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Well, it's been almost two months and we're still married!

Sifnos to Athens, the end (09/12/2009)

On our last day in Sifnos, the weather was finally sunny again. We didn't have much time to do anything, though -- I walked down the street to the bakery to buy some pastries for breakfast while Carl tidied up our apartment. We took a few pictures of the place, and then it was time to leave for the ferry.

The ferry ride to Piraeus (port of Athens) was interminable -- hot and crowded. When we arrived in Pireaus, we thought it would be a simple subway ride to our hotel, but of course the subway was out of service at that part of the route, so we had to take a crowded and confusing shuttle bus ride to another stop on the line. We finally made it, though, and dropped off our bags at our hotel in time to walk to the Acropolis at sunset.

We didn't make it in time to actually get into the Acropolis, but were able to walk around the outside of the grounds (you can actually see quite a bit). Carl was surprised that the Parthenon was still covered in scaffolding like it was when he visited Athens in 2001. I guess some things take a while. We also saw the brand new Acropolis Museum, again only from the outside, and a Greek wedding taking place that was WAY fancier than ours.

We walked through Plaka, which is a very touristy part of the city, and I was having a hard time adjusting from quiet island life to a crazy city. Remarkably, in this huge city, we ran into the couple who had been staying next door to us at Dana Villas in Santorini! The man had twisted his ankle there, and when we saw him in Athens he had gotten a walking cast and was using crutches, the poor guy.

We had an unremarkable dinner and then had a drink at Bretto's, a very visually appealing bar we had seen earlier in the evening. The decor there features bottles filled with different colored liqueurs set against backlit walls all the way to the ceiling. We walked back to our hotel and enjoyed a last drink on the roof deck, which had a view of the Acropolis.

The next morning we woke up, had breakfast, and took the subway to the airport. Fifteen or so hours after getting on a plane in Athens, we arrived back at home. We got married, we didn't get sunburned once, and we took over 1600 photos: all in all, a successful trip. I hope you enjoyed following along!



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Sifnos day 3 (09/11/2009)

In the morning we went out to buy some pottery souvenirs for friends and family (Sifnos is known for its pottery) -- we experienced one of the only true language barriers during our entire trip at the pottery shop, where the proprietors didn't speak any English and we had naturally left our phrasebook back in our apartment. However, we managed to buy what we wanted (ah, the universal language of money).

After lunch at a taverna on the beach in Platys Gialos, we decided to visit a church at the top of a nearby hill. The owner of the place we were staying recommended visiting there, not so much for the church itself but for the view we would have of the surrounding area. She recommended taking a bus to a stop nearby and then walking a kilometer to the church, but we decided to walk the entire way, since there seemed to be a path that led to the church from the main road in Platys Gialos. Well, it was a bit of an adventure as the path was either not clearly marked or no longer fully in existence. After some wrong turns, we got onto a different path that ended up bypassing the church but was still very beautiful. The entire valley was redolent of wild oregano and thyme. We eventually got to the church by way of the main road (here's a panoramic view of the area from the church), and then got lost again trying to get back down the hill to Platys Gialos. Eventually we made it back just as it started to rain.

We had been planning to take a swim in the ocean afterwards, but the rain turned into a thunderstorm and we decided to stay in and take a nap instead. The thunder, lightning, and torrential rain continued into the evening -- very unusual for the Greek islands at this time of year. We had planned to go into Apollonia for our last night but the weather was so bad (and we misread the bus schedule) that we decided to stay in Platys Gialos instead. We ate dinner at a local fish restaurant where I got to go into the kitchen and pick out what fish I wanted to be cooked for me -- it was expensive but a good meal. There were some ridiculously cute kittens at the restaurant putting on quite a show of begging.



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Sifnos day 2 (09/10/2009)

We started the day by returning to Lazarou, this time with our swimsuits and beach gear. We had discovered the day before that they had free beach chairs and umbrellas (at every other beach you have to pay 7 euros), and we loved the location. We went for a swim and once again were glad we had our water shoes (thanks, Gigi!) because it was pretty rocky. We were even able to swim into a secret sea cave!

After lunch we got on the bus and rode to Chrysopigi, a famous church perched on a tiny island right off the coast (like, *right* off the coast...maybe 10 feet?). It was actually pretty busy there, with the priest in attendance speaking with visitors and women kissing the icons on the walls. It's a small church and I kind of felt like we were intruding -- we didn't linger too long.

We had decided earlier in the day that we would spend the afternoon walking to various beaches along the coast and swimming, but alas, the weather was not great. It was overcast and windy, so we did the walking but skipped the swim at the first two beaches we came to (Apokofto and Faros). By the time we got to the third beach (Fasoulou), though, we were hot enough to jump in the water. Fasoulou is allegedly a nude beach, although this seemed surprising to us as there's an outdoor taverna right there. Needless to say, we kept our bathing suits on. After our swim, we met an extremely enthusiastic little girl who showed us some gymnastic maneuvers on the beach. And then it started to rain, so we decided to head back to Faros to wait for the bus in a taverna.


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We took the bus to Artemonas, which is a small "suburb" of Apollonia, the main town. We had thought we might have dinner there, but there wasn't much action, so we walked back to Apollonia (downhill, fortunately) and ate at a taverna there, after which we headed back home to Platys Gialos on the bus. (The last bus leaves at 11 pm, so there's not much opportunity for late-night lingering unless you take a taxi.)



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Sifnos day 1 (09/09/2009)

We were really excited to finally be on Sifnos because our entire trip was more or less planned around when we could get a fast ferry there (as opposed to the slow ferry that takes 8 hours... no thanks!). So, we managed to pack in quite a bit in the three days we were there.

On our first day there, we started by walking over a steep hill at the end of Platys Gialos, where we were staying -- Gigi had recommended a place on the other side of the hill called Lazarou. What we found was an amazing waterside cafe/bar that went down the hill on several levels, with the bottom level right on the water. The place was practically deserted, probably because it was getting late in the season for tourists. They were getting set up for a big wedding reception being held there that evening (we had overheard some of the participants talking about it at dinner the night before, and our downstairs neighbors were also involved in the wedding -- it seemed like everywhere we went, we couldn't get away from this wedding). We had lunch at Lazarou and promised the friendly waitress/cook/owner that we would be back the next day to take advantage of their free beach chairs and go swimming.


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In the afternoon we took the bus into Apollonia (the central town on Sifnos) and did some sightseeing there. From Apollonia we walked on an ancient marble path across olive groves to the Kastro (a medieval Venetian town like on Naxos). The path wasn't very well marked and turned into a dirt path after a while, and eventually we got lost and ended up tramping through some pastures. It took us a bit longer to get to the Kastro as a result, but the scenery was still beautiful, and it wasn't too hot. We walked around the Kastro and met a million friendly cats (who were clearly all related -- funny). After it got dark we took the bus back to Apollonia, had dinner and a stroll, then took a bus back "home" to Platys Gialos.




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Santorini to Sifnos (09/08/2009)

On our last day in Santorini (Tuesday, September 8), our ferry to Sifnos didn't leave until 5:30 pm, which gave us plenty of time for a little more sightseeing. We had decided we'd like to go back to Oia, so we could see it a little better without the mad rush and crowds for sunset viewing. The weather was variable -- sprinkling one minute and sunny the next, with lots of wind. But we had a really nice afternoon in Oia, including lunch at an outdoor taverna overlooking the caldera. We made it back to the hotel with no problems, picked up our bags and said goodbye to Panos, our wedding coordinator.

The driver who took us to the ferry port told us about the cruise ship that crashed and sank into the caldera in 2007 -- we had noticed that the area was still marked off as if there were an oil spill and asked what was going on. They had recently brought in a company to drain the oil out of the ship, which sank almost 200 meters and will be there forever. You can read more about it here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MS_Sea_Diamond or see videos of it here: http://bit.ly/4i8aZF. (After hearing that story, you can bet I paid extra-close attention to the safety video on the ferry...I even had a plan for how I would remove the memory card from our camera and take it with me from the sinking ship, thus saving all our photos.) I don't think the Wikipedia entry has been updated for a while, because our driver told us that the two people who were supposedly missing later turned out to be running a scam for the insurance payoff.

Don't worry, though, we made it to Sifnos just fine, although a little late. The owner of the place we had booked met us at the port in Sifnos and gave us a nice tour of the island on the drive back (even though it was dark). We dropped our stuff off at our place (more like an apartment than a room or suite), and headed out to get some dinner. It was a big adjustment coming from Santorini, which was so crowded and touristy, to Sifnos, which seemed practically empty. The village where we were staying Platys Gialos, seemed like a ghost town! We had a quiet dinner at a taverna on the beach and then enjoyed the rest of the evening on the balcony of our place.



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Santorini day 2 (09/07/2009)

We started the day with a trip to another beach -- this one in Perissa, further down the coast from Kamari. This beach was also lava rock, but finer sand rather than pebbles. (Still pretty hot!) I liked this beach better than Kamari because it seemed less touristy. Everything was on a smaller scale. We stayed on the beach until mid-afternoon and then headed back to Fira for some more of that delicious ice cream (this time we had both fig and mastic-flavored scoops).

From Fira we took a bus to Oia, on the northern tip of the island. It's known for its fantastic sunset views -- known a little too well, in our opinion. The narrow lanes and steps there were completely mobbed with other sunset viewers. The streets were also crowded with dogs -- not strays, because they had collars. It seems dogs just get to run loose in the streets of Oia. (It's not very dangerous because most of the "streets" are pedestrian-only paths and stairs.) People put out bowls of water and kibble for them -- sounds like a nice life! We enjoyed the sunset but decided we'd like to come back to Oia the next day to see the town a little better without all the crowds.


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We took an extremely crowded bus ride back to Firostefani, during which we got to know our fellow travelers extremely well. (Carl struck up a conversation with an Aussie guy, while I was squeezed in next to some Japanese girls.) We had a delicious dinner at a traditional taverna near our hotel and headed back for an early night since it was actually very windy and chilly.



Click here for more photos from Santorini, day 2!