THE HIKE FROM IA TO FIRABefore we left I had printed a bunch of hikes, for both Santorini and Folegandros, from this website:http://www.cycladen.be/IntroductionEng.htm. It was great. The hikes were extremely detailed in the directions and gave you an idea of what you were hiking by.
We intended to be up and hiking by 8. However, I woke up at 7:30(I adjusted to the time difference immediately) and let Josh sleep in for another 45 minutes. I was lucky this morning and was able to get one leg shaved before the water turned cold! We still got out the door by 9. We decided to do the hike from Ia to Fira. It said it would take 2 ½ hours and we anticipated it would be more scenic than strenuous. Boy, were we wrong. We were going up and down mountains. There were stone paths at some places, but most of it was dirt or hiking through a bit of rock. There were some absolutely beautiful views along the way and we passed a bunch of old churches. One church near Fira was very stunning. We went up close to get pictures and I was quite startled when I realized the Greek man sitting on the church was not a statue, but a real person staring at me silently.
We saw people during the first and last ½ hours of the trip, but were completely by ourselves on during the middle portion of the hike. The sun was going in and out and I can’t imagine how hot it would be during the heat of summer.
It was neat to come into Fira from this way as we got to see a lot of the resorts and restaurants we wouldn’t have seen otherwise. There was a group of private houses in a resort like setting that were absolutely gorgeous.LUNCH IN FIRA AND FERRIES
Once we got into Fira, we grabbed a quick bite to eat before getting on the bus to check out the wineries. We each got a spinach pie that seemed to fill us up at the Bakery next to the Toast Club on the main street, not too far from the bus stop.We then decided to go ahead and buy our ferry tickets to Folegandros. (You can’t get them in Ia, only Fira.) That was simple enough and the tickets were only 7 euros a person for the 3 hour ride. We tried to get our tickets for Sunday also, but were a little shocked when they told us that there were no ferries that day – Only Saturday or Monday. I got out my trusty printouts that I had brought with the schedule for Sunday. The lady shrugged and said it must have been cancelled. We decided to try somewhere else tomorrow and see if we got a different story.
WINERIES, ETC.After rejuvenating ourselves, we hopped on a bus to Kamari, as the map looked like it should put us in the vicinity of Canaves Roussos. True to form, we missed the stop and saw the winery on the right as we buzzed by. Somehow we got our point across to the bus attendant and he told us we could stay on the bus and he would drop us off on the way back. It worked out, because we were able to see the little town by Kamari Beach where there were quite a bit of hotels and beachgoers. This town seemed much different than the other two. They had a lot of outdoor restaurants.
During our bus ride, we had a group of Greek teenagers behind us. They brought their own boom box and played music and danced during the whole ride. They were obviously regulars on the bus. I was sitting there thinking, “man Greeks have an artist that sounds just like Jay-Z”. Then I realized it was. I don’t know if these kids spoke any English but it was hilarious hearing them sing along to pretty inappropriate hip-hop songs and wonder if they have any idea what they are saying.Canaves Roussos has a small cave like room that you can go and guide yourself through. There are some explanatory signs that tell you what you are looking out and printouts in several languages. We looked around for a few minutes and then came back out to the tasting bar. I believe there were 7 wines that you could taste for 1 euro each. I tried the Niktori, which was a fairly good dry white and the Athiri which was a semi-sweet white rose. The latter was way too sweet for me. The terrace where they serve you is extremely peaceful. A lot of vines were growing overhead on the terraces and quiet spa-like music played in the background. We relaxed for a few minutes before making our way to the next destination – Art Space.
We had pieced together maps and directions and had a hard time figuring out exactly where all these places were. The lady at Canaves told us that Art Space was just a minute back down the main street and then off to the left. Once we were on the main street we saw signs that pointed us all the way to Art Space.
Art Space was one of our favorite places during the whole trip. It is a high end art gallery set in a series of cave-like buildings. The owner also makes wine and if I understood him correctly he had the last working pasta sauce making system. I believe he said he uses it for both the wine and the sauce. Don’t quote me on that because he had a very thick accent and I only understood about every other word.
When we first got there we were the only visitors and the Owner, in fact, was trying to fit in some lunch. He explained how busy it is and that it is hard for him to find time to eat. He unlocked the first cave for us and I instantly fell in love with the space. High quality art in a very rustic setting. Only a few minutes after we entered, a group of five Australians showed up. We ended up looking at each of the three rooms with them. The Owner explained that most of the work is from top notch Greek Artists, but that he did have some pieces from a Boston artist who loved painting Greece . The Owner would explain the background of any artist that intrigued you.When I was awestruck with the beauty of the space, I told the Owner how much I loved it. He looked at me carefully, smiled and said, “You have beautiful eyes. (I actually get complimented on my eyes a bit, so I wasn’t too taken back, but then he continued.) Everyone has them, but so few people ever use them.” I thought about the simplicity and truth in what he had said. This set the mood for the rest of my trip – To actually “see” what we were experiencing.
After we were done looking at the art, we were invited to try his wines. We tried the San Vinto, the Nixtori and two grappas. He got a thrill out of seeing me try his double distilled grappa, which was an extremely potent straight alcohol. We hadn’t tried any grappa during our trip, yet, but the other group of folks told us that it was much better than any they had had at the restaurants so far. I bought a bottle of white for only 10 euros and he wrapped it up for us to take. He also gave us some suggestions of places to go in Pyrgos (the last small town on our itinerary for the afternoon), but Josh’s ankle was hurting and we decided to catch the bus.Well, we should have just caught the bus back in front of Canaves Roussos. We decided to walk a little to meet the bus at the next stop. We were passed by the bus coming the other way, so we knew that it would be coming back around in about 15 minutes. We were relieved when we finally found a big blue sign with a red X on it. We had seen those before and assumed it meant bus stop. I looked in my guide book to see if there was an indication as to what bus signs looked like, but nothing. Within a few minutes we saw the bus come, keep going and stop about 50m past us. Hmmmm. We hadn’t found the bus stop. This was not good and the next bus wasn’t scheduled to come for quite some time. We flagged down a taxi and asked him to take us to Fira where we would catch the bus back to Ia. He tried to convince us that we had already missed the Ia bus and to use him all the way back. We decided to take our chances. That was a good choice as the taxi driver was wrong (or lying) and we still had 5 minutes to catch the bus. We were exhausted and headed back to the studio to rest before dinner.
We got back and Josh read (although he said he was taking a nap) while I went into Ia to get on the internet and check the ferry situation. On a side note, when did my husband start reading? In the 7 ½ years that we have been together, I think he has read one book. On this trip he read 3.DINNER AT CONDOUNI
When I returned, we got ready and headed into Ia for dinner. We were amazed at the hordes of people walking towards the end of the village. We made our way over there and saw everyone lining the walks a good hour before sunset. We didn’t want to waste this great lighting and spent most of the time just wandering and getting pictures. We then fought our way into a spot on the castle to watch the sunset. Unfortunately, the sun slipped behind the low horizon clouds and there was no Santorini sunset to watch.
We then headed over to Condouri where I had made reservations earlier in the day when I was doing my internet errand. I wandered into the restaurant and was told to pick my table for the night. I ended up with #4, which I think was the prettiest. It was tucked into the left corner as you entered. When they reserve the table, they reserve it for the whole night. We came in and helped ourselves to our table. I can’t say enough about this restaurant. First it is absolutely beautiful at night – almost magical. I’ve only been to one restaurant that even came close in terms of romantic. I love candlelight, so that probably had a lot to do with it. There were candles everywhere. The walls that enclosed the terrace had alcoves built into them where candles were placed. The old wax dripped down the walls. There wood and fabric awnings over the sides of the outdoor terrace. Absolutely gorgeous. There were four other couples outside with us and a few groups inside. There were enough people there that it was alive, but not so many that we didn’t feel privacy. The closest table of people was a good 15-20 feet away. We ordered the Grilled Houllumi cheese as an appetizer. (I get hungry just thinking about it). They also brought a fava bean dip and caper spread with the bread. I had the penne in a light white cream sauce and Josh had the lamb with mustard sauce. He said that the lamb was the tenderest lamb he has ever eaten. We don’t usually order bottles of wine, but we felt as though this was a special occasion. We took the woman’s advice (I’m guessing she was the Owner’s wife?) and ordered the house white “Condouni” wine. I was a little skeptical why she was pushing the cheapest bottle of wine, but I figured that they must clear more on the house wine. I was wrong. The wine was a delicious semi-sweet white. Not too dry, not too sweet. Josh asked for a taste, but I knew what that meant. He would always ask for a taste, then pucker his face when he sipped it and hand it back. However, for some reason he really liked this one and ended up sharing the bottle with me.
Fira Beach was completely deserted and very peaceful. It was a tiny stone beach with beautiful crystal clear waters. We took the beach for ourselves and spread our lunch out on the rocks. We ate and watched the waves crash on the rocks. A few minutes later we continued to the other side of the small beach where the path to Angali continued. 
After some more hiking, we got to Angali. In the busy season this beach is supposed to be packed because it is the easiest to reach by bus. Obviously, most people don’t take the route through goat pastures and over fences, like we did. We stopped for a few minutes here and decided to keep going towards Agios Nikolas Beach. This was a quite steep climb up and down here. The path was blocked at one point, but we climbed over as we had seen quite a few people head this way and no one had come back. We came across our Swiss friend here, again, and pointed him towards the good beach areas. From the top of this peak, their were gorgeous views down to all the bays. When we had almost reached Agios Nikolas, we found the Terrace restaurant. 
