Welcome to Santorini

Day #23 and 24 - Santorini, Greece

Im still alive! Its been a few days since ive last blogged. I think its because of my greek island mentality...things have just slowed down and i have become completely lazy.





The last few days have become a complete blur to me, so all of santorini will be jumbled into one. We started off our first day doing a hike from Fira, the main town of Santorini to Oia, the town at the most northern tip of the island.


We started at the crack of dawn ...at seven in the morning to get ready for our twelve km hike ahead.


Although i was super sleepy, i was happy to start so early since there were no tourists around to ruin my photos :)



The soft morning sun looked beautiful on the gorgeous white and blue buildings all over the island.





In the pic below, we were about half way. See the white town in the middle left part of the photo? Thats the final destination. Lol


How cool are these chairs? First time i saw these, they were in boston legal. Kinda random to see them in greece...i want them! when i buy my first home with a patio or back yard, thesemare going to be there for sure!





Ive seen stacked rocks everyone in the world, but only this day did i know you are supposed to build them and make a wish. Here is mine. Hope it comes true :)












This is my group for greece except for the americans, unfortunately they didnt have proper shoe for the hike so couldnt go.... guy who took this pic isnt good at taking phtoos...



From the time we started the hike in fira, this dog was following us and resting in the shade along the way. He was a cutie. Makes me miss my haley.


The views from this hike were absolutely increedible and breathtaking.







I swear these rocks are just everywhere. Same wish, still hoping it comes true :) next is a photo with my roomate priya, funnest woman from the uk. Wild child!




Can you tell i have a thing for jumping? Bc i do. Lol


There were sooooo many hotels along the way, some with their own privtae infinity pools, decks, etc, looking straight out to the water. Id imagine this would be an amazing honeymoon destination.


Annnnnnd finallly, four hours (with many breaks) later, we make it to the town of Oia. Wooooooooooooo


Theres a beautiful look out point on thr farthest point of oia, which is gorgeous.



Breath taking view....








I feel like ever since ive gone on vacation, my idea of what is normal has gone out the window. On a typical day in toronto, i would have rice and some sort of chinese dish for lunch. Today? Ice cream and a nutella banana crepe for lunch. Yum.

After the hike, priya and i immediately catch the bus to perissa beach. A very quite, quaint beach. The water was once again refreshing...every time i go to any beach in the greek islands, it just takes my breath away.


One of the famous things to do in Santorini is to see the sunset from oia (where i hiked to that morning) so after thr beach, i went back to the hotel quickly, showered and ran back to the bus stop (solo, bc no one thought it would be that good) and went to oia.


The town of oia was to the right of the sunset, so to get the best view, i had to go as far left as possible. Goodness knows i would do almost anything for a good photo, so i climbed a wall and climbed on top of a big cement cylinder (while in a skirt) to watch the sunset. Scrapped a few limbs, but it was sooooo worth it.














On my nice concrete cement block, it was me, and three couples sitting up there from turkey, spain and france. Since i was the only one there solo, i was nice and offered my awesome spot and photography skills to take pics for each of the couples.






Good ol panoramic shot.





I think this is the tenth gorgeous sunset ive seen alone. Lol starting to get slightly lonely. Lucky for me, t-minus five days til i get to see coleman. He better find me a good sunset or sunrise to watch togehter. Lol




Before the sun even set, i ran outta that look out point and headed for the bus so that i miss the mass of people...there were hundreds there watching the sunset, cant imagine what its like during high season. I haulled ass back to fira to have my final group dinner (group 1). On the way i stopped to take this gorgeous pic. Tho it really doesnt do the view justice. Everyone should come here to this island at least once in their life.


My party companions. Lol cynthia totally photo bombed this pic. Cute either way :)


We went out that night to a bar called "tropical bar", which is aparenlty am aussie bar. Hanging out the window, i got the bessssst view ever. Unfortunately since we were out, i had my crap cam with me so no good pics. They played great music, the kind i love - remixed top forty...and this one song that is forever stuck in my head...i dont know the name....but it kept repeating the line "welcome to santoriniiiiiiii"







This my dear lorenza...i am the baby in thr tour group, and she is the oldest, yet we share the same tastes in clothes and accessories. She is aweeeeeeesome, soooooo much fun and loves ot dance like me :) she also rocks a big tattoo on her lower back that she got recently. Coolest lady ever :)


Santorini was a bit empty so we bar hopped to from one to another. In the end we just got drinks at some random bar and settlrd there for a bit. A much more tame night than in mykonos, but a fun nite nonetheless. It was a great farewell to our group #1.


So apparently you cant go To santorini and not go to the caldera in the middle. The ticket for a half day trip to thr caldera and the "hot springs" was twenty euros on this ghetto pirate ship over here. Good thing the ride was super short so that i didnt have a chance to get sea sick.





Santorini used to be one massive island, until the volcanoes errupted and the island basically imploded itself. The "tour" brought us to three craters, everything was just black rock and dust.


The view was stunning once again
Another one of these stone wish thingers...same wish, still hoping it comes true :)


I feel like everytime i walk anywhere high up on a greek island, i fidn myself sayinig "woooowwwww..." suuuucccch a gooorrgeous view.


The rock was a funky black and orange colour...i think its from sulphur? I have nooooooooooo basis for coming to that conclusion tho.


Next stop was at the "hot springs"...i was under the impression that when something i called "hot springs", that it would be hot. The only way into the water was jumping off the boat. Imqgine my surprise when i jumped into water and it felt like i had a bucket of ice thrown on me. I swam towards the browner water, which is aparenlty where thr warm water was at....it was a bit warmer i suppose. But then mybody was covered in little reddish borwn residue. Yum. I wonder how many people hve peed in that water and whether that pee contributed to heat of the water.


I almost forgot. In order for me to get to thr port, i had to walk down a massssive hillside. Its these stairs ...winding stairs that uou can ride a donkey down or walk down. In hindsight, the donkey would have been a good idea because a)i was in a rush and b) there was donkey crap everywhere. Just imagine me running down these masive steps, allthe while trying to avoid large pieces of poo. Anyway, the point of the story is that i didnt opt to walk up that hill on the way up, and i didnt want to contribute to the abuse of donkies, so i rode the cable car up. This is the view from the cable car :)


When i got back into town, i was on a mission. I wanted to pruchase two items from greece. A silver charm (as i get from all trqvel destinations) and shoes. The night before i saw a lot of girls in gorgeous shoes...and i wanted some. My goal was to buy a cheap pair of heals that i can throw away at the end of my trip. Unfortunately, i have an unmatched skill/ability to walk into a shop and find the most expensive item there. I found these miss sixties. I loved them. So here i am, with a gorgeous pair of new shoes, and no room in my luggage. Packing will be a struggle :S


Also, all of santorini is pure cobble stone. It was a nigggghtttmare trying to walk in them. Anywho, our last night in santorini was spent at the same bar enjoying each others company. Im pretty sure i was the only person ever to ask the bartender to be LIGHT on the alcohol of my drink.

Even though i slept tons on the beach, somehow, every day after dinner, i would want to take a nap on the dinner table. I have never had so much red bull in my life.

Next step? Ios.

Location:Santorini, Greece