F Harry’s Toe, Mother-n-law’s tongue, and Drunk as a Donkey... A few things we learned in Santorini

Our last day in Greece was spent on the island of picture perfect Santorini. We had really been looking forward to this because this is the location of the typical pictures you see in brochures of Greece, with the white buildings and blue roofs overlooking the sea. All the villages are set high on cliffs which provide spectacular views. The available modes of transportation down to the sea are sky gondola, walking or donkey ride.

There are over 400 churches in Santorni, adding to the beautiful architecture...

We spent some time shopping in the town of Oia, which has very narrow cobblestone streets that are only about two shoulders wide. Dad’s version of shopping...

Seventy percent of Santorini is covered in grapes, which makes wine one of their top exports. We were able to visit one of the local wineries, Domaine Sigalas. Here we learned about the production of the wine and got a chance to taste it as well. In addition, we were told about the myth of Bahkos, who is attributed with bringing vines to the island. The story goes that he planted the original vine in the bone of a bird for transportation to the island, but when the vine out grew the bone he planted it in the skull of a lion. Eventually the vine out grew the skull and he moved it to the skull of a donkey. Therefore the locals say that if you have a little wine you get light as a bird, a little more and you get the courage of a lion, and any more than that you will become an ass.

The island receives very little rain fall, and the grapes are actually watered by a mist that comes up from the sea over night. This arid climate allows for cactus to grow throughout the landscape, and the following picture is of a prickly cactus the locals refer to as Mother-n-law’s tongue, which we thought was hilarious.

Our last bit of knowledge gained was that “thank you” in Greek sounds like F Harry’s Toe in English. So F Harry’s Toe to Greece, we loved our time here!