Santorini, Greece

We landed on Santorini about mid-day and decided, in order to be efficient and minimize our time in the airport, that Brooks and I would go get the rental car while Eric got our bags. Unfortunately, Eric's US drivers' license expired on his birthday, so I've been the primary driver on our trips this fall (definitely not our "normal"). I found the rental desk and Brooks and I walked over. The older gentleman attendant had his feet up on the desk, hands clasped behind his head, his eyes closed. Hmmm... I cleared my throat. Nothing. I said hello softly. Nothing. I laughed at myself as I coughed and said "well, HI there!" quite loudly. He opened his eyes slowly and then rubbed his face and sat up. Then he got up and walked around the desk to stand with us and put one hand on each of Brooks's cheeks and patted his soft baby skin and grinned at him. I was so proud of Brooks for not freaking out! This man was great. He was expecting us, knew our names, and informed me in heavily accented English that he had already personally installed the car seat in the rental car that we were assigned. He assured me that yes, in fact, it would have a full tank of gas (I was pleased, but wasn't this standard?). It was adorable. After several funny conversations about spousal roles - he was clearly a traditionalist, offering to wait on the paperwork and insurance until my husband showed up! I quickly volunteered to handle that myself as I was to be the driver... Ohhhh, he said, with raised eyebrows. After much more playing with Brooks, this new friend drew us a specialized map to our hotel with instructions that included my personal favorite - "look out for the downed giant cactus!" When Eric finally came and paid, he escorted us all three of us to the parking lot and pointed out our car, and then said - will you be here a moment, I want to get your baby something - a big big chocolate bar! Do you like chocolate candy?

While he was gone, we loaded everything up in the trunk only to discover that there was in fact, no car seat. I'll skip all the back and forth that we went through, but basically when he came back with a tin of chocolate treats for Brooks, he remembered that he had given the other model just like this one to a gentleman who needed a car for a short rental yesterday. He had actually prepped our car for us two days earlier and just mixed up which one was ours. That was good news, though, because that meant there WAS a car seat on the island with our name on it, he just had to find it. Off he ran apologetically to try and locate the other car and carseat.

Good thing Brooks loves steering wheels so much. We plopped him down in the drivers seat and he happily flicked switches, turned on hazards and lights and the radio, even tried opening the car doors (I sort of wish he didn't know how to do that!) and pulled the sun visor up and down over and over again for the next half hour. The rental car man came back and said, it will be just ten minutes, they're driving it over for you right now. I'm so sorry. Five minutes later, he came back with a large bottle of cold water for us, and said, I'm so sorry, just 15 minutes more, he's on his way right now. If this man had not been so completely precious, it might have been a bit annoying to start our relaxing island get away in a rental car parking lot, but the weather was warm, we had water and chocolate, Brooks was happy, so we said hey... so what do we wanna do in Santorini? Given how jam-packed our trips usually are, it was actually nice to shoot the breeze and know we couldn't really do anything else at that moment.

We eventually got the car seat, got on the road, and I re-learned how to drive a manual car, only stalling once on a steep hill (right beside the downed cactus)... I squealed aloud at that moment and Brooks said "Mama scared". Dada laughed at this and prompted "was Brooks scared, too?!" He nodded seriously, "Yeah, Brooks scared, " to which Eric laughed long and hard.

We drove through several small towns and villages, and my overwhelming feeling was "where are all the people?" I had expected Santorini to be hopping, given that it's one of the top destination islands in Greece. Well, we hadn't realized how incredibly seasonal the tourist business is there. By mid-October, most of the restaurants on the island and many of the hotels have already boarded up for the winter. We struggled to find a spot for a late lunch after checking in, and the BnB owner could only recommend a place on the beach. So we headed down to the beach and sat under an umbrella listing to the Mamma Mia movie soundtrack play over and over again. Our waiter was delightful so we ventured to guess that perhaps he was tired of this CD, already, after hearing it over and over again? Actually, NO! His girlfriend had just brought it back for him last week from the USA... I believe we accidentally hurt his feelings. We assured him that we liked the songs too (we did!), but that we imagined that he'd been playing it for a while. Oops. That meal was overwhelmingly flavored with Meryl Streep and Colin Firth. We laughed over movie scenes that each song brought to mind.

That evening, we went north on the island to the beautiful village of Oia. This is the place where tour buses drop off cruise ship tourists by the thousands each evening to see the sunset and window shop in the expensive little boutiques. It felt like quite a leap from our beach-side village on the southern part of the island. When we arrived and found parking, we realized that some obviously non-locals were heading away from the sunset and we were afraid we had missed the beautiful "sunset over the caldera"... Thankfully the light diminished slowly and we savored quickly.

Brooks and Eric had fun running around in this churchyard/plaza at the top of town. A wedding was taking place inside that evening, and we happened upon the spot about the time that the photographer was snapping pre-ceremony shots of the happy couple. The guests mingled on the courtyard and there were lots of kids running around burning off some excess energy. It was really charming, and I loved the balloon arch in the official colors of Greece! :)


We were clearly too late to capture the sun-kissed town in its gloaming glory, but I liked the views of the town's evening lights twinkling on...


After the darkness had fallen, we chose a restaurant and had a yummy, creative Italian meal overlooking the water... It was a nice night, despite the lack of views.

The next day we went for a gorgeous hike for several miles along the edge of the caldera. We took a thousand pictures that day but in an effort to limit the insanity, I'm posting only my most FAVORITE! :) The white on top of the peninsula just to the left of Eric is the village of Oia.


The hike ended up being a bit longer than we had planned (we did lots of circling through the different towns we passed, trying to find our way up, on, and through) so we ended up having to cut it short and turn back. We tried to get a taxi from the side of the main road, but all of them were full... In the end, we hitch-hiked with a lovely Greek woman whose little car seemed like it might not handle the weight of two and a half extra people. In the course of the 10 minute drive, we were able to determine that she was a Christian and we had a nice very slow conversation in broken English about her work as an educator. It was a lovely interaction and I was SO grateful for her taking pity on us and stopping. Yes, the thumb out signal is universal in Europe, and no, we probably didn't look all that threatening!

Later that day after a rest and a bite to eat, we tried to enjoy the beach. Eric was brave, but I stayed comfortably clothed on my beach chair and enjoyed my book while they ventured into the chilly waters. On first pass, Brooks declared the water entirely too cold for his liking. Can you see that Eric is trying to dip him into the water and he's doing reverse ab curls to keep every part of his body out of the ocean!? Too funny! Smart kid! :) He did eventually go under, but they weren't out there long.


That evening, we went back to Oia, to try to actually see the sunset and to enjoy this beautiful little town a bit longer with some daylight. Brooks and Eric strolled together while I took lots and lots of photos and enjoyed the views.


Just one of the dozens of azure blue domes that mark the Orthodox churches on Santorini, particularly in Oia.


Brooks loved being on his own two legs as we meandered through the village. Lots of steps, lots of people, several friendly street animals. What do doggies say, Brooks? "woof, woof!" and a moment later, "Hello, Friend!" No, Brooks, that's a Doggie, not a friend... "Hi, Doggie!"


This is the picture postcard view that many people recognize as Santorini. It really was that beautiful!


We didn't book ahead as we weren't sure what we were looking for food-wise, but we eventually stumbled upon this lovely restaurant that we had seen the night before. They had one PERFECT cafe table left - reserved but unclaimed - so we got to have these primo seats in which to watch the sunset over the caldera and sip yummy beverages and eat delicious food... There was a ridiculously tasty cheesy pastry appetizer drizzled in honey that was to die for!


The sun sets behind clouds as one final fishing boat returns to its harbor.


Our last morning on Santorini, we drove up to a mountain monastery in the center of the island, and looked down from the very tip top to beautiful views and water all around us. The monastery itself was peaceful and quite, save the winds and a few clucking chickens in a nearby pen. We saw a half dozen or so other visitors, but the monks were all out of sight. Even the gift/book shop was unmanned, there was an honor system box to pay for what you took. I could imagine that being a great retreat space for people wanting to get away from it all.


The monastery church was open, a tiny little room, with some simple stained glass and these beautifully carved wood chairs that looked like thrones lining the walls all the way around... I admit that when no one else was in the church, I tested the acoustics with a few hymns. Nice! :)


Part of the way down the mountain we had to stop the car and check out these views. We were dizzyingly high up, and it was so beautiful even with the hazy air.


Brooks LOVED being behind the wheel of our rental car. At one point that day, we sat on a bench overlooking the caldera, talking about our lives and some of the lessons form the last year, while Brooks played in the parked car just behind us. He was very excited to discover the horn, but perhaps decided it was a bit too loud, even for him.


Our final stop was to the southwestern corner of the island, to check out the lighthouse and admire the sheer cliffs down to the water. I was a bit nervous about Brooks tripping and tumbling over the side of the mountains to the water below, so he spent most of the time on Dada's shoulders which, as you can see, he loved!


I love this photo of the three of us. It was so windy up there, but Eric still - amazingly - worked his timer magic and got a great shot of all three of us.


Brooks decides he's had enough of this fun. No more pictures, guys, please!!!


After this shot, we jumped in the car and headed north again to a vineyard where we had a wine-tasting and some amazing views of the caldera in the afternoon light. It was a gorgeous spot. Our BnB host had told us that many visitors have their wedding receptions there. I was glad for the experience, but I can understand why the world imports Greek feta and olives and Italian wines - I'm not a wine snob by any stretch, but I think we both liked the Tuscan and Chianti wines from Italy better.

We finished our last evening by heading up to the "white icing" tips of Oia which you can see above us in that last shot. The roads in Santorini aren't straight or smooth, and while I hate to admit it, I'm not as skilled at stick-shift driving as I'd like to be. All that said, we were about 2 miles from our turn-around point, and probably 30 minutes from when we needed to turn in our rental car, when Brooks threw up everything we'd put in his stomach that day. Projectile. It was a mess - the stench of sour strawberry yoghurt permeated the car and I pulled over as fast as I could. We went through almost an entire container of wipes (63) trying to clean up Brooks and the carseat and the car. Actually, once we got everything wiped down, the car really looked okay, but I was so thankful that this happened our last half hour in the rental, and that someone else would be responsible for removing the smell. Brooks was perfectly fine, once again, now that his tummy was empty and we had no more incidents for the rest of the trip. I admit that I looked at him like a ticking bomb for the plane ride home, but he was cheerful and happy and vomit-free as usual. Maybe it was my driving...

I loved Greece, despite some challening set-backs and I adored Santorini in particular for the long slow days of relaxing that it allowed. I think I'd enjoy visiting the island again in high season, but then perhaps not. Maybe the cool fall days of a sleepy beach town are the way that I should remember it.

Boys, I had so much fun with you!! Thanks for a great trip!