Sadly, our last day in Santorini. This place grows on you so quickly – only a few days back we were a bit aprehensive about the lack of footpaths, the millimetre gaps between passing cars/buses/vans and the huge number of tourists… but now? We feel as we’re the locals.
For our final day in this Greek paradise, we didn’t have a lot planned but we were keen to get a nice lunch in Oia, see where the donkeys are and if we can ride one and do some further exploring before heading to Katharos Lounge for dinner to watch the sunet from apparently one of the best spots on the island.
Well we basically nailed all that and more…
We started off by checking out a location we spotted which we thought would be good for photos. Which spot isn’t, really… but this one gave a different perspective. What it did do was provide a pathway down to the harbour area and a whole new part of Oia we hadn’t seen. It also gave us a look at donkeys!!
We made our way down to the harbour, passed by the donkeys and learnt it was 10 euros to have a ride back up the 170-odd very wide steps up the cliff face. We had a drink at the bottom, centimetres away from the water and watched the nautical world go by. We had a nice chat with a young couple from Kentucky before preparing ourselves for the donkey ride!
Soph got given a white donkey to ride up – I got given what looked to be a clydesdale’s larger brother (poor thing clearly had some weight to carry up that cliff face) so no wonder it was a massive horse/donkey/mule combo. The 170-odd steps up were hilarious – it was non-stop laughing the whole way up. The steps are very wide/long, so you’re taking a good 2-3 strides per step and the donkeys know how to minimise effort so they go side-to-side and traverse the path. This meant lots of competition between the donkeys as the owner rode a 3rd donkey behind us. It was neck and neck up the hill with Soph’s steed narrowly winning. It was seriously amazing fun and something quite different – super pleased we did it!
From there, we fought the eastern European crowd who’d just got off a cruise liner and decided it was time for lunch. We found a great spot, tucked into more local cuisine and had a million dollar view to go with it.
The afternoon was a bit of a chill time, had a swim in our private pool, read a book and before we knew it, it was time to make our way down to Katharos Lounge to have Greek tapas, a drink and watch the amazing sunset. Unlike the previous night on the boat, there were no clouds so we were treated to what the locals call the “best sunset in the world”. I’m not sure about that, ours back home are pretty amazing, but with the clifftops and boats out in the blue waters, it’s not too an outlandish claim!
What a great way to finish our time in Santorini. Just a spectacular place and it offers something for everyone. Highly, highly recommend it and would love to come back!
