Santorini's Mini Church Tour
Post date: 19-Sep-2009 13:36:47
On Sunday, Sept 13, 2009 Colin and I took the ferry from Kos to Santorini. We were lucky enough to have the 3 Irish girls from our sailing trip share their sleeper cabin with us. We had a great 4 hours of sleep on the way over. We checked into the Princess Santorini Villa which is the nicest hostel we've ever stayed in. I forgot to do our dishes after breakfast one day and when we came back they were already done for us. We are in room 13 and checked in on the 13th so it's a good thing we are not superstitious.
We arrived early enough to watch the sunrise on the Perissa Beach. The beach has a beautiful black sesame seed size sand and larger black and white rocks. The white volcanic rocks are exremely light.
Colin met a friend on the beach and named him Bruce. They had a great nap together. We bought Bruce some dog food but when we came back to the beach he was gone. There are many many stray dogs and cats all over Greece. In order to find one all you need to do is eat at an outdoor restaurant. As soon as you have food a pair of large "Puss in Boots" eyes will soon be starring up at you. Colin and I could not resist. We have fed the dogs goat, shrimp, snapper and various other types of seafood that we have had in Greece.
The other great food related note about Greece is that in addition to finding, souvlaki, gyros and Greek salad on every corner, you are also never far from a 24 hour bakery serving all the wonderful desserts baklava, kataifi, yoghurt with honey (I do not usually eat yoghurt but I will never eat plain yoghurt again).
We also visited the famous Red Beach which has the same white lava rocks as Perissa but they are
red. They feel so fragile in your hand that you think it will be crushed. On our way to
Red Beach and riving around the island, we saw tons of mini churches. The mini churches are located all over tiny islands in Greece. I saw them in Samos, Leros, Lipsi and many of the other islands we visited on the sailing trip. Some of the mini churches have doors and windows while others are completely open. Some are at the road level and others are on poles at eye level. These chruches contains pictures and other regligous memorbalia to remember a loved one that has passed away. I could spend all day driving around the island and pulling over at each chruch to admire it. I am sure Colin grew really tired of me constantly saying "Stop here, go back, turn around I spotted another shrine. I am not religious, but if I die, I want Colin to make a miniature church or house to remember me. It could have a rubber duck on the outside too.
Here's a cool map of our travels this day with a few more pics if you click on the pin-points.
And for the devoted family members who will enjoy all 211 of the pics, here they are: