Santorini
- consists of a circular archipelago of volcanic islands. Santorini is essentially what remains of an enormous volcanic explosion, destroying the earliest settlements on what was formerly a single island, and leading to the creation of the current caldera. Our last island to visit in Greece was Santorini and it was the most spectacular place I have seen so far.Greg's parents paid for part of our trip as a honeymoon present, so Greg went all out on our hotel, which had spectacular views of the volcano and of the island.
As you can tell from the pictures above and the smile on my face I was crazy with excitement.
We stayed at the Phenix, in Imerovigli, which I recommend if you go. It is wonderful hotel with a pool that looks out towards the volcano,
great drinks,
and our own private balcony built into the side of a mountain.
In fact, part of the mountain came into our room.
Pretty cool!Imerovigli is part of the island I would recommend the most. It is not as touristy as Oia or Thira and is a little on the quiet side. You feel like it is your own private get-away.
The sun started to set soon after we got there, so we headed out to a suggested point to view the sunset. Along the way we ran into a wedding where the bride was carried up the mountain on a donkey. It looked great, but not the best idea since the bride probably smelt like a nasty donkey afterwards.
The sun set pretty fast but we were able to get some shots in and enjoy the view!
Great job honey, come here and let me reward you with a great big kiss.
Bye-bye sun.
The sunsets were like the ones in Hawaii, 8 minutes and then it was gone.The next day was a beautiful day, so we decided to go for a walk and get a look around.
Had my trusty hat to keep my face wrinkle free!
There was so much blue and white and it was such a great place to be, especially after being in cold Finland which had the worst summer to date in 2008 (2 weeks of warm weather, seriously!).
We stopped at a Gyro place on the side of a road to get a snack to keep us going.
It probably wasn't the best place to grab a snack as you can see all the cars zooming by and adding carbon monoxide to our lunch meal. (Push the play button to see and hear all the noise)
Our dessert was quick too and was a very tasty "cranchy" sesame seed snack. Greg and I got the biggest kick out of this labeling.
After some more walking we needed another snack so Greg and I stopped at a place in Thira for a yogurt treat.
YUM! Greek yogurt rocks and this was so refreshing and wonderful tasting.Not only did this place have great prices but it also had a great view.
Unfortunately, Greg thought he smelled horses or donkeys and would not stop complaining. I looked around every where but we could not see any. Eventually we had to leave because Greg got an asthma attack. I rolled my eyes as we quickly left and thought he was making something up until we looked down and low and behold there were donkeys! There were hundreds of donkeys bringing people up from where the ships come in. Oops sorry honey, guess you did smell donkeys. 
Oh well, it was a nice walk back to our hotel.
It was a hot day and we decided to take a quick refreshing dip in the pool
suck it in Andrea, Greg has the camera out!
On our 3rd day we decided to head to the other direction to Oia. When we woke up it was hot and foggy but Greg said the walk wasn't too far. I think he said a couple of miles. Only a couple of miles, ok, let me put on my wrinkle protection hat and let's go!
We started off with smiles enjoying the really cool looking landscape.
It started to get hotter and hotter, especially since the wind was not blowing like it had the past couple of days.
"Hey honey, are you sure this is a couple of miles, it sure looks far?" "Ok, maybe 1 more mile?, well let's keep going"HA!!!! Try 7 miles or something crazy like that, it was hot and terrible and I over heated and was very cranky so there are no more pictures to share with you because Greg was afraid to take a picture of me when I have instant rage going on.
We finally made it to Oia and it was so touristy I wasn't even motivated to take pictures. This was the most expensive area to stay in and I was not motivated or uplifted by this area and was glad we didn't stay in Oia. I didn't even want to eat lunch here and so we grabbed a bus and made it back to our part of the island.
We had a couple of friends visit us during our stay at the Phenix and they loved Feta cheese! I didn't think they would eat it because it is so salty but Greg gave them some and they ate it up yum.
The 4th day we decided to go to Kamari beach and see some black sand beaches.
Black sand, sounds cool to me. Something that I considered beyond special and had to be seen to be believed.What the tourist guides don't tell you about black sand, which would be fairly obvious if I had thought about it, is that it's hot as heck!
If you look down the beach you can see the heat rising in waves off the black sand and the shore.
Whew, let's get a drink and enjoy being off that sand.
Good call! 
Greg really liked the area and suggested we stay for an early dinner.
On our way to find a little place to eat I noticed a newspaper in the stands and it said Helsingin Sanomat,
which is the main newspaper in Finland.Finland all the way out here in paradise, NOOOO!!! Don't make me think of that cold lonely place, how depressing!
Thankfully Greg found a cute little place that had wonderful food and I was able to put that fright behind me.
I had a wonderful pasta dish with great big prawns on it, yummmm
Push the play button below to enjoy dinner with us.
Unlike Venice it was hard to find bad food in Santorini, it is all so wonderful.
Speaking of food, the best place to eat in Santorini is a place called Olives.
It has a wonderful Santorini Salad that comes with cheese and tomatoes that only come from Santorini. The cheese is a little like feta but a tad bit different and just as delightful.
Another thing I had to try was the classic greek dish of octopus and ouzo. Just the thought of the suckers almost made me sick
but I had to try it, it had to be done.
Here is Greg taunting me that I won't do it.
So I prepared myself to sample the grilled octopus.
Greg got a big tasty Greek yogurt with honey and so I knew I could dive into that if the taste of the octopus was too horrible.
One grilled tentacle and glass of ouzo, check.
One Greek yogurt as a backup plan, check.
Ok, here we go
Hey, it was actually good. Delicious even. It had a meaty taste to it, kind of like a scallop wrapped with bacon.
Perissa is another hot as heck black sand beach and we went there the next day, but this time we hung out on the beach instead of hiding in the shade drinking.
We decided to go back to our hotel to have dinner and drinks on our balcony and play a few games of Backgammon.
Look closely at the name of this beer. Glad Greg was drinking it instead of me!
Push the play button to see sites.
Backgammon was a new game for me but did Greg take it easy on me and let me win a few times? NO!
In fact he loved beating me and even made up a dance to celebrate his winning! Push the play button to see the I Won, In Your Face Dance
We really enjoyed having drinks on our balcony, taking in the view and enjoying the rest and relaxation.
I enjoyed the wine that was brought to me by a sweet little man who I think owned the hotel. Push the play button to see the nice man who brought me drinks.
Speaking of hotels, by now we had moved from Imerovigli to Fira, to a more expensive hotel, Aroma Suits, in Fira, but Greg and I both liked the Phenix hotel better.
By now we were on our 7th and final day and so I wanted to eat at my favorite place, Olives, to say good-bye to Santorini.
I decided to gorge myself. I had enjoyed their wonderful bread with olive tapanade,
the Santorini salad
Tomato Fritters
and a wonderful basil pasta!
Here we are being very sad that we have to leave this beautiful island
XXOO Santorini, hopefully we will meet again another day.
