Santorini, Greece

April 1-8 - first half of Easter Break

I could not have had a better time while I was in Greece. Both in Santorini and Mykonos. They were extremely different experiences in which is what made them so wonderful. I’ve posted about them separately.

Santorini has been all I wanted it to be and more.

I got there Saturday evening April 1, with a direct flight from Manchester, which was nice. I had to go find food, so I went to the town center of Fira and got a halloumi cheese gyro wrap and a Greek beer. What a great way to start the vacation! I also chatted with an American couple who was there on holiday as well. Lovely evening. Then I walked back to my hotel around 11pm or so. On the way, however, I almost got attached by a pack of wild dogs! What I learned the next morning is that there is a problem with stray dogs and cats here. They just roam the island looking for food. It’s really sad. But it was terrifying that there were 4 dogs that came at me barking pretty aggressively. I didn’t know how to get around them, so I just decided I would walk by and put off an air of confidence and that I wasn’t scared. But it was TERRIFYING. I literally thought they were going to attack me. But ultimately, they did not and I walked on to the hotel with no other problems.

Sunday I was so excited to get up and just walk around Santorini and enjoy all the sights. That’s what I did all day. There’s just so much to take in because the way things look here is so different than any other place on earth. A lot of this trip, I just sat in beautiful places with coffee or wine and looked at the beauty of everything and soaked up being here. It’s really like a dream to me that I’m here in Santorini for a week. Here are some of the sights from my Sunday stroll.

Monday, I went on a bus tour around the island. Santorini is made up of several islands in the Aegean Sea. The island we are on is called Thira. I stayed in the town of Fira, which is on the central part of the island. The northern part and probably most famous is called Oia, and the southern part has several different towns. The island is not very big, even though there are several towns on it. So the bus tour took us to all parts of it so we could get more of an overall feel of what is on Santorini. I will go to other islands later in the week on a boat tour.

We first went to the highest point of the island where there is a monastery where monks live and work. And you can see the entire island from that point.

Next we went to the town of Pyrgos, another beautiful town. We saw the Saint Nektarios chapel there and learned that on Good Friday they do a huge service there and people from all over the island come. You can apparently look it up on Youtube to see it.

The next town we went to was called Emporio. It also had lovely winding roads you walk through. So very picturesque, though it looked different than the more white-washed typical Greek buildings.

We went to Perissa Beach, which is also known as the Black Beach, and had lunch. The wind was so strong that day that the waves were insanely big! And it was cold and rainy so no one could swim. But it was pretty cool to see the Black Beach.

Next they took us to a winery where we got to taste three different Greek wines that they grow there. They way they grow the vines is to turn them in on themselves so they grow in a circle on the ground. This is to prevent the wind from blowing them away and to protect the grapes. I made friends with another lady who was a solo traveler on this bus tour (and she was solo traveling on her trip as well). Her name was Patty from Wisconsin, and she was a HOOT. She and I became friends on the bus tour and had a great time that day.

From there we went to Oia, at the top of the island, where we were supposed to have a sunset view. But the weather had been cloudy all day and it just got more so while we were there. So no sunset view, but I did get some awesome pictures of the windmills and some other buildings there. This part of the island is the most posh and very expensive. A lot was not open at this time of year because it’s really right before their high tourism season starts. So it was interesting to be here when there are not tons of tourists. I do like that. But it did feel a bit like a ghost town in certain areas.

Tuesday was the day of my flying dress shoot! The makeup artist that the photographer recommended, Victoria, came to my hotel room at 9am and did my hair and makeup. Then I took a taxi to meet Stella, the photographer at the place where she wanted to do the shoot. She brought the dress with her that I told her I wanted to wear. I put it on and it was BEAUTIFUL! It could not have been windier that day, so the shoot was actually quite difficult! Stella had a helper guy who was there to hold the dress and make it look the way it looks in the photos. We had such a fun time doing the shoot. I didn’t take myself too seriously, and Stella made it fun. It was over quickly. I paid for a 30-minute shoot which was 300 Euros. But it was totally worth it to me. What an amazing experience, and I now have some beautiful pictures to celebrate this incredible year.

After the dress shoot in the morning, I decided I didn’t need to let the hair and makeup go to waste so I basically took a ton of selfies to try to get my money’s worth out of that. I thought she did such an amazing job. And Tuesday was the most beautiful sunset I had seen since I’d been in Santorini. BEAUTIFUL!

Wednesday I went down to the port and had fried calamari at the restaurant where Danelle and Dirk and I ate when we came here on our cruise in 2016. I don’t know what it was but I was completely struck by the beauty of the moment. I sat there and just cried at everything. The beauty of the ocean. The taste of the calamari. The smoothness of the wine. The warmth of the sun. The opportunity that I have had to be traveling for this year. It just all came crashing down on me today in this beautiful moment. I just can’t believe the incredible moments I have made on this year-long trip. The incredible opportunities I’ve had, experiences I’ve had, people I’ve met, relationships I have created, possibilities that have emerged. Things that I don’t even know that will come out of this.

Anyway…Later that day, after I rode the lift up from the port, I caught a bus to try to go see the lighthouse I had heard about near the town of Acrotiri. The bus driver let me and a bunch of other tourists off at a stop that seemingly didn’t have anything at it. But there was the ancient ruins there, which I was not very interested in seeing. I asked the driver about where the lighthouse was and he said something about I missed the stop and school children and other things I didn’t understand. But what I got from that is that I wasn’t getting there today. So instead I decided to scope out the area I was in. Luckily it was where the Red Beach is, so I walked out there and took some pics. I found a restaurant and sat by the water and had a Coke to drink and enjoyed a different view from here. Then I went back to the bus stop and waited for the bus to come back to get us. I was in this area for about 2 hours. Then the bus took me back to Fira where I think I just hung out in my room and relaxed the rest of the day.

Thursday it was rainy and quite cold all day. I went and sat at a coffee shop and did some work. Then I moved to a restaurant on the caldera side of the island and did more work for a while. But not before I had the best meal I’ve had. It was a shrimp pasta in white wine sauce. OMG. It tasted amazing. I used today as an excuse to go back to my room and get under the covers and watch TV. I was so cold all day! But what a nice way to be able to just relax in my room.

Friday I went on a boat tour. It took us to the volcano island called Tholos Naftilos, the island behind it that has hot springs called Palea Kameni, and the island a little further away from Santorini called Thirasia. These are a few more of the islands that make up Santorini. Again, on this tour, I made friends with an American couple from South Carolina. We walked around together and hung out the rest of the day together. We had a fun time; it’s always nice to meet some friends along the way and have a fun day with them. We hiked up the volcano which took about 30 minutes – the views were incredible. You could see how blue the water is around the island. When we went to the hot springs, you have to jump in the ocean water to swim to them. It was cold and the water was freezing, so I did not do that. But one of my friends I made did do it. Good on her! Then we cruised to Thirasia and had lunch at a restaurant on the water. We indulged in some wine at lunch and it was just so lovely.

When we got back from the cruise, which lasted about 6 hours, my friends and I decided we wanted to keep hanging out, so we went bar-hopping, basically and had a few more drinks until the sunset. What a fun and relaxing day of vacation!

Saturday I was transferring to Mykonos. I slept in and packed, then got a taxi to take me to the port to get on the ferry. The ferry left around noon or so.

In short: SANTORINI WAS AMAZING! IF YOU HAVE THE CHANCE, GO THERE! I still cannot believe I have been able to be on this incredible adventure with so many incredible experiences. It’s almost too unbelievable.