Epic Honeymoon - Day 05 - Santorini

Looking out over the Caldera.

After an uneventful evening hanging around at Athens airport, we arrived to Santorini about 8:30pm. We had a small run-in with the first taxi driver, who wanted €25 to take us to our hotel – he’d loaded our bags into the boot, and while we debated and discussed the price (we’d read around €15 to Fira), he got pissed off and unloaded our bags to go get another fare. We lined up at the taxi rank again and ended up sharing with an American guy who was travelling to a hotel near ours; our fare came to €20, so it was a nice price for us, but the taxi driver probably made a good profit for the combined fare.

After settling in to our room at Lefteris Traditional Rooms, we decided to wander into Fira town centre for a late night snack; wife’s inner-Asian was craving soup, but this is a bit hard to come by in Greece! I couldn’t resist my first gyros (yiros in Australian English), selecting the chicken variety from Good Mood Food, smack in the centre of town. And it was spectacular! Avy eventually settled for some noodle soup from the Asian restaurant nearby, but it was poor compared to anything she could have (or make) back home. Nevertheless, bellies full, we retired for the evening.

The view from our room at Lefteris Traditional Rooms.

A little Greek coffee to start the day.

Tuesday 19^th September was our first full day in Santorini, and we spent it walking all around Fira. I had originally planned to explore more parts of the island, utilising the bus, but we decided to dial it back and take it easy. We started with breakfast at Pelican Kipos, where I tried my first Greek coffee – more or less the same as any other black coffee, but with a thick mud left at the bottom of the cup. Accompanied by the Greek Breakfast (while Avy had the steamed mussels, we were ready and raring to go.

Breakfast is the most important meal of the day... even if it's lunch time!

Pelican Kipos serve up a nice feed.

We wandered through the town square, which is rife with restaurants and souvenir shops catering to the literal flood of tourists. At the south end of the strip, the Fira bus terminal sits to the left (east) side, while the road to the right (west) goes up the hill for a fantastic view over the Caldera. If you weren’t aware of it already, Santorini is actually the eastern edge of an extinct, submerged volcano, and the western side of the island is a sheer cliff down to the sea. You can walk all the way along the top of the crater – even from Fira to Oia if you wish, but it’s about 10km – and take in the amazing views over the crater and the Aegean Sea.

The hardworking donkeys of Santorini.

All the way along this top edge of Fira, you can meander through the laneways and explore the plethora of shops catering to fashion, souvenirs and gelato, just to name a few! About half way along, you will find the path leading down to the old port at sea level; 570-odd steps down and the same back up if you’re keen. While you can take a donkey ride down to the bottom for €5 or so (and the same back up, I assume), various sources over the internet advise not to, as the donkeys are mistreated by their handlers. These handlers are quite pushy and confrontational, too; we walked down to where the donkeys rest and were immediately met with “Yes! Donkey?!”. A couple of times, the handlers would cross right in front of me as I tried to pass, even using their walking / donkey-jabbing stick to almost trip me up. So yes, I tend to side with the internet on this one – no need to support the industry, especially when the donkeys just look so sad.

Poor donkeys look so sad...

Tasty yirii for dinner.

We retired to our room to get out of the blistering Mediterranean sun for a while in the afternoon, emerging again in the evening for some dinner (yiros #2 - pork this time) at Bayiatiko Food Bar, and another wander through town. We went up to the Caldera again to watch the sunset over the sea, which is supposed to be magical. It was alright, but it was a little cloudy over the horizon, so some of the magic was lost on this occasion. We completed the lap through the quiet and darkening streets atop the Caldera, coming back out to the main road via the Three Bells of Fira, and headed back into town. At the end of the main square, two roads meet at a Y-junction (or, fittingly, a capital Lambda L if you’re facing south!). The left side of the Y goes slightly up hill and leads to some more souvenir shops, a few bars and some restaurants. There’s a tiny supermarket here, adjacent the yiros place, which we found to have the best prices for some staple items. A little further up, Two Brothers bar has a few cocktails for €5 each all night, as well as 2-4-1 cocktails at certain happy hours.

Sunset over the Caldera.

Munch down on a gyros on Day 06!