Dream Vacation: Santorini, Days 1-2

Dear Husband I can't remember how long we have wanted to vacation in Greece. I think it's a 20-year-old dream, back when one of my college suities showed me pictures of the famous blue domes in Oia (pronounced "E-ya") on Santorini. The next year, DH took a choir trip to the mainland and told me how much he wanted to go back to Athens and other historical sites. I had just started graduate/medical school, so we didn't have the time or money for such a big trip. Maybe 10 years ago we started to think we could save up enough money and time off. Eventually I penciled September 2020 on the calendar and began looking at hotels and Cycladic houses ("caves" built in the hillsides) on Air BnB. One whole week of doing nothing but swimming and napping, followed by a whole week in Athens seeing all the sights is one of the things COVID stole from us.

DH jokes that he feels like he's married to a travel agent, in which case I more than earned my commission on this one. It took 1 day to make our plans and 5 weeks to update them to accommodate the MudPhud conference at which I presented. The problem may ultimately have come down to the Lufthansa customer service rep who changed the names on our new itineraries to "[Lastname]mrs [Firstname]" and "[Lassstname]mr [Firstname]." And yes, they misspelled DH's extremely common last name! Because these didn't match our travel documents, we couldn't check in online, and DH had to beg United to let him get on the first plane. We met up in Newark for an overnight flight on which neither of us slept very much, but The Holdovers was a nice distraction. Thankfully, while the German customs agents noted the name discrepancies, I think the errors were so obvious compared to our passports that they let us through. And in the nick of time, because our trans-Atlantic flight had been delayed 1.5 hours to replace a tire, and that was the entirety of our layover in Munich. Above DH is tickled to have his first bottle of Apfelschorle [bubbly apple juice] in a long time. At the Athens airport, I could finally wash off in the sink and change my clothes for the final leg to Santorini. On the right, DH naps against a backdrop of Greek islands out the airplane window. I managed to get us a cab with my non-exist Greek skills.

Finally, here we are! Two job changes and one family wedding later, we booked a 10-day April vacation that might be a little cool for the beach, but it's plenty warm in the sun. The shoulder season means not everything is open yet, but prices are less than during the summer. Santorini is probably the most touristy destination we've ever visited, and we agree that it's an interesting experience to be around so many people who, just like you, are here to experience the place, rather than mostly locals who are trying to live and work around the minority of visitors. I found us a studio apartment a little way down the hillside under Agios Gerasimos (St. George's Church), one of the famous sites to watch the sun set in Firostefani, the village just north of the capital of Fira. You think you've packed light until you have to haul your suitcase up and down a stone flight of stairs! (We declined to hire the independent porter with his cart.) It's in a compound called "Sensyo." Painted bright yellow, there are a number of units with varying numbers of bedrooms, private bathrooms, and kitchens. We all share the patio overlooking the caldera that functions as an outdoor living and dining room. From there we can hear music playing from nearby restaurants, noisy birds, and workers doing renovations.

The afternoon we arrived was sunny and mid-to-high 70s. We got settled in, and while DH napped, I picked up food provisions from a nearby bodega. For dinner we went to Taverna Simos, which I had heard had a great deck from which to watch the sunset. Alas, it wasn't open for the season, so we ate inside, where some kind of trees are growing up the wall and across the ceiling, with twinkling lights entwined among the branches. With mid-20th-century ballads on the music player and the proprietor who served us in between smoking in the kitchen next to our table, it was definitely an "authentic" experience. We ate stuffed peppers, moussaka (eggplant casserole), and pastitsio (a pasta casserole with an incredibly creamy top).

Then we walked through central Fira to burn off those calories and take in the nightlife. We also did some reconnaissance for later in the week, namely locating the central bus terminal as well as the cable car entrance. The pedestrian streets were full, and there were many kinds of shops: souvenirs, of course, but also gelato, jewelry, sunglasses, leather goods, and a tattoo parlor. We ended the night by walking back to Firostefani--uphill, this time!--along the famous path overlooking the volcanic crater. Our photos don't do justice to how pretty the lights of Fira looked behind us. And if we looked up, we could see the constellations like Orion the hunter.

Day 3: Adventure to the Old Port