August Holiday with Dan! Santorini

Santorini was... a lot different than I expected. Arriving on ferry (it took approx 4 hours), it seemed really desolate. The bus ride from the ferry to the main city made me feel like I was in a rural area. The land was dry with very few trees. There were many homes which were only half constructed, as if the ran out of money or lost faith in what they were meant to be. There weren't really any people around this part of the island. It felt a bit like it was deserted, and for good reason. It wasn't the lush paradise I was imagining.

In truth, Santorini had very little greenery. There were a few bushes and trees here and there, but no grass. It was just dry, brown dirt. Fira, the main city, is a hub of tourists. Santorini is truly a tourist's city. You couldn't go three meters without seeing someone with a ATV or scooter and a funny helmet, zipping around. There was English on all the signs. After getting on the bus at Fira, we headed off to Oia (pronounced Ee-ah). Oia is on the very tip of the island. Santorini looks a little like a funny eggplant wich someone took a big bite out of. Who knows why anyone would want to take a big bite out of a raw eggplant. Oia is on the very top and supposedly the most beautiful to see the sunsets from. More on Oia sunsets later.

Once arriving at Oia, I started to see more of the Greece I imagined. Whitewashed houses with beautiful blue windows and accents . The caldera was absolutely gorgeous. Dan and I rented out a studio apartment on the caldera from a management company called Delphini. I highly recommend Delphini. Rena, the landlady, is a total sweetheart. It had a view of both the caldera and the volcano and ocean. It was absolutely gorgeous. This was definitely what people come for when they come to Greece. Dan and I had a relaxing lunch at a restaurant in Oia and spent the rest of our day wandering around the town. Oia's a very small town, you can walk the span of it within 20 minutes. it's very skinny, but very long.

The next day, we decided to rent an ATV and go to the Red Beach. The ATV we rented was probably the worst on the island. It was an automatic, but just didn't want to go into the second gear. The entire time, we were slowly chugging along and everyone was zipping past us. As a result, we did get to see a lot of the beautiful landscaping of Santorini.

The Red Beach is red because of the volcanic rock which is on the cliff face and the beach itself. It's more of a rocky/pebbly beach than a sandy one. Essentially all we did was lay there and read. It was a wonderful feeling, to just relax, snack on some chips and hang out at the beach. I miss that a lot....

The last full day we were there, Dan and I went to a volcano tour. The volcano tour was way over-sold. There were a lot of suckers, though, so we didn't feel as bad. We went onto the volcano... which was a bit blah, then went to a hot springs near the volcano. The hot springs was an area which was warmer than the rest of the water and a light green/yellow color. It had a lot of sulfur in the water. Tour boats took turns dropping off tourists there. Really, it was uneventful and not that interesting. The last segment of our tour was to an island which was rather small and didn't have a lot of things to do. We had lunch at a specified area (probably the only source of money for that restaurant) and wandered around a little. The overall trip wasn't expensive, but it was rather dull and not worth the money.

When getting back from the island, we rode some donkeys up the mountain. I really wanted to ride them because I saw it in "Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants". Not a good idea. Not only is the guy too gruff and the donkeys going everywhere, you still need to hike up a section. Dan scraped up his right foot really badly and the guy was completely unapologetic. Never ride donkeys in Santorini. They seemed less than caring about the actual fun experience.

After our donkey fiasco, we went back home and relaxed. That evening, since it was our last night in Santorini, we went to see the famous Oia sunset. The sunset was beautiful, but the place was way too crowded with people! I couldn't see a thing. Luckily for Dan and I, we had a bite to eat at home, because it was a huge rush to get in and out of the area to watch the sunset. The sunset was beautiful, regardless.

This segment of the trip was extremely relaxing. We didn't have a set number of things to see, so just wandered around. The food in Greece was quite interesting as well. For where we were, you had to pay for almost everything. I think it was a factor of the place we stayed. Although Greece had a lot of seafood, we ended up eating a lot of meat. They have shish kebabs of pork which were really popular. And there were fries with everything. That was a bit strange. I guess we didn't' have true Greek food, perhaps. We did eat Greek salad almost every day. It was delicious. Those cherry tomatoes from Santorini were great. They also supposedly had a very good chocolate souffle thing, but when we tried it, it was cold and pre-made. The next time we tried to order it, all they had was a soft brownie. I guess I'll have to keep on trying to make a molten chocolate cake.... Oh well.

I liked Santorini, but I think I'd much rather go to another, less touristy island sometime. This island was a good primer, but I'd love to go elsewhere to see what there is to see.