I arrived very early on Sunday morning -- found the cheapest flight I could -- I left Saturday evening at 9pm and arrived in Athens a little after 1am local time. I spent a few hours sleeping in the Athens airport before hopping the short 45 minute flight to the island of Santorini and its capital Thira (or Fira). Spotty landing in Thira notwithstanding (we'll blame that on the wind), the flights were easy and uneventful.
Knowing no one else from the wedding group was to arrive until around lunch time, I rented a car for the day and began exploring what I could. It was an unusually humid day on the island, Santorini being one of only two bona fide desert climates in all of Europe. With a layer of low-lying clouds blowing around, much of the high ground on the island was socked in. While the island was larger than expected, I managed to drive most of the main roads and explore a few of the villages by car (think extremely narrow one-way streets!) by lunchtime. For breakfast I wandered into a seaside cafe for a traditional Greek pastry, coffee, and a fresh fruit salad. This was the start of the incredible meals we would enjoy for the week.
Around lunchtime, I followed the instructions provided by our hosts to the villa in Firostefani. Actually, we had two connected villas -- one with a pool, the other with a jacuzzi. And both had plenty of outdoor space, seating, and dramatic views. As people trickled in throughout the afternoon, we all got to know each other (only one other law school friend other than the groom came, the rest were friends from the law firm, high school, and college) over some local Santorini white wine. The night culminated with a traditional Mediteranean dinner -- lamb, feta, pita, olives, etc.
The next day a few of my new friends invited me to join them on a wine tour of the island. We visited three wineries and learned a considerable amount of the history of wine on Santorini (and a little bit about the history of wine generally). We took this opportunity to stock up for the week on a few we liked. The vineyards on Santorini are not aesthetically impressive -- the grapes are not strung along vines, but rather are wrapped in circles on the ground to avoid the effect of the heat and wind. The grapes grow the the middle of the wrapped circle, shielded by their leaves. Combined with the loose, rocky soil, it makes the vineyard look like a shrub-filled desert wasteland. Regardless, the wines were a delicious and welcome addition to this trip.
We returned to the villa and gathered the rest of our friends, welcoming those who arrived on Monday. Again, a nice traditional Greek dinner with plenty of wine capped the evening.
For Tuesday, the bride's family treated all 27 wedding guests (that includes the bride and groom) to a cruise around the island. The Aegean's reputation for the bluest water in the world didn't disappoint. Amazingly, a combination of the volcanic rock, lack of sea life (sadly due to overfishing), and a lack of any tides (not sure what causes this, I need to do some research) create a purity of color beyond words. On the cruise, we visited the volcanic island which Santorini's Caldera (cliffs) overlooks. We took a dip in hot springs just off that volcanic island. And we anchored for a bountiful Mediterranean lunch on the cliffs below the picturesque town of Oia. After the cruise, the groom's family gathered everyone for the rehearsal dinner on the beach in a restaurant which was entirely built from small rocks found on the beach. Again, a great spread of food including fava beans, traditional greek meatballs, fried locally grown tomatoes, olives, feta, fried sardines, etc.
Wednesday was the wedding day, scheduled for around sunset. Most of us spent a lazy day at the villa, enjoying the beautiful weather and a book with brief excursions into the main island town of Fira for a gyro. The wedding was storybook. Just before sunset, the bride and groom arrived riding up the cliffs through the town of Fira on donkeys with a Greek band and small procession behind. Their vows were exchanged in a secular service at sunset with the bride's mother as officiant. The food was incredible and the company even better. And then we all danced the night away.
Thursday morning was spent recovering. In my vacation tradition, I woke up well before the rest of the group and spent the remainder of the morning reading/napping with a view overlooking the cliffs, volcano, and Aegean. Once a quorum was gathered, I had an amazing waffle breakfast (somehow the invention of the waffle is related to Greece, but I forget how) with strawberries, bananas, and whipped cream (okay, more like dessert than breakfast). A few of us including the bride and groom rented ATVs for a trip to the red sand beach of Kamari (more like black, but the sand wasn't as black as the black-sand beach of Perissa also on the island, so they got creative with the name). After a few hours on the beach and a few dips in the Aegean, we took the ATVs for a cruise around the island, through the lowlands, wrapping to the cliffs above. After a brief sojourn into the town of Oia, we cruised the high cliffs, arriving back to the villa in time for one last spectacular sunset. A dramatic conclusion to an incredible vacation.
