fantasy car hire! With the two guys looking cool in the front and the two hot chicks squeezed into the back we set out in style!

First we explored the ruins of the Temple of Demeter. They were pretty cool.

This church was lovely. It was set right in an olive grove.

The landscape was really arid and rugged. It seemed that on every remote hilltop there was a church. Take a close look at the hilltop below.....

Here's a close-up.

We ate a lovely lunch at a restaurant with great views over the surrounding valleys.

We found this ancient marble quarry where there was an abandoned statue. It was never finished and it looked strange just lying there. It was interesting to see how they carved the statue straight from the rock where it lay, rather than take the block of marble somewhere else then carve it. The statue is 11 metres long!

We also explored this old tower. Like other parts of Greece, families here hundreds of years ago used to feud with neighbours, so they built these towers for protection.

While we were wandering around town one day, we saw the following sign.  Firstly, I got very excited about seeing Mamma Mia on a Greek island (the movie is set on another Greek island) and secondly we couldn't help but notice the mention of unlimited alcohol! We cacked ourselves laughing at the spelling of Meryl Streep! John said he always wanted to see Meryl Strip!

We rolled up to the outdoor theatre and, sure enough, we could have as much local alcohol as we wanted - for the 15 minutes before the show started. Oh well.

The show was a blast! Fads and I hadn't seen it for years and I don't think the guys had ever watched it all the way through (it took an outdoor movie theatre in Greece to get them to watch it at all!) We all thoroughly enjoyed it. Fads and I sung along to the songs of course......

We then went to a bar and saw an awesome moon again. We could hear lots of voices coming up from beneath us somewhere so we went exploring. We soon found a heap of people crowded into a lane. To cut a long story short, they were all Italian workmates on a work-sponsored holiday. We decided (jokingly) that we wanted to work for this company so we were introduced to the boss! He turned out to be fun, just like the workers we had met, and we all had a really good time. What a night!

Naxos was one of my favourite places on our trip - we had a great place to stay, everyone was lovely and we shared it all with great friends. What more can we ask for?

Til next time,
Heather and John