Day 2 of Island Living Happy 5 year Anniversary - Santorini

We decided today that we should get up and moving a little bit earlier than yesterday. We ate breakfast and then caught the bus to the Red Beach. You end up getting dropped off about 20 min away from the beach so you have to walk over. Then you have to hike down to the red beach along the rocks. It's not to terribly hard, and the seclusion is worth the hike.  It is what they call an unorganized beach in the off season. There are no restaurants and no sunbeds.

The Red Beach

From above as we were hiking down

Another shot from above

You can see below how clear the water is

We laid out in the warm sand for a while and went swimming in the really cold Aegean Sea. Walking into the water is a little difficult. The rocks about 2 feet in are large and hard to maneuver around. Having water shoes would have helped tremendously.  I was attempting to ease my way in the water and fell over on the rocks so I just kind of plunged right in there. It gets really really deep about 4 feet in so swimming was really easy. We had a blast at the red beach today.

The only shot you'll get of me in a swimsuit...the neck up hahaha!

The hike back to the bus

One last shot before we head back

We finally pulled ourselves away from the beach and headed back to the hotel to clean up and go out for our anniversary. Ana, our concierge, recommended us to take the bus to Oia (pronounced Eya) and then watch the sunset. Then walk down to Ammoudi Bay for dinner. So we did and it was great!

We got to Oia and then it's about 400 donkey poo covered stairs down to ammoudi bay. Our restaurant was called Taverna Katina. We got the best fish we've ever had. Our waiter took us to the fish box and explained what kinds of fish they offer, which they had just gotten that morning from the fishermen. We picked out our fish, then ordered grilled calamari for our starter.

Adam and I at dinner right there on the water

Tomatokeftedes

Our grilled calamari

Our dinner, fresh baked fish

After we stuffed ourselves we still got some baklava for dessert, it was  so good. The restaurant called a cab for us and we headed back to our hotel.

Greatest Baklava ever!

Day 1 of Island Living - Santorini

Our first morning in Santorini we started off with breakfast on our balcony. This isn't the normal continental breakfast, it was a feast.

Morning view

Breakfast

 We were such bums the first day and just hung out and stared out into the ocean relaxing and trying to take it all in. We finally got off our lazy bums and headed to Fira to catch the bus to Perissa.

Perissa Beach is a dark rock beach that is really pretty. We made our way down there and got a bite to eat. You have to eat at a restaurant first and then you can use their sunbeds for free.

In our restaurant looking at the sun beds and the beach

Adam's lunch octopus

My lunch, pork kabob

 After lunch we laid out on the beach and just enjoyed the sound of the waves crashing and the view of the teal blue water. We jumped in the water and swam around...it was freezing!!!

Perissa Beach

The rocky beach

The large rock jutting out by Perissa Beach

By the time we caught the bus back to Fira and walked to the hotel it was late. So we cleaned up and had another dinner out on our balcony while we watched the sun set over the caldera.

Time for a 4 hour cruise...Here we come Santorini!

This morning was another EARLY morning. We had to be at the port by 6am to catch a ferry to Santorini. The seats were comfortable so Adam and I were able to sleep for a couple of hours.

The Ferry Seats

 After  we woke up Adam got us some "greek coffee" which tasted a bit weird since it had the grounds in it. There fore my motion sickness started to kick in. Luckily Katie brought us some dramamine just in case and I was able to pop one of those and 30 min later just fine.  We landed around noon at the port and caught our transfer to the hotel. Our hotel room was so beautiful. It was overlooking the Aegean Sea and the Volcano.

Our Balcony

The View

Another shot of our Balcony

Since we had a small kitchen in our apartment Ana, the concierge, gave us a map to get to the main city Fira. It's about a 30 min walk to get to the edge of town, probably 45 to get to the other side of town. We found a great grocery store and got some food for snacking on and bottled water. Oh note about Santorini...you can't drink the water. On the way back to the hotel we found a great Gyro shop and got a late lunch.

Yum Gyros

They also serve frozen greek yogurt which was delicious. The owner was an american girl who married a greek. They opened up the take away stand together. She was super nice and it was nice to talk to an american there too. Well after our snacking we walked back to the hotel which took awhile since I was carrying a lot of groceries and adam was carrying 6 liters of water.

The View as we walked back from Fira to Imerovigli

We dropped off our food and headed to the pool to cool off and relax, which turned into sleeping. We laid out by the pool for awhile and watched the sun start to set. Then headed back to our room to have some snacks and hangout on our balcony.

The pool with a view of the volcano

lounging around

The sun setting in the distance

Finishing up the sun set as we hung out on our balcony

Dinner snack of crackers various greek cheeses and olives

Off to Athens!

Today was a very early morning! We got up and were on the road by 5:30 to head back to Rome. Adam and I were flying out that morning to Athens and Katie and Andy had lots to see in Rome. We flew Aegean Air and I will say that it was really really nice.

It's Greek to me???

It's only a 2 hour flight from Rome to Athens so we landed, got to our hotel, freshened up, and headed to the Akropolis. This area is massive so we walked around for awhile and then finally found a ticketing area to get into it.

Walking around Akropolis Hill

Odeon of Herodes Atticus

The inside stadium seating of Odeon of Herodes Atticus

The person in aisle B2 come on down!!! The God Ares has chosen you for this evening's entertainment. I would not wanna be that guy 

The view from above

We hiked our way around and all the way to the top to see the Parthenon. This is definitely something I've always wanted to see. Ever since I took art history in college and learned about the making and significance of the buildings back then. It was very cool to be standing right in front of the Parthenon and see how huge this structure was.

The Parthenon

A view of the city from on top of the hill

The Parthenon up close and personal

More up close shots

This is how big the foot of the pillars are

The Erechtheum

The Erechtheum

 After spending a considerable amount of time there we walked back down and around the complex again. We saw a bunch of people walking up this huge rock so we figured hey lets go up too. It was far enough away and tall enough that  you could get a great picture of the Parthenon too. Later we figured out that was Mars Hill, where Paul preached to the masses. Had we known that we would not have wondered around for another hour trying to figure out where it was.

A view of the Akropolis from Mars Hill

Adam and I on Mars Hill

Adam and I again on Mars Hill

This place has been many things from possibly a storage area during wars to socrates jail cell

After our expedition around the ruins we came home to clean up and go get some food. Adam found a restaurant that was literally one block behind our hotel. Ummm that works for me. Less walking more eating. The restaurant was called Manh Manh and it was delicious. We started off with a greek meatball appetizer.

 Greek meatballs

Next, I had tenderloin pork served with grilled manouri cheese in a fig, honey, and almond honey glaze. Delicious!!!

My Pork Tenderloin

Adam had the Rooster Bardouniotikos, which was a stewed rooster leg in tomato sauce and pasta. It was also very very good.

Adam's Rooster Leg

Too much food that night, no dessert for us. But we hung out for awhile to relax, then walked back to the Akropolis for night pictures. Afterwards we headed back to the hotel. We had another early morning of travel ahead of us.

The Parthenon at night