Santorini Greece October 2021

 Most of our vacation ideas happen this way... FAST.

This one we were in Lake Tahoe and great flight prices came up on instagram.

I kind of in a joking way asked Kenna if she wanted to go with us and she immediately said she would pay for her ticket... no other questions asked.

So I bought the tickets... tickets which later turned out to be not that great with super long layovers that kept being "changed" to longer.  Luckily during one of those "changes" we could cancel flights and an even better deal popped up.

It couldn't have worked out better!

We left the morning of Monday October 4th.  The flight was long... but a quick layover in Chicago + an empty middle seat on the long flight made it not so bad.

We landed early on Tuesday AM (Athens time) and spent the WHOLE day exploring.

We rented a car... drove an hour to Athens... Athens and getting there from the airport is a pretty run down SUPER graffiti filled city.  

We didn't REALLY know where we should be parking... stopping etc. Even with all my research... it was still all Greek to me. hahaha

Our first stop was the Syntagma - the changing of the guard.

Then we were off to the Temple of Zeus.

While we were here we figured out that Greece is NOT great with signage to help people understand the history about the sights we were paying to visit. haha  We walked around in this big open spaces with about 3 lines written about what the Temple of Zeus actually was.  So we did some googling and tried to figure it out ourselves.

When we came out from here we were headed to the Acropolis... 

That's when we met our new friend Nikolaos.

He was a pretty pushy taxi driver who was positive that he could help us with our day more than we would be able to on our own. 

And since we had just payed money for something that we had no idea what we were looking at... we went with him.  And we were glad we did.

We stopped at the Athens Olympic Stadium... the stadium from the 2004 Athens Olympics.

Nikolaos shared lots of knowledge with us.  He was sure he knew more than anyone else in Athens and he let us know. haha

He drove us to Mount Lycabbettus the highest hill in Athens.  We walked up to the top for a great view and visited a Greek Orthodox Church at the top.

Then he drove us back down to the main city. This is the Athens School of Fine Arts... we wanted to go inside but they wouldn't let us. haha

Nikolaos took us for lunch and introduced us to Greek style pies and fresh orange juice.

It was great!

Our tour with him was like 2 hours... he then REALLY wanted us to extend for a few more hours and when we declined after much discussion he was NOT happy.  He dropped us off at the Acropolis without another word on the way there. 

But we had a great time while it lasted. ;)

The Acropolis!  What a great bucket list item.

Funny thing is there was really NOTHING for us to learn while we were there.  There was information on the restoration... but we obviously should have known more before coming because they were not going to tell us about it. haha

We explored the Parthanon and other buildings.  Even if we didn't know much, it's still cool to be in a place that started being built in 400 BC!!

Just below the Acropolis is Aeropagus Hill or Mars Hill- Paul preached from here in 51 AD.

His sermon is contained in Acts 17:16-34.  The significance would have been pretty great for Paul looking up at the acropolis and the city full of idols.  He speaks of the Athenians worshipping the "Unknown God" and then teaches them of the God he believes in. 

What an incredible missionary... but really think about how much courage it would have taken to be mocked in every place introducing Christianity to the world... yet still doing it anyway??

We did some souvenir shopping.

Had our first of many Gelatos.

Took some more pictures.

Wandered around and found an amazing shopping district with all our favorite stores... that Kenna and I were so sad we didn't have time for.  I'm guessing Shane was secretly very happy there wasn't time. haha

At this point we realized we were lost... like we couldn't remember where our car was.

People were NOT friendly and NOT very willing to help.  We walked forever and the three of us argued about what street we were on and where we parked and that we were going the wrong way etc. etc.  And we REALLY didn't have time because we had to get back to the airport and we were leaving later than we planned.

But... eventually we found our car and did not miss our flight... so WIN WIN.

By now it was morning back home and about 30 hours from when we'd left home... with just what we could sleep on the plane.

So we were ALL exhausted... snacks always help though.

Another hour flight and we were in Santorini.

We drove 1/2 hour from the airport to Oia where our hotel Chelidonia Traditional Villas was and were greeted by our host who helped carry our luggage to the room.

WOW what a view!!!

We were so excited about our cave home!  It was just what we wanted, but we were too tired to explore.

I unpacked cuz I just can't stand to go to bed not...

these two were ok with not unpacking.

 We all slept amazing that night!

The next morning we were greeted with this sight.

Honestly our place couldn't have been any more perfect.

We loved the breakfast that they brought each morning in a picnic basket.

The truth is it wasn't all that amazing food wise.  Mainly fruit and breads and hard boiled eggs.  But in that setting... in the cute little picnic basket... it was the most delicious thing we'd had.

Minus the Greek Yogurt haha

That stuff was like straight sour cream!

We never ate it but they still brought it every morning.

That morning we drove down to the bottom of the island to visit Akrotiri.

This was pretty fascinating... but would have been more fascinating with something for us to read about as we walked around. haha

Essentially it's a city from 1500 BC that was covered in ash... similar to pompei... preserved under the ash.

A stop for our first gyro.

Then we were off to red sand beach.

It was quite a hike to get there, and not the greatest beach.

More like gravel. haha

So we drove to find another 

This one was much more our beach style.

Dinner at To Psariki came highly recommended.

We enjoyed it, but didn't love it.

Kenna realized a Greek Salad for a whole meal is just too much. Not her favorite.haha

But the view was gorgeous.

And gelato from the same shop we got it from every night was amazing.

The next day and the following mornings we woke up to see the sunrise.

What a beautiful world we have!!

We got picked up to head back down to the bottom of the island for a 5 hour catamaran tour.

We all loved this.

The boat was gorgeous.

Our lunch was yummy.

The water was pretty chilly... colder than I was expecting that's for sure.

I only got in one time, the time when we got out and swam over to swim in a "hot spring".  I mean it was warmer than the Mediterranean Sea... but definitely not hot. haha

Kenna and Shane jumped in at a few different spots.  Shane saw a few fish... but it wouldn't win any snorkeling awards for him.

We had such a great time, definitely a fun way to see the island from a different perspective.

We spent the rest of the day shopping (like the afternoons of the other days)... we wondered around... taking pictures...and doing more shopping.

Kenna

Can

Shop...

And I love shopping with her. haha

There is SOOO much to see in Santorini!

This is our hotel check-in... could it be any cuter???

Our deck

Of course the Sunsets were gorgeous.

And Oia fills right up with thousands of people each night to see it.

Here's a good example of how many people are there waiting for the sunset. haha

We had some time for catching rays...

and eating gelato

and trying other Greek food... although none of us are very adventurous. haha

Our last full day in Santorini we set out early around 6:30 AM to walk to Fira... it's about a 6.5 mile walk.

It was long.

We got lost and ended up off the trail on a road for a lot longer than we should have.

But we made it and it was gorgeous and TOTALLY worth it.

Oia is the town you can see across the caldera on the right... so it was a pretty far walk. haha

A much earned breakfast.

We took the bus back... 6 miles was enough for us.

We spent the rest of the day exploring.

We were trying to decided what to do that afternoon and I saw on the internet that Amoudi Bay... (which was right below us) is a great place for cliff-jumping.

Shane was down, but Kenna and I had just showered so didn't want to.

(OK let's be real... my shower had nothing to do with it... I don't cliff jump)

Anyway...

We got down there and then Shane decided not to swim out to the place most people jump from, he picked another spot where other jumpers were.

Then Kenna really wanted to jump... but not in her clothes... except we didn't want to go all the way back to our room to get a suit.  So eventually she did it a few times... fully clothed and she was so happy that she did!

We got back to our car and realized that we were blocked in... with tons of tour vans with people out on sunset cruises.  So we sat in our car for over an hour waiting to get out. haha

We finished up our shopping and ate our last gelato.

We were sad to be leaving the next morning, but we decided that 3 full days was the perfect amount.  Although we definitely could have found more to do if we'd had more time.

The next morning we drove to the airport for our flight back to Athens.

Ryanair is a quick cheap airline.

Andy told me that Ryannair had petitioned to have standing room only flights for flights under an hour.  They didn't win... but that kind of shows how cheap they are.

We had only paid like $50 roundtrip/person for the tickets... but then had payed another $70/person for our carryons because I had read that this would be a problem if we didn't do it beforehand.

.

Then when we got to the gate they told us our carryons were too big.  They had us put it in their little measurer thing and we could shove them in but they were not satisfied with it.  All 3 of us caused a scene because they wanted an additional 70 euros for each of them... like $90 each!  In the end we payed for one and they let us go.  

I'd actually fly with Ryanair again... if I didn't have much luggage. haha

Once we arrived in Athens we drove about 2 hours to Nafplio.

We stopped at the Corinth Canal on the way.

and then headed on.

Nafplio is a cute little port town.

Our hotel was so fun, modern and right in the center of everything.  Hotel 3 sixty

We headed out to explore the city and had our favorite meal here.

and yes... also the most "americanized" meal. haha

We were then off to the Fortress of Palamidi

Poor signage... but a cool fort + a great view.

Shane honestly can not go an a vacation without hitting his head.

This time we had asked him to go look around a corner to see if it was worth us going. 

As he came back up, he was running and looking down and he wacked his head hard into the arch he was running through.

Kenna and I just hear... "oh sh@#" and then nothing else. 

Just dead silence.

So we look at each other and Kenna calls... "Dad??!!"

a few seconds later we hear him moan.

He thinks he actually knocked himself out!

And the missing skin from being scalped was left on the inside of his hat!

It was bad... his neck hurt really bad til' at least the next day.

It's SUPER funny now for all of us... 

and it was SUPER funny then for Kenna and I... but Shane was NOT laughing then... so we held it together until he was ready to. ;)

It was such a picturesque little town.

And such a fun afternoon/night exploring another part of Greece.

The next morning we went to our included breakfast... that we didn't have much time for since we needed to head back to the airport.

When we had checked in they had us fill out what we wanted for breakfast.

And we ALL checked like EVERYTHING.

Thinking that it was more continental style... so the pancakes/fruit would be like  ONE pancake... with fruit on it.

And eggs and bacon as sides...

and a small fruit plate

and a small cheese plate

and a small crepe plate

and a break basket to share etc. etc.

IT WAS NOT.

We were SO embarrassed... first we were trying to hurry anyway and they kept bringing out plate after plate.  Like 7 small pancakes on a plate covered with fruit... for each of us.  

Each thing we had checked was like a full meal!

We were trying to tell them that we were so embarrassed but to stop bringing us stuff cuz we had to go.  And it was just too much.

I'm sure they thought we were crazy "ravenously hungry" Americans!!

And we were sad to waste so much but we had to get going!

We made it back to the airport on time... had our COVID tests that we had scheduled ahead of time and headed back to the US.

That night we had a long layover in Philadelphia.

It worked out pretty great actually because we had a hotel that night, ordered Popeyes chicken on doordash and had a pretty great nights sleep in a not so fancy hotel. haha

We were excited to be home... but we arrived to snow so that wasn't all that exciting.

WOW what an adventure we had!

It was so fun to have Kenna with us for it, she's such an easy going, fun girl to have around!

Santorini and Greece definitely have our hearts and have us all wanting to explore more of Europe!

Thanks to Saige and Keaton for taking such great care of Lydia and Jadyn... who were NOT very happy that we hadn't taken them.  Sorry guys!!

We'll make it up to you one day...