greece tour - santorini

from athens to santorini, fast ferry takes about 5-8 hours. but april was not a good time for taking ferry because of the unpredictable weather. so we decided to fly there. it was only 40 minutes. we just took off, the plane already started to descend. santorini is a long narrow island, but quite small. form the airport to the town center (fira, the capital of the island) is about 15 minutes drive.

santorini is essentially the result of a huge volcano explosion. a giant volcano made lagoon of 400m deep is surrounded by cliffs on three sides. many hotels are built on the cliff with magnificent view of the lagoon. most of them are in the town center, but we liked one a bit further away with breaking taking views, volcano view hotel and villas. unfortunately, it was not open until late april because easter was still low season. we did felt a bit chilly, but it wasn't packed with tourists either so we were very relaxed to enjoy the scenery.

fira was a vibrant place, with a lot of restaurants, pubs and shops. locals liked to sing and dance at patios of restaurants. maybe because eating was so important to locals, restaurants were not compromising at all on food quality just because santorini was a popular tourist place. their homemade dips and pita bread were simply fantastic. my favorite was the eggplant dip and greek salads.

sunset in santorini was very beautiful. we went to the village of oia on the northern side of the island. all houses built on the cliff facing the sea were painted in white and blue. we were told that it was required by the law. when we looked close, the outside of the houses were actually quite simple and primitive. but everything just fit perfectly, creating the serenity that i have never experienced before, completing forgetting that the place was once the most active volcano region in the world.