MENU's Aegean Odyssey. Day 6: Piraeus to Santorini

The ferry left at 07h15. We needed tickets, a Greek SIM card and some breakfast. Piraeus is fast and furious, even at that time of the morning, as the ferry business is booming. It is a relatively cheap way to travel (€37.50 pp), given the time and distance, but it was a long time since Lynne had been on an Aegean ferry. In the late '70's they were creaky and broke down a lot. She once was nearly stranded on Santorini, which was why we were going to the farthest island first. We were in for a nice surprise

Boarding can be a bit of scrum as everyone rushes to get on board and get the best seats. The Chinese proved to be past masters at this

It’s a nice modern ferry with lots of floor to ceiling windows for the views. These people had obviously boarded at dawn

Breakfast was a cheese, tomato and ham roll, soft and with little flavour, and a coffee, Nescafe, weak
There is a consistency here and you learn quickly what to avoid

Most of the ferries leave early morning or mid afternoon

And they vie for 'parking' with lots of cruise ships. We saw plenty of them while in the islands

We are 'OFF" on a cloudy, misty but warm morning

This one was off to another of the islands

We were told not to take the expensive 'Fast' ferries as they often get in at the same time as the Blue Star Line. And many of them are twin hulled; the 'ride' is not very comfortable in Lynne's experience and, often, you are restricted in movement

The Greek flag waving the island colours

We crossed paths with many, many freight ships and tankers, it's a busy seaway...

... and Lynne was lucky enough to see dolphins riding our wake. But they had gone by the time John with camera ventured on deck

You pass many of the Aegean islands, some populated, others not

Rising from the sea like an iceberg, this island was formed by continental shift

We sat in the front lounge (no smoking) and very comfortable it was
Later, we managed to get window seats which were better and John found a socket to charge his laptop

The queue at the bar for drinks and snacks

  Wind and solar power are everywhere in Greece

Not habitable, except for a warning light and birds

We stopped briefly at three other islands before we got to Santorini. The turnaround of passengers and vehicles is very fast and efficient
This little fishing boat was nearly swamped by our wake

Seaside villas in the classic white and blue. The Greeks understand about white being a cooling, reflective colour
We never can understand why people in SA paint their seaside houses dark grey or khaki. Not only unattractive, but hot

Lots of people charter yachts and sail around the islands for a couple of weeks

Ah, the sun is out and the blue Aegean is showing its colours

We arrive at Naxos and are interested to see it, as this will be our stop after Santorini

The classic Naxos gate – the remains of a temple to Apollo

A home or monastery high in the hills above Naxos

A classic Greek Island church on Ios, built right on the headland

It is a long way from the houses. Must have dedicated parishioners
We met some British people who had come to this island (Ios) to get married

Then we rounded a corner and there was the magnificent caldera of Santorini, and the bay filled with cruise liners disgorging their passengers into smaller boats as they are too large to dock. The cliffs are so steep here. All the towns run along the top of the caldera

 Queuing to disembark

Our bus was there to collect us to take us to our hotel, or so we thought

The road up from the new harbour is very steep, with lots of hairpin bends and you drive in a procession when a ferry has arrived

Our view of the ferry port from the top of the vertiginous cliffs

All the good hotels and accommodation people do transfers to the port. Some are free

And we arrive, not in our hotel, but in a dingy small bed and breakfast place called Blue Sky Hotel owned by the same people. Nice view of the cement mixers, electric power lines and the wrong side of the island, and a very long walk indeed from restaurants and shops. They told us we could not stay the first night in the accommodation we’d booked, as there had been an "Accident". Unfortunately for them, we spoke to the other guests and it seems that the accident was a regular occurrence. We also checked on the net and the other hotel still had rooms available for an exorbitant and laughable €4000 a night, nothing like the price we had paid. They would never get that ridiculous rate, the accommodation is just not that good. We paid €120 for three nights. It is a scam which we heard about all over the island; they are known for it. They overbook and then you get put in this place they can't sell. We protested very loudly, reported them to Bookings.com (we are still waiting a response from them) and discovered lots of previous complaints about them on the site. We were moved the next morning and were given a free boat tour to the hot springs and the volcano. We discovered that they tell lies about lots of things

There was just enough space to sit down on the balcony

with the 'view' of the construction equipment

Compensation on our long walk to dinner,

a friendly and well cared for cat

We began the hunt for a restaurant

We found the main 'take away' street where everyone was queuing for souvlaki, kebabs or Chinese food (at double the price). But we decided, after such a long two days, that we needed spoiling and a proper restaurant meal

 We found this gem called Ouzeri, above the streets with its own terrace. We see that it gets 4.5 stars on Trip Advisor

Our waiter, George, was great fun, spoke very good English and is a professional waiter

He has worked in England and in Australia and is full of information on the food and the wine
His Australian wife had started work in the restaurant that evening

Not a typical Taverna in decor, more modern and light

 The menu of the day on the blackboard is in English

We took George’s advice on the wine and had this bottle of Hatzidakis 2013; a deservedly popular white wine, made from Assyrtiko grapes, at €24 a bottle. The winery was founded in 1997 by experienced winemaker/oenologist Haridimos Hatzidakis. The land had been in his wife, Konstantina Hatzidakis' family, but had not been cultivated since the 1956 earthquake. It has an almost dusty riesling nose, without the terpenes, it is crisp and dry, full of limes and lemons; a good refreshing food wine, with a slight spritz

Lynne chose one of the dishes of the day, the octopus with fava bean purée. The octopus had been cooked on an open fire
and had a lovely smoky note. It was rather tough though. The bean purée is rich and flavoursome, but rather overwhelmed the dish
It needed something green on the plate

John wanted the lamb shanks but they had sold out, so he had the chicken with red peppers and feta sauce served with rice
The chicken was beautifully moist and the red peppers gave the dish the right degree of piquancy

Our bill includes €1 for bread and €1.50 for 2 litres of water. If you eat the bread, you are charged for it, all over Greece and Turkey
And you need the water. Sadly the same bottle of water costs 38c in the supermarkets

The bill worked out at approximately R746, not too bad for a better than average Greek meal
They did bring us a free dessert - a plate of yoghurt and syrupy cherries to share

The Santorini street café nightlife was just beginning as we headed home to bed

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© John & Lynne Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus 2015

MENU's Aegean Odyssey. Day 5 Istanbul & Athens: Taksim, Galata, Piraeus

Our self catering apartment was the one with the extended balcony in the red building. We did have a sea view, as the ferry port was right in front of us. The area, which is the old Armenian quarter of Fatıh, is very central, but not very modern and, in fact, we saw quite a lot of urban decay and lots of immigrants. We found it fairly dirty, as is most of Istanbul, but friendly, and we felt quite safe. The railway station in the front had recently closed, but express trains did go through now and then. We found that the best route into the centre was to take the bus on the other side of the station, which got us to the Galata Bridge in just a few minutes

The bus runs along the sea front on Kennedy Avenue. They have a similar card system to our MyCiti bus cards, called Istanbulkart, which you load up with Lira. It works on buses, trams and the Metro and it is cheap, especially if you get pensioner rates!

We had decided it was time to see Taksim Square and the Galata Tower on the other side of the Golden Horn so, first, we took a tram

and then the 140 year old funicular up the hill

It is only when you get to the top that you realise how steep the slope is

And then in Istikial Street, an old fashioned tram. The Turks relate this street to 5th Avenue, Champs-Élysées and Piccadilly/Regent Street. It was more like Oxford Street, very busy; lots of shops, but not much of the high end businesses

We arrived at lunch time and the streets were full of business people looking for lunch

There are still some beautiful historical buildings that haven’t been too commercialised

We found our lunch place, Ficcin, a Circassian restaurant which had been recommended to us
It is in a small side street and the restaurant has taken over many premises on the street level, so the street is almost one restaurant

This is the menu. Prices are reasonable (one Turkish Lira is currently R4.50) and this was our first chance to eat Mezze. Portions were generous

What we had. The best dolmades we had ever eaten. Lynne does not normally like the bland, sour rice wrapped in scratchy vine leaves. These were deep fried, slightly spicy, the centre was mixed with meat and pine nuts and they tasted amazing. Some humus and an artichoke heart in olive oil

Circassian chicken is one of their specialities and comes as a rough dip mixed with walnuts, garlic and gentle spices. We ate these with bread and drank the local beer Efes, which is not bad

Then came the last dish. We ordered lamb and aubergine and we think the waiter was a bit squint, as we were served the dish below, "Ficcin", a Circassian pastry stuffed with beef, served with salad. It was delicious. This had also happened with the Circassian chicken and they delivered a mashed red pepper paste with walnut, but we sent it back for the chicken

At the next table, a father taking his son out to lunch. And although it was threatening rain, most people preferred to eat on the (rather chilly) pavement

A good selection of Turkish wines. They are improving in quality but, this being a Muslim country, they are not easy to find other than in tourist places. Yes, those grapes are plastic

Our bill with tip. R324 for this exciting but humble lunch is not bad

The pictorial menu outside the restaurant

It makes things easier than trying to understand impenetrable Turkish. But everyone in the hospitality industry there does seem to speak good English, as well as German and sometimes French and Italian

Lots of dried fruit, exotic spices and loukoum in a shop on the main street

Enormous dates and other dried fruit and nuts. Prices are high

A "recycled" chair in an art gallery. We were horrified at the number of plastic bottles we and everyone else used, as you need to drink bottled water in most places and heaven only knows what happens to the empty bottles. We tried to reuse as much as we could by buying 5 litres and refilling our small bottles

The very good Uninvited Jazz Band playing in Istikial Street. Busking is not frowned on

All the ice cream men wear this same uniform. It seems very popular

as is fresh juice which you can have squeezed for you in a minute

There are lots of entrepreneurs in Turkey; it does look very poor behind the front fascia

Finally, we found the Galata tower, and the huge queue. So we didn't go in because we had to make our way to the airport and time was becoming short

Its history in Turkish

We had been told there was a winery near to the Tower. It is actually a wine shop and wine bar called Sensus Wine and Cheese beneath the Anemom Galata hotel

The owners say that they sell many brands of Turkish wine but, in the tasting we had, we only tasted wine from their own farms

Normally a tasting of these wines costs TL50 and we saw that they were pouring very generous glasses. We spoke to the young sommelier, Sinan Aksoi, who is part of the family and was educated in the USA (so he speaks very good English) and asked if we could please do a larger tasting, but of less wine. He agreed and we tasted 6 wines. The quality was much better than we expected and many of the varietals we were tasting were completely new to us. He only charged us TL30 for the shared tasting; we shared one glass

The wines we tasted. The Cab Franc on the left was classic, elegant and restrained on the nose but full of fruit and chalky tannins; needs time but very good. There was a delicious white blend with Narince, Colombard and Viognier which reminded Lynne of Cape Point Semillon with a bit of Nuy muscadel added! Many have musty noses but are not faulty, we think it is the grape varieties used. Many have a dry muscat background. We didn’t buy any, but they were mostly very drinkable

Definitely a place to visit if you are interested in Turkish wines. Sinan was extremely knowledgeable about the wines, so was able to give us lots of information about the varieties, the locations and the growing conditions

It is a large shop, also a restaurant

And they sell cheeses. It is possible to do a cheese tasting, but we did not have a lot of time and we were not that keen on the Turkish cheeses we had tasted. They use an awful lot of cheese in their cuisine. Mostly feta-like or cottage cheese or, sadly, rubbery processed

John managed to peer into the Galata tower and take a photo of this relief

Looking UP!

And a poignant reminder of John's past, working in the photographic industry, on a defunct shop

We took the Metro back to our apartment 
so that we could fetch our luggage

Later that afternoon we took a taxi from our apartment to the underground. We got stuck in a huge, nerve-wracking traffic jam, but there was no alternative. You cannot wheel two large suitcases through these busy streets

The Metro was the quickest and cheapest route to the airport, to catch our flight to Greece

Turkish Airlines’ planes are very modern and provide slightly more leg space than any of the other airlines we normally use. But the female staff are rather brusque. Someone should tell them that they ought to be nicer to the passengers. They do order one about a lot. And there are endless announcements on each flight, in Turkish and strangled English, that are hard to understand, and disrupt one’s watching of films

We arrived at Athens Airport at 20h45, cleared customs and baggage by 10 and took the bus to Piraeus, about 50 Km away, where we were to spend the night. It takes an hour at this time of night and much longer during the day

The hotel was supposed to be a short walk. But we had no idea where or how to find it, so took this taxi. He did three complete circles until we got there and charged €20. Hmmm. Tourists are such a target. We had an easy walk back to the port the next morning with our cases and it took 8 minutes

Smart taxi and we couldn't spot the meter. Which is why we prefer public transport when we can find it. For the amount we spent on the taxi, we could have really upgraded our hotel room

The Eva hotel. Said in Bookings.com that they spoke English. No, they didn't. Rude receptionist, a Visa machine "Not working", which looked happily on line. They prefer cash so that they can save paying tax. But we didn't have enough Euros, so John had to walk unknown dark streets to the ATM, with a huge penalty for making a withdrawal. The first room they showed us smelled like the smoking room in a Gauloises cigarette factory. We balked and they moved us to this more fragrant one. Wonder why they need wall to wall mirrors? OK, we know

It was cheap, and the sheets were Egyptian linen and spotless. There was even silent air conditioning. We had to be up at 6 to get the 7.15 am ferry to Santorini, so it was only somewhere to lay our heads and shower in the morning. Onward to the sunshine. But breakfast first in a cafe at the port

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© John & Lynne Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus 2015