Epic Honeymoon - Day 07 - Santorini to Venice

A delicious way to start the day.

The next morning, we checked out and walked the length of Fira to the bus terminal, stopping first at the 24/7 bakery to pick up some breakfast. They have a huge range of pastries, stuffed with cheeses, sausages and the like. I opted for a spinach and cheese puff, while Avy took the cream cheese bagel. From the bus stop, Avy went for a quick walk to a cafe we’d seen on the street to the east side of town to grab some coffee. We each had an iced cappuccino, which was deliciously creamy (probably because it was topped with real cream rather than foam). At only €1.80, this was some of the best coffee we’d had, so certainly pay a visit to Coffee Island.

Epic Honeymoon - Day 06 - Santorini

Probably the most photographed church in the world.

The night’s sleep was somewhat interrupted by the bells of the local church. They would ring in a certain pattern of three or four tones; obviously there was some special day or celebration happening, as the same was going on the next morning from quiet early. Amazingly, we managed to take an easy morning and only set into town around 11am, stopping at Lucky’s Souvlaki for a breakfast yiros (when in Greece...!). I had read that Lucky’s was a “can’t miss” destination when in Fira. It was alright, but of the three I’d now had, Good Mood Food took the honours as best yiros in Fira!

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.

Epic Honeymoon - Day 04 - Athens

Gazing up at the Acropolis.

After two days in Dubai and a lavish afternoon in the Emirates First Class Lounge, we boarded our flight to the birthplace of democracy and the home of the Olympic Games. I had previously visited Athens in 2011 at the end of my Contiki Tour, but we only had a quick bus tour around the city and the obligatory trek up the Acropolis. On this occasion, we opted to only overnight in Athens and spend more time at one of the infamous islands: Santorini.

Epic Honeymoon - Day 03 - Emirates First Class Lounge

The gateway to another world.

With most of the big ticket items checked off our list, we took it easy on our third morning, enjoying another breakfast at the hotel before checking out and heading for the airport. My elevated status with the OneWorld group (due to my business travelling) got us access to the Emirates First Class Lounge, which is in a world of its own. Occupying an entire floor, the Lounge stretches the length of the terminal, and far and away surpasses any other lounge I have been in.

Epic Honeymoon - Day 02 - Dubai

Dubai Spice Souk.

Day two started with breakfast at the hotel, which was reasonably varied between Middle Eastern / Indian food and some Western staples, including an omelette station. The selection of fruit was a bit of a letdown; also the coffee, which was only instant. Nevertheless, we fueled up well and set out for the day. Catching the metro out to Al Ras, on the northern side of the creek, we wandered into the backstreets and a generally random direction to find the old Souks, running into the Gold Souk first. Here, there are modern shops selling all kinds of fine jewellery; we even spotted a single ring priced at 3-million Dirham (about 1-million AUD)! Though, reflecting on that, maybe we read it wrong. That seems a bit over the top!

Epic Honeymoon - Day 01 - Dubai

Zipping along the tracks on the Dubai metro.

Welcome to Part 1 of I-don’t-know-how-many-parts of my Honeymoon blog! My wife and I planned our massively epic honeymoon for more than a year (she planned it for about 4 years before we even met), and I was told by my boss that I was setting some kind of record for vacations at my company! Using my hard-earned frequent flyer points to get the main flights to and from Europe (plus a nice chunk of taxes), we planned our itinerary throughout, opting to cover as many countries as we could!