Early in the morning, we hopped a ferry to our last Greek island for this trip. This picturesque island with a blue and white topped caldera has been on my dream list for years. Santorini sunsets, we're coming for you!
We scored and stayed in the cutest loft right off the downtown streets of Oia. That made it so easy to walk out and explore. We only had 2 days so we wanted to make the most of it! We shopped, toured museums, ate lots of amazing food, and watched the World Cup of course!
There were lots of pups roaming the streets amidst all the tourist's feet. Every one of them looked like they were on a mission! They had a special delivery! Important gossip to share with the other neighborhood puppers! They were out and about enjoying their morning stroll just as everyone else was.
By this time, the sun was starting to go down and you could feel the excitement in the air of the forthcoming famous sunsets. It was a maze to walk through the throngs of eager sightseers. Quite a sight in itself, really. Every corner was piled with people. Every walkway, staircase, the entire Castle ruins, each were covered with people hoping to get their chance to see the sunset. We kept walking until we could find a place to call our own.
Walking west, we found an amazing restaurant that was steps away from a front row seat to the sunsets. We had found our own VIP viewing area! We enjoyed our dinner, one of our favorites the whole trip, at Elinikon Restaurant and drank wonderful glasses of inexpensive Greek wine while enjoying the unprecedented view. This is when I may or may not have had a few tears bubble out that I was actually here... doing something I had only dreamed about! It was just beautiful.
It was refreshing to sit outside and enjoy the warm breeze while enjoying nature's handpainted gift. Our VIP viewing area was just quaint and perfect. Honestly, I got a little caught up trying to pick the "perfect" place to watch the sunset, we only had one night to view this spectacle! It is always the best reminder to go with the flow. Especially while traveling. Everything will work out, and it's always better than you could have planned for. You'll get a great story out of your experience too!
That being said, we had no reservations and saw every single restaurant filled with guests that had been waiting for hours. I wanted this moment to be perfect! Did I miss my chance? We followed our hearts, and our stomachs, and wound up at the most romantic spot- with only 4 small tables- it was private and personalized. We had a view of this historic windmill just outside the restaurant. I think the pics turned out pretty cool, and only 5 minutes apart (#nofilter)! This is the same windmill pictured below at the very tip of the island. We had an amazing meal, great Greek wine, a beautiful sunset seemingly to ourselves, and lovely unique photos that differ from every other Google image.
After dinner we sat along the castle ruins that an hour ago had been enveloped in camera phones and people. Obviously it was so picturesque! We had to take back selfies to commemorate the moment.
We returned to the ruins in the daylight, when the golden sunset returned Santorini to a deep blue and crisp white. I was trying so hard to figure out how I could go down into the layers of the crumbling cliffside castle. Unfortunately, there were fences and warning signs every 10 feet so it would have been a dangerous feat (making me want to do it more, of course!)
After stopping in many artisan shops and handcrafted jewelers boutiques, we had a bite for lunch at Nocturna before we started our big adventure for the day. A private boat tour! Well, semi-private. It was the only thing we had planned for our trip, a sunset cruise with Santorini Sailing Center.
Our first stop took us to a little island for snorkeling and swimming. At your will, you could freely jump off the side of the boat like you owned it! In fact, if you didn't jump you definitely missed out on the fun! Even if it meant your swim bottoms coming up! While in the water, the staff handed us snorkel gear so we could see all the fishies swimming below our feet. They also had warm dry towels awaiting when we returned. Also, wine! Were you by chance parched from swimming and staying afloat? They would bring you a glass of wine if you wished! We def were living the VIP life!
Next up was the volcano... yes we swam into this awkwardly warm, lovely egg smelling, beautiful brown colored water! I had done my research and planned ahead so I changed into my black swimmy for this part. Anything else would have gotten permanently dyed from the sulfur. What a nice souvenir! We carefully swam in to the center and back and in that half hour, my fingernails had gotten lightly dyed. Thankfully I had taken all my jewelry off too. Now for a fresh water rinse and another glass of welcome-back-to-the-boat wine!
We cruised around for a few hours after this. We saw the lighthouse of Akrotiri, the red, white, and black beaches, and had a few more swimming stops and of course a few more glasses of wine.
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| We know we had dust on our lens (sad face!) We had to wait until we got home to clean it. |
The crew prepared us the most delicious traditional Greek dinner. Fresh grilled fish, stuffed mushrooms, Greek salad, shrimp, fluffy pita, we definitely did not go hungry! It was after a few shared bottles of wine that we also sang happy birthday to a fellow shipmate and enjoyed some cake and began a dance party... but I'll leave those pictures off the interwebs. Between the 12 of us, there were at least 6 languages and a range of ages, we were all up and dancing on the back of the boat enjoying the perfect day at sea.
As the sun was setting we all scrambled to move to the front of the boat as we sailed closer back to Oia. I loved the boat tour and getting a different perspective on the famous sunset views.
After redocking we could have taken the free ride back up the hillside to our hotel, but we chose to walk up instead. It's on the must do in Santorini list, so well, we had to! After our full day in the sun mixed with full bellies and mini motion sickness, walking up all those steps took a little longer than expected. Just a warning, beware where you walk. There was donkey doo everywhere and more than once was almost all over my open toes.
At the top we again appreciated the city at night, and wound up doing one last thing on my Greek must do list. We got a fish pedicure! I couldn't stop laughing. I mean, they got in between my toes! I didn't understand why people before me were giggling so much until it was my turn... it was a super mix between awkward and ticklish. Also, these were almost the biggest fish they had. Sure they look small in the picture but they were twice the size of some others' tanks. Regardless, another story to tell and another check off the list, done!
I'll leave you with this gorgeous view as we traveled home the next day and don't have any exciting photos from that part of the trip. The small parts of Greece that I got to see while ringing in my third life decade was just wonderful. I also got to be with my best friend and my husband, even better! I left resolving to come back to see more of the islands as each one is unique yet still full of beauty.
I think the more I travel the longer my travel bucket list gets!
Yamas!
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