Santorini Part I

Santorini...

Great poets have sung its praises, a 4,000 year old history. And the eternal rock(volcano) continues to stand, strong and majestic, rising proudly from the sea and guarding well the secrets of Atlantis...

The caldera side of Santorini. You can see the volcano in the middle.

Some believe that Santorini is the lost island of Atlantis. With it's beautiful and mysterious history, I tend to agree with legend.

Town of Oia

Our first morning we woke up early enough to see the beautiful morning sun on the little town of Oia (sleeping in a little of course-this is vacation after all). We grabbed delicious pastries for breakfast. I LOVE chocolate croissants, and Tyler had to get 2 different kinds each morning.

Left: The top level of our hotel (Filotera Villas)

After breakfast and a quick stroll around the 'south' part of town. We hopped in the Fiat and drove to Ancient Thira. The fascinating ruins of Ancient Thira are located on a high rocky headland called Mesa Vouna, from which there are spectacular views down to the sea. This hilltop on Thira was first inhabited by the Dorians, whose leader was Theras, in the 9th century BC. Thira was later occupied in the Hellenistic, Roman and Byzantine eras. Most of the buildings that survive today date from the Hellenistic era (around the 4th century BC).

Approaching the Mesa Vouna, we saw people parking and getting out to walk. We considered doing the same, luckily we were smart enough to check it out first.

We drove up this:

(Keep in mind, that is only what fit in the photo)

In this:

Tyler loved his Fiat. A video will come soon :)

People were walking AND running up that hill-then they would go on the hike. It was SOOO HOT! I can't believe they would-could do it.

After we parked, we started hiking. Upon reaching the top of the mountain, we were rewarded with a beautiful view of Black Beach in Kamari.

It was a different experience being ABOVE a plane:

See the plane approaching on the right?

The ruins were pretty amazing. It's hard to really comprehend-even standing here-how old these ruins are, how much history they have.

After our hike, we were VERY excited to get down to the ocean. Black Beach was beautiful! The sand wasn't really sand-more like large pebbles, but lovely still. He made the beach all that much better too. So hot!

Oh and his head is blocking out the topless lady a few umbrellas away from us. Sorry-no photos of her. Yes-southern Europe including Greece features quite a few topless women. Something I guess you have to get used to. I have to say Tyler is the sweetest husband ever. He always made sure to look away even if he wasn't sure. I'm still impressed that he can walk while looking at his feet, hehe. Also props for me for only getting annoyed once or twice in Rhodes-but we'll get to that later ;).

On to something more impressive-look how beautifully blue the water is. It's so clear you can see the shadows of the boat at the bottom of the ocean.

Tyler was very happy to find this cliff a bunch of guys were jumping off of. If you know Tyler, those are 2 things he's always up for. Cliff Diving and making new friends that like cliff diving, even if he can't speak to them because of language barriers.

You can barley see Tyler about to jump. Look closely :)

That evening we headed back to Oia for a sunset dinner. Oia is supposed to have some of the most beautiful sunsets in the world. The whole time we were there, there was this ocean haze/fog that would ruin the sunset. It was still pretty right at dusk though.

View from our restaurant.

Here's a map of Santorini. We stayed in Oia at the north-west side. Fira is the main port town that cruises arrive in. It get's crazy at times.