My addiction to gyros begins..

As we continue our way around Greece, I am currently sitting on a four hour ferry to Paros and taking the opportunity to update you on the adventures in Santorini and Ios.

First off was Santorini where we stayed in the capital of Fira for 5 nights.  After arriving at around midnight we were straight to bed before a day of exploring.  We spent our first day looking around the main streets and doing a little shopping.   The buildings are even more breathtaking than what we saw in Crete not to mention the views of the uniqueness of the volcanic island. After exploring the main strip and doing a spot of shopping it was time to grab some lunch and I opted for a falafel pita.  After tasting this amazingly cheap €2.50 Greek cuisine Santorini quickly turned into the island of gyros (kebab/pita) for me.

Day two and after some much needed pool time we decided to hire a quad bike (Mikey the Bikey) for three days to explore the island.  Everyone we spoke to told us we MUST watch the sunset from Oia (for all you movie buffs/chicks flick lovers this is where a large part of Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants was filmed) and then eat some seafood from the restaurant with the orange chairs! So we took their advice and took Mikey for a late afternoon spin where it’s fair to say everyone’s reviews were accurate.  We started off with a swim at Amoudi Bay to work up an appetite for calamari and prawns.  The seafood was so fresh and well worth the expense, after some calamari disasters I am happy to report both this and the prawns are close to, if not the best I have ever had.  Time to head up to watch the sunset but we decided take a €5 donkey taxi up the extremely long climb.  It was so much fun but my donkey was a little unstable on his feet and I was just happy to make it up to the top without ending up on the ground! 

Day two with Mikey and we headed off to explore the southern part of the island.  First stop was the most beautiful preserved village in Santorini, Megalochori.  The entire village is crisp white with blue trimmings and in my opinion is the most breathtaking village I have seen in Greece.  The photos do not do this village justice and I would advise anyone visiting that it a must see to get a real understanding of what is traditionally a Greek village.  We then headed off to check out the red sand beach.  I was somewhat disappointed with what I saw as this was by far the dirtiest water I have seen with twigs and rubbish floating around, not at all what you expect when you consider the other crystal clear waters we have seen.  The sand was certainly unique and is the main attraction for the beach, but it was the black sand beach of Perrisa, the most famous beach of this island, where we headed for lunch. Time to try some gyros, this time chicken and it was certainly a step above the falafel.  The meat is roasted to perfection and I would be ever so grateful if a lovely Greek family would open up a gyros shop in Ballarat!  We headed back to Fira to catch up with some friends and spent the night checking out the nighlife.

Our last full day with Mikey and we headed back to the southern part of the island to check out Ancient Thira, which I must admit after such a long night we probably did not appreciate its beauty as much as we should have!  We decided to head back down the mountain to Kamari for some lunch, yes you are correct, I had gyros but I at least branched out and tried Pork with some chips where the lovely owner provided me with a smile for more efforts! After trying multiple types of gyros, the verdict is in and chicken is easily the most delicious.  We spent the rest of the afternoon at the beach.  The black sand/pebbles are unfortunately not as comfortable to nap on as white sand but we made the most of it and spent a lot of time in the clear waters relaxing.  With sunset soon approaching we decided to head further north to get a better view.  The sun seemed almost out of place as it was like a giant red ball in the sky before it disappeared into the horizon.  All this sitting and sleeping was such tiring work that we had some more petrol to burn in Mikey and headed back down south to Perrisa for some more seafood where I opted for swordfish.  My expectations of seafood is admittedly very high as I expect that somewhere surrounded by water and well known for seafood should deliver every time.  The fish was overcooked and dry and I am sadly trying to lower my expectations for the next time I try some fish.

Our final day in Santorini we decided to grab some lunch before catching the ferry to Ios.  Our hotel was situated across the road from a bakery so we decided to take advantage of another cheap option.  I choose bread filled with a tomato and feta filling.  It was delicious and reminded me so much of bakers delight bread, something that we have both missed on this trip!
For those of you that don’t know, Ios is well known as a party island.  We lived up to the islands expectation and spent many hours at our pool that overlooked the beach as well as at the beach yet again working on our tans.  The three nights that we spent in Ios we ate a lot of food from the pool bar where they made the most amazing wood fire pizzas and delicious chicken nuggets and chips!  We did however venture out to a restaurant that the barman recommended to us and I chose prawn saganaki , prawns cooked in tomatoes and feta.  I was unaware that this dish was Greek but I have eaten it in Australia and even made a version myself, so I thought why not give it a crack at a Greek restaurant.  The prawns were cooked to perfection and my only wish was that there was more in the dish!  I think I might have to give this one another try before leaving Greece.  We decided to treat ourselves with a dessert and opted for chocolate soufflé with ice cream.  It was rich rich rich but super amazing.

We are now on the ferry heading to Paros, which we are planning to be the island of rest!  Time to watch some more of the Olympics as the beach volleyball is on and its more entertaining than the weightlifting I was watching earlier!! xxx