Santorini, Greece

Santorini! An island more beautiful than the postcards!

  

We boarded the blue star ferry at 7am, ready for an 8 hour ride to Santorini. Each ferry ticket was 37EUR......=$55 CAD each!! ...we're not in Asia anymore!

Obviously we were tired because we paid a little more to have a big leather chair that reclined.. And we both slept for 3.5hours! ..the day was rainy and grey so we didn't feel guilty about being inside the ferry.

 Since we woke up still groggy we left our blankets on our chair and ran down to the fast food kitchen for a burger. When we returned our blankets were gone.. Stupid mistake on our part.... Normally we're very aware of our belongings..

Guess we"ll have to steal more plane blankets. ...the funny thing is that we had a blanket from Delta Airlines and a blanket from Korean Air. Both of which we lugged around and put to good use since Way back when we travelled the phillipines. Well these blankets were starting to smell... Haha... So Ashton recently ditched the two blankets and replaced with soft new blankets from etihad airlines...and sadly those blankets were stolen from us. Oh the irony...

Sorry to ramble... Back on track...

Upon arrival to the port, we were hearded off the ferry and soon found ourselves on the port bus, which was a 20 minute drive into the capital Fira. From the capital we waited an hour for the next bus to take us to our destination. Finally, we were dropped off at Perissa beach.

We had researched our accomodation on booking.com, and because it's low season, we knew we could show up without booking a room. We paid $22 CDN per night for our room. It was very basic..

 But it fit our needs and somehow we ended up staying 5 nights and had a very enjoyable time.

We rented our own car!! For 3days we cruised!!

 About $30 per day..(again, we are not in Asia anymore, where our scooters were $8 a day.) we could have rented a scooter here for $20 a day, but it's actually kinda chilly when the sun goes down..and while were talking numbers.. The gas here is very.expensive. $2.75/L !!

  Omg!!....
But with that being said....

It was fantastic.
The countryside was very nice! Reminded us of home, since we came across some barley. ..There were wildflowers everywhere and white homes sprawled across the flat land...ok not really like home, since there is a big mountain in the middle of the island and the whole island sits on multicoloured cliffs that are 300 m from sea level...

  The coastal road was windy and also beautiful. The water here seems so blue!

 

 

Villages are clean, authentic and full of couples. Quite touristy, but it's easy to see why.

May is a great time to travel Greece. Temperatures are similar to Spring in Canada... Well not this year... Ha ha.. There is no snow in Greece...
The sun is warm, the air is dry and ranges in the high teens to low 20*s.. So perfect temperature to sight see..climb through ancient cities, and walk around,..

once your laying down on the sand, in the shelter it's borderline hot.. I burned the other day..
We are constantly reminded by the locals that we came at a good time.. "low season"...Because in July and August, the heat and humidity is unbearable and there are crowds of tourists everywhere. Accommodation, ferry tickets, meals and car rentals must be pre booked and the cost of everything soars!

Soo it's best to "backpack travel" in May, June, Sept.

The lovely village of Oia is built on a steep slope of caldera, right into volcanic rock. Here is where tourists congregate for sunset every night.
It was stunning. We felt like we were walking through a fairy tale!,white buildings, blue roofs, churches, pools, hotels, etc.

  

whenever I google Greece, this village is the image that pops up.

One day we pulled over to have a picnic in the car and we noticed a bus pullover and unload. Out came like ten Asian couples wearing big puffy wedding dresses and tuxes. Followed by a line of photographers. ..what the heck?

 Later on we noticed the couples posing throughout the Oia village.there were Asian brides with big puffy dresses everywhere. When talking to a young Greek man, he told us that there are many package deals over in Asia for newlyweds to come to Santorini and take their wedding photos...it was quite entertaining to watch. Lol The brides looked great, but how did they get their dresses all the way here?, the grooms happily tagged along, and the photographers were in full swing, stopping tourists from walking, and asking tourists to move, so that they could get he perfect shot. ..

Anyways,we admired the red sand beach....

And the black sand beach....

                                                            (Mom do you recognize the heart gem in my hand ;))

The beach remains black from the volcanic eruption in the past.

We also trekked up to the ancient city, which was strategically built high up on the mountain to watch for invaders from the sea..the city existed in 7th century BC
                                           

When we weren't exploring,.. we were eating or drinking..Greek style!

The bakery down the road always smelled so heavenly, and conveniently was open 24/7...so we indulged in doughnuts bigger than my face, pizza buns dripping cheese and yummy cookies..

 

The local grocery store sold wine in bulk. A barrel of wine sat beside empty water bottles. Shoppers could fill up a bottle with white, red or rose wine. A 1.5 L of wine totalled $4.20!!

 So we lugged our water bottle around to enjoy while watching sunset. 

 

I think 

Morning juice and afternoon breezers all in the same spot! 

Now that's how Our grocery stores should look like.

 
 Hope you enjoyed our blog!... Santorini was stunning!.... And we're off.... To Naxos!.. Xox..ACZunti