This summer, we checked GREECE off our/ HG's travel bucket list! We visited from July 1-7. We chose to fly straight through Athens to get on to Santorini, which was ok with us because it was a good 20 degrees hotter there than the islands (although probably not as windy). We initially planned to transfer by ferry to another island, Paros, and to stay for three more days there, but after we learned how exhausting it was just to get all the way over there (and how crowded it was because of peak travel season), we decided one island for a week was enough. It was a great week of RESTING and exploring a whole new (to us) side of the world.
Spiffer and GD were headed to Maine the same morning we were leaving, so we got to visit with them in the airport.
The Power Couple of Drinks, amiright?
John chose his annual Delta reward as international upgrades, and THIS WAS AMAZING for our flight from Atlanta to Athens (10 hours). A once in a lifetime opportunity!
Cressey was having a lot of flight anxiety, so when we went up front to the bathroom before take off and saw the cockpit door open, I took the opportunity to talk to the pilots. They were SO NICE to her and showed her around, told her about the plane, etc. She felt so much better afterward and loved that there were four pilots!
We were definitely sooooo comfortable in these lay-down pods, but I will say that none of us slept as well as we did on the similarly long flight from LAX to New Zealand. A snoring neighbor, an open window, etc. kept us a little more awake, but we all slept 4-5 hours which was enough to push through.
WE MADE IT to Athens!
It was so bizarre to see the flight plans English and then watch it switch to Greek! Such a different language than ours.
And after a very hectic Athens airport experience, an hour long flight on Aegean Air and a 20-min car ride, we made it to the island of Santorini and the village of Oia (ee-ah). Atrina Canava 1894 was the stuff of dreams!
We stayed in the Atrina Villa with two bedrooms, two bathrooms, and a kitchen (connected to the rest of the suite with this cave tunnel).
This is the walkway that makes the spine of Oia. On the east end of town where our hotel was, it's wide, straight, and spacious. It gets much more narrow and hilly and diverges as it goes west.
Dinner at Skiza. We ate here a lot!
This is the main entrance of the hotel from the walkway
Our little patio
And alllll the kitties
This crazy kid chose the couch as her bed
For room service breakfast, they set up food on this table right outside our door. Can't beat the view!
Let's go explore!
As the day goes on, the tourist crowd increases, and it gets CROWDED.
Headed out to Oia "Castle" (ruins)
Can you see John and HG?
Cressey is living her best life. She got to pick out all new dresses on the Target app, so she felt like a queen wearing her new clothes in such a fun destination!
Too hot, too crowded, time for the pool
Looking back up the hill toward the walkway. Our hotel has 15 villas along the hill.
Proof of life
Sunset view from dinner
You have to wait in line to get pics at these signature places, and it's too crowded during the day. So nighttime was a nice opportunity to grab a pic!
More kitties!
John took lots of sunrise strolls
I struck out one morning to find the windmills on the far side (west) of town
This is how things get transported here. Everything. Suitcases, food, equipment. It's exhausting to watch!
Cressey got the photo bug here, so it was cute to see HG try to teach her the 'real' camera.
While we waited for food, they went on a walk to take pics.
This place felt like we were eating at a Greek family's house!
Cressey wanted to do this photo opp all week, so I finally gave in and she was so happy!
The coveted shot with the blue domes! Had to grab this photo on her morning walk with daddy
Thalami, we loved how pretty this adjacent patio was, but we laughed at how it was totally unusable until sunset without any shade!
We rented a boat for an afternoon with Alex Boats Santorini and Captain Panos (who was FANTASTIC), so the hotel arranged a car ride over to Fira, the neighboring town where the cruise ships dock. To get from Fira down to the water, you have to take a cable car. We got there a little early, so we wandered around and were so excited to see the famous donkeys walking through town! We had seen all the trinkets with donkeys on them in Oia but never saw a real one there, so this was a treat! Until we saw them actually huffing and puffing up and down the hill with luggage, etc. That's a rough life.
A quick bite at Zafora, which is directly adjacent to the cable cars
There are the poor donkeys
I loved this little church next to where we met our boat
I've never seen rock formations like this place- all volcanic rock! We learned that you can tell how hot the lava was by what formation it dried in, and you could even see popped bubbles frozen in rock.
You can see the popped bubbles here
When you are in Oia and Fira, looking out at the center of the caldera, you see a center island. When you get up close to it, you realize it's literally just a pile of rocks.
Can now add 'swimming in a volcano' to our completed bucket list! There were patches of cold water and then warm water- it was a very strange sensation. As you approached the middle of this hot springs, the water temp got up to 100 degrees. Smelled so strongly of sulfur! You could see little bubbles or fizzes coming up out of the water. BIZARRE.
See how this rock is completely severed horizontally toward the bottom??
See John jumping?!
And Cressey over there watching every move
This water was freezing but smelled much better than the hot springs! The ground was big rocks, no sand. There were a few fish but mostly small and not colorful.
They prepared a delicious meal for us of Greek traditional food!
This is a monastery on the island of Thirasia, and once Paros pointed it out to us, we realized we could see it from our hotel!
Due to how enclosed the sea is around the caldera (although it looks pretty big and open to me!), there are no tides, so these houses never get flooded.
The nuns have to get off a boat here, climb all the way up those stairs, and travel to the other end of the island to reach the monastery. That's dedication. Thirasia likes to stay very devoted to the local customs and people, so there's not really any tourism there.
Back to the coast of Oia to get ready for sunset
Love how you can see the church belltowers from the water
The western end of Oia has a ton of restaurants since this is the best place for sunset viewing. I can't really figure out how to get down there. We saw some donkeys and some steep walking paths, but that sounds like a lot of steps! From way out in the water, I could see some cars at a distance, so maybe there's a way to get a ride down there??
Donkeys hard at work
The cable car ride back up to Fira at the end of the night was a lot different than the way down. I think we were probably the last ride of the night!
Fira is a bit more of a party village than Oia, although it doesn't look so crowded here. We passed lots of busy bars on the outskirts of town. Oia had lots of full restaurants at dinnertime but no loud music.
Cressey and I tried a horseback ride
This was one of the last real smiles I saw that day
We rode down through the DESERT to get to the black sand beach. I was glad to see the sand, but I didn't really consider how dusty and windy it would be getting there. Cressey was the most experienced rider of our group, so she got the stubborn horse. That proved to be a challenge (and a damper on the fun).
More dusty canyons
Photo opp for an old church- we were ready to go by this point
And then we had to turn around and go back all the way we came
More photo opps
And this was the best part of the expedition- the business owner was also a wine maker and offered me a pour
TIME TO GO BACK TO THE POOL
Lunch by the pool was just what the doctor ordered
Our last dinner at Skala- a note to add that you can find pizza or pasta at almost any restaurant in Santorini, so even us picky eaters were happy.
HG loved this Fanta (fizzy lemonade) we found all over here, and I loved the Greek letters on the Coke Zero. Most places even had Coke Light which was just like Diet Coke.
More kitties
We had gelato every night from Kayak
It was so hard for us to say goodbye to Cindy who took such great care of us at the pool all week! She made such a fuss over Cressey.
One last sunset (important to note that we couldn't see the sun hit the water from our hotel, it happened a little more around the western tip of the island/ we weren't up high enough. But the colors were still beautiful!)
And a last sunrise too... this is Cressey's fake smile because there had been many tears as we got ready to go
Goodbye, Atrina Canava!
Looking for her mama cat
We got to see the sun come up as we drove to the airport
Santorini Airport
Since we left so early in the morning, we pretty much stayed up the whole way home. Our flight from Athens to Atlanta was almost 12 hours. But by the time we got on the flight to Memphis, Cressey's eyes couldn't stay open. I was worried that she wouldn't be able to be woken up to get to the car, but she popped right up when we landed.
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