Two questions....
How does tomatoes, cucumbers, feta cheese, a few olives, some olive oil, white vinegar, salt and pepper, with a wedge of bread taste soooo good?
How come if we try and make the same greek salad back in the states, it tastes like crap?
Anyway, we jumped on a ferry from Ephesus, Turkey to Samos, Greece. We then immediately went to a ferry agent and found the next ferry or set of ferries to Santorini island. Well our ride went from Samos island to Mykanos island to Santorini. We were able to find a room in the town of Fira for about 20 euros a night. After visiting Greece, we are firm believers that all travelers at one time in their lives should see Greece. Santorini in particular!! There are not enough words to explain what you see with your own eyes. I would even go so far to say it is one of most beautiful places I've seen on earth. Seriously, the view will give you goose bumps. Santorini is probably the one island that all tourist of Greece migrate to....even for just a couple of hours. We heard that during high season it can become quite obnoxious w/the amount of tourists that flood the island. But in the off season; which we were in; there is only a trickling of tourists....which makes traveling quite fun.
Santorini is a crescent shaped, island formed by an ancient volcanic eruption said to have taken place in 1650 BC. The inner edge of the island plunges almost 900 feet into the sea and the outer coast has long black volcanic beaches.The most important characteristic of the island of Santorini is the submerged "active" volcano, which errupted, resulting in the submersion of the center of the island, leaving only the crater and the 300m cliff, here is where you see the traditional white houses with blue trim are built on the edges of the volcanic rock. Essentially, what you see is a jaw dropping view (caldera view) of steep cliffs with beautiful houses and a sea that looks like it goes on forever. Sunsets are incredibly beautiful and remind me of a the sun being a tea bag that is getting dropped into a large cup of water...that of course being the sea. As the sun sets into the sea you can see the rays of it glow out of the water a little bit. Fira and Ia are the two towns with these type of dynamic views. Ia is more remote and secluded than its sister Fira. It was great to see the smile on Dawne's face when she saw that first view from Fira. Needless to say...we stayed here for a week, and we saw the caldera view everyday!
It was very quiet in Santorini, cuz we were there right before the holiday season got started. We even spent Easter Sunday their as many businesses closed early.
From Santorini we hopped on another ferry to Paros Island. We jumped on a quad bike and toured the island. The island is rather small and can be driven around at about 30 km/hr in about 2-3 hours or so. Stopping at beaches, marble quarries, and restaurants along our journey. Just like Santorini, there is plenty of shopping boutiques to take your money. Paros also has the same laid back feel of Santorini....just without the views. If you're into relaxing, sipping on coffee drinks, reading a book, laying on a beach; then Paros is for you. There is not much to do but just chill out and relax.
After hanging in Paros of a couple of days we headed to Naxos. Well, in Naxos we hooked up w/ another backpacker Jason; an Australian living in the UK. Naxos is similar to Paros but about 3 times as large. So getting around it you'll need a car. So, the next day we split the price of a rent-a-car 3 ways and proceeded to drive around the island. Our travels took us to one of the more impressive sites I've ever seen. There are mountains and mountains of marble throughout the island, with of course a marble quarry here and there. One of the main quarries is essentially a mountain that has been partially cut off. The marble is so dense and heavy that it takes a large tractor trailer to gingerly carry a piece about the size of car down the mountain.
After about 3 days on Naxos, we as well as Jason jumped on a ferry to Athens. We spent about 2-3 days there checking out the ruins. Athens is a proper modern city with a metro, traffic, sidewalks, restaurants.....etc. It doesn't really have much charm to it, and if it was not for the ruins, the fact that we needed to catch a plane from there to Egypt....we probably would have avoided it. All in all we loved Greece, we sure did have our fill of good food which included Gyros, greek salad, greek coffee, and lots of baklava. No doubt.....we'll be back, again....and again....and again!!
Comments