When we woke up, the wind had died down to a stiff breeze, but it was perfect outside. Amazingly clear air and not an ominous cloud in the sky.
After breakfast, we knew we were going to see more of the island, so Mike – one of the most amazing hotel staff on the planet – rented us a car to use for the day. He told us it would be a SmartCar, but then apologized for only having something much larger for us – a Nissan Micra. I didn’t have the heart to tell him I drove an SUV back home, so this was NOT a “larger” car. Hahaha.
It’s a small local sort of place outside the city – the restaurant is pronounced Metaxi Mas. The boss was eating with friends out on the patio when we arrived. D.Rough and I had an incredible meal and everything was covered in cheese. LOTS of cheese. We loved it. They also brought this clear liquid to every table with shot glasses. We decided this was moonshine and polished off the entire bottle of it. Delicious and firey! I'll explain what the moonshine is in a later post.
We got the wine museum only to find it was closed up for the day. So we had some free time. We headed to the Akritori beach and D.Rough, wearing her jacket, got her feet in the volcanic sand and the Aegean Sea. It really was beautiful there. There are small shops and restaurants on (I mean ON) the beach that were closed, likely due to the waves from the storm flooding their businesses.
We headed back toward the center of the island and passed a small Greek bakery. We had to pick up some snacks, certainly. A six-pack of bottled water and some baklava for the road.
We watched another glorious sunset over the caldera (the volcano and bay), We didn’t have much on the agenda, so we headed to Oia (pronounced EE-ah) and walked around a bit. Oia is the northern point of the island and is also the touristy and expensive area with shops and restaurants and expensive hotels. We just wanted to see how long it took to get there, since we were realizing how small the island was. We drove from the southern tip of the island, saw a sunset and had some drinks, and then made it to the northern tip of the island in about two hours. Yup, Santorini is a small and quaint island. We walked around Oia for a while and headed back to Fira when the shops started closing.
We kept dinner relatively small and still had an awesome meal. It seems every restaurant in Santorini comes with a character (either owner or staff). They love their jobs and love meeting new people. We had a fantastic dinner with dolmades (stuffed grape leaves), fava, beet dip, and this amazing meatball and rice dish. Naoussa really is as good as its reviewers say it is.
Wow, we really stay up late when we’re here. It was almost 2am when we got home and cashed out in a food coma.
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