(Our first glimpse of what the travel brochures have on their covers. No photos do this place justice)
What a day! After a 9hr sleep or so on the comfiest bed possibly ever made, albeit anything would have felt good after 2 days of not being in a bed, we started off on checking out local Santorini, specifically, Oia. We’re in the northern part of Santorini, and for an island, it’s pretty damn big.
I must say it’s much bigger than I imagined. I’m not sure either of us really thought much about how far things were, size of the islands or anything like that when we chose where we were going to stay, but it’s pretty bloody big!
We begun by walking up the 1.5kms of pure hill which gets the heart rate going as well as the sweat glands. Even though it was only 10am, it was still rather warm and our backs were beading with sweat. Still, good way to kick off the day!
When we got to the top of hte hill and into Oia itself, we found what can only be described as stunning scenerey whichever we way we looked. Pure white rendered houses, apartments, hotels with sheer cliffs and deep blue seas at the bottom, it was almost surreal. We wandered up the cobble stone and then more paved paths, Soph wandered through more than a few small shops selling clothing, leather goods and so-on while I worked out how to use my new camera to its best capabilities.
We stopped for beers and people watched for a good hour before pressing on, seeing two models try and take photos of themselves on timers as they sprinted from the camera to then pose in front of stark white walls of a local church.
Keen to not have to walk everywhere all the time, we hired a car. It was tempting to hire a scooter or quad bike, but it was starting to rain and it all became too hard. Just as we were choosing, the car hire guy allowed us to drop the car at the airport as we left the island, so that sealed the deal. In our possession was a beastly 1.2L Hyundai i20 with a super high clutch point and a handbrake that, well, didn’t really brake. But – it was small and on these tiny roads, you don’t want much bigger!
After a short drive, we began to walk through Fira which is mid-coast on Santorini. Home to the sheer cliff drop-offs, amazing apartments and where ships dock and send in their guests who then can either climb the million steps, get on a donkey or go up the cable car. We found this part of Santorini to be a bit, well, too touristy. Lots and lots of cruise ship tourists being catered to by lots of shop owners keen to make a buck. It all works and it’s great and all, but Oia is so much nicer I guess we were already spoilt.
From there, we were keen for a driver further down the island when Santo Winery popped out. “Fancy a drink?”, “Why not!”. So we stopped, found that the winery’s tourist area had possibly the best lookout over all of Santorini and settled in for a 12 glass wine tasting session with accompanying palette cleansers, such as cheese, crushed fava beans and of course, olives. The wines were fantastic, quite different to our usual wines at home (a sweet red for instance), but the view trumped any of the wines.
Afterwards, we made our way back to the accommodation, grabbed some wine and beer on the way and watched the famous sunset from our pool whilst enjoying a beverage. This place really is hard to beat!
