honeymoon part 2: Santorini

After numerous Traveling Gers posts, we're still talking about Greece!  Santorini, or Greece in general, is one of our all time favorite locales.  We have only visited on one occasion, but immediately Greece made a lasting impression.  As the second stop on our Greek Honeymoon, Santorini was the location I was most looking forward to touring.  Pictures of the white buildings and the blue domes had been popping up in my Pinterest and Instagram feed for years and we were ecstatic to finally see them for ourselves.  Everything was remarkably better in person. 

While we didn't end up venturing outside of the Oia city limits, one of the most awe-inspiring experiences in Santorini was the cliff walk down to Amaudi Bay.  Matt and I descended over 300 steps, often stepping to the side to make way for donkeys trekking in the opposite direction.  Once we reached our port destination, the views up to Oia were breathtaking and the scene out to sea was even more incredible.  Since most of our trip was spent high up in the hills, it felt bona fide to be close to the sea.  We had lunch at one of the adorable seaside restaurants, including a cold beer as reward for our time on the stairs.  

After a quick bite of the freshest seafood imaginable, we were on our way to explore the coastline.  Following a path that wanders along the coast, and we hiked past fishermen, cliff jumpers, and other tourists, determined to leave no stone unturned.  Matt was a daredevil and walked some pretty rugged steps.  His reward for his bravery was more beautiful cliffside views and gigantic yachts anchored near the caldera.

The entire town of Oia is built into a cliff, which makes wandering the streets more difficult that I imagined.  The homes and businesses are in close proximity and built literally on top of each other.  The lack of a downtown or town square makes it feel isolated on most days but extremely crowded on the days when the cruise ships are in port.  We quickly learned to verture around town in the morning, before the ships docked, or on the off days when there weren't any cruise tourists.  We traveled to Greece in early June, but the weather was already intensely hot so early morning or sunset walks were ideal for numerous reasons.  All the more reason to spend most of our time in the hotel pool!

One exception to our sunset/sunrise strolls was our mission for food.  Greece has some of the most incredible foods in all of Europe.  We could not stop ordering a handful of appetizers, a couple of mains, and dessert at every meal.  And don't forget the carafe of wine, that is key to a leisurely Greek meal!  Most of the restaurants we tried were similar and very few had a long wait for a table (as long as the cruise tourist were gone for the night) so we just randomly picked a place on the main road each lunch and dinner and were never disappointed.  One of the standouts, where we frequented numerous times, was Skala.  The seafood was wonderful and this restaurant had our favorite traditional fava bean dip, which is a staple for all Santorini suppers.

In the back of our minds, we had planned to verture back to Greece for our 5 year anniversary, but thanks to Covid-19, I'm not sure when we'll be allowed to or willing to travel to Europe again.  Until then, we have our memories (and some outstanding Greek restaurants in Astoria, Queens).  See more of Santorini:  Santorini Sunset, The Best Hotel, Shades of Blue, plus the rest of the honeymoon in Athens - part 1, Cruising Crete, and Crete - part 3.  Thanks for helping us relive the best trip of our lives :)