Tuesday, after Athens, was the day we left for Santorini! As I said before, Santorini has been the one place in Greece I've always dreamed of going (yes, a lot of that is largely due to Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants) and never in my wildest dreams did I think I would have the chance to go this semester. All I can say is thank god I've been a saver all my life and I came over here with a good amount of cash, because otherwise this trip would not have been possible.
Melissa and I boarded our 7:30am ferry to head out into the open seas of the Mediterranean. We had decided to be procrastinators and didn't actually book our ferry tickets until a week ahead of time. It turns out, that all the Greeks like to go to the islands during holy week as well, therefore all the economy class tickets were sold out. This meant that we were moving on up to business class seating! (while paying twice the price of course). Yup, we're high rollers. We had seats facing a large open window and it was a beautiful day...in Athens at least. As we made our way towards Santorini, dark clouds began to appear and every once in a while rain would fall. I spent that entire 5 hour ferry praying that it would clear up by the time we got to Santorini.
Living the life in business class!
Unfortunately, it was raining when we arrived in Santorini, which wasn't exactly the entrance I wanted to my dream place. But that didn't make me any less excited! It was really interesting getting off the boat. The announcers on the boat called for only the people who had cars first. But before we knew it, the boat was pretty much vacant except for us and a few others. Some people were standing by the window looking out and the woman working the concession stand screamed "STAY AWAY!" We were a little confused by this statement. Was something going to happen? But then she screamed "SANTORINI! GET OFF THE BOAT!" From my understanding, she was trying to tell us we were at Santorini and we needed to get off the boat. Then she kept screaming it over, and over, and over, and over again. "GET OFF THE BOAT! NOW!!!" Okay lady, chill out.
So we got off the boat and there was literally nobody left at the port. And it was raining. So a guy pulls us away trying to get us to rent a car. There was no way I was going to rent a car. 1. I don't know the island. 2. I haven't driven in months. I'm going to be so bad once I finally drive again. and 3. I don't drive stick. So that was a no. But then he convinced us to have his "cab driver" take us to our hotel.
Our hotel (Laokasti Villas) was beautiful! And the woman who owns it was such a typical Greek woman lol. She saw us get out of our cab and she was angry because apparently that wasn't a real cab. She said "if it was a real taxi, it would have known where this hotel was." But anyways, she showed us to our villa and it was so nice! It was so large and spacious. There was a kitchen and everything. It was like having our own little apartment! This hotel was such a great deal because for 55 euros a night (so only 27.50 euros per person!), we got that large room, a delicious breakfast every morning, and it was right across the street from the main path that takes you right into Oia (probably the most expensive town to stay in on the island and it's the town that is always photographed for postcards and whatnot). So the hotel was such a good deal! But it pretty much doubles in price during the high season.
Melissa in front of our hotel.
Our lovely room.
We immediately went into Oia to try to find lunch. We came across this restaurant called Blue Sky, and there I had one of my favorite meals in Greece! I forget the name of this one, but there's this dish in Greece called "Briam" which is a mixture of all different types of grilled vegetables (eggplant, zucchini, carrots, potatoes, etc) covered in a sort of tomato sauce. It was SO good! And the dish I had at this restaurant was basically Briam with feta cheese on top. They should always put feta cheese on top of it because it made such a big difference! For dessert, we ordered the Greek yogurt with honey and walnuts. It was basically yogurt in ice cream form- it was sooo thick! It was good, but a little too heavy for my liking.
My yummy yummy meal :)
Greek yogurt
After lunch, it was time to go explore Oia a little bit. I was strongly anticipating the sites, and let me just tell you, they were beyond what I expected. Santorini (specifically Oia), is one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen. Even though it was a cloudy day, the sun still beamed through to refect on the white-washed buildings. I didn't know that only churches had the blue domes, for some reason I thought a lot of the houses did too. But basically, that moment struck the beginning of my love for Santorini. Here is a little taste of the views I saw over the following few days:
That night, I was on a hunt for the traditional Greek dish called Mousaka. Surprisingly, the first couple of restaurants we looked at didn't have it on the menu! But we finally came across a place that did, even though it was a little on the expensive side. After dinner, we went to Thalami's (story later to come) and had dessert. Melissa got apple pie and I got the best baklava ever. So so so good. This was the first of many baklava's I had this trip.
The next day we took a bus into Fira, the main town of Santorini. Sadly, it was pouring, so we spent some time in an internet cafe and inside shops. But it cleared up just in time for a yummy lunch! Melissa and I both had bow-tie pasta covered in pesto and cheese. It was sooo good.
Fira
Deliciousness
While in Fira, I was on a mission to find the famous donkeys because I was told that you ride them in Fira. But I could not find them! One guy thought I was crazy for wanting to ride them because "they're smelly." Melissa also wasn't very cooperative with this search because she didn't want to ride them, so I was alone. I was sad because I never found them :( I obviously just have to go back to Santorini.
Our hunt for Kostas:
So at the beginning of our trip, I told Melissa that I really wanted to listen to live Greek music one night at dinner. Then, just a few minutes into exploring Oia, we come across a sign posted on a wall. Melissa pointed it out to me. She said, "look Sam, it's your live Greek music." So we paused to read it. Then she said "by KOSTAS!" Here is the sign:
But as you can see, we JUST missed him. We saw this sign on tuesday, and he was there the friday before. But we weren't giving up yet!
Also coming to Greece, I told Melissa that I really wanted to rent a mo-ped/scooter/moto/vespa/whatever they're called (notice how I went wanting to do so many things and it seemed like I didn't do any of them??). So the day we were exploring Fira, Melissa, again, pointed out a sign to me. She said, "look Sam, rent a moto..." pause. "...with KOSTAS!" Yes, yet another sign pointing ourselves in the direction towards Kostas. But stupid us didn't go into the place to ask if Kostas was there.
So close yet so far!
So Thalami's, the restaurant that had Kostas play live Greek music the past friday night, turned out to be our favorite restaurant in Santorini. Not only did it have amazing baklava, but it also had really good food for such a cheap price! So we went back our last night in Santorini to have dinner. Since it was our last night on the island, and we didn't think we would see any of these people again, Melissa asked (very smoothly) our waiter about Kostas. She asked when the next time he would be playing and our waiter said he plays every friday night, but not the one coming up because of Easter. The conversation was going perfectly fine and normal until I chimed in. I then said "so nobody named Kostas works here?" Our waiter gave the MOST creeped out look! hahaha he was like "ummm......noo......why?....." and we were like "no reason." So he walked away and we could tell he felt uncomfortable with us the rest of the night. But I was on a search for Kostas so I needed to make it happen!
The next day (thursday), we woke up and it was a beautiful day, just a bit windy. It was apparently so windy that our ferry to Mykonos got cancelled. The woman at our hotel warned us of this, but we thought she was crazy because it was so nice out and there was just a tiny breeze. Well, we waited at the port for several hours only to find that they cancelled it. So we called our hotel back up and asked the lady if we could stay one more night. The theme of the trip: "We're Baaaaaack!"
Making the most out of waiting at the port for our ferry to come.
In my opinion, our ferry being cancelled ended up being good luck. I really wasn't ready to leave Santorini. In fact, I was probably kicking and screaming on my way down to the port. I just needed this one more night. Also, Mykonos was definitely the type of place you only really need to spend one night at. And lastly, Since our time in Santorini had been cloudy, we never got to see the beautiful sunset in Oia that I had read about online. But our unexpected night was perfectly clear and we got to watch the entire thing :)
After the sunset, we tried eating dinner at a restaurant that was recommended to us but there was nothing on the menu that we really wanted. We ordered a little appetizer of 2 dips with bread (at first we didn't order the bread, but the waiter told us it was kind of necessary lol). After that, we ate dinner in none other than Thalami's (yes, we actually had the guts to go back there). Melissa thinks all the men there probably thought we liked them lol. But there food was too good and too well-priced to pass up!
Living like Lena:
So throughout our stay in Santorini, I was obviously on a hunt for every place that scenes of Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants was shot. I already read online before going that it was filmed in Oia-- PERFECT! It only took me my first day of exploring to come across Lena's house. I have seen the movie (well, both movies) so many times, I knew exactly what to look for.
Her house! It was white in the movie, but now it's painted blue.
In front of the house!
Bahaha I think we're right on the money with these pictures, right? So there is also a main square area in Oia with a very large church. We spent a lot of time in this square because it seems to be a central meeting spot. WELL, it is also the same place Kostas teaches Lena how to ride the vespa. Look familiar? :
Then we of course saw the port of Santorini. This is shown at the end of the first Sisterhood, when Lena hurries down to the port in order to catch Kostas before he leaves on his boat to Athens and to tell him that she loves him. Such a beautiful moment. Here is the area she rushes through all the people to get to him. The sign is shown in the movie.
All of these pictures are of the actual places. Trust me, I re-watched the movies to make sure.
Unfortunately, our actual last day in Santorini came on friday where we went back down to the port one last time. On our way down, I finally saw a donkey!!
We didn't have too much time to wait for our ferry, but with the time we did have, we sat down at one of the port's restaurants and had some deliciousness. Melissa had a crepe chock-full of nutella, and I had yet another incredible baklava--this time with ice cream!!
Then our ferry arrived and it was time to officially say good-bye to Santorini :( Santorini was one of my favorite places that I've visited this semester, and my entire life. It was even more beautiful than I imagined it to be. I will most certainly be returning at some point in my life (when I have money and can afford to come during the summer, preferably). I was just sad that we never met our Kostas, even when all signs were pointing us in the direction! But it's ok, the story continues in Mykonos.
Boarding the ferry
My last glimpse of Santorini :(
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