Greece – Santorini

Oh Santorini, my favorite island of the Greek cyclades, where to begin?!? This post has a ton of pictures to demonstrate my love for the place.

1. Santorini is a beautiful archipelago of volcanic islands.  I liked the cool dryish brown but rich soil landscape of the island.  It reminded me of this volcanic island I visited in the Galapagos.  There are also several famous beaches – black, red, and white beach with corresponding sand colors.

1. I loved the way the white-washed houses perched on top and on the side of the island.

 

• Nisha and I woke up super early to walk from Oia along the caldera path and enjoy the sunrise. We stopped at a bakery to grab some our favorite spinach pie spiral pastries.  Even though delicious, this attracted the attention of a dog, and soon another dog, and soon a herd of dogs was following us down the street!  They got excited an rammed into Nisha, injuring her already weak ankle.  We walked around a little more and then got a doctor to wrap up her ankle in Thira.     

1. We stayed at a really cute and cheap hostel in Oia.  Oia as a town is known for its beautiful sunsets, has ton of adorable streets and shops, and lots of picturesque churches.

1. In Thira, the capital of Santorini, there are more touristy shops, but also a cable car down to a port, which Nisha and I took.  To get back up the side of the caldera, we rode donkeys back up the 588 steps.  I was a bit hesitant to ride a donkey, but it was actually really fun!  The donkeys would walk really slow up the steps, and then all the sudden decide to charge up the stairs.  Sometimes they would walk right into walls or stop and eat shrubbery on the side of the path.  They couldn’t seem seem to make up their mind!

• We had to catch our next boat to Crete, but the bus from Oia was running way behind schedule, and we were going to be cutting it close.  As we descended down from the cliff to the port, we could be a boat, and hoped that it wouldn’t depart without us, or else the whole rest of our whole itinerary would be messed up.  We ran off the bus and grabbed our bags to find out that it wasn’t even our boat! Our boat pulled into the port half and hour later.