Seeing Santorini

Ahh, Santorini. Considered one of the most beautiful places in the world by many, and with good reason. Pictured above are two of the more well-known cities on the island of Thira, part of the group of islands that make up Santorini. The first and the third are Oia and the other two are Fira. Oia is best known, at least to this particular group, as the setting of Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants. Of course, I couldn't care less about that movie, but I appreciated the scenery nonetheless. 

Day One

We went to Santorini without a plan, though we had pre-booked a hostel. The hostel was fairly nice, albeit a 25 minute walk into town. The first day, we walked around Thira and eventually made our way to the top of a mountain from where we were able to see the entire city. We found out that, because it was off-season, almost nothing was open which was unfortunate. However, Linnea and I decided to wander into a travel agency and ask if they were running anything. They were not, but one of the agents agreed to try and set something up since we were a group. The result? A specially booked boat tour of the nearby volcano and hot springs for Sunday.

Having been told that Santorini is known for some of the best wine in Greece, we naturally wanted to go to the wine museum. We were able to catch a quick bus that took us to the museum in Kamari. It was pretty cool and the accompanying tasting was excellent; I fell in love with a bottle of dessert wine, though our love was doomed to end in failure (it was seriously expensive!). Some of the girls got bottles, though, and we (they) drank them in the parking lot while we waited for the bus. Classy as always.

After the wine museum, we headed up to Oia. It was beautiful and we were all excited to watch the sunset. Apparently, it's a can't miss. Unfortunately, miss it we did. The last bus left at 6:20 and, afraid of missing it and being stranded, we skipped the sunset to get to the stop. The irony? We could have stayed, the bus was just late enough that we could have seen the entire thing. However, we did see a fragment between a few buildings and it was, indeed, beautiful.

We headed back to Thira and grabbed dinner at Mama's Place, a small Italian joint which was delicious. Drinks after, and the walk back to the hostel completed a pretty spectacular day.

Day Two

We woke up early again and headed out. We headed back up to the top of Thira after grabbing a great breakfast from a Cretan bakery we passed. Delicious and cheap! Thira was still beautiful and we shopped for souvenirs and hung out taking pictures until it was time for our cable car ride down to the port for the boat trip!

The cable car was quick! It took mere minutes to get all the way down to sea-level. We were trying to find our boatman when we were approached by a man with donkeys! Donkey riding is big in Santorini, you see, and something we had really wanted to do. However, previous inquiries had proven disappointing: almost everything was closed for the season and the only open rides were 20 Euro, an enormous rip-off. However, this man offered to meet us after the boat and let us ride donkeys back up the mountain for the standard 5 Euro. Good stuff.

We got on the boat and headed to the volcano. The volcano was strange, beautiful, and completely unlike any landscape I had ever seen. Black rock covered the land, but so did newly growing flowers which made for a gorgeous contrast.

We didn't quite make it to the crater, for a variety of reasons, but just seeing the land was definitely a treat.

After we were done with the volcano, we got back onto the boat and sailed around the volcano to the smaller island where the hot springs are. Now, "hot springs" are a bit of a misnomer. Because it's off-season (this affects EVERYTHING!), they were really more like luke-warm springs. And they're rather muddy. But getting to jump in the Aegean and swim to them and just play in the water was fantastic, albeit cold. We later stopped at a clearer spot for more swimming, but I was the only one who went in! Everyone else was too cold, I think. They missed out; I had a blast. Word of warning though? Flipping in the water with sunglasses is not a good idea. Whoops.

The boat finally took us back to Thira and we chilled by the water for a while, drinking beer. I still don't like beer, but it just felt like that kind of moment. Plus, Mythos (one of Greece's most famous beers) really isn't that bad! After a bit, our donkey man found us and we got to ride donkeys up the hill! It was a blast and a new experience. However, the donkeys were a bit sweaty and tired after a long day, so pity tainted the experience a bit. 

After the donkey ride, we stayed on top of Fira watching the sun set. It wasn't quite Oia, but it was still spectacular. A delicious dinner followed at a restaurant that is "rated #1 on tripadvisory.com" according to the owner. He loved us, though! We got free wine, dessert, and a limoncello shot accompanying our already delicious meal. A total success. 

After dinner, we headed back to the hostel, where they drove us down to the ferry. We had to wait in a freezing (3-pairs-of-pants-freezing) waiting lounge for about 5 hours until the ferry actually got there, but get there it did. And thus ended our weekend in Santorini: a success by anyone's standards!