Onward, Spartans! Our Adventures in Santorini

Kalispera! We're back from the beautiful island of Santorini and be afraid, be very afraid.... we've taken over two thousand photos so my next few posts are going to be very long and image heavy!

Part of the Greek Cyclades, in ancient times the island was known as Strongili (the Greek word for round, the original shape of the island) and later Thera (after the invading Spartan ruler, Theras) before finally christened Santorini,  after the early Christian heroine, Santa Irini (Saint Irene). The island was the only place outside of Crete known to have had a Minoan civilisation with archaeological discoveries dating back to 3600 BC. In 1600 BC a catastrophic volcano destroyed the island, sinking a large part of it. Colonised by the Spartans, the Phoenicians, the Byzantines and the Romans, it's now said that Santorini has been invaded by billions of cruise ship passengers and Instagram w*nkers. It also has the dubious reputation of being one of the most expensive islands in all of Greece. So, how did we fare with the mass tourism and crazy prices?

Two days after getting back from Corfu I found two return flights with Jet2 from Birmingham to Fira for £199 each - not bad considering that in Greece September is still considered to be peak tourist season. After extensive research (travel forums, YouTube videos, Facebook groups, the Rough Guide, the Lonely Planet and an ancient copy of Lawrence Durrell's The Greek Islands), we decided to stay in Perissa, a town on the opposite side of the island to the infamous, super-expensive tourist hot spots centred around the caldera. 

Built in the 1960s, Perissa is very much a fully fledged tourist resort consisting of two main streets dotted with tavernas, bars and shops, nestled in the shadow of huge craggy mountains and edged with a 7 km stretch of black sand beach. It wasn't the most exciting option but to afford to stay for a fortnight we had to be prepared to make a few compromises. The accomodation in some of the places I looked at cost over £5,000 a night! 

The Church of the Holy Cross in the main square in one of the largest churches on the island, built in 1835 but reconstructed after the devastating earthquake of 1956.

Behind the church, at the foot of the Mesa Vouno mountain are the ruins of an ancient Christian basilica dedicated to Agia Irina and believed to date to the 4th Century AD. 

As is usual in Greece, there's rarely any information displayed beside these ancient sites and access is usually impossible.

Perissa is well served by public transport, with frequent - and very cheap - buses to the island's principal town of Fira as well as a land train and a water taxi, which drops people off at Kamari, a popular beach resort on the other side of the mountain.

Located on a dirt track off the main road in a residential area, our base for the duration of the trip was  Apollo Rooms, built in the traditional Cycladic style and divided into six apartments, with Zoe, the owner, occupying one and her 20 year old grandson in another. The other guests were French. Basic, comfortable, immaculately clean and with masses of outdoor space, they were perfect for us and, at just £30 a night, remarkably good value considering Santorini's reputation. As usual I found Apollo via Booking.com

We've no interest in staying in posh hotels when we travel preferring small, locally run apartments. Zoe was the kindest, sweetest host and made us feel like we were part of her family.  From our balcony we watched people going about their everyday business - watering their crops, feeding their cats & horses, walking their dogs, hanging out their washing & doing DIY.  

At first sight, Santorini is monochrome and arid with none of the lush greenery we're used to in Corfu and, unlike most islands, you can't drink the water. Fortunately a case of 6 x 1 litre bottles of water is a very reasonable €1.90 although pretty hellish having to carry a case home every day in 30°C , as the supermarket was a 20 minute walk away! 

 It's fascinating to see tomatoes growing in volcanic soil. 

Grapes are pruned into basket shapes to protect against wind damage 

Ominous clouds! Although the weather was mostly hot, hot, hot we had a thunderstorm, a few drops of rain and - shock horror - within two days of our arrival we experienced an earthquake! Not a very big one (3.4, I think) but pretty memorable nevertheless.

There were crates of home grown sun-dried figs on our terrace from which Zoe invited us to help ourselves. They were perfect with our daily breakfast of locally grown grapes, apricots and nectarines along with spoonfuls of deliciously decadent full fat Greek yoghurt which we bought from the supermarket she recommended (and even drove us to on our first day!) Its frequented by the locals rather than significantly pricier Carrefour on the main tourist strip. 

Forget swim-up pool bars, sunbeds, gyms and Wi- fi, all I want from my holiday accommodation is a comfy bed, a decent shower, a fridge, outside space and somewhere to hang my clothes.

Oh yeah and check out the sunrise! Never mind those Instagrammable sunsets on the other side of the island, competing with tens of thousands of cruise-shippers, celebrities and influencers for the perfect pouty selfie. Here's Homer's rosy fingered dawn from the privacy of our very own balcony.

A large portion of Perissa's famous Black Beach is given over to sunbeds. A pair plus an umbrella cost around €20 a day or free if you spent a certain amount on food on drink, not that we bothered with them. We prefer our own space, lying on a blanket on the sand or technically, the tiny black pebbles and pumice stones, surprisingly comfy although incredibly hot on your bare feet! Access to the sea can be tricky because of the slabs of lava lurking below the surface but we found a good spot which was rock-free, very popular after 5pm and at weekends with Greek families and the local fishermen.

Needless to say, we swam in that gorgeous sea every day. 

We're creatures of habit so in Greece our lunch is eaten at 2pm and is always salad, bread and beer. On Santorini, a Greek salad always includes capers. A Santorinian salad is made from the local brine-soaked goats cheese and has rocket, rusks and Santorini cherry tomatoes - the best tomatoes you will ever eat - more on them in a future post! 

A bowl of salad to share, two pittas or local bread and two large draught beers (Mythos, Alpha or Fix) cost an average of €22 - even in Fira. No dearer than we've paid in Corfu, Halkidiki or Athens this year.  

After a couple of days of beachlife we were refreshed and ready to start exploring the island. With the Meltemi - the seasonal Greek winds - making an early appearance (as you can see from the video above!) the 30°C heat had cooled down enough for us to consider negotiating the 365 metre Mesa Vouno mountain and exploring Ancient Thera. 

Be warned - Ancient Thera was built as a fortress by the Spartans so the ascent was never intended to be easy! With no discernable path and a sheer drop below, we passed several walkers who'd admitted defeat and turned back but, spurred on by the words of Tyrtaeus, Rise up, warriors, take your stand at one another’s sides, our feet set wide and rooted like oaks in the ground! we conquered the mountain and reached its summit fifty minutes later albeit windblown and very sweaty. We handed over our joint €12 admission fee and entered the site, following in the footsteps of those fierceless Spartans.

Here's what my guidebook says: With its steep slopes offering natural fortification, this strategic position proved the ideal place for the Spartan colonists who arrived in the 8th Century BC to build their town. Thera was taken over by Ptolemaic dynasty in the 4th Century BC becoming the naval and military base of Egypt. Thera's decline began at the end of the 3rd Century AD, when the residents gradually moved to the coasts of the island as they offered a more convenient everyday life.

The excavations in Mesa Vouno Mountain were started in 1896 by a German baron and continued in 1961 by Greek archaeologists, revealed a settlement of the Hellenistic Period. There was a main paved road, many smaller paths and a drainage system. The public buildings were made of limestone, whereas the private ones of small, unsymmetrical stones. Two cemeteries, a theatre, markets, pagan temples, Christian churches, baths and more public buildings have also been discovered and indicate a sophisticated society where religion played an important role. Thera was the religious and commercial centre of the island.

Art wasn’t vastly cultivated since the Spartans were conservative people that didn’t encourage the development of arts and education. However, the archaeological excavations revealed remarkable artifacts of ceramics and sculpture. Thera was one of the first places to adopt the Phoenician alphabet as the basis of Greek writing. 

You need to be pretty fit to reach Ancient Thera from Perissa but, from Kamari, the village on the other side of the mountain, it's possible to drive halfway and hike the rest of the way. The relative inaccessibility does mean that its blissfully quiet and very much not on the cruise ship/ coach trip schedule.

You can't help but wonder how many weaklings got thrown off that cliff by those ruthless Spartans (and that would probably have included me, pre-hip replacement!)

We were pleased to discover a kiosk outside the main entrance and treated ourselves to a delicious, ice cold Volkan, a Santorinian lava-filtered blonde beer. Listen to that bloody wind! 

Perissa's nightlife is relatively low key & laid back and after a summer of late nights, drinking & dancing and live music, that's just the way we wanted it. 

We'd stay on the beach until 6.30pm and, after showers & a quick change, we'd start the evening with a leisurely rum on the balcony. 

There are three bars on the main road set behind the beach and, as they serve cheap booze and have big screen TV, were very popular with the British. We'd occasionally pop into Bob's for an early beer, which looked the best of the bunch (and had a cat who spent most of his time walking up and down the bar and had an unhealthy fascination with my maxi dresses). There were a couple of lovely tavernas on the same road but the endless traffic noise did tend to grate after a while. 

The beach front tavernas were slightly more expensive but not ridiculously so. Here the clientele was more cosmopolitan being predominantly European but with quite a lot of Americans & Japanese visitors as well as lots and lots of gorgeous Greek cats - and, mercifully, the road closed to traffic after 5pm. For dinner we'd share a half litre of house red and a plate of mezes becoming seriously addicted to the Santorini tomato fritters. Occasionally, if Jon fancied meat (souvlaki or kleftiko), I'd have briam (veg stew, similar to ratatouille), gemista (stuffed tomatoes and peppers) or a vegetarian moussaka (made with veg, not meat substitute). 

Dinner for two would cost between €28 - €35.

Grilled mushrooms,

Oven baked feta, 

Tomato fritters,

Pork souvlaki,

Saganaki, 

Gemista, 

Fava (yellow split pea pate), 

Lamb Kleftiko,

Briam, 

Fava and tomato fritters, 

Vegetable moussaka and skewered lamb. 

There's more, there's much more. Stay tuned, if you dare!

Thanks for reading & see you very soon.