Santorini

Santorini was very different from Mykonos. I think my friends and I expected it to be similar. We expected to see the blue domes right when we docked on the harbor, but we were surprised to see just dry land and lots of big buses and motor vehicles right when we reached the port. Our airport service, Savros, drove us up the long and winding road to the hotel.

Outside our hotel

View while walking to the main square

I booked us a maisonette at the Anemomilos Suites, which is around a 10 min walk to the main square in Fira. My friends and I checked in and enjoyed our room for a while before heading out for lunch. We were all excited about having a "loft" in our hotel room at the beginning, but by day 2, we grew tired of having to climb up and down the stairs to get to the bed or to the washroom.

First Floor

Second Floor

Our first meal was at Mama's House, where we had more seafood. The place was busy with tourists, mostly Asians, and we had to wait for a table at 3pm.

We decided to eat light that afternoon and only ordered one appetizer and a main dish to share among the three of us. Greek dishes tend to be very rich and filling so the food was more than enough to fill our stomachs and satisfy our taste buds.

Then, we headed over to the bus stop where we got on a bus to Oia. The trip from Fira to Oia took about 30 to 40 mins and cost around 1.80 euros, if I remember correctly. The bus operators were very loud and unfriendly, but also very amusing. I remember that they stopped the bus right in the middle of a two way street that had the width of one car so the bus was basically blocking traffic both ways. Anyway, we stopped so that the bus operator could jump out and get coffee. Everyone in the bus was chuckling. I guess something like this never happened in wherever country their from.

The bus terminal at Oia was busy with vendors selling souvenirs, nuts and olive oil. My friends and I spent some time at the shop that was selling nuts because it looked really popular. The store also sells olive oil. If you're a tourist thinking to bring some olive oil back home, there's a sign at the shop to get the olive oil packaged in a plastic bottle instead of glass. Anyway, we got our nuts, and started heading over inside the streets of Oia. My friends really had to pee and were looking for a washroom, but I couldn't wait so I walked ahead. I figured I was only walking ahead a few steps, until I saw the blue dome and couldn't stop following the path down that took me to the best view point.

I got really excited when I saw the blue dome that I couldn't stop and put my camera down. Eventually, I realized that I had left my friends behind and went back to look for them. They weren't where I left them anymore, so I figured they either entered the same path I followed or just kept going straight on the main street. If they did go straight, then they were missing the view, so I screamed their names hoping to catch them, which actually proved to be an effective way of finding them at the time. I called them over and we took more pictures of the blue dome and just absorbed the beauty of Santorini. Q and I spent some time taking pictures. After a while, we looked at each other and agreed that we expected to see something better. Luckily, there was a guy who stopped to comment on something related to photography. I can't really remember anymore, but I do remember asking him where the best views of the sunset were and he directed us to the castle at the end of the street, warning us that it was probably already very crowded by then. We didn't care. We brisk walked to the castle, though we didn't really know what the castle looked like or where it was. However, I learned that if you just keep walking straight down the main street and look around, you can't miss it.

Everyone is waiting for the sunset at the Oia Castle

The guy was right. The castle did offer the best views. We arrived there late already and all of the best spots that offered unobstructed views of Santorini were already taken. A lot of people were very nice though and allowed us to squeeze through to take a few shots.

And because the world is small, we bumped into one of Q's friends from Manila. She arrived at the castle earlier than us and was able to reserve a spot, so we hung around to watch the sunset. The sunset was beautiful! You definitely can't skip it when you're in Santorini.

After the sunset, we headed back to Fira for dinner because food in Oia is waaaaay overpriced. You'd probably spend 7 euros on coffee alone. Q's friend A wanted to have some wine, so we looked for a place that looked like it had good wine and ended up in Rastoni. They were only serving wine by the bottle so A was only able to taste the house wine, but their food was probably the best we've eaten in Greece. We tasted the Tomatokeftedes there for the first time and it was so good we ordered it again at two other restaurants, but Rastoni served it best. Tomatokeftedes are just like tomato croquettes. Each restaurant has its own recipe.

We heard about the volcano from A and decided we wanted to go there the next day. We asked around on how to get to the volcano and everyone just told us to go to a travel agency and get tickets for a boat that would take us to the volcano.

Some of the boats that brought us to the volcano

We had to pay 2 euros to enter the volcano and we pretty much had to go on our own from there. There are multiple paths you can take around the volcano. We followed the path with fewer people because that's where the tour guide from the the other boat directed us to go. There's really nothing to see, but it was beautiful because it was different. This was the first time I hiked up a volcano and I really enjoyed it (even though it was really really hot that day).

We got the 15 euro tour package instead of the 12 euro one so we could see the hot springs. However, you'd have to swim to get to the hot springs. My friends went into the water, but they were immediately called back up for some reason. We should have followed Rick Steves' advice to skip it.

When we got back to the port, Q and I took the cable car back up to Fira while D took the donkey up. It was our second time taking the cable car, so it wasn't very interesting anymore. D's experience with the donkey, however, was a story to tell. Apparently, once you get on a donkey, you're left on your own. No one will be there to guide you and your donkey up the mountain. D said her donkey stopped every so often and she and other people on donkeys tried multiple ways to get their donkeys to move. She said that yelling "Oppa, donkey!" to the donkey will get it to move. So, if you ever get stuck on a donkey in Greece, you know what to do.

Donkey trail as taken from the cable car

After lunch and a little bit of shopping in Fira, we took the bus to the red beach in Akrotiri. The bus stop is a bit of a walk from the red beach. You first walk by a small beach, pass a line of restaurant, climb a few steps up to another road, walk a few more steps, hike up a small trail and reach a view point, then hike down a narrow trail to the red beach. We were all very tired from our morning hike, so we decided to not bother going down to the beach. We stuck around to see the sunset though.

Red beach

Small beach right by the bus stop

It was late when we got back to Fira. The bus skipped two stops, so we were stranded in Akrotiri for a couple of hours. So, if you have a tight schedule, don't count on the buses to follow their schedules. We were stranded with a couple from Mexico who had to be back in Fira at a certain time because their cruise is scheduled to leave that night. I was stressed out for them as we were waiting for the bus to arrive.

During our last day in Santorini, we decided to just chill in Fira and shop for gifts to bring home. You don't really need an entire day for this, as we soon found out. We ran out of shops to see after a couple of hours, so we picked a cafe to hang out in while passing time before our flight back to Athens.

Mykonos

I celebrated my birthday this year in the quaint and charming old town of Mykonos. Having traveled via the SeaJet ferry, it took us roughly two hours to reach Mykonos from Athens. The SeaJet is a lot faster than the regular ferry, so the trip made me feel a bit sea sick. However, as soon as we docked on the harbor, I immediately forgot about my seasickness after seeing the beautiful white and blue stucco houses by the shoreline. 

It was a bit of a walk from the port to our hotel. Apparently, the streets of old town Mykonos were intentionally designed to be maze-like as a protection from invaders, so we ended up walking in circles a couple of times before reaching our hotel. We stayed at the Christina Studios situated right in the middle of the Chora, near Little Venice and the windmills.I would highly recommend this to anyone looking for lodging in Mykonos. The place is centrally located as well as clean and quiet. 

Christina Studios common area

Christina Studios triple room 

After dropping off our luggage at the hotel, we walked around in search of food. We just followed wherever our feet took us and without even knowing it, we ended up in Little Venice where there were a few restaurants serving fresh seafood with a view of the water.

Walking around looking for food

Little Venice before the row of restaurants

Little Venice

While skimming through menus, trying to decide which restaurant to eat in, Alex, a server in one of the restaurants, started speaking to us in Chinese. Drawn by his friendliness and persistence, we ended up dining in his restaurant where we ordered cheese saganaki, seafood pasta and some mussels saganaki. The food was delicious and Alex's Chinese was impressive. We enjoyed our lunch immensely. 

The restaurant also has a view of the Mykonos windmills, which is one of the things I really wanted to see in Mykonos. So, right after lunch, we headed towards the windmills to take some pictures.

Walking towards the windmills

Windmills at Mykonos

We walked around the Chora (old town) a bit more to look at the shops and the churches before eventually circling back to the windmills and Little Venice around sunset.

We hung around the windmills for a while before dinner. My friend D loves playing with rocks so she went down to the water and ended up catching a shrimp in a bottle. 

D playing with the rocks before sunset

Little Venice right before sunset

Shot of a windmill before sunset

We wanted to have seafood again for dinner, so we decided to just follow the shoreline as we walked because otherwise, we would only end up going around in circles. We eventually reached an area closer to the port that is also lined with restaurants. We actually passed by this area earlier in the afternoon and didn't realize we had gone back. That's how going around in Mykonos is. Expect to see the same places at least twice. The server noticed us from earlier and tried to invite us into his restaurant. All of the restaurants in Greece seem to be overly eager to receive customers, but I don't mind the extra dose of friendliness. :) We tried to check out other menus, but the server from earlier kept insisting we dined in his restaurant, even to the point of offering us free dessert. At the mention of free dessert, we couldn't resist anymore. Besides, we were already getting tired and wanted to eat so we could return to the hotel to get our beauty sleep. 

We ordered Moussaka, Fried Feta with sesame and honey and Seafood Pasta. After dinner, we reminded Cristos, our waiter, that we were promised free dessert. Q told them it was my birthday. After knowing this, Cristos and the other waiter started whispering to each other to plot some sort of a surprise for me. Both of them went into the kitchen and a few minutes later, came out with a plate of brownie with a candle, singing Happy Birthday. Embarrassing, but sweet. The brownie was also delicious.

    

We walked back to our hotel after dinner. Mykonos still feels really peaceful at night; I could live there. 

That's it for our short stay in Mykonos. The only thing missing was Petros the Pelican who didn't make an appearance, but overall, it was a memorable visit. Both Q and D claim that of all the places we visited in Greece, Mykonos is their favorite. So, maybe someday, we'll be back. :)