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29 - 30 October : Scenic Santorini & Windmills in Mykonos

Smart Car Ride to Oia Village and Wandering Mykonos Town

Trippin'.
From Santorini's undeniably striking views to Mykonos' cosmopolitan lifestyle and cubist architectural roads leading you in circles, it is no wonder that these two island attract such great followers. Both with its own unique style delivers and exceeds all glossy picture- postcards expectations.

Most of Santorini is perched atop cliffs so from the ship, we not only had to take a small boat to shore, but have the option to either ride the stinky donkeys up to town or take the cable cars. The cable cars line was a ridiculous 45 minutes long but we had no other choice. I was not about to smell like a donkey for the entire day. Originally, we planned on renting some ATVs to ride to Oia, but after considering the distance and coldness in the weather, we decided to rent a car-- a Smart Car!
We spent a great portion of our day in Oia while in Santorini. Oia is stunning and picturesque with shops and homes clinging onto the rolling cliffs and hills. It was the perfect backdrop to a great photography day. Upon returning to Fira, the city center, we had extra time, and decided to hit up an internet cafe to catch up on some emails. Dinner was planned early, or so we thought, until it donned upon us that we had to get in line to take the cable cars back down to our cruise ship. With thoughts of missing our tender, I tried to find others from our ship ahead of us in an attempt to cut in line. We managed to get down just in time to catch the very last boat back to the ship. Missing our ship would have been disastrous but am glad it was just a very close call.

While Mykonos may be known as a party island that does not sleep, this is true only 3 months out of the year. The rest is dormant and desserted, which was both good and bad for us. We really had no big plans for Mykonos, just rent a few vespas and drive to some popular beaches, but the wind prevented us from renting vespas. And with most places closed, we were limited to the city center where a few stores and restaurants were open just to accommodate the cruise ships. Good news, I can't imagine wandering the narrow streets of Mykonos during peak season when the island is flooded with tourists. Bad news, all the shops were closed.. or so we thought. For a good portion of the day, the shops shut down for an extended lunch, nearly 4 hrs! So we were left with just the windmills and had a blast playing around with our jumping photos. Despite the extremely windy day, the windmills stood still enough for us to take some great shots.
After lunch, and our first taste of hummus this entire trip, we retreated to the ship for a nap. That's how much time we had. We made it back in town just before sunset and dinner. But before we could settle on a place to eat, we realized all the shops were opening up and G had a glimmer of excitement so we took it to the streets again, this time, for a little retail therapy.

Eating: Lucky's Souvlaki's, center of city in Fira (Santorini), may be a chain but a darn good one at that. In fact, G claims this to be the best gyro he has ever had. And believe me, he has had more than his fair share so it speaks volumes.

More Photos.

View full Santorini gallery here.
View full Mykonos gallery here.