Greece.....the most beautiful place in the world!

Sept. 24, 2006, Sunday

Well Greece is indeed idyllic, it actually defies description. If I were to try I would say; the bluest of blues and the whitest of whites with tranquility abounding, views thru romantic doorways and arches, over domed roofs and cobbled lava rock winding roads. In a word it is magnificent.

Well Greece is indeed idyllic, it
We arrived exhausted from 24 hours of traveling, which included a 7 hour lay-over in Athens during which we hopped the Metro and zipped to the Acropolis and the Parthenon, it was only about 45 minutes from the airport, then we ate in old Athens and returned to the airport to go on to Santorini, arriving about 7 pm, after having left the previous day at 11 am. We lost our first full day here to mostly dozing by the pool. The place we stayed the first two nights was in Kamari it was the most adorable little beach town, with a black lava beach. The restaurants and stores stayed open until 2 am, Greeks are night people. Anna, the lady who ran our villa drove us everywhere, in and out of town, picked us up at the airport and even drove us across the Island to our 2 week accommodations in Emerovigli today; she was so sweet and didn’t even want to accept a tip. Our little villa there was two stories and right on the beach, it was rather rustic but very Greek.

Now we are in a gorgeous Villa, with a huge balcony and pool overlooking the Caldera. We were checked in by 76 year old, Socrates, who worked for 25 years in Banking in Athens, what a lovely character. He keeps insisting we are to be at home and call or come see him for anything, he is a charmer and sincerely hospitable. We were given a bottle of Greek wine to welcome us when he heard we were honey-mooning.

Our view is to die for, and we just watched the sunset from out by our pool and below us in the bluest water I’ve ever seen, there was a cruise ship, and a 3 masted sailboat and 2 fishing boats to set the scene. The sun was an enormous orange ball that dipped down until the water gobbled it up in a magical green flash. The orange sky lasted for at least another half an hour, deepening in richness, before it finally got completely dark, as we watched the lights come on in far off Oia (pronounced Iah) at the end of the Island. Last night we had a terrific dinner and wandered about with a Kiwi couple from Auckland who even invited us to come visit them and meant it. Now we can’t wait to plan a trip to New Zealand…. But then again we want to go everywhere eventually. But for now we have 13 more glorious days here. Aaahhhh, life is good!

Tomorrow we will hike into Fera, the largest town in Santorini, it is about a mile and a half away. Or we may hike down to the bottom of the Caldera from Fera, which is supposed to be 600 steps down and then of course back up again! We shall see tomorrow….just how much we feel we want to do. We are being quite spontaneous and planning minimally. We both feel like a laid back trip rather then a jam packed one, and it’s nice to have the time to go slowly.

Well Monday dawned sunny and bright and we opted for walking in to Fera, the biggest town in Santorini. It was about a mile and a half all along the Caldera rim with exceptionally gorgeous views, though a bit taxing as it was all up and down hills, on cobbled stones and slippery gravel, but it was totally breath-taking, and completely worth it.

Greece is unique in every way, it’s full of contrasts, such white walls, but with black lava rock walls and cobalt blue doors and shutters, and arches and doors and domes everywhere, covered in bougainvillea and geraniums with Olive trees and Norfolk Pines and Cactus too. The Greek Orthodox church was so beautiful and though full of frescos, still completely unique from the Cathedrals of Rome. The main town of Fera is all full of Artists Galleries and Incredible jewelry stores and donkeys wander the streets with their aged Greek masters. It is unbelievably clean and sparkling and when store owners leave to eat they don’t even lock the doors, they just tilt a broom diagonally in the doorways. There is no graffiti and the back streets are very quiet. Doors are open everywhere and we’ve heard absolutely no stories of pick-pockets or crime at all. We left town and made it home for another amazing sunset by our pool talking with friendly Australians. The sunset was again spectacular. I don’t think they have any other kind.

Tuesday, was an even more ambitious hike. 10 kilometers or about 6 and a half miles almost all uphill to the town of Oia (eah), which is at the very end of the Island. It was rocky and slippery and windy, even a little scary at points, but the views were so amazing it would have been worth it at twice the distance, (although I’m pretty sure I’d have died!), so it’s a good thing it was no longer, and at the end of our walk it rained on us a bit to cool us off, wasn’t that fortunate. Anyway, the hike took us 2 and a half hours and then we spent the day there, poked and shopped and went sightseeing, walking about 4 more miles, needless to say at the end of our day we opted for the bus home. Guess what, that only took about 10 minutes! So we arrived back in time for our sunset and wine on our balcony. Boy this is a paradise, we are so blessed. Tomorrow I will try to get to an Internet site and blog this and some pictures to share it with all of you too.