Leslie Morgan

May 24, 20195 min read

What the Heck, We're on Vacation!

Day 29: Santorini, Greece

So we have officially left the Middle East and are now mostly in Europe for the rest of the trip (with one exception). This day was unusual for two reasons: 1) We actually had two port stops in one day. 2) We tendered from the ship for the first time instead of getting straight off onto a dock.

The day started pretty early, with our first stop in Santorini. I’ve wanted to come here for a long time to see the white towns with the blue domed churches. Because the port is basically a wooden dock for dinghies, we had to take small boats from the cruise ship to town. The boats were not from our ship, but boats from the town that were used. Once we got on shore and boarded the bus, it was a massive switchback up the hill to the town.

Santorini and the surrounding islands were created by a volcano, and there is still an active volcano very close by the island. It is different in that the towns sit on top of the island hill instead of down by the water. In the old days, the homes were made of a beige stucco to camouflage them against pirates. More recently, a good number of them have changed to the white color as a modern statement, but you still see many in the beige color. In addition, the roofs of many of the buildings have rounded tops. This is because years ago there was an earthquake that destroyed a lot of the buildings. However, more of those that had rounded roofs survived the earthquake than those that had flat roofs so new buildings were often built with a round roof.

We drove over to the famous town of Oia that is known for its blue roofed churches, white buildings, and meandering sidewalks. It’s the one you see in all of the pictures and post cards. It is so beautiful. For obvious reasons, it's a popular destination wedding location. We had some time on our own to explore the town and to take about a thousand photos, then we got back on the bus for the second part of the tour.

When we booked this tour, we thought that 10:30 am might be a little early for wine tasting, but what the heck, we’re on vacation. We went to the Santos Winery, which uses local grapes to create their wines. Interestingly, the grape vines on Santorini are not trained up off the ground onto trellises like you usually see. Instead, the base of the plant is twisted to create a little basket for the plant grapes to sit in which shields them from the high winds.

We tried a white, a red, and a dessert wine. I’m not much into sweet dessert wines, so I just had two of the reds instead. I really liked the white, which isn’t usually my favorite, so I bought a couple of bottles. The price was reasonable and they were offering a two for one deal. Book it!

Going back to the ship, we took the cable car from the top of the hill back down to the dock. We could have also walked over 500 steps down or taken a donkey. I’m pretty sure walking would have been faster. I’m pretty sure CMV had all their excursions going back to the ship at the same time, and it seemed like all 800 passengers were in line to take the cable car. Not fun.

I knew once I got back to the ship I’d have to forfeit the wine I bought as they would be confiscated—I mean held—until I was ready to disembark at the end of the cruise. Except that security getting back onto the ship was understaffed and even though I could CLEARLY see the two bottles of wine on the x-ray screen, the guy never looked up to see them. I really wanted to bring them home with me, but I will have to figure out how to get them in my checked luggage without going over weight or having the break. Oh well, that’s a problem for another day!

Mykonos

We did make it back onto the ship no problem, and then spent the afternoon cruising over to the island Mykonos. We were scheduled to arrive at 6:00 pm, and we would be tendering over just like in Santorini. Not quite just like Santorini. This time we would be taking our very own life boats from the ship. Lynda and I have been assigned to lifeboat #10, which I’ve heard will accommodate 100 people. It seemed hard to believe, but then we got aboard and they do hold a ton of people. They’re also enclosed, which I didn’t realize. I always pictured those boats they had in the Titanic movie. This was not the lifeboat of the Unsinkable Molly Brown. I guess in retrospect, I shouldn’t have really been that surprised.

We were in the first tender off the boat thanks to Lynda and Lauren. They got in line almost an hour early to make sure we would have plenty of time to explore the town. There were no ship excursions for Mykonos, so we were on our own.

Mykonos is the first place I’ve been before on this cruise. There will eventually be 5 of them, but all of them are places I wouldn’t mind going back to again. Mykonos is a little like Santorini with the white buildings, but these are right on the water. It’s a small, super cute town, known for its night life.

Did I say super cute town? It really is. Shops, restaurants, and small little Greek Orthodox churches line the stone sidewalks. Both Lauren and Lynda just wanted to stay there forever. I’m not sure if it was to live or to shop.

After walking around and taking some pictures for a while, we caught a cab to a restaurant up the hill where we had a dinner reservation. Lynda and I had researched where to eat in Mykonos and their reviews ticked all the boxes: good service; great food; view of the water; local ambiance; and not crazy expensive. We were not disappointed on any of the above.

First off, the food was ammmmaaaazing. We started with a cheese board, and everything on it was delicious. For dinner I had the special: small beef filet a la creme with mushrooms and wild rice. The presentation was as good as the food tasted. The local wines were delicious, and we tried both the white and the red.

We got the best table on the patio with a beautiful view. It had been cloudy all day, but the sun broke through just as it was setting to give us a fabulous sunset. As the temperature dropped (not much really) our host brought blankets for the ladies to put in their laps. We decided to skip dessert and get it in town, but our waiter brought us some mango sorbet on the house, and it was honestly the best thing I’ve eaten in a long time. As a parting gift, our host gave us vials of dried oregano. Oh, and our bill was about 45 euro per person.

So there it is, if you’re ever in Mykonos, go to the Karavaki Restaurant. It’s attached to a small hotel called the Vencia Boutique Hotel. A cab ride up the hill will cost you about 7 euros.

After dinner we caught up with fellow Las Vegans Sharon and Dave back down by the dock and had a couple of shots to celebrate the cruise, Mykonos, and new friends. I’m not a big fan of ouzo, but there it seemed to taste really good. Also had a lemon drop shot, even though the bartender didn’t really know what it was. I think we should have stuck to the ouzo.