December Flower

This was a very spontaneous trip, since it was booked only a few days before departure. Sure it became a very cheap trip too, round-trip flights were only 80 € (Finnair) and the hotels we booked separately and stayed in 3 different (at different places), which also became cheaper than staying at one single place the whole week. The island is so small (approximately 30 km from end to end) that it was no problem moving around with all the luggage with the local bus.

The first two nights we stayed in Karterados (Hotel John Tatakis) that is ca. 1 km away from the capital city Fira. We arrived in the evening just before sunset, so we took only a quick walk to Fira and wandered around just a little bit and bought something to eat and drink for the evening and morning. On the first whole day in Santorini we headed already in the morning (when it was slightly cooler than on midday) to Fira. There the exercising started - the whole city is full of stairs up and down. This is the reason why it is not recommended for family holidays or disabled people. Fira is also located on a quite high altitude (ca. 500 m) that explains the amazing views over the neighbouring smaller islands and the sea. But, let the pictures talk more about the beauty of Fira… Anyway, we walked a few hours (and quite many kilometres) before we returned to Karterados and then we got this great idea about walking to the beach (opposite direction of Fira). But the road never seemed to come to an end… eventually after some moments of despair the beach was there (cannot recall the name of it). There a few hours went by till we walked the hilly road up again. Went eating in Karterados, the food was a little bit of a disappointment because they had used frozen vegetables that you use at home too… After dinner we crazy people walked again to Fira to see the sunset, which we actually missed by maybe 10 minutes.

All next photos are from or nearby Fira.

On the second day we moved our stuff to the next hotel, Nikolas Villa, in Perivolos. Fortunately they had a swimming pool but we still decided to go to the real beach the first day. The sand is black in Santorini because of volcanic activity on the neighbouring island. Later in the evening we went eating to a restaurant on the beach boulevard and we got satisfied this time (eating lamb with red wine, only 25 € for two people. Cheap!).

The third day we spent at the hotel pool. In the evening we went to Atlantis (on the beach boulevard) eating a three menu dinner, containing delicious tzatsiki, moussaka as main dish and crème caramel as dessert. This menu was really good and coasted only ca 13 €. The next time a few days later when we went for trying another menu with fish was a disappointment. And we totally fell in love with the local bakeries! The fourth day went at the pool in the morning, moving our stuff to the last hotel (Katefiani Villas), laying on the beach, walking around, having dinner…

Photos from Perissa.

On the fifth day we went to Oía by bus and were supposed to have dinner there. We went to the bus stop and waited… waited and waited. Finally when the bus comes it doesn’t stop ###! And the next bus after a few minutes just drives by… Then we go to the bus starting point, there’s a queue and the first bus had been really late and fortunately we are able to get in the next bus (after almost 1 h of waiting). Then we also had to change bus in Fira to get to Oía. And he drove like crazy along the narrow mountain row. So it took almost two hours to get to Oía and now we did not have time for dinner before the “famous” sunset we had come to see. The whole thing was quite crazy, whole Oía where you possibly could see the sunset was totally crowded and many people had waited for hours to see the sunset in their ‘’own’’ spot (weird). Well we got loads of nice pics from there and we found a nice (or a few actually) spot from where we saw the sunset. Certainly the sunset was beautiful and it lightened the white houses warmly and beautifully while if set behind mountains in the horizon and after the sky got an amazing shade of red and purple. But beautiful sunsets have been seen before too, for example at my parents summer cottage (where the sun also sets into the sea). Since we missed the dinner we only took some take away gyros (which we many days ate as lunch during the trip – they were so cheap, only like 2 €).

Photos from Oía.

The sixth day went again on the beach. At this point laying on the beach had reached the point that it started to get boring quite soon after you arrived there. But of course we enjoyed the second last “warm-sea-water-baths” and hoped to get just a tiny little bit more tanned. Also on the last (seventh) day we had to stop by the beach once more before packing and heading to the airport.

All in all it was a really nice trip, always nice to discover new places. All the hotels we stayed in were really clean and the service was nice. In the last place the air conditioner was quite poor, otherwise there was nothing to complain about. The food was generally good and very cheap, around 10 € a main dish. Ciders and breezers in a supermarket were like 1.50-2.50 €. The weather was hot the whole week, over 30°C every day. If we would have been more experienced drivers it could have been nice to rent a car for a few days, but it was quite smooth to travel by bus also (the time-tables were not really followed though..) and one way ticket to/from Fira was at most 2.30 € (at least the routes we travelled).

// ina