Well, the weather wasn't quite as hot as we expected and was quite breezy so we were a little chilly/had to keep rewearing pants and sweaters during our stay. We came to find out that we were there the last week of the "travel season" and most of the shops and hotels were preparing to close on Sunday (the day after we left). I'm glad we made it in time! When we checked in, we found out we got upgraded (from the triple room) to the cave suite with a huge attached deck and jacuzzi tub. Nice! The lady that checked us in didn't mention anything about the jacuzzi (how to use it or if it was heated) so I asked the owner the next morning how it worked (since it was kind of too cold to use the pool, using the hot tub would be awesome!). However, the owner told us they had already closed the hot tub down for the season and got very defensive saying that we were lucky to be upgraded to that room that was like 4 times as much (and showed me the prices). And that they couldn't fit the crib in our room and knew that we were a family so they thought the extra room would be handy for us. I tried to explain that we were very appreciative and were just asking because we didn't know/the lady that checked us in didn't say anything about the hot tub. Whoa, whoa, whoa... :) We interacted with her more over the three days and got in her good graces again and got along with her really well after (I think she realized we weren't complaining and that we really were appreciative). She always gave the kids candy and we met her 12yr old daughter (she also has a 10yr old son). They are taking a trip to London here soon so we talked about where they were planning to go, etc. and her daughter was in the parade that day carrying a flag (because she had the highest marks in her class).
The breakfast every morning was very good and included all of these homemade sweet breads, cookies and several other dishes like a spinach and cheese spanakopita and feta and olive breakfast pizza! Delicious! I love how many sweet things they have in their Greek breakfasts!
Eating breakfast in the garden under the pomegranate tree:
Checking out the pool area (hoping maybe Fri. will be warm enough for a swim). Whoops!
Check out this cool domed cave suite! The walls are really thick and it is built into the rocks.
Nice private deck and outdoor table:
Ha, our cold shut down jacuzzi tempting us:
Elephant shower head! Check out the rock sticking out on the right-very cool!
Walking the 5-10min. into Fira on the paths between the houses. Much safer than the cliff side paths in Oia but you just have to watch out for motorcycles speeding through on the paths. A motorcycle would definitely be the best way to get around in this town!
Today (Wednesday) was a Greek National holiday so everyone was off of work and school and they had a local parade and celebration in the main square of Fira. It was so neat to see the locals beaming with pride for Greece and see all of the little kids dressed in the traditional Greek attire:
Lots of different school classes of all different ages marching as well:
Some spectators:
Fierce looking Greek Air Force bringing up the rear:
What IS this thing? Almost a foot long! We amused ourselves by trying to feed it a fry and some lamb from our gyro and watched it pounce on it and hinge its head back to try and eat it:
That night we asked the girl that checked us in for some recommendations for reasonably priced good restaurants in Fira and Oia (and how to get to Oia). She gave us some great suggestions and printed us the bus schedule for Oia for tomorrow and also suggested going to Santo Wines for the sunset one day. We headed to one of the restaurants in Fira that she recommended called Naoussa. It was a great tip-we loved it!! There was a Greek family eating there that was super friendly and came and talked to us and the kids made eyes at their baby. It was fun to watch this boisterous Greek family and everyone in the family doting over this baby (probably around 1yr. old). One of the waiters kept coming over and playing with Hailey--playing peekaboo, tapping her shoulder, making her laugh... He really took a liking to her. It was just fun to be in this super friendly establishment where the kids were appreciated and could be loud. He told us that we had a beautiful family. The food was really good--I got a lemon chicken dish with pasta and Chris got a whole fish and rice.
Here's Hailey with her massive spoon:
We had fun slurping our noodles:
Tried a few local beers and "got our Fix." The Fix was Chris and I's favorite:
No comments:
Post a Comment