Days 5 & 6: The Olympic Flame and the Athens National Garden

Due to high winds, our caldera boat tour was in fact cancelled, so Thursday we stuck around our apartment. After a late morning, we finally left shortly before noon to eat lunch at a nearby restaurant that had an enclosed second-floor dining room. We got "the best seat in the house" at Mama Thira, watching the clouds make shadows over the blue waves rolling inexorably toward the shore and the ferries coming and going. It was incredibly meditative. Dear Husband had an excellent beef stew, and I ordered dolmades and a seafood salad. Our waiter even brought some raki (or tsikoudia) at the end of the meal as an aperitif. It's the kind of stuff that will put hair on your chest!

Then DH worked on a choir project and I sat in on the patio in the sun but with my hair covered because of the strong wind, reading a history of food in World War II. Eventually we broke for gelato and then made the 15-minute walk up to Imerovigli, where we took photos from the high point at St. Nikolaus Holy Convent. 

At home there was a cold dinner, and then we hiked the other direction into Fira to get the souvenirs we wanted before coming home to pack. I am rather proud of the fact that just under 100 Euros of groceries yielded us 4 breakfast, 3 dinners, 1 lunch, and a LOT of extra cherry tomatoes--oops. Part of me wanted to be frugal, part wanted to eat what and when we wanted instead of whatever the restaurant kitchen sent out, and partly cooking for ourselves let us enjoy the gorgeous view from our Air BnB patio. I'll share the recipe I came up with to use the famous Santorini tomato paste (since the tomato jam looked watery and unappetizing). If we had rented a car, for sure we would have visited the Tomato Industrial Museum on the other side of the island.

Santorini Sandwiches: Cut a crusty roll in half, butter generously, and toast the tops in a pan. Spread a layer of tomato paste, then thinly sliced cucumber, next 2 pieces of white cheese, and finally 2-3 slices of prosciutto or salami. Enjoy with veggies, leftover dolmades, a glass of wine, etc.

The photobomber apologized for "ruining" the shot; I told him he made it perfect, very genius loci.

Friday morning was the big day: the running of the Olympic torch on Santorini starting in the main square of Firostefani, right where we were staying! We stood on a wall to see over the tourists and Greeks who had turned out to take photos and cheer. There was even a class of schoolchildren with construction paper torches. The flame was transferred from one of six carrying containers to the sleek silver torch. I haven't been able to find out the name of the athlete who carried it. She had an honor detail of buff bodyguards in white track suits with sunglasses and earpieces--their job was presumably to hold back the crowds on the sides of the narrow walkway, and to run interference with the hikers who insisted on using the path anyway.

After that, Dear Husband and I went back to our room and passed the time until our airport pickup by starting the Nanoblocks figure I got him of a grand piano. These are like Legos except smaller and were recommended by the New York Times columnist who also recommended my neck pillow and reminded me we needed new European plug converters.

Once in Athens, we took a very crowded Metro for an hour into Syntagma Square. I wanted to walk to our hotel through the National Garden. (The Wikipedia article encapsulates a strange episode in post-WWI Greek history involving a pet monkey biting the king and a war with Turkey.)

What you can't see is the extremely popular χελώνα (turtle) everyone is taking pictures of. 

There's even a small zoo with water fowl and billy goats (?!). After walking in an entire circle due to the non-linear pathways, we gave up and just took the noisy sidewalk alongside. Here's Hadrian's Arch we passed on the way to our hotel.

When we had finished the tiny piano and were ready to leave the hotel for dinner, we discovered that DH's sports coat had gone missing, so we retraced our steps through the drizzling rain, thankfully finding it draped over a bush on our way back.

Dinner was at an Indian restaurant that apparently just (re)opened for the season. It was a little off the beaten path, and perhaps we should have heeded multiple clues that things were "off"...