Summer Sun 2017 Day 07&08 - Santorini part 1

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It was an early start as the alarm went off at 0500hrs. We got ready in an hour's time and left the beautiful house of Ada as the dawn broke over the eastern skies. We had a 3 hour's drive from Githio to Athens airport. It was more or less the same route we took while coming to Githio. After a brief halt just before the airport to fuel up the car and the passengers, we were off to the most visited island in the world - Santorini.
Santorini is a crescent shaped island, reformed after a 3000 year old volcano eruption giving it it's distinctive features namely the steep Cliff side called caldera, multicolored soils and rocks, different colored beaches, islands and it's rugged exterior. Also against popular belief back home, Santorini is a big island with over 6 major villages and depending on where you stay you will carry the impression whether Santorini was good or great or exceptional.
Santorini airport is very small and very basic. After booking our taxi and collecting maps and information we left the airport. The drive from the airport, which is right next to the blue sea, to our hotel which is located in the village of Firostefani, was completely uphill as we ascended 1400 feet. On top of the caldera we were greeted by strong cool winds. It was a much welcome relief from the heat. Infact, Santorini that day was witnessing a freak weather which happens once a season. The winds were very strong coming off the cliff of the caldera and along with them were clouds. It felt so much like Mahabaleshwar in the peak monsoons but there were no rains. The view from the caldera is breathtaking. A sheer drop off 1400 feet into the deep blue sea and atop nestled the beautiful white and blue buildings typical to Santorini.
We all took in the scene for few minutes before we were shown our rooms.
Hotels in Santorini are all next to one another, absolutely wall to wall with swimming pools, terraces, cafes, restaurants and rooms jutting out from everywhere. Every building is as white as can be and decorated with wonderful artifacts. Our village, Firostefani was pretty centrally located with the capital of Santorini, Fira on our left about a kilometer of breathtaking walk away and the village of Investovigili on our right about 3km away. The other attractions of Santorini mainly village of Oia, was much ahead of Investovigili and the black beach of Kamari on the other side of the island.
We settled for lunch in a restaurant right next to our hotel, the hotel infact was all around the restaurant but in front, which had the view of the sea and the caldera. We ordered Santorini specific beers- yellow donkey and red donkey. As we would come to know later, donkeys were a critical part of old Santorini and till date they were being bred and used on the island, but more for tourism like 'donkey tours' and visible in the many souvenirs.
Post lunch Swati and I decided to take some rest as we had got up early, while the Chitnis's, thanks to Anvi who wouldn't sleep, got fresh and went off to explore. After few hours of rest and freshning up, Swati and I got out to have some coffee. It was around 1900hrs and all the cafes had started filling up for the world famous Santorini sun set. It's like a everyday ritual in Santorini with cafes, restaurants, terraces getting crowded for the sun set. Today thanks to the high winds, which seemed to have picked up, seats with a view were even more premium as the ones directly exposed to the cliffs were un-seatable. We settled into a cute looking cafe, very well decorated and ordered one cappuccino and a green tea and sipped it while the sun set into the sea creating a riot of colors in the sea and also in the clouds today.
The patrons of the cafe disappeared no sooner than the sun beyond the horizon and so did we. Next couple of hours were spent exploring the many lanes and by lanes of Firostefani, filled with shops of all sorts, before we sat for dinner where Akshay, Pradnya and Anvi joined us. They had been to the capital, Thira and were completely amazed with what they had seen as we could make out from their tales they were narrating us so eagerly. Swati and I decided to check out Thira tomorrow as all of us called it a day.
The next day, after our complimentary but very basic breakfast, we decided to hire motorbikes and check out the famous town of Oia. Readers might be familiar with it's ancient looking windmill overlooking the sea in many a movies and magazines. The ride showed us amazing views of the mountain and it's many landscapes. It was very interesting to note how the rocks kept changing colors, textures and sizes thanks to the island's volcanic past. Just before the village of Oia, we were asked to take a detour by the police who had blocked that way. So with no other options we took the detour which made us descend the mountain completely till sea level but not before we noticed a board which said 'wine tasting'.
Santorini produces some very special wines from grapes specially grown and developed there. The winery was designed in a way to give you complete feel off the vineyard with patio's and grape vines hanging from them and plentiful use of wood and cork. It was situated around vineyards but the grape vines were grown on the ground! At a nominal price we were presented with 12-14 glasses of wine for tasting. There were white wines, red wines and one Rose with a couple of them being award winners. The smartly dressed waiter gave us information about the winery, the grapes and the wines of Santorini. We spent an hour their happy and high and before leaving bought some wine bottles, which some of the lucky readers will get to taste.
Oia was just 10 minutes from there. It is cute village but crowded due to its popularity. There are many a beautiful lanes filled with shops and restaurants with glimpses of the sea. After having lunch at a sea view restaurant we decided to head back to our hotel as in the later half of the day we intended to see Thira.
After a second consecutive day of afternoon siesta we started walking to Thira, with Akshay guiding us as he had been their yesterday. We could understand Akshay's excitement as we reached Thira. It is by far the biggest village with lots of shops, tavern's, bar's, clubs and restaurants. You could feel the class and luxury of being in Santorini here. Next couple of hours were spent shopping, munching, watching the sun set and drinking. For dinner we decided to check out an Indian restaurant around 15 minutes walk away. The restaurant named ' Jaipur Palace' was run by a Punjabi immigrant and had decent food. Being retailer's and restauranter's ourselves, we couldn't help but ask him about the rentals and business which he gladly shared. Walking back and uphill to the hotel was not possible as we aksed the fellow Desi to call for a taxi which took us to our hotel and to our beds in which we crashed after a day of lot of exploring.

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Comments

[Sharwari Katakkar]

Santorini Wine
I want to be one of the lucky reader who gets to taste the wine :D :D . As usual, well written :)