Santorini Honeymoon – Day 5

We woke up extra early for our chartered sailboat ride and went and head a small breakfast (I didn’t want to hurf up a delicious full breakfast). We finished our food and then went up to wait for our shuttle to the port. We waited a bit and then went and asked our hotel folks to call and check things out. The guy put the phone down and immediately music came on the loud speaker. Yup, Rick Rolled at the EXACT instant we found out our sailing day had been cancelled due to wind and choppy water. Bummer, but it was rescheduled for tomorrow, which was fine.

Our pool was being drained since there so much sand and grit in the bottom of it, so that was out. We decided to do more exploring!

We got our car rental contract “updated”, and we headed to the ruins at Akrotiri. The ruins had been closed for 15 years or so and had only recently opened back up to the public. Sounded awesome to us. We got all slathered up with sunscreen in the parking lot and went to buy our tickets. Once through the gate, we were herded into a HUGE building with air conditioning containing the ruins. So THAT’s why we were the only ones glistening with sun screen in the area! The building is like 5 football fields and keeps the climate consistent for the ruins. The ruins aren’t labeled at all, so you have no idea what you’re looking at. Also, all of the artifacts are in the historical museum in some other city, so it’s really a combo deal if you want to see it all. We snapped some photos and bailed out.

We went right down the street to the Red Beach. The island is all volcanic rock, so most beaches are black. The only two that aren’t are the Red Beach and the White Beach (only accessible by boat). The Red Beach is absolutely stunning. It’s a beautiful formation of red rock that looks like it is sliding into the water.

None of the other tourists wanted to make the treacherous hike down the rock slide of red volcanic rock, so there were literally two people on the beach. D.Rough and I don’t do anything half assed. If we’re there, we’re seeing it ALL. We hiked over the rocks and slid down a 50 foot drop of sharp red rock slide and hit the beach. It was worth it. We did some wading up to our knees, but the water was REALLY cold this time of year. It was still magical.

We got back in the car and drove to another beach – today was beach day! We drove to Perissa, a beach on the eastern side of the island. We had a delicious meal at Tranquilo, while watching the waves roll in. Tranquilo is kind of an Aussie healthy bar/restaurant. They’re known for the biggest salads on the island – which I can say, they’re REALLY huge. The woman working was incredibly nice and chatty and made sure we were having a good time.

We (of course) had a bunch of girly drinks and even went out and drank them on the beach (Tranquilo has their own private area of the beach with chairs and umbrellas on the black sand). It was a glorious day.

We drove to find the only waterpark on the island (right there in Perissa), but it was closed and not yet open for the season. Bummer. It’s a good thing we’re easy travellers and can roll with it.

We hopped in the car and made the drive to Oia to watch the sunset (probably less than an hour in the car – we were beginning to see just how small the island really is). We did some shopping in the touristy area and saw an absolutely beautiful sunset there. This is where people go to watch the sunset – lots of tourists here who all leave immediately after the sun goes down. Very weird, but still fun.

We were hungry for some Mexican food (yes, you heard us), so we drove back to the Senior Zorba’s (literally 500 feet from our hotel. It sounds weird, but we had a pretty delicious meal there. The hostess was a really fun lady from Denver who chatted us up about all kinds of things. She smuggles in Cholula hot sauce a couple of times a year so her restaurant can serve it. She also helped us celebrate our honeymoon in true Mexican fashion. And like we said, for being 5,000 miles from Mexico, it was quite good. She boxed up our huge amount of left overs (something we’ve never seen in Europe) and we all hugged good-bye. D.Rough and I are getting good at hugging restaurant owners when we have great service. It’s our thing, all of a sudden.

The amount of food we ate was Ex-Zorba-tant (hahahaha I just made that up!), so when we got back to the hotel, we passed out. Which is surprising since we were both SUPER excited about our sailboat ride in the morning!!!!!!!! SQUEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!