Santorini: Day 3

                Continuing on with Day 3 of Santorini- I couldn’t help myself this morning with the urban gardening! See here.

                Another day devoted to sun worshipping and family time- I was ready to go with my white wide-brimmed sun hat and my shalvare (pants in Turkish) I bought in Istanbul. Unlike Chicago weather, days in Greece are much more consistent. You wake up and you know it will be warm and sunny. And so we headed down to the beach, about a half-an-hour car ride from our hotel in Imerovigli.

{ Car ride all down-hill }

                After meeting up with Petar’s family, we grabbed our beach chairs and slathered on our sunscreen. For lunch, which begins here around 2:30 pm, we picked one of the beachside tavernas (Greek for restaurant) and enjoyed in the daily menu of traditional Greek cooking. I indulged in stuffed zucchini with ground beef and lemon béchamel sauce, my favorite, and the boys ordered gyros, of course.  The perfect ending to lunch, or dinner…or frankly any meal is a sweet and cold ice cream.

{ Beachside Tavernas }

                I remember my summers in Greece when I first discovered these sweet balls of goodness on a stick. I used to wait until our convenience store, we only had one, opened from their midday siesta at 4:00 pm to go and buy one. On one, no particular day, the store remained closed well after their usual time. I began to panic. I know this is a bit drastic, it’s an ice cream after all, but I couldn’t fathom breaking my late afternoon tradition and cooling off from the Mediterranean heat. Now, years later I remember, yet again, my obsession with Magnum. The ice cream that is… hard, thick chocolate with layers of gooey caramel and cool and refreshing vanilla ice cream. It is so much more than an ice cream! I weaned myself off the first time, could I do it again?

{ Need I say more? }

{ Walking on the cobble stone streets- fruit stand to my right }

{ Fresh fruit }

                If you’re not a desserts sort of person, (something might be wrong), you’ll have no trouble finding fresh fruit on the corner stands.  We continued the rest of our day with more competitive sporting. UNO and paddle ball: the perfect balance between tanning and working out. The hours simply melt away at the beach (yes that was a pun) and before we knew it, it was time for dinner. We had planned on indulging in fresh seafood. After all, what a better place? We were recommended a local taverna, Mistral, for the best and freshest seafood in town.  We ordered an entire, freshly-caught Bakalao, Cod, weighing in at 2.5 Kilos. It was char-grilled to perfection and served with lemon butter sauce and traditional greens, horta or dandelion greens. The fish was deboned and served in its entirety for the whole family to dig-in. Talk about family style!

{ On our way to dinner with the in-laws }

{ Baby blue eyeliner }

{ Mistral Seafood Restaurant }

{ Family Dinner }

{ We loved the outdoor patio }

                The Mediterranean diet is considered to be among the best for your health and body- olive oils, seafood, veggies and wine. You never feel weighed down or heavy after a meal, and for good measure we take long walks along the beach. Breathing in the salty air, cool night and savoring each and every moment, bite by bite.

{ Take your pick }

-Y