Santorini Day 4 - Oia / Fira / Perissa Beach / Ancient Thera

Oia can get really busy but with an early start, before 9 am I'd say, you can have the whole place almost to yourselves. That's what we did, got up really early (by vacation standards anyway) and wander around before the busloads of tourists arrive.

Peaceful, empty streets in Oia. Lovely!

Hardly anyone at the sunset lookout point at this hour.

This old couple is celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary and and their daughter has taken them to Santorini for a DIY wedding photoshoot.

We had to move out of oyr hoyse to the one upstairs for the last 2 nights. It was peak period and the other villa was pretty sweet, so it was alright. A worthy mention: Our Bulgarian porter, Vasillis, who helped us with our check in and out, and carrying our bags up and down millions of steps!
If you're interested in staying here, please note that the bedroom is a loft and you need to climb up a flight of stairs to get to it. Also, I don't think the bedroom has aircon.

The best thing about the villa was probably the balcony. We loved the hours spent out here having breakfast, evening drinks and nibbles or just enjoying the view.

Took a bus to Fira town after moving to our new villa. I highly recommend taking buses when in Santorini. They can get really packed but they are convenient, cheap and the bus conductors are pretty entertaining!

A colleague recommended Lucky's Souvlaki for gyros before coming here which is located on the main street in Fira - on the left in this photo. The gyros was pretty good, but we would soon discover that Obelix, somewhere inside Fira town was even better!

Lunch stop at Restaurant Nikolas, located in the heart of Fira.

Friendly staff and good food. Beers we've had so far: Mythos, Alfa, Fix Hellas... all good!

Strong, garlicky, delicious! This is how I like my Tzatziki now!

Looking for another excursion around the island after lunch.

Got the bus to Perissa beach. It is a black pebbled beach with nice cool water.

Located a walking distance from the beach is Ancient Thera archeological site that sits on top  Mesa Vouno mountain. We only made it to halfway since the path up was very windy and flip flops were not the best footwear to climb a mountain.

Back to Fira for sunset.

Dinner time at Obelix.

Really good gyros and pork on skewers! We're still dreaming of this now!

Ate: Restaurant Nikolas and Obelix in Fira
Stay: Pori House Oia Villas

Santorini Day 3 - Catamaran Sunset cruise

We booked to go on a sunset cruise the day before with Sunset Oia Sailing at Ammoudi bay. It was our honeymoon splurge since it costs about 70 euros each at that time. I had a look at the website and it's apparently 95 euros now. Either we've got a discount then or the price has gone up hugely!

Had ourselves a bit of lunch at Taverna Katina in Ammoudi bay before the 5 hour cruise which starts at about 2:30 pm.

I must say that Greek salad is now one of my favourite salad! The calamari was lightly battered, fried and seasoned to perfection! 

Grilled fish drizzled with olive oil and lemon juice emulsion. Something so simple yet so good is mind boggling!

This baklava, which is complementary by the way, is THE BEST baklava we've ever had. Ever.
Maybe we've not been exposed to that many baklavas but a good one IS a good one!

Right on time, our vessel awaits! Gosh I was so excited!

Our cruise starts off from Ammoudi bay in Oia, stopping at Nea Kameni's hot spring, followed by Red and White beach at Akrotiri and then back to Oia in time for sunset.

First stop: Nea Kameni hot spring. We did not have a waterproof camera back then so this was the only photo we took there. We jumped off  the catamaran and swam towards the beach where the water was warm and orange due to the high iron/sulphur content. We slathered orange mud all over our shoulders and faces for its therapeutic functions and ended up looking hilarious! One of those times I wishes I had a waterproof cam! It was probably my favourite stop of the cruise. The crew gave us a good hosedown before letting us back onto the boat to avoid getting sulphur stains all over their lovely vessel.

Next stop: Red beach. Unfortunately due to some reason, which I had somehow forgotten, we were not able to stop closer to get to the beach. We still had a lot of fun jumping off the boat and swimming in the deep blue waters from where this photo was taken.

Next was the White beach. Again, it wasn't a beachy stop but more jumping off boat and swimming.
Our lunch being prepared while we swam to our hearts' content! No complains there.

Lunch is served! I could do this right now. Hmm...

Preparing the sails for our journey back to Oia for sunset.

 
Party boat! There are cheaper alternatives for island tours/cruises. If we had a few more days there, we would probably go on one of those that don't serve food for less than 20 euros.

 Making our way back to the Ammoudi bay.

We can see our villa from the boat!

Another day well spent on the island of the gods! :)

Ate: Taverna Katina, Ammoudi
Sailed: Sunset Oia Sailing Itinerary

Santorini Day 1 - Oia / Amoudi Bay

As much as we have enjoyed Athens, we could not wait to see Santorini!

The flight from Athens to Santorini takes about 45 minutes, flying over scenic views of the Greek islands.
We chose to stay in Oia since it was (apparently) the prettiest village in Santorini.
We were not disappointed by its beauty, but it can get really busy at certain times, and after 6 days of endless step climbing from our cliff side villa to anywhere(!), we were more than ready to get back to flat lands...

One of the lovely streets in Oia.

Long walk down to Amoudi Bay - 300 steps! A definite must see when you are in Oia. Go for the lovely fish tavernas that lines the bay, swim in the crystal clear water and for the bravehearts, cliff jumping!

View on the way down.

Transportation down (and up!) if the steps are too much for you.

Oh yea, watch out for donkey poop along the way.

Amoudi Bay.

We were really excited to try one of these.

Can't ask for a better setting for lunch. We started with grilled halloumi on tomatoes and greek salad... yum!

Followed by grilled octopus sprinkled with oregano and olive oil which was...ok. Seeing the octopus on the drying line was more exciting than actually eating them.

And for dessert, Loukoumades - Greek Donuts with honey, walnuts and ice cream. Yum!

Short walk on the other side of the bay led us to this lovely swimming spot.

We stood up there for quite a while to summon the courage to jump. In the end, only hubby did it.

A little snack of fried Saganaki cheese after our swim. Good stuff!

 

Love their table cloth/liner with Santorini map on it.
 
Sunset (almost) collision - view from our villa.

It is said that Oia has the most beautiful sunset in the world. Well, it was beautiful but the sunset that we've enjoyed in Langkawi was pretty spectacular as well, so...
Anyways... the sunset view point gets really busy every evening, so get there a little before sunset to get a good spot to enjoy it. Also, for some reason, people clap their hands as the sun goes down. Join in the fun I say!

View of the walk down to Amoudi Bay at night. I personally won't recommend doing the night walk. Taxis are available if you plan to have dinner there.

Taverna Blue - dinner place recommended by our helpful porter. Pretty good.

We had Loukaniko - grilled sausages, Domatokeftedes - tomato fritters and the saucy one was eggplant saganaki, I think.

Santorini at night...just as gorgeous!

Stayed: Santorini Villas Pori House Oia Santorini Greece
Ate: Ammoudi Fish Tavern, Taverna Katina - Ammoudi