Our first wedding anniversary - Sandeep & Sonali

It’s been one year since our wedding…

I and Sonali decided to take a vacation in Greece. To be more precise in Santorini Island. We took a vacation in the Mediterranean from 22 Feb to 26 Feb 2008.

First day we were in Athens, more of a historic place, of course who does not know about the ancient history of Greece. Remember we had a non-detailed text ‘Trojan war’, that mythology is based in Greece. Many such memories get refreshed here. We spent only one day in Athens. Or let me put it this way, we were in no great mood for history. But, truth be told, Athens asserts its glory itself, whether you have a keen eye or otherwise. It requires one to be physically a well as intellectually blind, to, not to be awed by the glory of Athens.

Next day we travelled from Athens to Santorini by Ferry / Cruise. It was a very leisurely sail from Athens to Santorini, almost eight hours. The cruise was majestic, with beautiful interiors, complete with a dinning hall, televisions, and separate classes like business class and first class. Since it was journey in day time, it does not matter which ever class you travel. Most of our time we spent on the deck, lazing around or just enjoying the beauty of the sea. One thing which immediately comes to my mind when I think of this journey is the beautiful blue waters. The water in this sea is incredibly blue, feels as if some body has added blue colour to the water. It’s exactly like we see in tourism promotion photos.

The hotel we stayed in Santorini was a family run hotel. It really had a cosy feel of itself. Since it was off season for regular tourists, the hotel had only two rooms booked, one by us and the other by a Chinese couple, Judy and Eric, who were on a honeymoon.

Santorini is a very small Island. Hardly one fourth the size of Hyderabad. It is situated in the middle of blue Mediterranean Sea and spread across the mountain range. It has a few villages and beaches, separated from one another by hills and valleys. It is a volcanic island, and has had major eruptions, many years back. Because of this, every beach on this island is unique.

We stared our day by visiting a small village Oia, on the top of mountain, by the sea side, besotted with white-blue churches (remember the white and blue churches in shahrukh khan’s chalte-chalte song and Akshay Khanna’s kissa hum likhege song). It has a very beautiful view of the Mediterranean.

Then we visited the Red beach. The hills surrounding this beach, the sand, the rocks all are dark red in colour. This gives a very unique look for the beach. Red sand, dark blue water, green vegetation, blue sky…. Makes it picture perfect. Best part of this beach is, we just cannot access this beach by driving or waking on a well-laid out road, we had to go trekking. We climbed the hill, got down the other side and then reached the beach. As I said earlier, there were no tourist since it was off season, and this place is quite deserted and away from the nearest village. We were only totally six people on the beach (three couples). So for almost one day we had the entire beach for ourselves. And when we started to return, we climbed the hill to get back to the village… guess what…we lost the way. We are on top of some hill, nobody in the near hearing distances, even the other two couples were not with us, only me and Sonali and its getting dark. Where ever we look, it’s steep down into the sea... But after struggling for sometime…we found a rough way... full of rocks, thorny plants and Risky slops…. It was scary but a very good experience… after coming back to safety we felt relieved. Now looking back on that experience, we have a good laugh.

Evening we went to the black beach…entire beach is black, again because of some volcanic activity. It was fun watching Sonali fearing the waves. First I thought it was just normal fear but when I insisted that we go near, she started weeping. That was fun, for me!!!!

We stayed at the beach till the nightfall….then roamed around the kamari village for some time and returned home….

Next day we travelled back from Santorini to Athens and then back to Frankfurt.

It was a very good vacation and we can say we had a very good first wedding anniversary, full of sun, beach, hill, sea, boat , flights and what not…..

Did I mention about Sonali making me wait on a deserted road, till another car had gone ahead of us, just because a black cat had crossed the path…..

And did I tell you about us walking fast and entering a bakery and buying the most tasteless cake, because a stray dog was following us and would not leave Sonali’s side, and Sonali could not stop weeping. Tears flowing like Ganga……

And did I tell…… OK that’s enough!!!!

Love Sandeep & Sonali Kulkarni

PS : to check out the photos visit http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=v74l0h6.1dyzo3ii&x=0&y=frk4ga