Greek Getaway: Santorini

Oh Santorini.  Photos do not even do this beautiful island justice.  For our second part of spring break my friends and I headed down to Santorini after a wonderful few days on Corfu (read that article here!)

But let me back up a little.  Before we even arrived in Santorini we had to spend the night in the Athens airport.  There is a first for everything isn’t there!? It was so eery being in the airport into the wee hours of the morning without the normal rush of travelers.  It was quite the experience to say the least but not as bad as I thought it was going to be haha

We took an early flight to Santorini arriving on the island at 8 am.  It was a chilly, overcast day which actually turned out perfectly because all we wanted to do was to shower and take a long nap.  When we arrived at the village entrance to our bed and breakfast we lugged our heavy bags along a long and winding stone walkway only to find out the owner would have brought his donkey out to pick us up.  We were slightly disappointed that we would not be living out our Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants dream but I think we saved that donkey’s back from all of our heavy luggage 😉

The place we stayed at was the cutest.  It was your typical cave style suite.  It was more like a bed and breakfast.  We had our own room which they came in and tidied up and cleaned each day and each morning they left a picnic basket pull of delicious foods for us each morning to snack on throughout the day.  I loved our location (in a little village 5 min. from Oia!) and would 100% go back and stay there again.

When we were finally able to enter the rooms we jacked up the heat, each took nice long showers and then crawled into bed to take a nap.  I was out when my head hit the pillow,  and when I woke up several hours later I felt like a new person.  Even though it wasn’t the greatest day we decided to make the most of it and headed out in search of some Greek food.  We stumbled upon this Greek tapas restaurant where we sat on the rooftop overlooking the sea and ate the most delicious food.  We tried all of the tradition dishes and devoured everything.  We then browsed the countless shops that lined the street making wish lists to come back for later in the week.

The next day we went to Fira (aka Thira)  Funny story.  We took the public bus to save money and when we were on the bus we were having a loud conversation about which stop we should get off, Fira or Thira.  Later we come to find out they are the same place, one is the greek way of spelling.  People must have thought we were idiots!  It was another slightly overcast day but it was still so fun to explore the streets.  We got lost and hit quite a few dead end streets but that is how you truly get to experience a place right?! 😉  Each of my friends and I bought greek leather sandals in a cute little shop and a bunch of other souvenirs.  I could have bought so much stuff but my suitcase was already stuffed to the gills. Later that afternoon we showered, got dressed up, did our hair and makeup and set out to get some good sunset photos and groups pics.  We found a prime location with great lighting and proceeded to have a little photo shoot. We then headed over to the tip of Oia to catch the sun sinking into the water on the horizon.  The place was packed and I don’t even want to think about how crazy it must get during peek season. We then headed back to our rooms where we decided to stay in and cook at our place.  We spent the night drinking wine and watching Momma Mia.

Our third day we did a Sunset cruise on a catamaran so be on the lookout for a separate post tomorrow.  (you can read that post here!)

Here is a little sneak peak 😉

Our final day in Santorini we woke up and decided to take advantage of the beautiful day and lay out on the rooftop deck to catch some rays.  Those times laying out and just talking and hanging are some of my favorite memories.  We wanted to catch one last sunset in the most beautiful place before we had to head back to reality so we headed into Oia.  We had a farewell dinner and then just walked the streets trying to take everything in.  When we finally got back to our rooms we began to pack and the power went out. Like not just our hotel but the entire freaking island! It was really scary because it was pitch black.  We used our phone lights so we wouldn’t be sitting in complete darkness and it was a good 30 minutes before the lights came back on. Whew!

It was an early bed time because we had an early flight back to Athens and a long day of travel ahead of us.  (My friends and I were all on different flights. Luckily I was with one of my friends where we made three connections to get home! Santorini –> Athens –> Milan –> Barcelona –> Madrid! See told ya it was a long day!) To make it worse it was Easter Sunday ( My easter dinner consisted of McDonalds for lunch in Athens and McDonalds for dinner in Barcelona! #gourmet) But I wouldnt have changed the trip for anything!

Santorini was truly breathtaking and everything and more about what I thought it would be.  My friends and I did not want to leave.  We kept trying to hatch ideas of ways we could justify missing our flights and stay!  It was the perfect place to spent spring break and one of my favorite trips from my entire time abroad.  And the people I spent it with only made it more memorable and special!

Sorry for the long post! If you ever get the chance to go to Santorini jump on it because it was a stunning place and so magical.  Also I highly recommend staying in or near Oia and also going off season because it is so much more quaint and less touristy during that time!

xo,
H