Santorini

Apologies for my absence, I’ve just been away for a bit. The first photo in this post was probably one of my favourites from the entire trip. Prior to visiting, I’d heard that the sunsets were amazing in Santorini, but never had I envisioned them to resemble beautiful strokes of oil paint. I’m really enjoying going away at the moment because I feel like with each trip I’m becoming more familiar with my camera, finally. This time around I tried to focus on avoiding overexposed sunset/sunrise pictures, and I feel like I’ve learnt a lot from that alone.

It was my first time visiting Santorini, and I absolutely loved it! It definitely has a different feel to it than the other Greek islands – but I can’t quite put my finger on what. The famous white villages were beautiful to finally see and explore in person. Apparently, they were built by people making caves in the cliff side. By living in these caves they were protected from the harshness of the sun during Summer months, but relatively warm during the Winter. This explains why the buildings were painted white and remain that way today.

In the early days they would also use these caves to store animals in. In some of the ceilings of the older hotels, you can see the remnants of roof openings. These would have been used primarily to throw food down to the animals inside. It’s kind of strange to think that these former caves have undergone such a huge transformation – which has lead them to becoming some of the most renowned, luxury property in the world.

If you ever go to Santorini in the future, the two main villages you’ll definitely need to visit are Oia and Thira which have beautiful views onto the Caldera. The Caldera’s name comes from the adopted Spanish word for ‘Cauldron’. It is aptly named due to the shape of the Island – Santorini actually used to be a volcano. The island that exists today is essentially the outer-edge that survived.

If I could help make your visit in the future a memorable one I would say:

Visit the only Mexican Restaurant on the Island. It’s called Senor Zorba and is situated in Pyrgos. The view from that side of the island is spectacular. Plus, it’s kind of in the hills, out of the way, so it isn’t overcrowded at all. The last photos in this post were taken from there.

Secondly, if you can, book a Catamaran trip with Caldera Yachting. On the day of our excursion, it was slightly overcast. But the small crew of three were so friendly and really took great care of us all! It was a great day despite the weather and the lunch they cooked on board was delicious. Would 100% recommend/do again.

Take a cardigan as the temperature can drop quite a bit at night!

Try Mezzo, a dessert wine. I’m no wine connoisseur but it’s quite sweet, super refreshing and available at most restaurants. It has the flavours of a mulled wine but served chilled.

Let me know if you have any favourite spots in Santorini and click here for more travel posts. Have a great week everyone! 🙂