If you have followed my trip with my family, you may have seen that Paris and Athens didn’t go as planned. From stupid fights to missing flights, this trip wasn’t going as planned. But, somehow, when the family was in Santorini, things shifted. Our luck changed. We got on the same schedule, I gave up trying to make everything perfect and instead chose to enjoy being with my family, and besides a few very minor bumps, we were happy.
My Family In Santorini And Our Own Little Beach
I fell in love with Santorini so much last time, I kept extending my stay. I found this beautiful Airbnb at the bottom of the city of Oia. Our host even rearranged our taxi and water taxi after we missed out flight. The boat ride to our place was magical.
There was only one problem with the location. You had to get there by water taxi or climb 250 steps. For me this was fine, but for my 70-something-year-old mother, not so much. But, my mom and sisters were by the water and we had no real plans. So, if we had to stay at our little beach cave all day, it would work.
This place really was phenomenal. It sleeps a tight 4, but mom and Jennie shared the main bedroom, Angie on the futon with her fan blowing, and me in the loft bed with the sounds of the waves crashing and a great breeze. I headed up the crazy 250 stairs and bought us groceries and made us a nice little dinner while we enjoyed the view.
Family In Santorini: Day 1
Originally I said day 1 was going to be a free day, but I planned on going to Fira and anyone could join. My mom and Jennie decided to come with and Angie stayed to rest. My poor sister is a trooper, but on top of her heart condition, she also has long-term Covid (I hope that’s okay to share). So she lives with this cough. Constantly. She would keep apologizing, but we all just wanted her to feel better. And I feel she got a much-needed day of rest.
The rest of us headed to Fira on the water taxi. We all said we would repeat this trip the next day so Angie didn’t feel like she missed out. The water taxi dropped us off at the bottom of the cliff where you can either walk, take a donkey, or a cable car. Well, mom was with us, so we chose the cable car. Even if mom wasn’t with I still would have chosen the cable car.
We walked around a bit in Fira, but it was really busy and crowded. So, we decided to head to the black sand beach on the other side of the island. I wanted to head here because this is where I stayed last year and met one of the most wonderful people who I refer to as “mama”. She ran the place I stayed last year.
*I would love to give you the address, but she doesn’t have a card and I’m going to text her on how to find her place.
Meeting With “Mama”
Like I said last year I met this amazing woman that ran the place I stayed. I wasn’t supposed to stay there, but the other place I booked had some sewage problems and they put me here as an alternate. I ended up falling in love with this woman so much that I stayed a week longer than I should of.
She was a joy. I would sit on the patio writing my blog and we would talk during my breaks. She treated me like her son. I shared things with her and she gave me advice. She shared about her family and how I’m part of hers now. She said “I will be your mama here” at one point. Hence why I call her mama.
When we arrived it took her a second to remember. But once she did, she remembered everything. She knew the room I was in, and what I told her about my family, and she even remembered talking to my mom on Zoom one afternoon. But something was not the same. She wasn’t the same joyous woman I remember.
A Gift From Mama’s Son
When we started talking, mama revealed that her youngest son had passed away. Her eyes welled up with tears. Both for the sadness for her son, but she also mentioned the joy of seeing me with my family that she heard me talk about so much. And she was happy that I brought them to meet her.
She told us that her son is watching over her and the ones she loves on this island. Broke my heart that she was feeling so sad. She was a woman with so much joy the year before. But, she smiled through it and after she got out her pain I saw my mama from the year before. My family was in Santorini for a short time, so we said our goodbyes and she said we could use the pool if we wanted to while we were there.
But here is the blessing of her son. I’m by no means a religious man. Spiritual yes. But, I believe in being good, and good comes back to you. But, I swear to you. After mama told us that her son was watching over us, we stopped at a cafe. My mom goes into her backpack and she finds her fricking wallet at the bottom that had slipped into a little pocket she didn’t know about. She had searched EVERYWHERE, for this lost wallet. And there it was. Some will say it was luck, but others will say it was her son watching over us. All I knew was that’s the moment everything turned around for us. We enjoyed our day at the beach, and we headed home to a well-rested Angie.
A Family in Santorini: Day 2
We all wanted Angie to have the same experience we had the day before, so we basically did the same thing. Except for that night we were going to go see Mamma Mia at an outdoor movie theater. Because of how late we were going to get out of the movie, I booked Angie and my mom a small, but affordable Airbnb (book it HERE) near the beach, and Jennie and I were going to brave the stairs in the middle of the night on our own. We had done the journey with my mom going down the day before, and there was no way we were going to do that at night.
I found Angie’s happy place at the beach. She had been saying this was going to be her favorite part of the trip. And sure enough, it was. While my mom and my sisters lay by the beach, I ran around trying to find a car so we could go to this movie. This is something we all really wanted to do, so I was going to guarantee to make it work. And thankfully I found a car.
Here’s the weird thing about renting a car in Santorini. I got a discount if I paid cash, and they never even took a card from me in case, I don’t know, I TOTAL their car. I gave him 75 euros (that included insurance) and he handed me the keys. No deposit, nothing. I picked up my family, we did a quick hello to mama, had dinner at one of my favorite places Grandma’s Recipe (it’s a lot of food, split if you can), and we were off to the movie.
Mamma Mia In An Open-Air Movie Theater
I’ve visited Skopelos where Mamma Mia was filmed. While we weren’t in Skopelos, it’s still kind of cool to watch the movie while living on an island in Greece. This movie theater was pretty rad too. Cool artwork, a little bar/concession stand, and the seats were basically fancy lawn chairs with little tables next to them.
This was such a fun experience. Although it does start a little late, it was worth it. And the snacks and drinks are CHEAP. It was like 3 euros for a large popcorn. We all sat there enjoying the movie together. There was a 15-minute intermission where I turned to my mom exhausted and discussed maybe leaving early. But, then Angie turned and said how much fun she was having, and there was no way I was going to suggest leaving. It wasn’t that I wasn’t having fun, I just spent my whole day running around Santorini trying to find a car and was tired. But, it was a good last night for my family in Santorini.
The ride home was adventurous? I guess that would be the word to use. Here we are in this little car in the middle of the night driving roads that wind up and down the hills of Santorini. We make it to mom and Angie’s Airbnb. But, Jennie and I still have a half-hour drive and 250 steps to climb down at one in the morning. Google maps even sent us down a narrow donkey path. We made it safely though and it was a great day.
A Family In Santorini: Our Final Day
Since our ferry didn’t leave till four, we decided to spend our day at Mama’s resort. She said we were more than welcome to use the pool. I offered to pay, but she refused. We spent the day enjoying the pool and mom ordered some smoothies and drinks for us to at least give Mama some money for her hospitality.
We said our goodbyes to a teary-eyed Mama. She once again said how beautiful it was that we were all together. It made me think that though we had a few bumps to get there, it really was special that I got to share this moment with my family in Santorini. We packed up our car and were on our way for one more crazy drive.
The drive down to the ferry is intense. You’re going down this steep cliff that winds back and forth. I was definitely white-knuckeling it. But, I took it slow and got us safely to the bottom. We had a quick lunch, chatted with three women from Wisconsin who reunited at a class reunion and caught our ferry without any problems. FINALLY, a smooth travel day.
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