Honeymoon - Santorini Island, Greece

Greece

• 4/28/2010 Wednesday - Oia, Santorini (4)
• We took the delayed-for-2-hours ANEK ferry from Heraklion, Crete to Thira, Santorini and bused into town, then taxied to the town of Oia to find the hotel owner Maria waiting for us (what a surprise!). And then her staff Vasili helped us with the luggage and we finally got settled into the Cavehouse suite.
• Lena's House is very beautiful and featured in many postcards. It has great view of Oia (although no Sunset view due to the angle) and red/yellow colored instead of the blue/white buildings
• As the town of Oia is so small with one main street, we spent the afternoon walking around enjoying the town (and take photos of course), and stood in the cold wind to watch the beautiful sunset (IMO it's not that special as everyone claims it to be though). After the sunset, we walked some more and had a nice dinner (Lamb & Fish) at SKALA before heading back to hotel to shower and rest

• 4/29/2010 Thursday - Fira, Santorini
• We woke up early to explore more of Oia before checking out at 12, and jumped into a taxi to Fira. We then carried the heavy luggages down the ever-so-many steps to Hotel Keti, located on the edge of Fira (hence a great view of Fira). It was worth it (until we checked out and walked up)
• After settling in, we then had Pita & Souvlaki for lunch and walked around Fira, accidentally walking all the way to Firostefani and back. It's nice to walk without purpose nor attractions to rush to, and eat - we had Freddo, Freppe, and Crepes.
• We had dinner at this reasonably-priced Nikolas restaurant. The server wasn't too friendly but the food was okay. That wraps up the relaxing day at Fira before the packed day tomorrow.

• 4/30/2010 Friday- Fira, Santorini
• Kamari beach - we woke up early to take the bus to Kamari/Ancient Thira. The Kamari beach was simply a beach with black stones, cool to see but not cool enough to stay for too long.
• Ancient Thira - This is the only historical site to visit as Akrotiri is closed, and it was our first experience in one (since Palace of Knossos was closed as well on Crete island). It is located on top of the mountain, very windy and impressive to look down. There was road construction, and we didn't want to walk 2 hours each way - so we cheated by taking a minivan halfway up, walk over the construction site (500m) and take another minivan to the top. $10/person
• Boat Excursion - $18/person for a 4-hour boat excursion. The visit to the volcano island was the most interesting part, despite a long circle walk on the island. The hot springs in a bay next to the ocean was nothing special, but fun to see people jumping into water!
• Cable car - $5 for a cable car ride, or $5 for a smelly donkey ride. I would've chose donkey but we did cable car both ways <- shows how much I love my wife.