Truly living my best Mamma Mia life!
I arrived in Greece late last night since I had a field trip on Friday when I was initially supposed to fly out. Therefore, I missed seeing Athens but I was back to the airport this morning very early to catch a flight to the most iconic Greek island - Santorini!
Santorini is one of Greece's 227 inhabited islands and is known as Thera in Greek. The island was formed by a volcano that erupted and left behind a crescent shaped island. Apparently there are more churches on the island than houses!
Carissa had booked the whole trip through Costco so for her and her dad, they had everything from airport transfers and hotels arranged for them. I was just tagging along hoping that they would be okay with an extra person.
After arriving in Santorini, we were met by a Costco travel agent who took us to hotel Aressana where we dropped off our belongings for the day and the agent gave us recommendations of what to check out during our stay.
We started by exploring the town of Fira where we were staying. The town is perched high up on the cliffs overlooking the Aegean sea. From the town, you can see the volcano Nea Kameni which lies in the middle of the crescent shaped island and the old port which is at the base of the town. To get to the old port there is a brick path that snakes all the way down. You could also take a donkey or cable car. I really wanted to ride the donkey but Carissa didn’t so I decided to save that for another day.
The town of Fira is lined with tourist shops, art galleries, churches, and of course restaurants. The cobblestones roads snake through the iconic white buildings with no particular pattern. Sometimes you find yourself going up one direction and then climbing down steps the next. I’ll just admit I am horrible at directions so good thing we were not going anywhere in particular.
Our main adventure of the day was to hike from Fira to Oia. The hike is about 6 miles long but we were warned it could take about 5 hours. The trail goes through two cities on the way to Oia - Firostefani and Imerovigli. Both are small towns with lots of tiny hotels and restaurants. All of the restaurants were surprisingly empty but that was due to the fact that it wasn’t yet peak season. We were told we had come at the perfect time as it was not crowded at all. The hike was beautiful as it bordered along the coast and you could look out and see the deep blue ocean the whole time! It was so scenic and beautiful!
The hike was a little harder than expected as it went through rough terrain and tons of rocks when we were not walking through the village roads. We definitely did not have proper footwear, but we were going to Oia and wanted to look cute. The hike ended up taking roughly around 4 hours and we immediately stopped to chow down some delicious gyros. I had a gyro with halloumi which is a type of Greek cheese they grill.
Oia was postcard perfect! The white buildings with the striking blue domed churches were exactly what the pictures I have seen of Greece looked like. Similar to Fira, the streets weaved in all directions through hotels and restaurants. It was more crowded than Fira but that is because Oia is the best place on the island to catch the sunset. There were tourists everywhere especially where the iconic blue domes were as they tried to capture the perfect photo.
At the tip of Oia is the Oia castle which is the ruins of what once was a 15th century Venetian castle. From the castle you get the best views of the island as you can see both sides - the side with the iconic blue houses and then the hillside on the backside of the island. It had been a spectacular clear blue day today but as the evening crept in, the clouds rolled in blocking the sun. We didn't get the sunset we were hoping for but being able to see the light reflect on the white domed shaped buildings and being in Oia was more than I could ask for. Sitting at the castle with everyone else was surprisingly relaxing as everyone was also eagerly waiting for the sun to give us a spectacle. Right as the sun finally sunk you could see a big red glow.
My day in Oia was wonderful! I loved being able to explore and find the best spots to see the blue domed churches and enjoy the view. Felt so surreal to be in Greece!
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