Santorini

Oia town, and the famous blue roof!

I apologize for my delay in writing - I have been doing a lot of traveling in the last week! I will catch you up on that in my next post, but for now ~ Santorini! So, as previously mentioned, I have always wanted to visit that island, so I had pretty high expectations! Unfortunately, I couldn't use my Eurail pass for the ferry ride over from Athens, but that was ok because I still hadn't validated it, so I could take my time and stay as long as I wanted. My last day in Athens was spent not walking, relaxing, and trying to stay warm - I even treated myself to a rare cappuccino so that I could sit inside a cafe and read my book and be warm. Then I took the metro (which was very easy to use and figure out there - I loved it) to the ferry, got my ticket, and boarded the boat. I figured it would be a smaller ferry, but it was huge, like a cruise ship! Initially, I sat up on the covered deck and read while the boat was still docked, but quickly had to go inside to stay warm once we started moving. Inside, I ended up sitting next to an American girl, Torie, who had just finished a semester abroad in Barcelona. We talked most of the trip, and she ended up telling me I could stay with her for the first night, which was awesome since we weren't arriving until 1 a.m. and I didn't have accommodation set up yet. We were met by George, the owner of the guest house that she had reserved - it was definitely nice to be picked up after an 8-hour ride, and at that time of the morning!

The caldera

I became an immediate fan of the nice hotel that she was in - not only because George was so great, but because of the heat in the room, the hot showers, and the unlimited coffee and tea availability! We went to bed right away, and slept so good that I couldn't believe it when I woke up and it was 1 p.m.! Eventually, we headed out to the main town on the island, Fira, which was about a 15 minute walk from where we were staying. The day was colder than I had hoped, but it wasn't raining, so that was good. We saw the donkeys waiting to take tourists up from the port, in lieu of walking up the almost 600 steps. They were really cute, but didn't appear to be super well taken care of, which made us sad. Mostly that afternoon, we just walked around and enjoyed the view of the Aegean Sea, and I of course had a gyro! Fira, along with most of the cities on the small island, sits up on a cliff that is called the caldera. Around 1450 BC, the volcanic heart of the island exploded and sank, leaving the amazing landscape that is there now.

Volcano

The volcano actually sits on it's own in the middle of the sea, sort-of hugged by the island itself. Another island, Thirasia, is nearby and also used to be attached to Santorini.
After looking around quite a bit, both in town and online, for a place to stay, I came up with no cheaper option in or near Fira than to continue to share a room with Torie, which she was very generous to agree to. We ended up being really happy that we did stay together because the weather was bad and there wouldn't have been too much to do alone. Plus, it's always more fun to have a partner in crime! The next afternoon, we rented ATVs, which we would have for the next 24 hours. After the trial drive down to a nearby black sand beach, we both realized that we needed gloves badly as our hands were frozen! First, we asked George if he had any that we could borrow, which he didn't. He recommended going to a souvenir shop, but none of them had any either! Apparently, the weather was very unusual, and one person even told us that this was the coldest it has been in 20 years! Needless to say, we ended up buying socks to put on our hands, which we were so thankful for all day! The ATV was super fun, and despite the cold, we were so happy that we rented them. That first day, we covered most of the lower part of the island.

We saw a few black beaches, and a red beach - instead of sand, the beaches are made of pebbles and rocks. We went all the way out to the lighthouse as well. By the end of the day, we were frozen to the bone and had to take long, hot showers to get warm again. The next morning, I drove my ATV up to the northern town of Oia (pronounced ee-ya) - this is THE city that we see in postcards and movies, and the one I was most excited to go to! The weather was super windy and cold, and occasionally rainy, but it was still really amazing, and I am still in disbelief that I was actually there! I think that from seeing movies and postcards of it, I thought that the whole town was going to consist of white buildings with blue roofs. It wasn't exactly that way - in fact, it is basically one church that looks like that, but I think it is just photographed so much that it seems like it is all of the buildings, if that makes sense. Overall though, it was definitely the most beautiful and picturesque city on the island, and I would have stayed a lot longer if I didn't have to get back to return my ATV. I can't really describe the beauty of the island as a whole, and I am sure the pictures will only partially do it justice. I would love to go back someday, when the weather is better, and also visit more of the Greek islands.