Santorini Easter

Easter was our last day in Santorini (and Greece). We had gotten chocolate eggs for the girls, so they got those in the morning when they woke up. Again I was up earlier than the rest of the crowd, but not by much. We enjoyed a leisurely breakfast and then Cindy had to unfortunately spend much of the day working on her school projects, so I went off with the car for a little bit of a tour of the lower coastline. Isha and Ari went with me. We stopped at all kinds of little beaches, and drove down narrow lanes. Didn't see too much, but had the opportunity to get out of the hotel for a while. Then we came back and I read for a while. I finished my reading for work (Scaling Lean and Agile Development), which was a real chore as the book put me to sleep very easily.

Then we went for a late lunch. We had heard that you could go to any taverna and they would serve a traditional Easter meal-family style. We were going to get in the car to go into town (and return the car to the rental place), when we heard music coming from the opposite side of the road. I suggested we not drive, and try out this place. Santorini Mou (or in greek it looks more like moy). It was run by Mihalis. He reminded me of Zorba, for those of you have seen the movie. He obviously loves the ladies. He has traveled the world on ships as an Engineer or apprentice. He lives in the SF bay area now each winter. He loves to sing and chat with the patrons.

But I have to back up a bit. We came in, and there were 2 large tables set with a number of people around them. We couldn't fit there, but were offered another table a bit on the side. He said that they weren't serving from the menu, but would serve us up a special dinner if we let him. Of course we said yes. Looking around the place (we were sitting outside, but right next to a window) there were photos hanging from the ceiling and on the walls everywhere. And hundreds, no thousands of more hooks from which to hang photos. Mihalis promptly came by and showed us his pictures of Green Day, and of him with Jennifer Anniston. Later we came to notice that he proudly has several pictures of her when she visited his restaurant on the walls. He also visits with Green Day when he is in the states.

We were served a traditional Easter feast of Tatziki, Greek Salad, Green Salad, Fried Cheese, some sort of chickpea dish, huge Fava Beans, and a large plate of Roast Lamb. Fortunately all of the food was veg, except the lamb, so Ari didn't have to feel left out. It was all very good, and we sat for several hours enjoying the food, the view and the company. After we were there for about 15-20 mins, Mihalis brought out an instrument which looked a lot like a mandolin, but with a sound chamber only about 10cm diameter. He played what sounded like traditional Greek songs and the others there sang along with the refrain. Then he came and repeated it just for us. He played it up for Isha and Ari. We chatted for a bit, and then he came with a photo of Green Day, autographed, and he added his own autograph.

After a while, he came out again, this time with a guitar. He came first to our table, and sang a song "Thanks for your smiles" and then took it around to the other tables. He came by at least one more time, and obviously he was enjoying the wine. He would forget just a little more each time. He had to take a photo of Ari, Maya and Isha for his wall.

By the end of the afternoon we were thoroughly stuffed, entertained, and had finished off the second liter of wine they offered us. I must say this was the hilight of the trip. We all enjoyed the afternoon. It was relaxing and fun, and a bit of traditional Orthodox Easter embellished by Mihalis.

Mihalis, Thanks for your smile, and all the others that day!!!

We finished off the day by returning the car and walking down to the end of Oia to see the sunset, and then packing for our early flight back to Athens the next day. We were ready to go, but sad to leave. I guess it's better to leave wanting to stay, than being tired of the place already.

Santorini Part 2

Friday I got up early and went for a walk up the hill, not too far, just to stretch my legs a bit. Then I came back and met Cindy for breakfast. The breakfast we got every day was bread (similar to a white french loaf, but with sesame seeds on top), butter and jam, either fruit or cake, orange juice and a bowl of yummy greek thick yogurt which we topped with honey. Decent coffee was available too, although I still can't drink any. The girls slowly got up and ready. We spent the most part of the day perusing through the various art galleries and jewelry shops in Oia.

We had lunch in another little restaurant which looked to have a good menu in Oia, but the food was a bit disappointing and Ari was really unhappy with her margarita, though the waiter did at first confuse it with a margherita pizza, since she was asking for a strawberry margarita, he managed to catch his error. In the end he invited us to join him for a Carnival like celebration somewhere in mainland Greece (I think). He even gave me his mobile phone number. I think he was hoping for an introduction to one of the beautiful young ladies I was with at the time.

We did find another cool bookshop, The Atlantis Book Store. It gets its name because Santorini is rumored to be Atlantis. Once the Island was much larger. With an eruption of the volcano (maybe the one that happened around the end of the Minoan civilization), much of it collapsed into the sea. Only the Crescent half of the island is left now. It is conjectured that a Tsunami caused by this eruption, and the following ash, caused the end of the Minoan civilization on Crete.


Later in the afternoon we returned to the hotel. I didn't want to sit around the hotel for the rest of the afternoon, so I walked down to the sea on the more sloping side of the Island. I went through a small village right across the road from our hotel called Finikia. It only had narrow lanes going through it. But it had several churches.


Coming out of Finikia, at the end, there was a path through the fields to the road, the whole side of the hill was terraced with these rock walls. Actually I noticed that almost the whole island was terraced with rock walls.


It was a fairly quick walk down to the beach, and then I walked along the beach for a bit. I did notice a couple of interesting things. One is that there were doors leading into the cliffs. They seemed to mostly be under houses, so I suppose they were either storage for the owners of the houses, or they were actually access tunnels to the beach from the houses. I didn't ever figure it out. But some of the poor people's houses in the past used to be (and I think still are) caves dug into the volcanic ash which makes up the island.

The trip back up took a bit longer. Not that it was a hard climb, but I stopped off at a winery on the way. They have 6 wines, 3 whites, 1 red, and 2 dessert wines. I did learn here that there are 2 main white grapes grown on the island, though I don't remember the names. They are grown in "baskets" for 2 reasons. They are self protecting from the wind then. Also since they are not watered, they are able to collect more dew from the air, and water from the pumice in the soil if they are low to the ground.

The red wine made there is half from local grapes, which are very tannic, and half from imported grapes. I decided to only try one of the whites, which I enjoyed thoroughly. But I did want to be able to walk up the hill yet. I bought one bottle that day, which we consumed either that or the next evening. It took me about an hour to get up the hill. Also at the winery the lady serving told me that on Friday night there was a special procession to bury Jesus in Pyrgos, and after that they would light a lot of lanterns on the buildings.

So when I got back to the hotel I told Cindy about this. We heard the same from someone else, but hadn't understood it was that evening. So we got everyone together, and off we went to Pyrgos. It was supposed to start at around 9, but we were told to get there at 8:30, which we did. It was packed. We couldn't even get all the way into town to park. But park we did and we went up a small dark alley till we joined the throngs of people climbing the hill to the church at the top. There was a real choke point at the 'castle' which had a small door to go through. I banged my head on a lantern, but wasn't hurt. We continued on up to the top of the hill. It was by now pretty dark, and there wasn't much light. I hadn't taken my camera this evening for 2 reasons. One, I wanted to be able to just enjoy the evening, and two, I didn't think I could hold the camera still enough and didn't want to interrupt with a flash. I could have used a flash, many other people did. I would say about 90% of the people there were Greek, but many of them were not from Santorini.

At about 9, the procession came out of the church, after the bells started ringing. Then rather than going directly down the hill as we expected, it took off around the side of the church. So we got in line. I guess about 20 mins later we had progressed about 30 meters past the church down a narrow walkway. During this time people on the rooftops had lit hundreds of lanterns (I think they were really just cans with paraffin and sawdust). They gave off pretty large flames. Thank goodness the buildings are mostly rock and concrete. Finally after 30-45 mins, we made it around to a point where we could look down over the town. It was an awesome sight. Cindy got some good photos and I hope she gets them posted on Flickr soon.

Then we started down the hill. I think we made it back to the car by about 10:30. There was an incredible line of cars waiting to get out of the town, down the main road. Fortunately we noticed (actually I think it was Maya who pointed it out), that we were just off the side road I had accidentally taken the day before. So we went the other direction and were out of town and on our way through Fira about 10 mins later. I expect it took some people an hour or longer to wait to get down the other way. We pretty much skipped dinner this night as we got home fairly late, just a bit of wine and bread and cheese again.

Saturday morning I woke up before dawn (significantly) and decided to take a walk up the hill behind the hotel and see if I could get any good early morning photos. I did manage to get a few. I also really enjoyed the spring flowers which were blooming everywhere. And I got to see the sun come up over the island, till it got into the cloud cover. I took about two hours this morning and really enjoyed spending my time wandering alone.


That morning Ari and Maya decided to stay at the hotel. Ari wanted to work on her tan, and Maya wanted to just relax (too much walking in Athens I guess). So Cindy, Isha and I took off for the other end of the Island again. After going up the ridge past the winery, and skipping the turnoff for Pyrgos, we continued down the hill. Somewhere along the way I was supposed to turn right, but we missed the turn, so we went on to the town of Perissa. This is where the main beachfront vacation community is. Many of the tavernas and hotels looked like they were just being opened up for the beginning of the tourist season, or hadn't been touched yet since winter. There were very few people here on the beach, but you could sure tell why this was chosen as the beach hangout. Looks like it could be fun, if you like crowds on the beach in hot weather during July and August. We stopped for a few mins and dipped our feet in the Agean Sea. Not cold, but not really warm enough to swim in since the air wasn't too warm.

So we toodled along the beach and then went back to where we should have turned to get to the end of the island. We managed to go the right way this time and got all the way to the end where there is a lighthouse.
We had to park and walk along a short path to the end of the island. The really interesting part was that due to the angle of the sun, the sea was much clearer, much bluer, and idyllic looking than it had been from Oia. We could see all the way across to Oia, with the center of the volcano having left some islands in the middle. There are hot springs on one of these islands and there are boat trips there, but you have to swim to them, and the weather was just cool enough we decided not to do this. It was warm enough on Easter Sunday, but the boats weren't running on Easter.

Then we made our way back to the hotel and met up with the others. We drove into Oia, and went all the way to the end of town, and down to the port, it was again a narrow windy road. On the way back out of town, we followed the coast along the lower side of the island and came back by the winery I had stopped at earlier. So Ari and Maya decided to walk up the hill, and Cindy, Isha and I tasted the other two whites and a red. Boy was that red tannic, I can tell why they blend it. The whites were nice and we bought two to bring home to India. Fortunately with 4 over the age of 18, we could bring 8 bottles of wine back. That evening we were intending to go to a church. Unfortunately we all fell asleep before it was time to leave, so we missed out on an Orthodox Easter service.

Santorini Part 1

Well,
It's been almost a week since we left Santorini. We had a lot of fun there. The weather was in general much better than when we were in Athens. The first day as we arrived, it was still raining a bit and dark and cold. The 'taxi driver' we had to the hotel was a nice kid. He pointed out the sights along the way. He told us where he likes to go for sunset watching, and which beaches might be good or not. He also suggested that we rent a car as the bus system is hub and spoke, thus to get from one point to another, you always have to go to the center of the Island, unless your destination happens to be along the spoke you're on. We arrived in the afternoon on Wednesday. We were staying in Atlantida Villas (formerly the Volcano Villas), just outside of Oia (pronounced eeah-the O is silent and the 'i' is pronounced like the i in ski). There are hundreds (over 350) churches on the island, and our hotel had it's own. Oia is a pretty little town at one end of the crescent shaped island. After getting installed in our room we all walked down the street for lunch at some place named after windmills. We walked past this place called Santorini Mou, but it appeared to be closed. This was a bummer as we had heard it is a great place to visit. After lunch, the girls decided to stay at the hotel and relax, and Cindy and I walked into town-minus cameras. I wish I had had mine with me. The towns have very small streets, and some of them are so small one can only use an ass to get around. We saw a donkey with a "taxi" sign on his forehead. We saw many more donkeys throughout the next 4 days, but this is the only taxi I saw. Oh well, cannot get everything. As with most of the major towns on Santorini, Oia is situated on the cliff of the caldera of the volcano which created the island. This gives it very steep streets/sidewalks/stairs down to the lower parts from the main road and walkway through town at the crest of the ridge.

After a nice stroll through the town, where the main walk is mostly a collection of art galleries and restaurants with spectacular views, we went back to the hotel, collected the girls and went for dinner at a restaurant we spotted during our outing. It was rather expensive, but very nice food. The view was spectacular out over the caldera. This picture is from another evening, but gives the right idea .

Thursday, Cindy and I went into town and rented a little little car. It was just big enough for the 2 of us in front, and the 3 in back. They only had one which was smaller (Smart Car) and we would have gotten that, but couldn't have taken everyone. After a bit of a slow start in the morning, we got everyone in the car with the intent of going around the Island a bit, and visiting Fira. Fira is the main town on the island. We had spotted a book store on the drive through from the airport and Maya needed a book. This one was supposed to have english books(or so I understood), so that was on the agenda. We decided to head off to the other end of the island. We never made it as there was road work just a bit more than half way. I was driving and I took a side road into a "traditional settling" as it was labeled on the sign. The road got very narrow-one car wide. I was following two other cars so I was hoping that no-one was coming up the other direction. I was literally worried that I would scrape a mirror off of the car on one of the two walls on the sides of the road. At one point we dove over someone's stoop, as there wasn't enough space to fit between it and the wall. I was also concerned that we would end up in a dead end, or facing some reason to have to back up. Now I can back a car up pretty well, but when I have to fit between two walls on a curvy road, not more than 20 centimeters wider than the car--no thanks!!

Luckily we made it through the town to a point where we could turn off. I did so and got us back up the hill on a side road (one way I think). So I decided that we would not proceed to the end of the island. Cindy wanted to stop and taste wine at one of the many wineries on the island. Fortuneately one happened to be at the top of the ridge there, overlooking the Caldera. So we stopped. Cindy and Isha got the tasters, and I had a few sips, but not too much as I was driving. It was decent wine, and we bought enough to bring back a few bottles to India. Ari just enjoyed the weather--looking like a European model in her sunglasses.

After the wine tasting, we drove to the top of the island. On the way we went through a small town called Pyrgos. At the top, we could see the whole island, and several in the distance, mostly to the north and east. We couldn't see Crete though.
I took a 'wrong turn' in Pyrgos on the way down, and we ended up much further away from Fira than we would have if I had taken the proper road, but it was a nice diversion and really didn't take more than an extra 5 to 10 minutes. Then we stopped in Fira for lunch, and went to the bookstore. Maya found a book she has read already in English, published in Spanish. She picked this up (this was her agenda all along), so she could practice her Spanish. Actually everyone but me got a book there that day. Then we drove back to the hotel. We relaxed a bit with the view. I went and got some sunset pictures a little closer to Oia, and we had wine, cheese, bread and fruit for dinner.

Athens Days 4 and 5

Day 4
Well, not much to say. I spent most of the day waiting. Ari had forgotten some medication and needed to see the Dr. While she was doing that, Cindy, Maya and I went to the 'flea market' area. Not much flea market, but some interesting stuff, some not so interesting. Maya found some beads to buy. After Ari was done the girls wanted to go shopping, and that took most of the afternoon. We stopped for 2 lunches for some reason. The good thing is that Cindy did find some very nice home made sandals for a good price.

After second lunch we arrived just in time to see the changing of the guard at parliament. It is a very stylized affair. The crowd was pretty thick and hard to get around in as the guards had to move the crowd to arrive. Cindy who hung back got better shots of the new guards arriving.

After that we took the Funicular to the top of Lycabettus hill and had an overpriced drink while enjoying the lovely view of Athens. The funicular is not much to speak of, it goes up the hill in a tunnel, so you don't see much, and the ride is very short. I would recommend for anyone who doesn't mind a short hike, to walk up to the top. There are a significant number of steps to get to the funicular. The view is good though. We really could see most of the city, despite the slight haze.

Day 5
The day started off wonderfully. We got out of the hotel fairly early. We did stop for coffee on the way, but we got to see all of the main part of the Agora, including Hephaisteion, and the rebuilt/renovated Stoa-- which contained shop. I guess even in ancient Athens, if you needed to do some shopping, you had to go to the stoa. One of the best parts is that the ruins were surrounded by wildflowers. There was an abundance of chamomile, clover, poppies and many others. Even many of the trees were in bloom. It was more like wandering a garden with occasional ruins or columns than wandering an archeological site. It started sprinkling while we were wandering in our garden of delights. We still visited the ancient church and then it really started to pour. So we gave up--we went for, what else, food at the local taverna, though no-one had coffee.

After we sat as long as we felt we could, Ari decided she would get boots after all. She had forgotten to bring any closed shoes and was very cold. So off we went. She got some nice boots fairly quickly, but it continued to rain. The girls were not very interested in braving the wet, and Cindy's foot was hurting. So I took off to see the temple of Zeus, and the theatre of Dionysius. They stayed behind in the shopping area and did, what I know not.

So I went up towards the Acropolis, and back down behind the other side, stopping a couple times to dodge the rain showers under a tree. I was offered an umbrella by persistent salesmen a couple of times, but declined. I was being brave. I made it down to the theater pretty easily. There is much work going on there, some reconstruction of temples, some work on the cave which was first a temple, then later a christian church above the theater. It is being worked on significantly as you can see here. Unfortunately you cannot go into either the cave, or the amphitheater proper, but you can still see some of the decorations. Where the people are standing was actually a building which served as a backdrop for the theater and I suppose space for the actors to prepare etc. The theater has been rebuilt at least 1 time, if not more. The Romans changed it after the Greeks built it.

From there it was a short walk to Hadrians Arch, and the Temple of Olympian Zeus. This is an amazing and impressive structure. It was obviously very large. It has been at some time used by others, like it was an open air Mosque for a while. There are also roman baths at the site, and other ruins. Really special. Unfortunately the girls all missed it and it is our last day in Athens. Tomorrow we go off to Santorini--hoping the weather will be just a bit warmer.

Find more photos from day 5 here.

Athens 1

We arrived in Athens 3 days ago now. Several people told us that 2 days in Athens would be enough, "you can do it all in 2 days." So far we have spent 1 day at the Acropolis, and surrounding areas. We spent one day at the archaeological Museum, and doing a bit of shopping. And the third day we went to Delphi. We still have so much to see.

So back to the beginning. We arrived Thursday afternoon after a long trip from Bangalore. It was long, not in duration but in the fact we left the house at 1:30am, our flight left at 4:15am, we had a 4 hour flight to Dubai, a several hour wait, and then another 5 hour flight to Greece. We arrived about 4 pm in Greece. We were exhausted. We went to the hotel, checked in, found dinner down the street, and then went to bed, we didn't even go to the rooftop to check out the view till the next day.

Friday we explored the Acropolis. It was amazing. That is all I can say about it. We walked from the hotel. Our hotel is less than 1 kilometer from the entrance, and although you do have to walk up the hill, it isn't bad. We went through the flea market area, and passed along the Agora. On the way we stopped at a couple of ruins--pictures to come later. Our first ruin visit was Hadrian's Library. From there we went to the Areopagus hill first, and then on to the main event. At the Areopagus hill, it was very slippery as the marble has been worn smooth from all the feet climbing. Also there were a lot of illegal vendors selling water, and later umbrellas for the sun and the next day for the rain.

After this we joined the hordes of people going up to the Acropolis proper. Our tickets were good for several days and multiple sites. So we didn't have to go everywhere all at once. This is good. We took several hours to explore just the acropolis, going around the Parthenon and the other building sites at the top. The only bummer is that the museum is closed so they can upgrade the exhibits and move them to the new museum at the bottom of the hill. Oh well, we'll have to come back I guess. After several hours, the troops were getting tired and hungry. So we decided to skip the Agora, and go back later. We had lunch at the Taverna Akropoli, with a view up to the top. The food there was probably the best we've had so far here in Greece.

Saturday was a good day to go to the museum. It was predicted to rain, and it did. We didn't get an tremendously early start, but from our hotel it was about a 1/2 hour walk to the museum. We got our fill of the various art forms of ancient Greece, and we saw Agamemnon's mask. Most of us ate lunch there, although I was having a bit of tummy trouble, so I skipped it. After finishing up there, we decided to split up. The girls wanted to do a bit of clothes shopping for things they could not get in India. I skipped that and took a leisurely walk around the base of the Acropolis, and climbed up to the Filopappus Monument. I saw Socrates's jail--where the artifacts from the museum were stored sealed behind concrete during the 2nd world war. It rained a bit when I was at the top of the hill overlooking the Acropolis at the Filopappus Monument, so, the pictures are not too good. I still have the memories.

Today we went to Delphi. This was truly a beautiful site. The actual ruins of Delphi are not that spectacular, as many of the statues etc., have been removed to museums. But the whole place was alive with wildflowers. This added to the magic of the place. It is at about 800 meters above sea level, so the air was crisp and cool. Sometimes the wind blew down off the snow covered slopes of Mt. Parnassus, and it was downright cold. But all in all it was lovely. The amphitheater and the sporting arena are in really good shape. One of the other temples is still mostly there (I believe it is the one to Athena). But a lot of it was destroyed by the Romans, or later people. We enjoyed a lovely lunch on the way back, and then all of us, except Cindy, fell asleep in the car. We were either so full from the meal, or not feeling well--Isha. It was about 4pm when we returned to the hotel. Maya and I decided to walk around a bit, so we went to the flea market area, and just wandered. In the evening a couple of the kids wanted to go to the Hard Rock Cafe, so we did, for an outrageously priced dinner. Well at least they're happy for a bit now.

After dinner, I came home and took some night pictures of the Acropolis from our hotel rooftop terrace. Check Flickr, they may be there.


Tomorrow a bit more exploring--and maybe I'll get to post the photos. (Day 1) (Delphi)