Nina von Kalckreuth
When you talk about Santorini, many have a picture in mind: a bright white city with turquoise-blue domes, the sea and breathtaking sunsets. I had also heard a few things before, so we decided to take a look at the famous Greek island - in winter.
At night we arrived from Athens after a ten hour ride on the "Anek" ferry. We could have saved the long journey time by booking the fast ferry for seven hours - but since we didn't want to be at the port in Piraeus at six o'clock in the morning, we accepted the mess. We used the time to snack on our last supplies from the market, watch films or enjoy the sun outside on the deck. Since we had a constant appetite since our arrival in Greece, we tried the canteen food on the ship and were completely surprised:giovetsi“, A typical Greek dish with small pasta that looks like thick rice grains with the tender lamb and the sauce was incredibly delicious!
Santorini itself, some warned us beforehand, is very expensive. A small apartment can cost several hundred euros, especially in high season. But since we were completely out of season in March, we got a large apartment with kitchen and terrace for four people for € 200 and four nights. From the bus stop "Santorini mou“We were picked up by a nice Greek who led us through the winding white alleys to our little paradise.
Of course we also wanted to examine the panorama of the city which, as it turns out, is at the northernmost point in "Oia”Or as the Greeks say“ Ia ”. We walked ten minutes from our apartment in Finikia and were really impressed by the beauty of the buildings with bright colors. We found a nice viewpoint and looked around the area. There we were surprised to find that almost the entire city was still in hibernation and the emptiness and silence was only interrupted by the many construction workers who restored the houses and shops.
In a clothing store, we talked to the owner, who we learned was the mayor of Oia. He explained the situation to us: the construction work went on until 15. March, since by 1. April the city would be made squeaky clean for the tourist rush that would then begin, because from then on everything in Santorini revolved around tourism. Until then, however, we had another permanent society to bridge the emptiness of the city: cats. To my extraordinary enthusiasm, the colony of cats spread to our finca. But a real paradise for cat lovers!
Since activities in Santorini were limited at that time, we also did one Hike from Fira to Oia, which took about 2-3 hours. This led through the city and across the volcanic landscape - a really great way!
Despite the low season, there were still some visitors who gave us a foretaste of the madness in the summer: in addition to construction workers, women in glittering ball gowns and men in suits running around the city with a photographer, or families who were walking around in the empty city went to the lookout in the “mustard-yellow motto” in partner look to also take the perfect photo for the family greeting card for Christmas. Another variant were the selfie ladies and gentlemen - they seemed to hang like a stuck record in the same process: straighten hair, take selfie position, adjust angle, shoot photo, examine artwork, repeat (about 30 times).
On the day of departure we had to kill about ten hours because our ferry to Athens didn't leave until 23pm. We used the day in Fira with our ex-Rasta friend "Lucky's Souflakis“Eating the delicious meat fresh from the grill, washing clothes and enjoying the sea in the sun and wind. In the evening we went to a sweet Greek restaurant, "Triana Restaurant Fira“, Which caught our attention a few days earlier: here there was traditional Greek cuisine with a new, young owner, Spiros. This took care of us and we drank wine, ate delicious appetizers and Greek dishes, which were definitely all freshly prepared, because you could taste it. So we were lucky and finally found an authentic Greek restaurant that also had local food and we didn't fall into the typical tourist trap with ready-made meals.
Our vacation in March was therefore not the complete and classic Santorini package, because we had to accept few activities on the island, with construction sites and flying plastic bags (there were many of them here). On the other hand, however, we had affordable prices, an affordable apartment, and a vacation where we could look behind the scenes without tourists in the image of the famous city.
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