Santorini - we are back

We visited Santorini three years ago and had a nice time there. We stayed in Kamari, a small town on the beach with a street by the beach full of restaurants, hotels and shops. Luckily we stayed in a lovely hotel Anthena on a slope going up to the hill. We discovered Perissa beach, a relatively quiet beach where we can relax and have a good swim. I remember getting the first boat out to Perissa every morning, the beach umbrellas made of hay swaying gently in the wind and watching sunset in a restaurant on the beach. Oia was a bit overrated, watching the sunset in the sea with hundreds of people is not my type of romantic experience.

We decided to come back and stay in Perissa for a week this time. We booked Zorzis hotel based on recommendations from tripadvisor. It turns out to be a lovely place to say. The rooms are small, but with balcony and a nice pool and lush plants and flowers around, it is a very enjoyable place. I especially enjoyed the evenings we came back from our dinner, the hotel owner Spiros would invite us to join him for a glass of wine, sitting in the courtyard and chatting into the night. He was a captain on trade ships going around the world. Under the dark blue sky dotted with bright yellow stars, he started telling us about his first love. It was Roseline, she is an English girl, they met when she was 20 and he was only 19 working as a sailor. "She was a good girl", he said in a deep and gentle voice, his eyes looking into the distance, "I loved her, We were together for four years. she wanted to get married, but you know when you were only 19 and had no money, this was not possible." I sensed the sadness spreading, like a delicate flower dropping from the tree, only a light sweet aroma still lingering in the air.

Perissa seems to be a little quieter than last time we visited three years ago. We were surprised to learn from Spiros that there is no main water supply system here in town, so water is brought in by a lorry every week to all hotels and houses. There does not seem to be much urban planning either, I guess anyone can buy a piece of land and build a house. It is a beautiful town by the beach, with better planning it would look much more attractive than it does today. There are quite a few cats gathering outside the house in the afternoon when the owner put out food for them, apparently in the winter time, there are only a few hotel/restaurants staying open, so the number of cats increase by two fold. We had a rather lazy time there, I did a few sketches, a first attempt in my life, and I was quite pleased with the result. I read the novel "one day" and found it slightly disappointing as it is a bit too predictable as one of my friends warned. I read the Obama book "the dreams of my father". I only picked it up from a pile of books left by the hotel guests. To my own surprise, I was quite drawn into the book, especially the part about his childhood.

The Economic situation in Greece is pretty dire, people worry about putting money in the banks because they think it is highly likely the government will pull out from Euro zone and they will be issued with local currency replacing the Euros they saved in the bank. And of course high inflation is the only to get out of the deep debt. This year, there are very few people from Atheners coming to Santorini. Spiros is worried the Italians might stop coming next year judging from their economy. We assured him the British would still come, well, given the rainy weather we have in Britain, we have to come here to soak up the sun - for our sanity really. We found a few nice restaurants in Perissa, the gods garden and the volcanos are the best ones. I like greek food, it is honest, fresh and good hearty good, the trick is not to indulge yourself too much...The greek are nice people too, they have a relaxed attitude towards life, and I really hope they will pull through this crisis.