Santorini: Day 3

Travel

                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.

Nomad Luxuries photo capturing Beachside Tavernas seating area.

{ 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?

Nomad Luxuries photo collage of the perfect dessert.

{ Need I say more? }

Nomad Luxuries photo of the cobbled stones on the streets of Santorini.

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

Nomad Luxuries image of the organic fruit stand in the streets of Santorini.

{ 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!

Nomad Luxuries personal family photo on the streets of Santorini with the sunset.

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

Nomad Luxuries photo captured before dinner time with markets in the background.

{ Baby blue eyeliner }

Nomad Luxuries image of misteral seafood restaurant in Santorini.

{ Mistral Seafood Restaurant }

Nomad Luxuries photo captured of family dinner at a seafood restaurant in Santorini.

{ Family Dinner }

Nomad Luxuries image captured in front of beautifully decorated outdoor patio in Santorini.

{ 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.

Nomad Luxuries food image captured of the fresh seafood in Santorini.

{ Take your pick }

-Y

5 Comments

  1. Claudia
    August 1, 2012 / 8:53 pm

    This is making me want to go back to Greece so bad! We were in Leptokarya and did the same thing every day – Beach, lunch outside, nap, grocery store for ice cream, dinner, walk along the beach. So perfect!

    • Yana
      Author
      August 2, 2012 / 12:33 am

      That does sound perfect – exactly what a vacation should be!

  2. Jelena
    August 1, 2012 / 9:34 pm

    sounds like a great time…and totally love fresh fish

    • Nedja Tomicic
      August 5, 2012 / 4:13 am

      love your posts… love that you’re happy

      • Yana
        Author
        August 6, 2012 / 4:18 am

        Thank you 🙂