Wow. It was my first thought as our ferry pulled up at the Santorini port after a 3hr trip from Paros.
The mountain cliffs loomed high above us and there looked like some great hiking tracks up to the top. We took our bus into Fira Town, past cubed whitewashed buildings overlooking the ocean, and took a lazy walk through the shopping village before dinner.
The shops were amazing handmade jewellery boutiques and art galleries, and the views of the ocean, sprinkled with volcanic islands, were simply breathtaking. Our dinner was so lovely, what with the view and great food and wine, that we decided to wash it down with dessert from the patisserie down the street. We had walked past it earlier and it was heaven, dozens of different handmade cakes, pastries and chocolates, making it impossible to choose just one.
Just as we were about to walk in however, the entire island had a blackout. Like, the entire island. Shopkeepers, bars, restaurants and homes all immersed into complete darkness. What was so amazing is that they all brought out candles and lit them on their white stone walls, so the entire island looked like Neverland filled with tiny fairies. It was beautiful.
The only place that had a decent amount of light was the Aussie bar (the Greek island are entirely filled with Australians, I’m not exaggerating. People don’t even bother asking where you’re from, it’s just ‘Sydney or Melbourne?’) so we had a drink and waited for the lights to come back on before sprinting back to the patisserie for dessert. We were sprinting because they looked so good, not because we suddenly felt the need for exercise, although I am sure it didn’t hurt.
The following morning, I decided to actually do some official sightseeing, and joined the Volcano excursion, which took us on a sailing ride to the island made of Volcanic rock (don’t ask me what it’s called, translated, I’m sure it means ‘Island of Volcanic rock’, so let’s just stick with that) where we walked up to the top and looked down into massive craters created quite recently (I think the last erruption was 1950). If you scraped dirt aside on the track, you actually saw steam rise, and the ground was boiling hot in places to the touch.
After boarding our boat again, we sailed another 15 minutes to hot springs, where we jumped off the boat into the ocean and sawm around to the hot springs protected by the surrounding rocks, where the water was a good 10 degrees warmer. We swam and covered ourselves in the orange mud before swimming back into the ocean towards the boat and the ride home.
It was just a great morning and an experience that was so much more unique than laying on a beach. My afternoon was spent looking around town before the group all met up at 6pm for our sunset picnic at Oia (pronounced ee-ah).
Oia is the place all the ‘white buildings overlooking the ocean’ photos of Greece you see are from, so you can imagine how perfect it was. Renee, our leader, stocked up on food and we walked through Oia town to the old fortress to set up a good spot to watch the sunset before the tourist rush arived.
We had a delicious dinner – Greek salad, cold meats, tatziki, olives, vine leaves, cheese and wine – which was looked upon enviously by the hundreds of other tourists, and the Contiki group who brought 4 cases of alcohol and no food.
The sunset was amazing – and it’s funny how something so simple can go by so unappreciated every day. Where am I every other sunset? But the lesson was well worth the price, and my only regret is not choosing to stay in Santorini for at least a week.
My last though of Santorini as we pulled out of the port the following morning? Wow.
-Sarah
Sarah