Trip To Greece : Day 3, Santorini

Breakfast at terrace, still cold. 

At a grocery store on the way to the bus station, a nice old lady paid my change (!!) and invited me to take her picture at a grinder. 

Great looking Greek guys at bus station.

Took a bus to Kamari beach.

Picking up pebbles. 

Lunch at a boardwalk restaurant. Pork suvlaki and ice cold greek beer. 

Near the boardwalk.

Hiked to Ancient Thira. It was just closed and I was there just for a minitues, but couldn’t see the ruin. Hike was steep, but the view of the sea was excellent.

Took bus back to Fira, then bus to Oia. Strolling toward the spot for “the most beautiful sunset in the world” .

Watched the sunset with tons of other people. Liked the last night’s better since it was more private and more interesting with other small islands on sight. Waiting for about 1.5 hour in wind and cold (otherwise, front seats would have taken!) didn’t help either. 

More window shopping. Dinner at Perekanos : grilled sardine, grilled prawn with spicy tomato and cheese sauce, pasta, red wine. More cats and dogs including Sylvie the cat at Atlantic Book store. 

Excellent Baklava and cappuccino at patisserie Melevio. 

A black cat at bus station at Oia. Took a bus Back to Fira. Mom cat and 3 kittens near our hotel!!

 Mom cat

Trip to Greece : Day 1-2, NY to santorini

My husband Ed and I went to Greece from Oct 4th to Oct 13th for vacation.

Day1 : Leaving NY JFK at 8AM by British Airways, arriving London at 7:40 PM. Leaving for Athens at 9:40PM.

Day2: Arriving Athen at 3:10 AM, leaving Athens for Santorini at 5:30AM by Aegean Airlines, arriving Santorini at 6:15AM. All the stewardesses on Aegean flight looked like living Greek statues with full make-ups at 5:30AM! A friendly girl from Las Vegas on the seat behind us told us Athens was safe and we're relieved. Santorini was very windy and cold. Ed was stopped by a security guy at Santorini airport and was asked to delete the photos he just took at the airport. We left the airplane by steps, so, he took those photos of rare sight nowadays..The driver hired by our Kavarari hotel in Fira dropped us off at 6:30 AM near the hotel. Although its reception desk didn't open until 8, the virtually non-English speaking driver insisted that the hotel was open and left. Ed watched our luggage in front of the hotel and I went to look for a shelter and found a small café. All other places that I could see were closed.

The café was nice and we enjoyed cheese pie and Greek coffee. The owner was kind. His English was very limited, but offered us the seat his wife(?) was sitting and closed the door to shut cold wind and gave Ed a Wi-Fi access code, all without us asking. First cat-sighting, but she run away.

Went to Akrotiri ruin, unimpressed, looked like a LA modern art museum. 

Red beach, looked good, but its picture was better and too many Chinese honeymoners around. Each couple could be nice, but together, they asked me to get out of their way because they were taking pictures!!

  First photographed cats and dogs!

Around noon, finally checked in. Lunch at Greek Mezedes Ouzerie, had grilled sardine, meat balls, and grilled eggplant & zucchini. Good, but could be better.

 

 

Enjoyed the view and sun from hotel terrace. Short nap at terrace in bikini, then nap in room.

Beautiful sunset from terrace. 

Window shopping. Dinner at Nicholas Tavern : fried cheese, grilled and marinated octopus salad, stuffed tomato and pepper, white house wine. The food was delicious and the restaurant people were proud of it. A German couple next to us said very good and the owner(?) said “I know!” 

More window shopping after dinner.

Gift-wrap without asking.