Santorini: Part Deux

Heaven.

Paradise.

Beautiful.

Amazing.

These words don’t do the island of Santorini justice. It is easily the most beautiful place that I’ve ever been on this Earth.

Today was my second day in Santorini, and almost as soon as I woke up I decided to rent a car to explore the island. It was a big decision, mainly because the drive yesterday from the airport to the hotel was filled with twists and turns and bends that needed mirrors to see around and vans and buses flying around them like they were nothing. But I knew I wanted to see the island and that the best way was by car, so I had no choice. So I got ready and headed down to treat myself to a big breakfast, you know, just in case it was my last before attempting to drive in Santorini.

It was a delicious breakfast, made by the wife of the family run business that is my hotel on Santorini, Stelio’s Place. (I highly recommend it, by the way, if you’re ever visiting Santorini.) I had scrambled eggs, bacon, toast with jam, honey and butter, and Lipton vanilla caramel tea. It was delicious and every bit as homemade as I would get, well, at home.

While I was in the common area of the hotel, admiring the infinity pool that was too chilly to swim in, a girl came in. Her name was Ebony, and we ended up talking for a bit. She’s studying abroad in Spain for the semester, and goes to USC in California where she studies Journalism and knows someone who graduated from UF’s College of Journalism a short while ago. Small world, eh? She mentioned she and her friend had just arrived by ferry this morning and asked if I knew anything about the bus schedule. I said no, but threw out that I was thinking about renting a car to explore if she and her friend were interested in joining me. She said it sounded great, and that they met two other girls on the ferry who happened to be staying here as well, and asked if it would be okay to invite them. Sure! The more the merrier! So after I went to rent a car (a black Nissan Micra without hubcaps, me as the driver, and yes, it was tiny), Ebony, Erin, Lauren and Jen piled in and we set off exploring the big island of Santorini.

Our first order of business was to get petrol as the car has a gaslight. (Yes, I plan to bring it back in the same exact order as was given to me.) After that, we drive until we hit a town, which happened to be Fira, the ‘capital’ town of Santorini. I put that in quotations because Santorini is an island of Greece, and Athens is the capital of Greece, so I guess that makes Santorini like a town, with Fira as the county seat. Not really sure how that works, but I’m sticking to that until I am corrected.

We explored Fira for a while, did some shopping, and checked things out. It was a really beautiful town overlooking the water, as mostly everything does on Santorini. We checked out tourist shops, which led to jewelry shops, and I have a few new  Greek-inspired silver pieces to add to my collection. Even though we only went in the shops we could afford, I have an almost-photographic memory and some lovely ideas for my own jewelry shoppe one day.

After spending a good three or four hours in Fira, we decided it was time to move on to Oia (ee-ah, the ‘O’ is silent) to see the picturesque scenery and watch the sunset, which is what Oia is famous for.

After finding a place to park, and remembering the warning from the car rental man that Fira and Oia were the only two places on the island where it was necessary to find a real spot to park in instead of just anywhere that looked suitable, or we would incur an 80 Euro ticket from la policia, we walked to find a place to take us up to all the white that we had seen on the way into Oia. Once we found that, we found the postcard. Literally. It was right in front of our eyes. Most of the pictures seen of Santorini, online, on postcards, anywhere, were taken from where we were standing. It was just breathtakingly beautiful. We slowly made out way down and up and over and through wind-filled alleyways to the tip of the island where we would be able to see the sun set, and we made ourselves comfortable at a quaint little café overlooking the sea and the sun. We stayed for just over an hour, hoping that the clouds would eventually disappear, but the cloud cover only got worse and we weren’t able to see the sun set at all. It was worth it though, seeing everything we saw along the way.

I’m keeping the car for another day and we’re hoping to see the spectacularness of the Oia sunset tomorrow evening, after first checking out the Red Beach and the lighthouse on the southern end of the island.