Next on our list was the beautiful Greek island,
Santorini. We stayed in Athens for a
night near the port where we would catch our 7am ferry to the island the
following morning. When we landed in
Athens it looked absolutely beautiful with blue skies and tall mountains
surrounding the airport. However, once
our cab driver took us to our hotel near the port we realized we were not in
the best area and it was probably a better idea to stay near our hotel and not
to wonder too far. We were up by 5am the
next day and excited to get our 5 and a half hour ferry ride over with and arrive
at the island. With a little help from
some Dramamine I was sound asleep for almost the entire ride there and before I
knew it we were grabbing our bags and rushing off the ferry filled with
excitement. It was absolutely beautiful
as soon as we arrived and we knew we made the right decision dedicating the
final week of our very long spring break to the Greek islands.
We hopped in a cab and headed to our
hostel. We stayed in an adorable hostel with a loft and very typical Greek cut
out windows, which opened right up letting the breeze from the ocean in which
was only a few steps away from our hostel.
I was falling in love very quickly.
The past 3 weeks of traveling have been absolutely amazing and I am so
fortunate to have been able to see as much as I have but Santorini was exactly
what I wanted and was much more up my alley.
As much as I love all of the European countries I have visited I was
ready to step away from the Euro city scene, and soak up the beach, mountains,
and sun. We settled in, washed up, and
headed down the street where restaurants and bars lined the beach. We were staying on Perissa beach with black
sand beaches and a great big mountain lining the side. We walked on the beach
and ended up a traditional Greek restaurant, Aquarius.
One of the great things about traveling
are all of the small friendships you make with the people you encounter,
whether that be waiters, cab drivers, bartenders, or the people working the
front desk. Many people were curious
about us wondering what we were doing in their city and took interest in our
travels. We made one of these fast
friendships with our waiter at Aquarius who was cracking jokes and bringing us
free traditional Greek wine. It was a
great start to our 3-day stay in Santorini.
After dinner we headed back to our hostel and laid by the pool as the
sun went down sipping margaritas and chatting about how amazing Greece was
already.
The next
day we woke up early and set out to another popular part of the island,
Fira. After a short 20-minute bus ride
we hopped off and were ecstatic about the amazing views that were before
us. Fira met every expectation I had of
Greece with big cliffs filled with white houses and blue domes and the ocean
crashing below against the mountains. We
walked around for a while going in and out of shops and small boutiques
collecting souvenirs and gifts for ourselves and our family and friends. The clouds rolled in so we took shelter in a
small Greek restaurant as the rain started to come down. We enjoyed a long lunch hoping that the bad
weather would pass and to our surprise it did.
The sun came out and we continued to walk around bouncing in and out of
shops.
As we walked down the small winding sidewalks we
ran into a man with 6 donkeys and we all were immediately jumping with
joy. Riding donkeys in Santorini was one
of the first things on our list of things to do during our stay there and we
were all thrilled that we found them.
For 10 euros the man put us on the donkeys, tied them together, and down
the winding stairway we went. I was so
excited to be doing it but was also terrified that my donkey, or one of my
friend’s donkeys, would trip causing a domino effect of 5 falling girls on
donkeys flying down the cliffs of Santorini.
Luckily, none of my irrational fears came true. We went down the stairs
and then back up we went, laughing the whole time while trying to take selfies
on our cameras. We were all so happy and
in the best of moods after that. It was
official; I was madly in love with Santorini.
We spent the evening at dinner overlooking one of the most beautiful
sunsets I had ever seen along the water in euphoric states.
The next day we got up and took the bus to Fira
again. We had heard about a boat trip
that took would take us to the active volcano right across the water including
a visit to the natural hot springs. We
were all so excited to get into the water so we prepared the day with our
bathing suits on. We bought our tickets
and took the cable cars to the bottom of the island and packed onto a boat with
many other tourists. We arrived at the
volcano and immediately could see the black volcanic rock from its last
eruption. We hiked to the top where you
could smell the sulfur but also could see some astonishing views of the blue
water and the cliffs of Fira. After
about an hour and a half we packed back onto the boat and headed to the part we
were all most excited for, the hot springs.
After a short trip an announcement came on that
we had arrived at the hot springs, however in order to get to the hot springs
you had to swim a little ways through the ocean which we were unaware of. The announcer warned the group that they
should only proceed into the water if they were good swimmers, which I soon
understood why. We weren’t quite sure
how cold the water would be so we all looked at each other about hesitantly but
made the group decision that we had come to sit in the hot springs so that is
what we would do. We stripped into their bathing suits and one by one people
jumped off the boat and swam for the hot springs. My friends were in front of me and jumped in
and screaming as soon as their head popped up of the water. I figured the water was going to be a cold
shock initially but we would warm up once we reached the springs. I jumped in and as soon as I came up from
under the water I was jolted by how cold the water was. The only thing on my mind was to reach the
hot springs as fast as I could to get out of that freezing water. I swam as fast I could toward the springs but
had to take a short break halfway there as my core body temperature dropped and
I tried to come to terms with the shock my body was set into. I reached the hot springs however I was
terribly disappointed to discover that these hot springs were not hot at all,
they were barely even warm. My friends
and I were shivering as we cursed at the situation and regretted out decisions
to jump off the boat. The worst part
about it was, we had to swim back through the freezing water to get back on the
boat.
After a few minutes we took some deep breaths
and tried to dig for the courage to brace the water one more time. As I swam as fast as I could back toward the
boat I was glad to know that the water was not as bad as it was the first time,
but only because my body went into shock and was becoming quite numb. We finally reached the boat after doing our
best Michael Phelps performances and it felt like the happiest moment of my
life. We raced to the bathrooms to get
out of our wet bathing suits before we started sailing in the wind again. Once we were back in our dry warm clothes we
had the chance to breathe after our experience and laughed about what had just
occurred. It was undoubtedly the coldest
water I have ever been in, but I was so happy that we did it.
We returned to Fira and had our last dinner in
Santorini overlooking the beautiful sunset again. Exhausted, we returned to our hostel with
chilly bones and sunburnt skin. We
packed our things up and took one last walk along Perissa beach and returned to
Aquarius for a nightcap where our waiter friend that we made the first day gave
us free traditional Greek drinks. We
laughed about our day and conversed about how much we loved Santorini and would
be just fine never leaving the island.
It was the perfect last night to our stay in Santorini.
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