Tag Archives: Oia

More sunrise photoshoots, food tours, and wine tours

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After seeing all of the cool photo spots around town, Julia decided she wanted to get sunrise photos, and Pokin decided she wanted to suck it up and go as well.

My bud decided he wanted sleep and I was roped in as an unwilling participant.

That said, once I was dragged out of bed and got to see the sun rise over Oia, I have to admit it was pretty worth it.  The streets were waaay less crowded – mostly other crazy photographers and Instagram couples.

We got to all of the top photo spots and were able to grab some cool photos.

We couldn’t stay out too long though because Pokin had a food tour booked in Fira.  It wasn’t originally supposed to be for today, but Pokin was way too sick to go on Tuesday, and the owner, Laura of Santorini Food tour was gracious enough to let her move it to Friday, but it meant we had to grab breakfast and get our way to Fira by 10:30AM. So a few more photos and it was time to dash back.

Breakfast!

The distance isn’t that great, but there are only 30 taxi drivers in Santorini and not a lot of Uber drivers, and it turns out there are anywhere up to 2-6 cruise ships that can bring thousands of passengers that dock In Fira every day.
 
Today looked to be a busy day.  By breakfast time there were already 2 cruise ships in dock.  We had to beat the Cruise ship rush to get an uber.

“Wait time 15 minutes.  But maybe up to 40 minutes, “says the Uber app.

So we err on the side of caution and leave a litte bit earlier.

Fira is the main town in Santorini.  And on arrival it was definitely a lot busier than Oia, and less picturesque.  Fira is connected continuously two two other cities – Firostefani – (crown of Fira), and Imeregovigli.  The food tour started in St George Square.

While we were waiting by the church, the bells started clanging in cacophonic waves.  “Square” on the side of a caldera where space is precious is a generous descriptor, meaning we were right on top of the bells.

“How do people here handle this?” I wonder, something like 10 minutes into the bell ringing.

Turns out the church is only open a couple times a year for a religious ceremony and we won th lottery on being there on that day.

Knowing that made at least the procession more interesting.

At about 10:30, our guide, Dimi showed up.  She’s one of several guides with the company, which was founded by a couple Laura, and Aristoeles who were passionate about travel and spreading their love of food.  As the story goes, they ended up going on a food tour overseas quite by accident, and realizing there was no equivalent in Santorini, started this business to bring it to Santorini.

We started our first stop at a coffee shop, where we got to try a traditional Greek coffee.  It turned out to be quite like Turkish coffee, because really the two countries are next to each other.  “One of the things people don’t realize about Greece is how middle eastern we are, “Dimi explained.   We sipped our Greek coffee as we had our spoonsweets (sweetened fruits), before making our way to the next stop – a local brewery.

Before that though, we stopped by the Three Bells where Dimi had a treat for us – easter pastries that were seasoned with Mastiha.  Mastiha is a type of local pine that is used to make a liquor aperitif, as well as other sweets.  This pastry is normally hard to find outside of the holiday season, but Dimi found a year round bakery and got some for us all to try.

Because it’s already end of season, we only had one type of beer to try, which was one more beer than I needed, but I was plenty fine for my bud.  Here we got to try fava, some Santorini tomatoes, and some fried zucchini as we perched by the caldera.

The next stop was to olive oil tasting, where we started with a serving of “moonshine”, which tasted a lot like grappa.

We were reminded of how to do an olive oil tasting, and we tried the olive oil by itself as well as with some cheeses, tomatoes, and cured meats.   We washed it down with more moonshine and went to the next stop.

We next stopped for some streetfood – souvlaki. 

By now we were getting close to our next tour and Pokin started to get worried, but Dimi offered to call the tour company for us.

“You have to understand we all know one another.  It’s a very small industry so it’s no problem” She calls and speaks to them.

“Don’t worry. They’ll wait for you.” And that was that!

We’re at the last stop, and we wrap up with donuts to finish up at the food tour.

Onwards to the wine tour.

Santorini is actually a really dry, windy climate. So it’s tough to survive as grape vines. To maximize their chances of survival, santorini grape vines are woven into a circular basket shape to protect the vines. They are allowed to be on a drip system for a couple years, and afterwards the irrigation has to be removed and the wines are watered via ocean mist.

The most popular type of wine is Vinsanto, made from grapes dried in the sun, and the most popular grape varietals are Athiri , Aidani, Assyrtiko and Mandelaria. We went to 3 different wineries to check out the wines, before ending up at sunset in the most scenic of the wineries. Was fine. Cocoa is better.

Flying dresses and sailing

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Pokin had booked a photoshoot this morning.  There’s this thing called a flying dress.  With Santorini being pretty windy, it’s a thing to wear these long flowy dresses, hog up the prime spots around town and look stupid in front of the tourists with these dresses as you stick your legs out in funny positions.

I didn’t get the appeal but Pokin thought it’d be fun.  She  got a package for her and my bud, and then another one for Chris and Julia.  She booked makeup and hair as well, meaning all of us had to get up at 7AM in the morning to do hair and makeup in time for a 9:30AM photoshoot.

It’s early.

I sat and listened as the hair and makeup artists got to work.

Tasha is from the Ukraine.  She was displaced during the war and settled here to work.  She works on everything from photoshoots to weddings and is one of the seasonal workers.  She will be back to Athens in November.  The other makeup artist grew up in Santorini, but is pregnant and will be having her baby soon.  She also spends her winters in Athens.  Both of them have been working non-stop 10+ hour days to get as much business as possible before the dead season.

I meant it when I said Santorini is seasonal. The whole island shuts down by November and about 5000 residents remain.

At 9:30, the photographer and the assistant Edward and Irene arrive.  They help Pokin change into her first dress and I am super impressed.  I was very skeptical when they said the dress sizes were XS – L, and L – XXL, but it turns out the fabrics twist and turn very accommodatingly.  So they twisted and turned and adjusted the fabrics and voila, it fit.

We started the photoshoot on the hotel property before moving all around town.  My bud was dressed in a suit and as the day got progressively hotter, I felt bad for him.  But he was a good spot and we moved from spot to spot.

Now that I knew what a flying dress photoshoot looked like, I saw them all around town.  All the girls and their buds looking uncomfortably hot with their entourage. At one point there were so many of these groups we had to wait in line for our spots.  Until now, little did I realize how busy things were.  Luckily some areas were chained off only for photographers, or else we wouldn’t have been able to elbow through crowds.

Two hours later, the shoot was over and it was time to scramble, as we were headed to our next destination.  A boat.

Nicholas decided that the one thing you had to do in Santorini was do a boat cruise.  And it had to be on a catamaran.

So we booked one with food for sunset. The cruise location was pretty far away and required an hour commute (mostly because of the windy roads), so we had to be picked up at 1pm for a 2pm boat time.

What Pokin didn’t tell Chris and Julia is that she had booked a private catamaran cruise.  And so when we pulled up to the dock, Julia wondered – “where is everyone?”

“This is it, the boat is just for us,” my bud responded just as the crew came out to greet us.

There were 3 crew total – the captain, the chef, and an extra person.  We got settled in (shoes off), and off we went.

I have to admit, I wasn’t such a fan of being on a boat, but it was pretty worth it – especially doing it on our on boat.  We got to go at our own pace, to explore all the islands and photograph everything.

We even had food made by a chef. I took note. No cocoa.

We went from red cliff to white cliff to a diving spot, before making our way around towards the volcano.

The whole round trip took 5 hours, which was a lovely leisurely pace.

Pokin took Dramamine and was still recovering so she passed out at one point, but I hung out with my bud on the front of the boat.

When we got to the volcano centre, I noticed a hut and a church – “what’s going on?” I wondered.

“Oh that’s the fisherman who has no wife” came the answer.  Cryptic.

Turns out there was a BBC documentary made about this person.  He wasn’t a fisherman, but rather a lovestruck sailor who had fallen in love with an Italian lady who promised to return and never did, but not from lack of trying.

Turns out she had already been betrothed to someone in the Italian mafia, and when they found out tried to hunt him down, leading him to escape to this island.

He is now around 87 years old, and apparently can still be sighted on the island in just his speedos or no clothes, yelling at the tourists who float by.

Suckers.  I’m glad my priority is just gaming and hanging with my bud.

The volcano was the turning point, so we turned around and headed back to the harbour as the sun set behind us.

A pretty nice day overall.

I like sailing on a private catamaran.

The Greek Medical System

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The next day Pokin decided it was time to see a doctor.  My bud’s family was arriving and we needed to make sure we could all share a room.

We went downstairs for breakfast by the pool area. Ate a nice assortment of breads.

And then it was time to search for a doctor.

A quick online search revealed there was actually a doctor in Santorini, and in fact luckily the doctor was located right in Oia only a few minutes walk away.

Since check out was at 11am and check in wasn’t until 3pm, Pokin decided to first crawl to bed till check out time before going to the clinic.

The clinic is located right by the main church square a few steps down.  On arrival, it turns out the doctor wasn’t available (he was at the hospital), but they arranged for him to arrive 30 minutes later.  Before seeing Pokin, they required a Covid test (negative) and shortly after, she was seen.

The doctor determined Pokin had a chest infection, put her on a nebulizer to dry out her lungs, checked out my bud for a good measure, and it all came to €200 – much more reasonable than we expected given the lack of insurance.  The drugs next door came to another €80, and Pokin was all drug stocked up in time for Julia and Chris’ arrival.

The room wasn’t ready, spo at first we chilled out on the roof top deck. Apparently the highest point in Oia.

We were now settled into a new hotel, Canaves Sunday Suites.  Pokin picked this place because it was one of the properties that had a 2 bedroom suite, allowing us to stay together while still having our privacy.  The staff were kind enough to allow us an early check in, so Pokin was actually able to get in by 1:30pm. 

This was the only day to do the famed Oia to Fira hike, but Julia had an evening photoshoot planned, so the guys only had a few hours to do the hike.  Online accounts said it could take up to 4-6 hours, so everyone got ready fast, ditched Pokin and off we went. 

The hike basically connects two of the main tourist cities in town, across streets and dirt roads.  Families used to take this trail between celebrations and so it was well marked and easy to do.

My bud, Julia, and Chris flew across the trail, me bumping around in the bag, and we managed to finish the hike in under 2 hours before grabbing an Uber back into the hotel.

That night Julia had a photoshoot so she took off, and we all sat on the rooftop to get drinks while we waited.  I chillaxed.

My bud had the idea to get matching outfits with Chris so we spent time getting photos of the matching guys.

Julia came back. I watched her at work.

It was getting close to time to eat.  Pokin asked the hotel for restaurant recommendations, and the restaurant wrote back with one.

Roka.

Ok, I guess if that’s the recommendation, that’s where we went.

Turned out to be probably the best restaurant on the island apparently.  Everyone liked everything they ordered.  And the best part is the restaurant is open year round!

Because I didn’t know this – Santorini is incredibly seasonal.  Most people come in some time between February and November because the pay is much higher on Santorini before spending the winter seasons in Athens.

I had remembered the country was struggling but I am really reminded of it when I hear of the wages.

In Athens, guides might expect to earn 8 euros an hour whereas they can get closer to 16 an hour in Santorini.  Yet most people didn’t start with the intention of guiding.  They often had very advanced degrees but just realized tourism was better pay.

Everyone had a very early photoshoot so we all went to bed early.

The drugs helped a little but Pokin still kept everyone up a bunch all night.  I’m getting so tired.

Early arrival to Oia

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Oia (pronounced E-ah) is where all the stereotypical photos of Greece come from.  It’s a town perched on top of a caldera seeming to come right out of the cliffs.

From afar, the clusters of buildings on top of the caldera look like clumps of snow.

Oia was originally inhabited by ship builders and their crew.  The region faced constant attacks by pirates (particularly from North Africa) and to help fend off pirates, a lot of the steps were designed to be irregular to make it more difficult to run up in the event of an attack.  Because the area was seismically active, ironically oceanfront land wasn’t considered valuable until the 1980s, where the world began to recognize the area as a tourist destination. Oia is located on the island of Thira, and the whole cluster of islands is known as Santorini.  This ring of islands was formed by a partially submerged volcano, of which the centre core is still considered active.

To save on building costs, the initial cave houses were carved out of the naturally occurring pumice stone.  This also made it easier to keep the buildings cool as the region got very hot in the summer, and very windy in the winter.  The houses get their signature white colour from a mixture of ground up limestone and salt, because those building materials were the most easily accessible. The white white helped reflect light and keep the buildings cooler, and as a bonus, this combination created a slick finish that allowed rainwater and fog to be captured and funneled to water basins.

We weren’t supposed to be in Oia yet.  We were originally going to be in Imerovigli but due to Pokin being sick, we thought less transfers were better.

So after we waved goodbye to Artemis and his wife Ana we got onto a transport towards Katikies Oia Santorini.

The main throughway is not open to pedestrians (it used to be open to donkeys), so we were dropped off on the main road where hotel staff greeted us to help transport our luggage.

And help we needed!  There is hardly any flat ground here, and the entire hotel complex was spread across multiple steps and levels.

At reception we were greeted by a fellow who helped us sort out the remainder of our travel hiccups, before giving us a quick tour of the property.

We were settled into room 14, which was luckily one of the most secluded buildings on the property.  One word of warning – depending on what you book you could find yourself situated in a high traffic or high noise area, but not our room – it was located at the far end of a pool tucked in its own nook. 

Once we got situated, Pokin crawled into bed, and my bud and I settled into working on the balcony deck.  Pretty nice.  Pretty nice view.

At one point it was nice enough that my bud wondered if we needed to have a mid life crisis and just move to Oia and run our own hotel.  I like the sound of Bear Villas.

Before we knew it, it was night time.  Pokin surfaced for us to try a hotel recommended restaurant -Melitini.

Then she crawled back to bed. I got to check out the night view of Oia though first. It gets abruptly dark once the sun goes behind the caldera.

That night none of us slept. Pokin wouldn’t stop coughing.  Basically all night long.  It was a long night.