Santorini, Greece
Freddo Cappuccino
A feat of Physics.
Erotokritos Bakery, Karterados 847 00
Islands are best experienced by boat. We only learned this after we vacationed in Hawaii and took a tour around Kauai. Santorini hosts half a dozen sailing companies that boast relatively inexpensive tours around the island and nearby dormant volcano. As our hotel concierge suggested, we took the sunset tour, which departed in the afternoon, so we had the morning to do something onland.
First, we went in search of a freddo, the national coffee drink of Greece. A freddo is an Americano, that’s whipped in a milkshake blender and served with its own foam. We stopped at Erotokritos Bakery, a Cretan bakery - not a kretin bakery. 😆 It was clear that it was a local spot, since a steady stream of people (like people with jobs, not vacationing tourists) were driving up in their scooters and leaving with freddos to go. They were delicious, dense with foam and far too easy to drink.
We spent the rest of the morning at Akrotiris, an ancient city, preserved in ash from a volcanic eruption around 1627 BC. It was a major trading city in the Aegean Sea, evidenced by foreign artifacts and materials from other surrounding civilizations in the Mediterranean. Much of the finds from this site include beautiful, vibrant frescoes, which was only possible because mud and ash from the volcanic eruption preserved them so well. The site has been housed in a vast complex, which allows visitors to walk around the entire excavation site and even watch archeologists at work - super cool.
We boarded the Taiti 80 and toured the island, stopping at the natural “hot” springs on the volcanic island, the Red Beach, and the White Beach on the southern tip of the island. We stopped to swim in the ocean at all those spots, which were awesomely perfect. Walking into the water from the beach is really the only practical way of ocean swimming, but anchoring a boat and jumping right in is #nextlevel. Good thing we can’t do this often; we wouldn’t be able to afford the habit.
The tour was 5 hours in length. And during these 5 hours, we jammed to reggae covers of MoTown and panflute music. At one point, the music instructed us to “legalize, not criticize” and well, we couldn’t disagree. 🙌🌲🚬 We met some friendly Australians, one of whom was a personal trainer, named “Storm.” Storm’s girlfriend was a former professional field hockey player. We talked about traveling around the Mediterranean and eventually discovered that they were Cavaliers fans, which Yennie boo-ed profusely. La-di-da, Lebron James. You’re Australian - what do you know about basketball. 🙄
We watched the sunset from the ocean, which is the most beautiful thing. It’s hard to believe that the sun is capable of summoning pinks and oranges and purples like that every night. As the panflute track played in the background, we reminded ourselves how lucky we are to be doing this. #namaste
𝝖𝝠𝝫𝝖 Beer
The Champagne of Greek Beers
Taiti 80 Boat, Santorini Yachting Club
