Hey!
I know it’s been a while since I’ve written here, but it has been a bit hectic and I haven’t really had a good three or four hours to sit down and write down all my feels about the wonderful and amazing place that is Santorini, so here it goes!
As my birthday was approaching, I needed to choose a place to celebrate it in style, and hearing a lot about this Greek Island, I decided I wanted to go and discover all the beauties it hides. So, a day before my 22nd birthday, I headed to Santorini with my brother. It was a long ass 10 hour wait at the Frankfurt airport, and I had started asking myself if it was worth it. I celebrated my birthday on a plane. And around 4am, we landed in Santorini, even if I couldn’t see much, I definitely felt relieved and happy to be there. We went to our hotel where we immediately fell asleep.
The next morning, I directly understood we were up for an amazing week!
The little jacuzzi on our terrasse, the clear blue sea, and the magnificent white and blue greek houses put a smile on my face right away. We were in a cute little hotel, called Cavo Bianco, just a few steps away from the beach, so it was perfect for exploring the area and discovering the hidden gems. We were in Kamari, the “beachy” part of the island, which is not the usual Santorini landscape you are used to see on the billion of pictures you have probably went through, but it’s as good, if not better because you can actually enjoy a day at the beach without travelling for an hour (which is the reason why you go on summer vacation, right?) .
As soon as we set foot outside of the hotel, I spotted this humongous hill or dare I say mountain, and I immediately felt the urge to hike to the top (spoiler alert: it was a bad decision, especially when it’s 40 degrees outside and you don’t wear a cap).
A day later, my brother and I actually went on the hike to conquer the top of the already mentioned hill. Little did we know the 2 hour hike would get us to what is known as “Ancient Thira”, where lies a city in which ancient greeks lived and protected themselves of potential ennemies. I was amazed at how evolved and advanced the buildings and their uses were, and it was really interesting to see how people lived on a hill that took me two hours to climb.
Luckily for me, a day or two later, we went on a snorkeling trip where the guide (thank you btw, you were amazing), actually explained the history of the island and how it became what it is today (spoiler alert: the story of “the lost Atlantis” was inspired by Santorini). Being the person I am, I got cold after an hour in the water (and after seeing an octopus), so I gave up and went sun bathing on the boat, unlike my brother who needed to explore every single crack of every single creek before being sure he saw everything that can be seen.
But our stay in Santorini wouldn’t be whole without our night trips to Oía and Thera, the two little picturesque villages, full of cute little shops and delicious restaurants. For my birthday, we went to a sea food restaurant with the best sunset view I have ever seen in my whole entire 22 years of existence. It was breathtaking (and trust me, I was sceptic too about the whole “best sunset ever blah blah blah” thing), and the food was delicious. Actually, all the food we ate was delicious, loads of feta cheese, olive oil, fresh veggies and gyros, well all that my tummy needs to be happy and satisfied.
All in all, a great experience, I highly recommend it. A relaxing, but active week on this little island, and loads of colours and smells to satisfy my senses that I am beginning to lose in the grey and highly polluted Paree.
Σας ευχαριστώ, Σαντορίνη!
Love, Mach.