Santorini or is it Thera?

From Corfu, we flew back to Athens and then on to Santorini. The airport in Corfu is small with the gate area get quite crowded and feels fairly unorganized. Again, being an inter-Greece flight, we got bussed to the plane and boarded on the tarmac. We flew Aegean Airlines which for the most part was a great experience except for when we landed in Santorini we saw our checked luggage sitting by the plane on the tarmac and as all the other luggage from the flight was coming off the carousel, ours was no where to be found except we knew it was there. Somehow our luggage was missed, forgotten, ignored, call it what you may, but it sat on the tarmac for a good 20 minutes before someone finally noticed and it came off the carousel. Not sure if us telling someone that we saw it on the tarmac and showed them a picture of it that it prompted it to magically be "found" or not, but as we got off the plane and saw it sitting there, we were smart enough to quickly take a picture because something didn't quite seem right at the time. And our gut was right....always trust your gut!

Z had pre-arranged a driver to pick us up and drive us to the hotel through a service called Welcome Pick Ups. This was a great experience and again through his immense pre-trip planning determined this was the best route to go because the hotel pick up service was double the price and Santorini only has less than 40 taxis for the entire island so it can be a bit tricky to find a taxi. The driver was quite friendly and navigated the narrow roads well. We stayed at Mystique, a boutique hotel carved into the caldera cliffs of Santorini in a town called Oia (pronounced ee-ya) and overlooking the magnificent waters of the Aegean Sea, or the Sea of Crete, depending on what map you're looking at. Regardless of which sea it really is, the view was spectacular even if you couldn't easily access the coastline. Our stay in Santorini was not a beach stay. We chose Santorini to experience the picturesque villages and towns built into the caldera. The general population of Santorini is 15,500, however this balloons during the tourist high season with roughly 2 million tourists visiting and also sees many Greeks in the hospitality industry relocate during these months to work. 

So what's up with the name Santorini? To the Greeks, this island is actually officially called Thera. Over its history, Greece was occupied by many different empires and in the thirteenth century, the Latin Empire named it Santorini in reference to an old cathedral called Santa Irini. In the nineteenth century the name Thera was revived as the official name, but Santorini has stuck as the "known" name. Built on overlapping shield volcanoes, Santorini's rugged landscape was shaped after a devastating volcanic eruption in the 16th century. While still considered an active volcano, it is dormant, though a risk exists that future seismic activity can take place. 

Back to our hotel, being cliffside, you can expect many steps up and down to get anywhere; even I got winded going up the numerous steep steps in the middle of the day time heat. Our room was a beautiful with a vast covered outdoor terrace that included two sun beds, a private whirlpool with padded lounging/seating around, and a table and 2 chairs. The outdoor space was covered to help shield you from the blazing sun. The weather in Santorini was just as hot as in Corfu, roughly mid 30's celsius, but with the humidity felt a heck of a lot hotter; the cover helped bring in some much needed shade mid day. Our room had a spectacular view of the sea below, several surrounding islands, and in the distance we could see two other main towns nestled on the cliffs. The interior design of the room was simple; painted all white, and accentuated the natural curves of the stone walls. The shower, though quite roomy, felt a bit like being in a cave with its curvatures. The living area had a nice, but simple off white couch and love seat with a coffee table positioned in front of a buffet table that had a TV on it. The opening leading to the bedroom area, situated in the deepest area of the room, was arched with another square cut out just above and two additional rectangular cut outs on either side. This allowed for natural light to filter into this area. On our arrival, a porter came up to the street to carry down our luggage which he did by swinging our big suitcase up on his shoulder and carried it down just like that with our carry on in his other hand. It was quite impressive. 

The hotel is spread out on several different levels and eventually you find your way through the maze of stairs. The infinity pool was just a couple steps down from our room which was extremely convenient because we could go for a dip to cool off and then head back to our sun beds on our terrace; sometimes with either a coffee or drink in hand. Charisma, the breakfast restaurant was situated just beside the pool, but we splurged and ordered breakfast to the room instead and sat outside with the privacy of our own table overlooking the sea and enjoyed one of the most scenic breakfasts ever! For dinner one evening we chose to eat at Lure by Olivier Campanha, a renowned French chef who has led many Michelin-starred restaurants. Being a Michelin-starred restaurant is a high honour recognition in the restaurant industry. We were quite excited to eat at a restaurant with such a chef. Lure's menu is a combination of French and local cuisine that offers a high-end gastronomical experience. This would be our "fancy" dinner of the trip and it proved the part. The setting was incredible. The outdoor restaurant is perched up at the highest part of the hotel and has breathtaking views of not only the sea, but the rest of the hotel, the surrounding other hotels, and the entire immediate caldera area. The staff were incredible and so attentive and made the entire experience quite special. I'm really seeing a much different service industry culture here than back home. Here everyone shows such concern that their guests are enjoying themselves and go out of their way to ensure that is the case. Dinner was absolutely divine. 

Another hidden treasure at the hotel is their secret wine cave nestled inside the Charisma restaurant. You can book a wine tasting or private dinner in the secret wine cave which also acts as the wine cellar for the hotel. We booked a wine tasting in this 150 year old wine cellar which we learned our host Elias was formerly used as a water storage tank. Interesting fact, we also learned was that Santorini has no fresh water. For drinking, only bottled water is used and for other household uses such as bathing water is taken from the sea and through thermal distillation is desalinized. So while they have an abundance of sea water surrounding the island, the cost to desalinize it must be immense. Our wine tasting was not only very informative about some of the history of the island, but also about wine making in general on Santorini. The climate is ideal for growing grapes with the heat and the humidity acts as the watering source over night. To shield the grapes from burning in the direct sun,  winemakers have refined a primitive technique called the ambelia where the plants are pruned to grow low to the ground inside round baskets where the grapes can grow and mature while being protected from the sun and blowing sand. The overall industry is fairly small in comparison to other countries and any of the grapes and wines on Santorini are government protected which keeps the end product fairly local. There are about 40 different grape varieties on Santorini with the main white wine grape variety being the athiri grape while the mandilaria is the main red grape variety which produces a very tasting dry red wine. Only about 3200 tonnes of wine are produced annually which helps to explain why Greek wines are not common worldwide. Our tasting included 5 wines along with some canapés. Our private wine tasting was a wonderful and delightful experience. 

We only had a short time in Santorini as compared to our other stops and so when we weren't lounging on our terrace we decided one day to explore Oia and its labyrinth of streets lined with shops and restaurants. We spent time wandering in and out of the shops when it got too hot and found a great little restaurant for lunch. Oia is also a great place to watch the sunset as it's on the west side of the island. In fact the most popular place to see the sunset is from Ammoudi Bay and the streets and steps leading part way down to the actual bay are crowded with people all there to capture a view of the sunset. We had made a reservation at Dimitris Ammoudi Taverna on the water in the bay for just after sunset so we enjoy the sunset first and then a lovely dinner afterwards. Walking down the roughly 200 stairs to reach the bay is one of the things to do in Oia and for those that aren't quite able to make it back up, you can hire a donkey who will take you part way up. While this may be a great service it feels wrong to me and unfortunately it also leads to the steps being covered in donkey poop. Dinner didn't disappoint here either, we had a table right by the water with the ambience of the water crashing into the rocks. In fact we haven't really had a bad food experience yet; Z is loving the abundance of two of his favourite foods - fish and lamb and as a bonus the fish is sea fresh! 

One of our other exploration days involved a 10km hike from the capital Fira back to Oia along the rim of the caldera. We decided it best we start in Fira and hike back to Oia because that's where we were staying and because Z learned that most go the other way and the ability of taxis and other transportation in the afternoon when many are looking for a ride back can be a bit challenging. So instead we took a taxi to Fira to start our roughly 4 hour hike. The day we did this hike also happen to have 3 cruise ships in port in Fira and so the streets in town were fairly packed there which were also part of the hiking route. Once out of Fira though, there were a lot less people as crazy as us to venture on this hike mid day in the blistering sun. For the most part the path is cobblestone with some dirt path areas. There are not many places where you can buy water, other drinks, and food, along the hike so it's best to be prepared with enough water and sunscreen. Fira is similar to Oia, however a bit bigger, catering significantly to tourists with shops and restaurants lining the town's streets. Imerovigli is the other town you encounter on this hike and we stopped here for a quick break to enjoy a fresh squeezed orange juice (we've discovered this is a thing in Greece) and get out of the sun for a bit. The hike afforded some of the most incredible views I've ever seen and was well worth doing. We often encountered quaint little churches perched on the highest point of villages and often wondered if there even was a village around as several seemed located very out of place. The landscape is also littered with hotels resorts also carved into the calderas. 

After our short but very magnificent stay in Santorini, we had Welcome Pick Ups drive us to the port so we could board our 2 hour ferry to Crete.