Santorini, Hyda and home

Guess it is time to wrap up the Greece travels with Santorini and Hydra. Saving the best for last. I loved these two islands.

Ok, let me talk some about my perception. Before I ever arrived to Santorini, I thought the island was would be a beautiful island filled with trees and greenery. NOT! It is made up of volcanic rock that is pretty barren. The water was clear and an aquamarine color as we came into dock. As I looked wayyyyy up, sitting on top of the cliffs were white stucco houses that were the villages of Fira and Oia (pronounced eeah). We got into port and had two choices how to get to the top of the cliffs to the villages. The first option was riding a donkey up the hundreds of steps and the second was the gondola up the cliff. Although the gondola was quite scary looking, I chose that method of transportation. Not enough time this trip to take the donkeys.

Once on Fira, we headed for a place where you can rent ATVs so that we could travel over to Oia. It was worth the $20 for the day! Of course, we decided to take the route along the coastal highway which was beautiful, but it added 45 minutes to an hour to our trip. By the time we got to Oia, it was "quick, find a spot so we could paint!" We only had about 2 hours left before we had to be back on the ship and time was slipping away. Our feat of finding a place ended in in positive results with a picturesque cafe that had outstanding food (does it seem I painted and ate my way through Greece?). I multi-tasked eating and painting at the same time quickly capturing the typography of the land with the white houses for which Santorini is known. Flowers everywhere, and the view spectacular. But time was flying and after a quick painting, we gathered our backpacks and drove like speed demons to get back to the port. Of course, speed demons on ATVs is about 40mph:)

Back on the ship and off to Hydra.

I immediately loved Hydra the moment I saw it. The village was laid back and seemed more like a taste on Italy versus the the stark white architecture of Santorini. Houses had the Mediterranean red roof style. Quaint, lots and lots of steps and of course the donkeys to go with them. My mother said at this point, I feel i have walked up hundreds of steps on this trip. She was right and Hydra added to the already hundreds of steps. Now i know why they used donkeys so much on these islands. I am sure you will see donkey paintings in future shows:).

We landed quickly set up in the main center of the town. I just realized that I did not take a photo of my painting in Hydra, so I have nothing to post here for Hydra other than photos.

Hydra was a great way to end a great trip. After painting, I did most of my shopping and we relaxed in one of the cafes. Once back on board the ship, we headed back to Athens. It was at this point that we had an art show given so many people on board had asked us if we were going to sell our paintings. So all in all, Connie and I sold most of our paintings which was a great finish to a wonderful trip.


As a side note, Connie Renner, my fellow traveling artist, painted some jewels on the trip that I wanted to share one with you, the Mykinos windmills. It is now a prized possession of mine.

Thank you all for joining me in my travels to Greece.

Future postings will have new paintings for upcoming shows as well as just talking about the creative process and what that looks like for all of us. I always appreciate your comments!!