Making Greece our Home for 7 Nights

This is going to be the very last entry on our trip to Greece (phew~ finally~), or to be exact, the city of Athens and the island of Santorini.

Knowing both Deardo and I have had bad experience either during childhood or teenage period with following a packaged tour, we knew from the beginning we are definitely doing this on our own, regardless of language barrier shit. Most Greeks we encountered speak perfect English anyway, although with their own accent.

So one of the biggest headaches for people like us who travel on our own would be finding the perfect place to stay. I'm not gonna lie, it took me a lot of time doing research on accommodations. Most hotels in Athens are said to be noisy with bad sound proof, dodgy alleys and all, while Santorini's headache was that it was still peak season so good ones were taken way before I had a chance to book anything!

Of course we eventually settled with some stays and I'm here to share with you our experience and hopefully this post will help if you are travelling to Greece soon!

Loft in Psirri II, Athens Centre
Booked this apartment through Airbnb because it is walking distance to the Acropolis (supposedly the only place we wanted to visit during our short stay in Athens) and it is reasonably priced. I think the best thing is that the communication with Yannis on Airbnb was super immediate even when we changed our check-in time last minute because stupid Air France canceled out flight!

The view outside the apartment.

We had a rough start when the taxi driver who brought us there from the airport told us about the place being dodgy, with some drug addicts around (which I've read from the reviews but they said they will do no harm to you) and Chinese people around (oh yea the taxi driver hate Chinese in Athens). When we arrived, no doubt the place with all the graffiti around, looks a bit dodgy from the outside and yes there was an homeless guy sleeping across the street and Chinese working on their stocks just next door, but during our two nights there, no drugs addicts identified!

Clean and modern-looking! 

Yannis's assistant, George was super nice and friendly too. showed us around the apartment and called us a taxi right away for the day we were leaving for the airport so we need not worry about traveling to the airport early morning at all! :)

Bathroom is small but with washing machine in it! 

Super spacious room! 

And the apartment is awesome!!! It's exactly as shown in their photos in the website! Very spacious (this is why sometimes apartments are way better than hotels), modern and clean! I'm most impressed that it actually comes with a washing machine, hair dryer, kitchen with all the utilities needed! It is a pretty quiet area so we got really good sleep throughout the two nights! Good Wi-fi connection included too!

Superb night view from the rooftop!

The apartment is walking distance to a lot of the places I went to mentioned here and loads of food mentioned here too! And and and! Go to their rooftop and you will see the Acropolis just there!!!
But yes, every night when we walk home, the street is very quiet and dark (with a homeless man sleeping on the street too) so it can be a little scary.

Paid: 126 Euro/ 2 Nights (including Airbnb service fee)
Verdict: 3.5/5
Contact Yannis: Airbnb

Aspa Villa, Oia, Santorini
Because I decided we should have different experiences of staying in apartment and a villa/hotel, our first stop in Santorini was a villa. I made all the reservations on their website and we were greeted by Nikoleta, the very friendly (perhaps overly friendly) owner of the villa. I love her, she just tells you so many things that some of them are redundant but you'll feel bad stopping her! LOL!

Supermarket and cafe just a few steps away, making sure we get food easily!

The common area we hang-out at a lot... Just relax, feel the breeze/sun while looking at the amazing view.

The place is conveniently located - few steps away from supermarkets, a nice cafe and of course their super gorgeous common area where you can hang out all you want! Even the common area has wi-fi!
I can assure you Aspa Villa is one of the villas that are very affordable in Oia. I wanted to stay in their cave house room but I was too late and could only stay in their Superior Studio.

The stairs going up to our room!

And here's a panoramic view of our room!

The room is relatively smaller compared to an apartment and has a classic design and old school furniture but still pretty comfortable. When the wind is strong you can leave the window open and it's super nice!!! They have a small sharing pool too!

Paid: 345 Euro (paid 300 Euro only as it was an offer if you pay cash) for 3 nights
Verdict: 4/5
Contact: Aspa Villas' website

Thea Studio Apartment, Fira, Santorini
As we moved to the town of Fira, we check-into this apartment which I also booked through Airbnb. Since I read a lot about how noisy it could be if you stay in the town centre itself, I decided to pick Thea because it is about 15-20 minutes walk away from the town.

The walk isn't too long before you can get to the town, but at night it can be quite scary because the road back to the apartment is damn quiet, although in some ways we still feel pretty safe. I reckon that is why a lot of the people who stay at the apartment are renting cars, motorbikes, etc to go around town. The friendly people at the apartment can help you to arrange for all the rentals too! 

It's amazing how almost every part of Santorini can look so pretty, even somewhere out of town! 

The view from our room! Crazy beautiful isn't it?

One for the album!

The apartment is pretty from the outside, with a location overlooking the sea and has a nice swimming pool that it was a waste it was too cold for us to use.

The room is probably the best one we have stayed in the entire trip. So spacious, neat, clean, and even the bathroom is big! And for an apartment I was amazed they have daily cleaning service too! They also provide simple breakfast everyday which is another plus point! 
So apart from maybe not so much of communication with Dimitris on Airbnb, slightly scary walk at night (doesn't apply if you are renting automobile there) and not-so-strong Wi-fi in the room (better outside the room), I really love the apartment a lot, especially with the fact that it was pretty economic to stay in too! :)

Paid: 112 Euro/2 nights (including Airbnb servic fee)
Verdict: 4/5
Contact Dimitris: Airbnb

So here's the end of entries on our trip to Greece, which was mainly our honeymoon, but also a getaway and a 30th birthday trip for me. I think besides the fact that it was a little tough on food for a pregnant woman like me, we really enjoyed the trip a lot. A lot of sight-seeing, yet enough time to relax and even take afternoon naps almost everyday! Ahhhh... That was really a few days in heaven man!

Would I recommend you to travel to Athens and Santorini? Sure, but choose your travel dates properly cos it's really quite annoying when it is peak season! I personally think it is also quite economical to travel to Greece too - food, accommodations and transportation are still relatively acceptable compared to other bigger cities in Europe like Paris. We spent less than RM15k (two persons) for the entire trip of 7 nights, everything included and came home with great memories of superb scenery and I cannot highlight this enough - friendly people (majority of them of course, but it was way better than what we have heard about the Greeks before leaving for the country)! 

So, time to plan for your next holiday?

My entries on Athens here.
My entries on Santorini here.

Some Vain Photos from Santorini for the Album Yo!

WARNING: Heavy vain photos ahead. You can skip this if you are not in a mood to see me and Deardo modelling away like nobody's business. LOL.

I guess the reason I really wanted to visit Santorni was because of how many bloggers who have went there that have only compliments for the island and of course, it is, supposedly a romantic place to be, whether you are there to have your wedding or wedding photos taken (which we won't do due to financial constrains) or to enjoy your honeymoon. For us, it was the latter.

Deardo is such a sweetheart though because choosing to have our vacation in Santorini, which was mainly my choice of place, would means we give up on his dream places to go, e.g. Germany or Japan. With a baby on our way, we can't even promise ourselves that we will make his dream come true any soon. For that, I know, despite occasional arguments or disagreements we have on life, I have married a man who puts me on top of his priority list. :)

He nevertheless, I can see, enjoyed Santorini a lot in the end. Cos the island is, despite all the pollution of overcrowded tourists, undeniably beautiful and a perfect place to relax and forget about whatever bad things that is happening in life. Of course, I can say he enjoyed it also because he was willing to go around taking these vain photos with me! :p

Anyway, the point here is, since we didn't have our wedding or take wedding photos here, we took some vain photos of ourselves in Oia, Santorini, as well as some sweet husband-and-wife photos which turned out to be pretty awesome too! We took these photos mostly with a monopod or tripod on timer.

Of course, we only have a semi-DSLR which takes good photos but probably not of professional level yet lar! And of course, because I was about 2-month preggers, I can't be jumping for photos or even climb up somewhere to snap pictures. Well, in fact, in Santorini, you will get scolding if you climb on their white roof to take pictures. That was probably the only time I felt people there are damn rude...

In case you want to know, my beautiful bare-back dress is from MGP Label, sunglasses is from Gucci while that hat that I always have to hold on to because of the wind was from a souvenir shop right in Oia. Deardo's checkered shirt is from H&M, shorts from Padini, shoes from Puma and sunglasses from Ray Ban. I got almost same shirt too from H&M! See photos below! 

Please do note that because I'm very lazy  and that these photos are already nice on their own, there are absolutely zero filter and zero editing done on these photos too! I swear even if they look like they have been edited, they weren't!!! 

Okay, thanks for watching! :p

Food-Hunting in Santorini

WARNING: Heavy food post ahead, DO NOT CONTINUE READING if you are hungry! :p

There is always a risk eating in an island like Santorini where tourism is their main income. Food can be more expensive than anywhere else (because duh, you are trapped in an island you don't have a bloody choice man) and taste can be yucky too. I did some research beforehand but because we wanted the trip to be a relaxing and spontaneous holiday, it wasn't a full-on research cos we just wanted to explore the island naturally and let the surprises surprise us! :p

So I shall skip the yucky ones and mention only the note-worthy ones, which I figured are still a lot. And I sincerely hope this entry will help you to find your way to some good food if you are travelling to Santorini next year (cos they are officially closed now until April next year)! :)

Homey & Warm Service @ Santorini Mou, Oia
Unlike a lot of crowded restaurants nearer to the sunset viewpoint, this very humble and homey tavern located on the other side of Oia was quiet when we visited them. It has a very good review on Trip Advisor and it was only about few steps away from the villa we were staying so we decided to give it a try.

'Thanks for your smile' is their very friendly tagline! :)

First thing we saw are some really impressive list of people who have dined there! Stephanie Sun, Jennifer Aniston and Green Day left their photos with the owner there!

Celebrities dined here okay! 

The hospitality we got from them is crazily warm (despite the cold breeze that day)! The waitress first asked us where are we from and after we told them, she came out with a Malaysian flag on put it on our table! And we were like... Damn, now everyone knows where are we from! LOL!

Me with my flying hair and the Malaysian flag and Deardo with the black cat that loves climbing to only men's laps! 

We placed our orders and they gave us some folders of photos of their customers having fun dining there to flip through, some famous people, some just random people lar. Of course we had to take one too in the end so if you ever go there please see if you can find our photo there! :p

Boiled Greens, 5.80 Euro.

Tomato Fritters, 6.90 Euro.

Dying to have some cooked vegetables instead of salad, we ordered a boiled greens (which turned out to be spinach) to share. It did satisfy my demand for some cooked vegetables, but with it served cold (like real cold) and lemon, it still felt a bit weird for an Asian like me. Santorini is famous for their tomatoes and I've heard about how you should try their tomato fritters there and the ones at Santorini Mou was a perfect start to that! The entree dish was super duper yummy! Crispy, fresh and sweetness bursting out from the Santorini's signature tomatoes, the fritters are so delicious I wanted to order more! 

Stuffed Lamb, 15 Euro.

Chicken Roulette, 10.50 Euro.

Then came the main courses. You see, what I really like about their menu here is that, unlike those commercialised restaurants on the island, the food all sounded and looked so home-cooked! Just looked at our Stuffed Lamb and Chicken Roulette! No fancy presentation but they both tasted so good! I think the then 2-month-preggers me preferred the Chicken which has ham and cheese in it but I did remember I love both of them and that include the wedges!
Great hospitality, awesome food without a hole in your pocket, this place is a must-go if you are in Oia! It is one true example why you should try smaller taverns instead of crowded restaurants nearer to the tourist attraction!  

Santorini Mou
Oia, Santorini Island,
P.C. 847 02,
Oia 847 92, Greece
Tel: +30 22860 71730

Awesome BBQ Meat @ Random Restaurant with only Greek Name, Oia
Hidden in a small alley towards the sunset viewpoint at Oia, the restaurant only has a Greek name or perhaps something like BBQ Restaurant as their name. That's it. But they sell traditional Gyros and Souvlaki that's for sure but we were there to have full set of dinner, and that is BBQ meat dishes.

Sorry I couldn't get the name of the restaurant, but I hope the photos help!

You can easily takeaway your Souvlaki or be at their open air dine-in area that resembles a pretty garden sitting.

One of the most famous dishes in Greece - Greek Salad.

For the first time in the entire trip, we braved ourselves to order a Greek Salad. We have nothing against this famous Greek dish, but Deardo isn't a big fan of cucumber and cheese, which are obviously the main ingredients of the dish; and I'm preggers and do not find cheese or raw vegetables with vinegar any attractive. And true to our concerns, the only thing we really enjoyed was the fresh, juicy and sweet Santorini tomatoes.

Say what? Pork Chop in the big portion???

BBQ Chicken!

Luckily for us, the mains made up for the dinner! The huge BBQ pork chop with minimal usage of marinate (probably just salt and dried parsley) was so delicious! But the star of the night has to be the BBQ Chicken. Chicken Cutlets grilled to perfection without much marinate too but comes with a glorious mint based sauce, that dish screams creativity and awesomeness! Love it so much I had to swap my pork with Deardo's chicken dish! LOL! 

Us enjoying our dinner!

While little doggy gets nothing from us... :p

Unfortunately I couldn't find receipt for the meal but I've noted it down that the tummy-filling dinner costs us 21.50 Euro, including a bottle of water, which is definitely not too bad a price too!

Classy Service and Food @ Kyprida Restaurant, Oia
It was another random pick as we failed to find the restaurant I wanted to go to on the day we were supposed to celebrated my 30th birthday.

Since the kitchen of the restaurant is located downstairs before you walk upstairs to the dining area, we can see those who are cooking are aunties and that sort of convinced us to dine at the restaurant.

I super love the interior of the restaurant! 

Oh, the restaurant is lovely! Pastel colours, dim lights and classy-looking dining tables, together with the very professional service staff, the places is definitely one of the most professional-looking restaurants we've visited in Santorini.

Some breads to start with.

Zucchini Omelet.

Smoked Duck.

Sausage Platter.

We had a Zucchini Omelet to share which is pretty awesome. Not too oily and tasted rather different with some herbs in it. Of course, I think it is also a very Greek thing to do having Zucchini in an Omelet! The Smoked duck was a bit too salty to have it on its own. We also had the sausage platter which is pretty unique too. It doesn't feel artificial at all, especially when you can see and taste some greens and herbs in the sausage! Best of all, the meat dish comes with whole loads of salsa and pita bread to balance things up! :)

Birthday dinner for me? Wait till you see the last restaurant on this list!

Once again, I don't have the receipt but the dinner costs us 37.10 Euro. Decent food, but great atmosphere and really professional service I must say. But no, please don't order their coffee here, they are kinda sucky! 

Kyprida Restaurant
847 02,
Oia, Santorini,
Greece
Tel: +30 22860 71979

Delicious Gyros @ O Souvlaros, Fira
We first ate at this humble restaurant simply because it was not too far away from the apartment we were staying in Fira/we were hungry/it was raining. Run by a very humble, friendly but knows minimal English owner (again, not all Greeks are rude), the cafe surprised us with so much of smiles and yummy Gyros (the owner told us it's pronounced Gyro, no 's')!

Small, humble restaurant like this is where you get the friendliest service!

Honestly, I don't really know how to explain how is Gyros so different from Souvlaki, except for the fact that one's wrapped like a kebab while one's not, and one's with Salsa while another isn't. The rest are actually the same!

Awesome Gyros!

Tomato Fritters to snack with.

Anyway, the pork in our Gyros dish here was simply too awesome! A little crispy, very flavourful and very appetising! I personally enjoyed the Tzataziki that comes with the dish here too, so creamy!!! We tried their tomato fritters too but they were a bit too oily to my liking.

Deardo's ultimate favourite dish throughout the trip is definitely the Gyros at O Souvlaros! 

I didn't keep the receipt from the restaurant too, but I remember it was very affordable. In fact this is the only place that we visited twice in our entire trip! You can't beat that! 

O Souvlaros
Near Ermis Shopping Centre
Fira 84700,
Greece
Tel: +30 22860 23225

Get your Chinese Food Fix @ China Restaurant, Fira
I just gotta say this... Chinese businessmen are still the most aggressive lots. LOL! It's hard not to notice the advertisement this restaurant has placed all over the island, including in Oia! That is why even when I was in Oia I knew if I'm craving for some Chinese food I know where to go! Ha!

So really, after so many days of Greek food, I told Deardo my baby and me need the Asian fix, like now! I just have to go to this restaurant even though it might be expensive or might taste like cheat Chinese food!

Very Chinese-looking restaurant with pictures of Tun Mahathir's visit on the wall!

Little did we know, the restaurant was packed with Asians-alike plus some 'Guai Lous' who are probably also sick of Greek food enjoying their Asian fix! I was really excited to flip through their menu! More interesting is the fact that we had a short chat with the busy owner who is apparently a Malaysian who has been in Greece for over 30 years! He is from Bukit Mertajam and when he knows we are from Taiping, he started to speak Hokkien to us... Ahhhhh... How I feel at home now! LOL!

Cantonese Fried Rice, 6.90 Euros.

Chinese Mushrooms with Broccoli, 8.90 Euros.

Shrimps Fu Yung, 13.90 Euros.

We ordered a Cantonese Fried Rice, Chinese Mushrooms with Broccoli (ahhh it was really hard to find broccoli in any restaurants there) and a Shrimps Omelet (Fu Yung in the menu okay) to share. While I won't say they are super delicious, they are actually not too bad for a Greek-standard Chinese food! It was the one and only meal that I actually didn't struggle at all to finish in the entire trip! 

Yum Cha in Santorini! 

Mummy's happy, baby's happy too! :)

Together with Chinese tea for two, the lunch cost us 32.50 Euros. I don't know about you, but I'd say it's worth the price since it made me and my little one very very happy! :) Mind you, their menu is so extensive they have desserts like Banana Fritter with Ice-Cream! Definitely a good place to go whenever you are tired of Greek food! :)

China Restaurant
In the town of Fira
Tel: +30 22860 24760

Best Moussaka on the Island @ Naoussa, Fira
One other famous Greek dish to try is Moussaka and I kept myself away from ordering the dish until I get to Naoussa because this is where rumous has it that they serve the best Moussaka in the entire Santorini island.

We were lucky we arrived earlier without any prior reservations cos the restaurant is so famous it became so crowded by the time we were enjoying our food they had to reject some customers (probably also because of the strong wind that cost them not to open up their rooftop area). Anyway, the restaurant also has a very nice sunset view, just that it wasn't as nice when we were there because of the lousy weather. :(

Sunset view from the restaurant and how we Asians just can do anything for pictures.

Caesar Salad.

We had a Caesar Salad to share, which I must say was very impressive. The Caesar dressing was not overly creamy yet not watery, just nice and the taste was definitely different from what we have in Malaysia. 

Moussaka!

Seafood Spaghetti.

So here comes the verdict... The Moussaka was pretty nice, you get the strong flavours from the herbs and the lamb with the generous amount of cheese on top of it. But you see, since I'm not Greek and haven't tried any Moussaka except for the one time in Malaysia, I'm no judge to say if it's the best one here. It was nicer than the seafood spaghetti we ordered though, which we didn't even finish eating...

Deardo and his Greek beer which can be cheaper than orange juice!

Forgot the receipt again but the dinner cost us 48 Euro, including a beer. It wasn't the best meal I've had in Santorini, but for the Moussaka, I think it still still compulsory to pay them a visit! :)

Naoussa Tavern
Fira Town Santorini
Next to the Central Orthodox Church,
Fira 84700 Greece
Tel: +30 22860 24869



Our BEST MEAL of the entire trip @ Sunset Tavern/Sunset in Amoudi, Oia
Ohhhhh... Thank god we finally found this tavern a day after my birthday! But because we didn't drive, we had to walked down all the way from the top by stairs that have smelly donkey dung to get down to the restaurant and then walked back up again after that! Imagine doing that when you are pregnant, ladies!

Here we are, finally! :)

So it's only normal for me to say "oh the food better be good" when I reached the tavern, strategically located by the sea.

Looking out to the sea and sunset!

This was how close we were to falling into the sea! 

This guy can grill!!!

The fresh seafood and awesome sunset view make it hard to not notice its name in several blogs that talks about Santorini's food. The advice is, call earlier to make your reservation or be there early like us! We were really lucky to get a nice table really by the sea (literally one step off and you'll be in the sea) where there is nothing blocking us from the gorgeous sunset view! So so glad of that!!! :) 

Deep Fried Zucchini, 5.50 Euro.

Tabbouleh, F.O.C.

We started our early dinner with a Deep Fried Zucchini, which was just okay. But the complimentary Tabbouleh (a Lebanese salad) totally blew me away! The Bulgur (something like barley) are like couscous but a bit more chewy and the mixture of vegetables plus mint and lemon totally waked my taste bud up! It was like a perfect appetiser to get you started with your dinner! So yummey~~~!!!

Grilled Fish, by weight. Ours was 15.93 Euro.

Grilled Octopus, 13 Euro.

Now to the mains... We had two grilled seafood dishes, a small fish which Deardo hand-picked and a big octopus. Both perfectly-grilled with probably just salt and pepper but certainly super duper fresh. You see, despite Santorini being an island, we have yet to taste seafood as fresh as these here at this tavern itself. So best seafood we have tried in Santorini? Sunset Tavern, hands down okay!!!

Seafood Spaghetti, 19.50 Euro.

The best dish, to me at least, was the Seafood Spaghetti! It's just spaghetti, how nice can it be, you may asked. Well I have eaten quite some pasta dishes in Santorini due to my little baby inside me who always want his/her carbo intake, but this oh yea, was truly a class above! Needless to say, the seafood were really fresh, but what's surprising is the pasta doesn't come with tomato paste! There were just tomatoes bits but what lies in the pasta was some awesome broth that I suspect may be seafood broth. As easy as that and that dish become the dish that I didn't really want to share with Deardo! Ha! Oh, that was so unforgettable I should make it the best spaghetti dish I've ever had in my entire life!!!

Probably the most romantic dinner I've ever had in Santorini, or in my life!

Food were really good but the experience of dining by the sea with a beautiful sunset right in front of you? Oh, that was unforgettable!!! This tavern certainly lived up to the expectations I had in them! So bravo!!!
All that food, an orange juice and a bottle of water, plus the priceless dining experience, the bill came up to 58.92 Euro, and if you do the math, that's about RM300. I have no complain at all man! This is the ultimate place that you mustn't miss in Santorini!!!

Sunset Ammoudi/Sunset Tavern
Ammoudi Harbour
Tel: +30 2286 071614

Haha, I'm sure you can see we ate quite a lot during our trip in Santorini! And these are not all too but we were there for 5 days-4 nights so I guess we did explored quite a bit. We were quite sick of eating out on the final night we ate instant noodle and some awesome Greek Tomatoes for dinner at the apartment! :p

*I have no idea what happened to most of my photos here that they are so pixaleted. Ish...

Read my earlier entry on food-hunting in Athens here.