Once we got to Santorini, we took a bus to our AirBnB. We settled in and got ready for dinner. As we walked to dinner, we ran into all of the donkeys retiring for the evening. What a sight! As we walked to dinner, the sun began to set. We sat right on the water for dinner. Good thing the view was phenomenal, because the food was not. I had ordered a salad, but it tasted like it had been made the day before. Everyone else enjoyed their food though, which I was glad about. I still cannot get over the sunset from that first night. It was breathtaking to watch it from Fira, as the sun fell behind the islands in view. After dinner, we explored Fira and the shops it had to offer.
The next day we woke up and grabbed breakfast. Tracey went with me to find eggs and bacon – she knows how important eggs and bacon are to me! I also got another freddo cappuccino. After breakfast, we tried to rent ATVs. The shop we went to was really strict though, and they wouldn’t let us. We decided to get buggys instead! I ended up being more thankful to have the buggy, because of how much driving we did. Yurie and I shared the polaris, and took off for the day. We decided to beach hop for the day. The sun on my face, while driving the buggy along the coast was a feeling I will cherish forever. It felt unreal to be in Santorini as a student with some of my best friends. Yurie made fun of me for how much I talked about how unreal it was.
We started our first beach trip at the black rock beach, called Kamari. We got to chill out at a beach club right on the ocean. We were supposed to spend 10 Euros to be there, so we all got a cocktail. While at black rock beach, we swam, tanned, and explored. Kai and I decided to walk around the town area too. All of the restaurant owners tried so hard to get us to eat at their restaurants. You could tell it quickly becoming off-season. After the Black Rock Beach, we went to the Red Beach. At this point, I was getting quite burned. I had not realized how strong the sun would be in Santorini. We stopped at a snack shop before heading to the beach, and I got sunscreen too.
In order to get to Red Beach, we had to climb the side of some mountains along a path. The view down to the beach from the hike was like a hidden gem. This beach was very populated, but it still felt like a hidden gem to us.
After Red Beach, we rushed back to the AirBnb. We wanted to get ready and then go to Oia for the sunset and dinner. We were staying in Fira, which was the more younger area. Oia was the wealthier spot of Santorini. The Oia sunset was phenomenal again. Each sunset was still just as chilling, I could never get tired of this paradise. After sunset, we wandered around to get dinner. Tracey and I bebopped too much at dinner. We ended up being such a hoot to the waiters, because she was supporting my indecisiveness about what to have for dinner. I tried grilled hallomami for the first time at dinner. After dinner, we explored Oia more. I fell in LOVE with a ring there. Unfortunately, the ring cost enough to pay for the rest of my college tuition, so it was outside of my price range for sure.
At the end of the night, we went back to Fira, but got to see the Milky Way above us on the way. I don’t know if I liked winding the coast during the day or night better.
The next morning, we got more buggys and went back to Oia. We wanted to see the iconic bells and white houses during the day. We took pictures against the white houses with blue roofs, as one does in Santorini. After pictures, we went to Armeni Bay. To get to the swimming area and cliff jumping spot, we had to park at the top of the hill and walk down to the harbor area. Once past the harbor, we quite literally walked through the restaurants and along a path to get to the water spot. It felt out of movie, when we were sunbathing, swimming, and exploring this water hole. We ran into some other tourists we met that morning too! After swimming, we laid on the rocks and tanned before getting food. We walked into the restaurant area for a quick lunch. Again, the food was quite pricey being in Oia. We did not mind how good the shrimp and feta were though!
We hurried back to the AirBnB after, because it was the time for Santo Winery! The winery had one of the best views I had seen. We got to try six different wines and a cheese plate. We learned that when something breaks you yell “Opa!” It is the cheers version of when something breaks. We have continued to yell this, but no where else has appreciated it as much as at Santo. We 100% did not fit into the demographic at Santo, being 9 young college kids just bopping around at this reservation-required winery. We soaked up every minute of it!
After Santo, we decided to explore the night life more. We found a bar with a “happy hour,” it was not really though. We still bought drinks.. shocking. We all danced for a decent amount of time all together. After this, we headed to the infamous Two Brothers Bar. This was our main priority. They have head shots, where you buy a shot and then they hit you in the head with a bat. I had been dying to try it, even though I’m not sure why. I convinced Tracey and Yurie to do it too. Turns out, I was the guinea pig for the bartender. In the videos, you can clearly see that he hit my head way harder. Oh well. ** We have since come to find out that the shots are actually free, we just looked gullible I guess.** After getting hit in the head with a bat, we all danced for so long together before heading out to one more spot. After our night ended, we got crepes and Mexican food before the AirBnB.
Our final day in Santorini had come, but it was still one packed with adventure. Yurie and I went to return our buggy. However, when we turned it on, it said we were out of gas. This did not make sense, because we were about 95% full the night before. We coasted on fumes to the buggy shop to tell them something was wrong with the buggys. They shared with us that the gasoline had been stolen, and we had to fill it up all the way. Hmmmmm. Pretty unfortunate, but we did not let it ruin our day. We ran to McDonald’s for a quick (and cheap after how much the stolen gas cost) breakfast before being picked up. Who picked us up? The boat drivers!! We were going on a boat tour for the day.
The boat was pretty large, but it was only: Natalie, Yurie, Shiv, Akash and I along with a couple, a family, and a man. We became friends very quickly with all of them. We started off our morning sailing to the volcano. We layed out tanning, while being welcomed with welcome snacks and wine. As we sailed along, one of the crew members told us stories about the islands we were passing.
We stopped at the active volcano first, and got to swim to the edge of it. We were told not to climb on it though, because we would cut ourselves badly. The water around the volcano was a hot spring with gold looking mineral flakes floating.
After exploring the volcano, we went back to the boat and got rinsed off. Yurie freaked out when we got sprayed off, which we all found funny given we were just in water. They had to rinse us off, because of the minerals and sulfer in the water. It was such a nice feeling getting a warm towel handed right to me as I got on the boat.
We continued to lay out, watching the horizon as we went to our next stop. We stopped next for lunch and snorkeling. The lunch was all prepared on board, and it was extremely elaborate. We snorkeled before lunch though. The schools of fish were numerous and seemed to be swallowing our boat almost. We took a break for lunch on the deck, before swimming more. We ended up swimming with the Australian family and becoming good friends with them. We played all kinds of games with the kids, like cannibal contests.
After swimming for a while, we continued on past the white rocks and went to Red Beach. We swam more with the kids at Red Beach too, for about 45 minutes. We played star too, but the little girl just kept asking, “Why’d you jump?” and giggling. It was so innocent and cute! After taking sail back to the dock, because our 6 hour boat day with incredible food, unlimited drinks, good company, and plenty of sun had almost come to an end. We got one more snack of fresh local melon before reaching the dock.
We all fell asleep in the van ride back to our AirBnB – just one of those days!
We rested for a little bit, and then got ready for our final dinner. Before dinner, we got a drink and watched the last sunset. Still, it was just as incredible as before. For dinner, we sat on the roof of a restaurant overlooking the ocean, well most of us. Kai and Caroline had their own date night, but we could watch them from where we were HAH whoops. I ordered what the waitor recommended, which was a carbanora. I enjoyed it, because it had more flavor than normal.
After dinner, we bought a few more presents and other items from the shops before going back to pack. We had to pack ahead of time, because we needed to leave for the airport at 6:45 AM.
Even though it was painfully early, it was a good conclusion to the trip to watch the sunrise. It felt like a good parallel that we had been watching the sunset every night, and the last day we got to watch the sunrise.
The Santorini airport was so small that you could blink and miss it, but we made it on time.
We flew to Athens, and had a layover before making it back to Praha. The best first 10-day break. WOW.
Emma's Study Abroad Adventures 