Donkeys and Santo Wine

After lunch, brilliant me suggested that Vi and I take the 2 hour, scenic cliff side walking path to the town of Fira. It wasn’t long before we inadvertently veered off the path and was faced by even more gusty winds than this morning and fast moving traffic. Damn, the plan seemed simple enough. After spotting a bus stop and a half broken bench, we decided to go with plan B and take the bus into town. Sitting..waiting…wondering when this bus will ever come…. Ok, maybe it’s only been 5 minutes, but 5 minutes feels like forever when you start feeling like Forest Gump. My momma always said… take a freakin’ taxi, which is what we decided to do.

After about a 15 minute cab ride, we ended up in Fira. It’s amazing how in 15 minutes we can go from a luxurious oasis like Oia to a touristy, generic feeling town like Fira. Shops filled with t-shirts and trinkets line the streets crowded with tourists from the docking cruise ships below. It reminded me if Pier 39, but a bit more run down. It’s entertaining to walk around, but I’m glad we didn’t choose to stay here.

Vi and I ended up doing the quintessential tourist thing of riding the tram down the cliffside and then taking a $5 euro donkey ride back to the top. The ‘donkey guy’ was really rude and clearly only interested in getting us to the top as quick as possible. Time is money after all. Boy, was I in for a ride. I was terrified of falling off as my donkey jerked up the hill. At times, my leg was just inches from being scraped along the stone wall. Dear god, what have we gotten ourselves into now? Miss Vi actually seemed to be fairing much better than me. I wanted to snap a picture of her on her donkey, only I was certain that if I let off on my death grip, I’d end up on the pooped-smeared steps below. Fun times. Oh Fira, I don’t think I’ll miss you.

{Tram ride down to Old Port}

{Don’t let these nice looking donkeys fool you!}

{Miss Vi seemed to like the donkeys. She was the one who wanted to see the mini donkeys in Santa Barbara after all. Maybe I’m just not a donkey person…}

After our donkey adventure, we decided it was time to part with Fira. We hopped in a cab and set out to Santo Wineries. Here, we share a lovely wine tasting with 6 wines with some cheese, olives, crackers, and Santorini tomato dipping sauce. All of the was just $12.20 euros. That’s a pretty good deal! Overall, I wasn’t all that impressed with the wines. My favorite was the santo wine, which was like a port. It was really sweet, but had some complexity to it, whereas the other wines seemed to have a single note flavor profile. Vi, however, liked the rose, which she ended buying a half bottle of.

{Wine tasting platter}

We headed back to the hotel after the winery, which was about 5 pm. This day has been really long, and we needed this break. I’ve been blogging, and Miss Vi is currently curled up and napping. She looks so comfy. I’m going to have to wake her up in 15 minutes for dinner. (It’s 15 till 8.) Hopefully dinner at Santorini Mou will be a fabulous end to our day, and she’ll forgive me for dragging her out of bed!

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