Just thought we wanna jot down our wonderful trip, remember our fun time, also to share our experience and some culture shock we encountered. During our planning and preparation for this trip, we did a lot of online research on Greece. We really appreciate those who took time and effort to write reviews on hotels and places of interest. So hopefully, our little adventure can aid you in your holiday planning. This journal took us (Clarence & I) awhile to finish.

Clarence: Yup, it’s a wonderful idea Nicole! I didn’t really think much about blogging about my trip until you suggested it. And I have no regrets! 3 months after the trip and I’m still smiling and laughing about our ‘adventures’ over there! Haha! It’s a wonderful experience that we want you people out there to know! Feel free to ask us any questions, provided our teeny weeny brains can still remember hurhurhur. As for my foreign friends out there, if you are having difficulty reading my language, that’s because it’s in ‘Singlish’ haha! I feel it’s more natural if I write it that way, ‘cos then I don’t have to think about how to phrase this and that. It all flows naturally Fret not though! Just drop us a comment and we will interprete it for you!

(Please cast your vote for us! Thank you!)

To read this journal, you need to start from the bottom of this page.

Enjoy!

Drinking the Mythos at the roof terrace and wasting the day away;

Seeing all the Greek road signs and navigating our way;

Facing the spectacular caldera view and marveling at the beauty;

Trekking the Samaria gorge and walking with achy legs for the next few days;

Watching the sunset at Oia and wondering why the sun seems different from our homeland;

Sipping our frappe and drooling at the Greek babes;

Climbing the monasteries and thinking how the houses were constructed hundreds of years ago;

Standing before Leonidas statue and snapping a picture with him;

Admiring the houses and appreciating their color scheme;

Looking at the photos and thinking the money spent is all worth it.

*Of course!*

Love,

Nicole

Went to the National Archaeology Museum of Athens.

They also have “nut seller”, which we called Kacang Putih Man.

There is this very colorful bar in the Plaka Village. Pretty cool, isn’t it?

Postcards are everywhere.

Check out the marble pavement. Pretty slippery when its wet. Beware!

Oh… one thing about the toilet system in Greece, you are not supposed to throw toilet paper into the toilet bowl. Most of the toilets have a bin beside the bowl for used toilet paper disposal. I don’t get it, I don’t know why their sewage system cannot handle toilet paper. It was not a natural thing to do for me. But I did, in case I clog the bowl and all the shit comes out! Then how?!! For such thing, I am not a risk taker.

We drove up to the monasteries. Visiting a monasteries I thought I would meet monks, nuns, but I didn’t see any. (Clarence: Got lar, so many nuns you didn’t see meh? Those at the Roussanou are all nuns. You buy the fridge magnet the cashier is a nun already mah…hurhurhur) There were 24 monasteries here, but now only 6 are occupied. We picked 2 to visit. The first one we went was a nunnery called Roussanou. Appropriate clothing is required to visit the monasteries. Shorts, sleeveless, tank tops, mini skirts are no no. I was in my long pants and jacket, but still the lady at the entrance issued me a long wrap skirt. So, you can just grab one of the wrap skirt from the pile at the entrance, instead of worrying about what to wear. You will appreciate this visit more if you know a little about Greek Orthodoxy. No picture taking is allowed inside. Anyway, inside was pretty dimly lit, so quite difficult to take photos.

The place felt very sacred. The ceiling was filled with frescoes, and the walls hung many religious icons from the byzantine era. We picked this one cos Clarence said this is the smallest and the poorest one among them. We bought a fridge magnet from their souvenir shop, thinking we might be able to contribute to this little nunnery. 3euro per piece lor!

(Go early to avoid the crowd- from the tour buses) 

The second one we went was Great Meteoron monastery, the biggest and the most visitors, so this one must be the richest. By the way, you need to pay an entrance fee. This monastery is quite a climb. It has a church and even a museum, very big. We spent most of the time in the museum. And guess who we met on our way down? We ran into the Taiwanese couple! We stopped and made conversation with them. Such a coincident.

We went back to Sydney Hotel to check out, thinking that we could use the toilet before we hit the road. The chambermaid gave us a buay song face, reminded us our check out time was supposed to be 10am. We were unaware. Anyway, we just act blur, used our toilet, packed our bags and check out. I still remember that black face she gave us when we returned the key and paid for the room. Hello girl, you are in service industry you know?

We wanted to have lunch at a restaurant recommended by LP, but it was closed! So we went to another restaurant with a lot of Greek uncles drinking Ouzu and coffee. This place must be serving authentic greek cuisine we thought. This restaurant was ran by these 2 brothers. We had some really juicy charcoal grilled pork chop, chicken and yummy stuffed tomatoes & peppers. (Clarence: This has to be one of the most authentic greek restaurants we had been to! No tourists, no airs, just plain Greek friendliness from the two brothers! There were elderly men around drinking ouzo at noon you know? Just like our lao uncles over here in Singapore drinking stout in the morning haha! Actually I also feel like drinking hurhurhur…but don’t want lar…haha. And the daughter of one of the brothers is so pretty and cute. She showed us her drawing, which I’m still trying to decifer haha. Too bad we did not take down the name of the restaurant to introduce to you guys. It’s near the church in Kastraki I think…)

After a delicious lunch, we drove back all the way to Athens. Maybe because of the lunch, I couldn’t stay awake throughout the drive, though it was a scenic drive.

The road trip was smooth till we hit Athens, when we didn’t know which exit to exit from the highway. After a few rounds, we finally got back to SIXT at about 6plus. Earlier, the girl who did the paper work for us was not on duty. She previously agreed to give us a discount cos we got the car 1 hr late (because they couldn’t locate that rental car)Apparently, she didn’t give us the discount on the payment invoice, but we told her colleague and she honored the deal. So we paid 75euro per day which includes extra driver + full waiver auto insurance coverage. Not too bad!

From SIXT, we dragged our heavy luggage to Plaka Village. We are staying at this Student & Travellers Inn. 70euro per night for our double bed with WC shower + AC. Clarence took the mix dorm, 25 euro without AC, share with up to 3 other persons.

Settled our barang barang, and then went for breakfast at a cafe downstairs. I need my coffee fix every morning, if not engine cannot start. Fortunately, the coffee and the ham & cheese sandwich was good and filling

Our usual coffee is called filtered coffee here.

(Nicole: Our balcony has the view of the gorge of Delphi, which is really nice. I went to enjoy the morning at the balcony while the 2 guys were still under their blankets. We had breakfast at this corner cafe. We picked this cafe because we saw a few locals were smoking and drinking coffee. I read this travel tip about choosing eateries locals patronize. That was why we chose this particular cafe. The lady manning the cafe spoke very little English. But with a bit of pointing and body language, we ordered focaccia bread with Ham & Cheese & Tomatoes. Eric’s spinach pie turned out to be a cheese pie, but never mind, sometimes body language could go wrong too.)

Today I would be the driver, Eric the vehicle commander, and Nicole our official sleeper and meal indicator again. She was getting pretty good at it. It’s my first time driving on the right side of the road, so I was pretty nervous about it. What if I subconsciously drift to the left side? What if I turned left and end up in the wrong side of the road? Hurhurhur so exciting…

Anyway, there wasn’t any spectacular incident…I started off pretty slowly and calmly, and got bolder as time went on hurhurhur…there was this part on the winding mountain path that I overtook a LONG TRUCK while going through the bends…that woke Eric and Nicole up hahahaha. After that Nicole was totally awake, until 5 minutes later she reverted back to her role.

The drive to Meteora passed by a number of towns. We stopped by at the town of Lamia and had one of the cheapest lunch for this trip. 2 pork gyros and a plate of pork slices, with 3 soft drinks, cost us about 12 Euros. That was already damn cheap liao ok!

(Nicole: On the way, we stopped by to take a photo with Leonidas. Clarence’s wish had finally been fulfilled. That’s the power of movie! See, he looked so happy.)

After lunch, we continue our journey up to Trikala, where we would head to the town of Kalampaka, and then proceed to the small little town Kastraki. Kastraki is located at the western region of Meteora, amphitheatrically built between the huge rocks and constitutes one of the municipal town district. It is in this town where we would stay over for the night, in a small hotel called Hotel Sydney. We arrived at about 4.30 pm, and by the time we checked in, it was already too late to visit the monasteries, which made the whole area famous.

You see, what makes Meteora so special is that these monasteries are all perched right at the tip of huge, towering rocks. The word Meteora literally means ‘hovering in the air’. What created this rare geological phenomenon is one of the mysteries of nature. These rocks themselves are impressive, rising from the plains of Thessaly a few miles of northwest of Kalambaka.

Enough of description. We spent the rest of the afternoon driving around the winding roads up to the individual monasteries, marvelling at the beauty and incredibility of these monasteries. It’s really quite unbelievable you know? How do these monks or nuns get up to their monasteries back in the old days? Together with their food supplies, but the use of pulleys? That’s quite scary isn’t it? I would be scared shitless man…

(Nicole :We set off to Meteora, which was a 4-hr drive on the winding mountain roads. Driver today was Clarence. I couldn’t tell you much, cos most of the time I was sleeping during the drive.

We finally arrived at Meteora at 4plus. Meteora is ancient Greek for “suspended in midair”. The rocks look like gigantic cheese blocks with holes, standing by themselves. Really quite amazing! The monasteries are on top of them, so fascinating! It was hard to imagine how those monks transported their building materials up to the top of these rocks.

We found our Sydney Hotel which was located at the root of the monasteries. We were given a 3 single bed room but we requested to switch to a double +single bed room. Good that we changed, cos this room had a balcony and a view of some rocks

We drove up to Meteora for photo taking. Most of the monasteries were closed by then, so we only plan to roam around and visit the monasteries the next day. We were thankful we drove instead of walking up. The terrain was quite steep. Walking up? No thanks man!

(Nicole: Dinner was at this restaurant recommended by LP. The food was normal, not fantastic. Probably we were a little sick of Greek cuisine at this point. No idea why Clarence had not appetite. Maybe he was sick? Meteora area at night was pretty quiet. We hung out at this ALL TIME CAFE around the corner of the street, this place had computer for internet access, the guys were eager to find out the result for Euro 2008 qualifier. 3 euro for an hr. It was a Saturday evening and the crowd was sparse. I counted, at most 5 tables for the night. Was this good or bad business for them? I wondered. )

Dinner was nothing spectacular. I did not have any appetite today, I also dunno why. But I was damn thirsty, so I drank 2 cans of coke…hurhurhur. After dinner we wanted to use the internet, so we hop over opposite of the road into this internet cafe and used the net for a while, before calling it a night. Tomorrow we will visit 2 monasteries and then make our long journey back to Athens liao. Our journey in Greece is finally coming to an end…sob sob…

Love,

Clarence

Soon, both of them woke up, and Eric told me that the ferry is going to be delayed for about 2 hours! Wah lao die liao, do what for 2 hours? We spent the rest of our time plonked on the sofa, drinking frappe.

Finally, the ferry docked in Piraeus, and we walked into Piraeus port searching for our rented car. Guess what? Cannot find…There was supposed to be a man holding up a piece of paper with Eric’s name on it, so that he could pass us the car keys and we drove off to Delphi from Piraeus. But the guy wasn’t there. We waited. Still no guy with Eric’s name. I walked up and down the port to spot a guy with Eric’s name on a piece of paper. Still no such guy. We tried calling the agency, but it’s too early for them to open. In the end, after about 45 minutes waiting at the dock, we decided to heck it and go for breakfast, where we would continue calling the agency.

In the end when we got through, it’s bad news. The agent had canceled our booking ‘cos he couldn’t get hold of Eric during the trip. So our Hyundai Accent is gone. How? No more road trip liao. How? What are we gonna do? So I whipped out my Lonely Planet and we started calling the other car agencies to check out the rates for a 3 day rental of car. In the end we chose this agency call Sixt. The rate is 70 Euros per day for a Peugeot 307. Wah not bad leh, we had so far not driven a Peugeot before, sounds so much better than a Hyundai Accent hahaha. So we took the offer.

After the procedures, we were officially gonna start on our road trip! Eric was to drive, and I would be using the map to chart out the direction to our first stop – Delphi. Nicole will be the official sleeper and reminder for meals hahahahahaha.

So we took the route as suggested by the people in Sixt. Take the road going towards Piraeus, then look out for the sign towards Lamia, then next was Corinth, and we would be on the national highway. From there, we should be able to spot the sign towards Delphi. Actually it was not that difficult lar, but it was also not that easy. So, difficult and easy means easily difficult, or difficultly easy lor, hahahaha.

(Nicole:I think the guys are genius. The road maps were all in Greek, so were the road signs the moment we left Athens. But the guys were really genius. They could figure them out those symbols! Though I was not doing the navigating nor driving, being a passenger doing nothing was tiring you know.

We saw an accident along the way. An overturned truck sitting helpless in the middle of the road. Lunch was at this empty taverna which we found on the way. It wasn’t many to choose from, so when we spotted one, mai too liao)

When you order a “hamburger” in Greece, this is what you should expect to get.

Besides stopping by in an empty taverna for lunch, we headed straight for the town of Delphi, where we would stop by for the night. We visited ancient Delphi first, where we saw the ruins of the Oracle, the temple of Apollo and the Santuary of Athena. Well…they are….ruins….literally ruins….hurhurhur.

(Clarence: Wah I like this picture (below) of myself the most I’m actually pretty fair in complexion, but in this picture I looked so tanned in it! So handsome! Hahaha! Good job Eric! This one can archive into another of your ‘award winning’ categories )

Checked into this small little hotel call Hotel Sibylla. The rate for a triple is 38 Euros per night, quite cheap by this time of our trip. It’s already evening. So we checkout the area and had dinner at this taverna call Skala restaurant. Wah lao the food sucks man! This is by far the worse food and service we got in Greece. And it’s recommended by Lonely Planet some more. The moussaka looked like it’s from a instant-pack. And there’s something suspicious about the mineral bottle we had. You see, we were served a bottle of mineral water in most of our meals. This mineral bottle he served was already opened, meaning the seal was already ruptured. And there are so many tiny bubbles sticking to the inside of the bottle, like it’s being filled by tap water…anyway we didn’t pursue the problem.

The rest of the night was spent walking around the dead town and having a little drink at a nice cozy cafe before we call it a night. Tomorrow, we would continue our journey to Meteora!

(Nicole: Delphi town was a very touristy little town. I would say it was pretty much a dead tourist town. When we were driving by, searching for our Hotel Sibylla. Some of the hotel staff were touting. Can’t really blame them, no business they had to be pro-active. I guess Delphi more of a pass through town, could be covered by a day trip. It becomes unnecessary to spend a night.

Dinner was at this tarvena recommended by LP, called Skala. We saw an Asian couple dinning inside, thought was a good choice. Of course we believe the couple read LP too. Among all the meals, we voted this one the worst. Usually the restaurant in Greece serves a bottle of mineral/spring water. The charge will be added to the bill. In Skala, the bottled water was suspected to be tap water cos the cap seal was broken.

The whole night, the couple and us were the only 2 tables eating. I really wonder how the businesses in this town survive.)

Today’s our last day at Santorini. So we planned to do some souvenir hunting today before we leave this beautiful island. Right after breakfast, we drove down to the post office in Fira to post our written postcards. Actually, the idea came from Nicole. I had never sent any postcards before, ‘cos I think it’s quite boh liao…hurhurhur…Anyway, I decided to send one to my daddy ‘cos it’s Father’s Day this weekend (actually I realised it’s next weekend when I returned ). So I wrote down Happy Father’s Day in Chinese and sent it back home. It cost 0.65 Euros for a stamp to be sent out of Greece, is it expensive anot?

(er… excuse me, not boh liao… is you boh sim )

(See, the vehicles here are so colorful!)

We spent the rest of the morning hanging around the shops in Fira. I had to buy some souvenirs back for my family, buddies and colleagues. So I also dunno how many to buy. Just wack! By the way, I think there’s something weird about me…I only looked out for fridge magnets every time when I travel…everything is fridge magnets fridge magnets fridge magnets..why har? I also dunno wor…so you guys can guess what I bought right? Also got postcards and coasters lar, ‘cos fridge magnets a bit ex

Back at Blue Dolphin, we packed our bags ‘cos we had to check out by 12 pm. Alexis don’t wanna let us extend our check out time till evening . Actually can, but we must pay half a day charges for the room! Tamade 70 Euros just to put our bags leh! Of course don’t want right? We can deposit our bags at the reception for free, so why not do that? Just cannot wash up till night time only, ‘cos our ferry to Athens is 10 pm tonight.

Before I came to Greece, Nicole asked me to bring cup noodles for them. Apparently, US don’t sell the chilli crab flavor by Nissin. So she asked me to bring 3, one for each of us. Now it’s time to lighten up my bag, whip out the 3 cups, and eat them for lunch! It’s kinda weird eating cup noodles in a hotel dinning area in the afternoon…I bet when the other occupants saw us sitting down on the table, slurping loudly our noodles, they must have thought that we very poor thing hahaha. Machiam like we paid so much for the hotel room that we had no more money to eat. It’s not like that okay, they never try chilli crab cup noodles before nia. If they try, see they will beg us anot…hehehe.

(Nicole: 3rd day on Santorini, our last day on this island. We could keep the car till 7pm, so we drove to Fira town after breakfast, planned on some last minute shopping of souvenirs. We returned to check out and had Nissin chilli crab cup noodles! This was the highlight of the day (for me). I wish for more when I slurped my last bit from the cup. Yummm…Clarence, why you only bring 3 cups)

The rest of the afternoon is back in Fira. Yup, we continued our souvenir hunting. Basically we walked round and round, ‘cos there’s nothing much to do for today. We stopped by this crepe place call NRG, and ate crepes. I had chocolate and banana, which was really delicious. Nicole had chocolates and strawberries, and Eric chose something that included rum in it, wah very strong…We also had coffee at this nice cafe overlooking the sea. Apart from the strong winds, it’s quite nice and cozy, sipping latte and wasting the whole afternoon away.

(Clarence: See lar, everything I do he also follow me )

Dinner was at this nice little authentic Greek restaurant call To Afkion. It’s situated between Firostefani and Fira, and you will definitely pass this small little taverna if you take the pathway between the 2 towns. I had moussaka, which was very much like lasagna, but Greek style. Nice

Then it’s back to Blue Dolphin to take our backpacks, meet our driver, and be driven to the port to wait for our ferry. It certainly wasn’t a good feeling to leave this beautiful island. From the words of Nicole, it’s a ‘yi yi bu she’ feeling…means we left Santorini with a heavy heart. Goodbye Santorini, we will see you again next year, we love you, goodbye…

Love,

Clarence

(Nicole: We arrived at the port at 8:45pm. Had coffee at the cafe restaurant nearby. I was inspired by this couple whom backpacked with their daughter, which I guess is 5 yrs old. How cool is that? Some day, Eric and I would be backpacking with our kids. Hahaha some day.

The ferry arrived on time. Let me talk a little about the difference between AB3 and AB4 cabin tickets again here. 3 of us bought AB3, the price is higher and we got to have the whole cabin to ourselves. We couldn’t get AB3, so had AB4 instead. This ferry service separate the passengers by sex. I was assigned a different cabin from the guys, a couple of rooms down. Clarence and I did a swap, so Eric and I could be in the same cabin.

There was already an uncle sleeping inside because Santorini was not the ferry’s first stop. We took our assigned beds, which were the upper 2 beds. That night, we didn’t bath and went straight to bed. When we woke up at around 6:30am, the uncle informed us that the ferry was delayed and would take another 2 hrs at least. Hope the car rental guy will wait for us.)

Then, Alexis appeared for the first time. He was the guy we have been communicating with on email before we came. He offered to get us some coffee. He came back with 3 glasses of Frappe, but tasted weird. Clarence said it tasted like glue coffee, instead of Greek coffee. Alexis reappeared with 2 maps. He even gave us a brief history of the island, how the volcanic eruption happened and thus how the caldera was formed blah blah blah..He recommended a list of places we could go:

1. Amoudi Port, Oia – has a harbor and has fishing activities going on.
2. Melenio Bakery, Oia-offers great sweets.
3. Galavas Vineyard, Megalohori-offers free wine tasting
4. Raki restaurant, Megalohori-authentic Greek cuisine and it does not serve coke as it sees coke to be non-Greek.
5. Wet stories Beach Bar at Perivolos Beach- get free deck chairs as guests from Blue Dolphin.
6. Kamari Beach – if which a touristy spot with lots of hotels, restaurants and bars.
7. Red beach – at the Akrotiri area.
8. Delfini Fish -a restaurant near the red beach.

We got our complimentary car today. It was a small manual Hyundai 1.4l. When was the last time we drove a manual car? Couldn’t even recall. Clarence declined driving cos it was double challenge for him: 1) it was right hand drive & 2) it was a manual car. He was better off being the VC- Vehicle Commander

Struggled a little to get comfortable with the car and map, we hit the beaches! Isn’t it amazing this island has white, red and black beach?

The red beach has its name cos it is against a gigantic piece of red rock. That’s how the name came about. Orrrr…I see.

Then we stopover at the black beach. The black is black because it composed of black volcanic rocks. Orrrrr….I see.

Lunch was at Raki restaurant at Megalohori, that one recommended by Alexis. I love their yogurt mousse with some plum or prune sauce. Their main course were very nice too. But I couldn’t recall what I had. We rated this restaurant the best Greek Cuisine so far. Besides that, its the human touch. The waitresses knew their stuff on top of their good service. Highly recommended

The Gavalas vineyard was just around the street from Raki restaurant. The wine tasting cum little tour so called, was not free. Per person 5 euro and conducted by this very pretty and busty Greek lady. My favourite is the Santorini Vinsanto – a dessert wine, which the vineyard apparently only 5000 bottles per year. We only tasted a total of 4 types of wine. Clarence bought a bottle of Vinsanto in the end.

We spent the afternoon at Perivolos Beach. Wet Stories Beach bar was a very cool place. It had a lot of deck chairs and beds for sunbathing. We went up to the waiter and told them we were from Blue Dolphin, and guess what. The waiter just said that we were free to make use of the deck chairs, no need to be guests of Blue Dolphin. At this point, I wanted to laugh, I wondered if we sounded ridiculous to him. Anyway, we could actually use any of the furniture without buying any drink from them – no obligation.

At one point, the waiter came around distributing free vodka shots to all the people I couldn’t stop smiling.

We drove to Oia to watch the famous sunset. We could have taken a wrong route but it turned out to be a long scenic drive along the cliff. The view was amazing but maybe a little scary as we maneuvered along the winding road inches from the cliff.

There are many arts and handicrafts stores along the street. These artists chose to paint on doors and window panes instead of the conventional canvas. Very impressive.

We chose to dine at a restaurant with a sunset view, called Strogili. We had at table at the roofttop. It was extremely windy and chilly! We had a hard time enjoying our very delicious dinner and watching sun setting at the same time. I often looked up at the view, just like watching TV during dinner. Awesome! No wonder it was highly recommended in the guide books. I didn’t manage to take any nice sun set shots, just enjoy the view.

(See what I mean? These 2 buddies even like similar jacket!)

We passed by the Melenio bakery and decided to check it out. They have quite a lot to choose from. I was admiring and deciding if I should get something. When I looked up from the display fridge, I saw the guy digging his nose! I was immediately turned off! Sorry I couldn’t tell you if the pastry was nice.

The ferry was 2 hr from Iraklio to Santorini. I was told that the view when the ferry was approaching Santorini was awesome, but guess the overcast weather had played it down. Not as spectacular as I expected but I was optimistic that we would certainly enjoy some nice weather during our 3-day stay.

Upon arrival, the sign written “LIM CLARENCE” was waving at us. We followed this uncle to his mini bus and had a scenic ride up to Blue Dolphin at Firostefani. This port transfer didn’t come free – 15euro per way.

( Clarence: When we alight from the ferry, I immediately saw the guy with my name on the piece of paper he was holding. Wah the feeling not bad man, like VIP like that hehehe…first time got people pick me up. I expected a car to pick us up, but it was a mini bus! And it’s only for 3 of us! Hurhurhur…the journey to our hotel was up the winding road to the top, then then a 10 minute drive to the town of Firostefani, where our hotel was located. I’m quite scared of winding roads one leh, not because of nauseousness, but i’m scared of heights…the part when the bus swerve around the bend with my side on the vertical drop…I feel like peeing…hehehe…so it’s like wanna pang jio, then don’t wanna pang jio, then wanna pang jio, then don’t wanna pang jio…

When we reached our hotel, we had to walk down a flight of stairs. But the view ahead of us was beautiful! We were really sort of on the cliff edge, and the blue Aegean Sea is below us! Very nice! I don’t really know how to describe that feeling to you, but it’s really really nice. 200 Euros per night leh! It better be good! Lucky the website didn’t bluff us…hehe )

Wow~ The beginning of our Santorini experience.

The room was not ready for check in, it didn’t bother us as we were busy snapping away with my cameras. We awed when we saw the amazing view of Fira town and Caldera. 200euro per nite lor but comes with free car for 2 days. It’s a steal!

I could recognize those yellow chairs and white tables, I saw them on their website. Though the weather was overcast, still, we were all grinning.

We had a large apartment with private balcony! How good does it sound? I have to say the layout of this room was a little strange. The door opened to a room with queen size bed, behind it was a shower room with no door, just a partition next to the shower area. I can already see myself showering here! Nevertheless, it has a toilet with a door for some privacy

Clarence’s room was an attached bedroom with 2 single beds and its own private bathroom (with a door).

We walked around admiring every corner. Even the switchboard was cool. It was camouflaged with a picture frame. How clever! We were told about the switchboard cos we need to turn the switch half an hour before shower for hot water.

We took the walking path along the caldera and walked towards Fira town. But we were starving so we stopped at “The volcano flame” restaurant. The food menu pricing was more expensive than a few others nearer to Firostefani. Pastas 10-12 euros , coke 3 euros! (On the coke can, it was written: Suggested retail price: 0.70 euro) Clarence and I had pastas while Eric took up their special of the day- fish, which includes a Greek salad and drinks, all for 15euros. You have no idea how good he is when it comes to eating fish with bones. He is an expert.

We asked for the bill and uncle came and whispered, “40″. He not only undercharged us, he even gave us 3 cans of coke! Do we look like poor student backpackers? Maybe…..but who cares? Another nice uncle.

( Clarence: The walk from our hotel to the town of Fira is about 20 minutes. But the view along the way is simply superb! Every 5 steps we snap. So nice! I told myself tamade if I get married, this place confirm will be my honeymoon! CONFIRM! Though it’s a hot day, the breeze from the sea is chilly and I don’t feel scorched at all. I can sit on the white-washed parapet, face the sea and just stone…but cannot, ‘cos we hungry liao. We passed by a few restaurants along the way from Firostefani to Fira, but we always tell ourselves to check out the next one. In the end Eric and Nicole buay tahan liao, too hungry liao. So we stopped by this small taverna (a small restaurant in Greece) and had our lunch. Quite ex…but nehmind lar, i’m sort of prepared for the price liao. I forgot what I eat liao though…

After lunch, we had 2 choices. One was to continue our walk down to Fira and look look. Second was to hit the beach. But we could only get the car the next day, so going to the beach was out of the question. So I told them why not we go back to the apartment and sit at the balcony and sun tan? In the end we decided to follow the second option. So we popped by the mama shop and buy beer hehehe. )

(Don’t be vain, no heels on Santorini. You will regret it!)

Our initial plan to hit the beaches had to change. We decided to suntan at our own balcony instead Hmmmm…. just enjoy the moment. We named it our “Blue Dolphin beach”.

In the evening we walked to Fira town for dinner. Our first choice Nikolas was packed and we didn’t want to join the long queue outside the restaurant. We see the power of LP recommendation. So we headed for our 2nd choice – Stani.

Later that evening, we chilled out at a Jazz bar before we called it a day. The walk back to our hotel was no joke. As we walked, the wind was howling right besides my ears! I am serious! You sure need a jacket, else you will regret big time.

Not there were anything valuable to steal, but this place seems to work pretty much on trust system. We could have walk out with something and no one will know. But we didn’t abuse this trust. We are honest people.

We decided to wait for him, as we wanted to hand him the 2 room keys. We settled for breakfast at this little lovely corner cafe just behind our pension, hoping that by the time we finished, he would have arrived. This corner cafe ran by a friendly lady. We ordered spinach pie, ham & cheese pie and a frappe each. The guys couldn’t stop praising the freshly baked spinach pie, maybe because they were starving.

(The alleys can only accommodate small vehicles like scooter.)

Just as we were enjoying our breakfast, there was this Hyundai car driving towards our direction, behind was a woman in her mid 30s chasing after it. The driver didn’t notice her till he was stuck at the corner street right in front of our table. The woman walked up and hit the car body and shouted at him in American accent,”Dave, I’m not in the car yet!” Huh? Wife not in the car also dunno? How possible?

This woman hopped into the car and the husband had to perform a 4-5 point to make a U turn and get out of this street. We even had to move our table to make way for this sotong husband. I hope we won’t be as sotong when we drive in Santorini

After we returned the keys to the owner, we took a bus ride from the bus station to Iraklio (a.k.a Heraklion). The ride was 2hr 45mins – 149km ride, traveling from west to center of Crete. Half the time, Eric and I were sleeping. But I was aware of the bus conductor checking tickets and some passengers boarding and alighting the bus along the way. Bus fare 10,70 euro per pax.

The bus passed by a few towns. I got to see the real Cretans’ way of life. Many old folks were hanging out at their local coffee shops, playing cards and drinking Amstel or coffee. The houses were also not as pretty as those in the touristy Hania old harbor front. But they still maintain the Mediterranean style- relaxed living inspired by strong colors and natural materials.

Iraklio

Iraklio is the capital of Crete. It was not a sightseeing place. If not for the ferry service to Santorini, we would give this town a miss. After we checked into Hotel Mirabello and came out, it was only late afternoon and we were surprised by how quiet the 25th august street was. Many shops were closed. Let’s just say it would be easier to count how many were opened.

Everybody gone for his siesta?

Hotel Mirabello has this antique lift. Open the door, there was another shutter door. How cool is it? But hor, its extremely slow. From ground floor to 3rd floor, almost take forever. )

We were walking by the stalls and overheard a shopkeeper telling her customer,”I am sorry. We are closing. We are very tired.” And next thing, we saw was the customer leaving the stall in disbelief and the shopkeeper packing up, closing the stall, for her siesta I think.

It was 3:30pm in the afternoon. Many stalls were also closing. See the important of Siesta to them over a potential customer?

First encounter of this Greek culture. Interesting.

Streets were quiet and we were caught by a enthusiastic restaurant uncle. He sort of talked us into eating at their restaurant. We settled for it cos we were tired from the bus ride. This uncle even tried to impress us with a few words of Mandarin and his limited knowledge on Singapore. Anyway, ahem… it is nice to know they know a country called Singapore.

We went back hotel since there were not much action and too lazy to take another bus ride for sightseeing. It was a lazy afternoon. We bought beers and watched TV in the hotel room, waiting for the town to wake up from their siesta.

( Clarence: I was sad to leave Hania…I like the place a lot. But no choice, ‘cos we can only go to Santorini from Heraklion, which is in the central part of Crete. Hania is on the western part. Moreover, our ferry to Santorini was in the morning around 10 pm. Since the bus ride is about 3 hours from Hania, we decided not to risk it.

I don’t really like Heraklion. It’s more like a city. And there’s nothing much to see. Maybe I was comparing it with Hania, so I guess it’s subjective. So when we reached Heraklion, I wasn’t feeling excited about the place. Coupled with the fact that my hotel room is like a prison cell. No fan no aircon, super small room. One single bed and there’s a sink beside the bed, that’s all. Don’t have the inn or pension feeling…where you will feel more cozy and at home. Boh bian, cheap mah Heng stay one night nia. )

At 8pm, we went out for dinner. Indeed, the hair salon beside our hotel was reopened after siesta for evening business. How interesting. By the way, the streets were not as dead as we thought.

Dinner was at a restaurant recommended by LP. A friendly English lady in her late 40s walked over to our table, and took the liberty to introduce the dishes to us. She explained that what the cream was made from olive and it goes with the bread. She also told us that syrup cherries, some dessert and raki will be served at the end of the dinner. Oh, don’t mistaken her as the waitress! She was just a friendly tourist who wanna share those tips with us. Such a nice lady !

We wanna popped by their happening pubs but thought we might be under dressed in our slippers and bermudas. We ended our day and rest early for our SANTORINI!