Journeys of L: Santorini

I took the ferry from Mykonos to Santorini, which only took a couple of hours. The wind was crazy so the waves were pretty intense and I thought for sure I was going to be sick but I did ok. I waited til the last minute to book my hostel and while they offered pick up from the port I hadn’t heard back from them by the time I got into Santorini. Fortunately, in typical Greek fashion, a super nice guy helped me and offered to take me since he was picking up for another hostel in the same area. I decided to stay out of the main towns of Fira and Oia and ended up booked a place right on Perissa Beach which is the famous black sand beach. The area is nice but it’s definitely much quieter than Fira. I had booked an 8 bed dorm room and it was a nightmare. The room was so dark and cramped, it just smelled damp and musty and it was so crowded with 8 people and all of their stuff. I feel like I’m a relatively low key traveler but this was pushing it. I was literally holding my breath the entire time I was in the room. I had to get out of there so I went and got some dinner and wandered around the beach a bit. It was beautiful but kind of cold but I couldn’t go back inside that room! I decided to see if there was any vacancy in any of the nicer hotels around but there wasn’t. I asked if I could be upgraded to a private room and they said I could the next day but I was going to have to stick it out for the first night. Yuck. I tried to sleep touching as little of the bed as possible and woke up early and got out of there.

One of the nice things about Perissa is that it’s relatively flat, which in Greece is rare. Everything in Greece is up a massive hill or up ten million stairs. This means it’s ideal for running!! I have finally gotten some good runs in here, the view of the beach+ sea level oxygenation + flat ground = good running.

After my night in the cave, I went for a run and then went and got some breakfast and a local café and then hung out on the beach for a couple of hours. It was SO hot and I couldn’t take much more than an hour or two. I went back to my nice private room, got ready and headed into Fira, the main town in Santorini. Fira has a TON of shopping, and just streets and streets of shops, stores and restaurants. It is set on a big cliff and as you go up you get that amazing view of the caldera and that classic image you think of when you hear about Santorini. It was quite the hike up the caldera and I think I hiked up for about an hour and a half trying to get the perfect picture. I headed back down and grabbed dinner at this cute restaurant and the bottom of the caldera. I just have to say, everyone in Greece has been SO nice. I honestly have not had one bad experience. Everyone is so friendly and willing to help you, and genuinely interested in talking to you and getting to know you. I talked to the chef at this restaurant for a bit and he made me some fresh pita bread and hummus that was amazing. I saw him again as I was walking back to the bus and he waved me over, gave me a free drink and just chatted for a bit. Seriously, Greece is amazing and the people are so so great. Anyway.. I took the bus back to Perissa and I was walking down the main street when I heard someone yell to me. I looked over and guess who it was…. Rhys! I was so surprised, he wasn’t supposed to be in Santorini until the next week. He decided to come early though and we are even staying in the same hostel! Which really is crazy cause there are about 5 million to choose from. We hung out that night and made a plan for the next day of all the things I wanted to get in before I leave.

This morning I got up early, went on a run and then met up with Rhys. We met up with a couple of people he had met, Tom and Sarah and went to rent ATV’s. Once we got there we decided to rent dune buggies instead and it was just hilarious. We wanted to visit the ancient city of Thira that was destroyed by the volcano like 4,000 years ago. The ruins are on top of a huge cliff and when we got there we were told we either had to hike up the cliff or hire donkeys. We were all in flip flops and not really planning on hiking so we decided to go for the donkeys. We got up to the top and surprise, there were literally like 50 cars in a parking lot up there. There was a road just on the other side that we didn’t know about so we totally got swindled, but the donkeys were part of the experience so it all worked out. We walked around there for a bit and the view was amazing. We had to hike back down which was a little tricky in flip flops but we all made it. Afterwards we headed into Fira to try and get on a boat tour that sails out to the volcano and to these natural hot springs in the middle of the ocean but we couldn’t find the port :(. We got lunch and then went to the “red beach” which is just a black sand beach but surrounded by red rocks.

This is my last night in Santorini and I’m sad to be leaving Greece but super excited to head to Istanbul!

Breakfast on the beach

We stayed right across the street from this beach, one of the only black sand beaches in the world

The Caldera

Rhys, Tom, Sarah and I rented dune buggies for the day! And yes, I wore my helmet inside. I 've floated to NCC one to many times... (Neuro Critical Care)