Greece- Santorini

Oh Santorini. 

Whenever Greece was mentioned two things came to mind, the first was Athens and the second was Santorini. I enjoy perusing pinterest and more than once, beautiful magical looking photos of Santorini would pop up. We knew the island would be more expensive than others because it is a popular destination and I suppose is like the Cannes of Greece, so ritzy. 

The island was even more beautiful than I had expected. 

Fortunately we were able to find a reasonable priced hotel right on the Caldera View. Santorini isn't known for it's beaches. It is the remains of a volcanic eruption and so first of all all the towns are built up high on the cliffs and the few beaches that do exists have black sand. 

When we arrived at the port, we immediately rented a car. Even though we would have enjoyed another quad to scoot around the island, we knew that with all the hills we would have trouble! The man at the car rental tried to help us with the location of our hotel but told us it was in Firastefani, and after we stopped and asked for help, we learned it was actually in Fira. 

view form hotel terrace

view from hotel terrace - Fira

After we finally arrived hot, sweaty, and pretty exhausted we headed out soon after to check out the town Oìa. It's the best place to watch the sunset. It's a small town and so it didn't take long to walk through and enjoy the breathtaking views. Then we settled down to watch the sunset. 

Our second day in Santorini we decided to drive around the island and visit the few beaches. They are called by the color of their sand. So first we stopped at "Red Beach" and then we tried to stop at "White Beach"- it was rocky white but we're not sure if it was the white beach. Then lastly we drove on over to the other side of the island to Perissa to see the most popular "Black Beach" but it was disappointing, full of beach umbrellas and chairs.  

While we were driving back we saw some horses, donkeys, and goats so we had to get some photos. 

The second night we decided to have homemade aperitivo. We stopped at the Carrefour which was near out hotel and picked up some white Greek wine and peanuts. We sat up on the terrace of our hotel and enjoyed watching the sunset and sharing a drink together. We had to ask the older greek lady at the reception for a corkscrew and when we were walking up to the terrace she met us with two wine glasses which was really sweet of her. 

We also saw on more than one occasion the classic image of an old greek man sitting on a donkey, leading a trail of donkeys behind him. A few times they passed right in front of our hotel room door. Thankfully they didn't leave any smelly gifts behind, because despite the picturesque view, walking along the caldera streets of Fira it was rather unpleasant. 

Two nights in Sanotrini was the perfect amount of time. We were able to walk around Oia, Fira, and Firastefani and visit the most popular beaches. When we return we'll have to go on a super special occasion and get a hotel with the private pool right on the edge of the cliff... hopefully! 

p.s. a lot of photo credit goes to Luca