Discovering Fira

On our first full day in Santorini, we decided to spend the day exploring the two biggest towns, Fira and Oia. 

We left our hotel around 10.30 a.m. after a yummy breakfast of bread, preserves and coffee. Italian and Greek breakfasts seem to be pretty much the same, usually coffee and bread or pastries. Their main meals seem to be lunch and dinner, and we were pretty happy to adopt that diet! 

We were going to spend the morning in Oia, but the bus was too full and didn't let us on when it went past, so we wandered down to spend the morning in Fira instead. Plus, we could get the bus to Oia from there later and it would be empty. 

Fira is the capital of Santorini, and it's also the biggest town on the island. It has lots of shops, so we spent most of the morning wandering around looking at all the different jewellery shops. Santorini has lots of shops full of amazing jewellery made from lava rocks and beads. I bought a LOT of stuff while we were in Greece! 

Greece also has a lot of ornaments and statues, especially of Owls, which is the symbol for wisdom, and seen most frequently with the Goddess Athena, the patron saint of Athens. I love Owls, and we managed to bring home 3 different Owl figurines, including one completely made of lava rock and one made of mosaic. We had to buy a bag in Athens to bring them home! 

Fira is pretty touristy, being the first place the cruise shipper's arrive at when coming off their ships. But it's also really pretty, with winding alleys full of shops and some amazing views over the Caldera.

The view from the trail towards Fira

Another exciting aspect of Greece, for me at least, was the over-abundance of my name EVERYWHERE. There were 3 different Niki jewellery shops, and one restaurant. There's also a whole village in Macedonia called Niki. Usually I never find anything with my name on it, but because my name originates in Greece there was heaps! Nicola means 'Victory for the People' and is based on the legend of Nike, the name of the flying deity that brought the victory or news for victorious events to people.

We didn't actually eat here, we ate across the road at a place recommended by our hotel. Niki Restaurant was really touristy. But I'm sure it was still awesome. Because of the name.

Best view in the house

The amazing grilled vegetables at Argo restaurant

That's what we had for lunch. I left out the starter we had of bread and spreads! Pretty sure we gained about 2kg each in a week.

We pretty much had the restaurant to ourselves, and the food was fantastic. Plus it had an awesome view of the Volcano and the Caldera.