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| Santorini |
We arrived on the 27th of August and stayed at Caveland Hostel which is located roughly 20 minutes from Fira. Caveland was and old winery and tennis courts for the locals. It has 2 courts and one huge swimming pool which was great to hang around after walking around the Island all day.
We arrived at 2am to a note on the door telling us which room number was ours with a key attached. The dorm rooms at Caveland are amazingly spacious and comfortable with some beds even located in divided sections of the cave.
In the morning after having some yummy muesli for breakfast (a great change from stale bread and jam) we walked to Fira, approx 20 minutes to have a look around the ma70 in town. Fira is located to the left side in the middle of the island, on a cliff face which leads down to a small port where tourist boats and ships pull up for the day.
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| Donkey in Fira |
Here there are many donkeys waiting patiently to transport tourists up or down the 680 stairs to either the top or bottom on the cliff.
The view from the top of the cliff is simply spectacular. You can see the Volcano Island in the centre which erupted many years ago forcing the land around it to sink, (400m deep) which broke the Volcano Island and a couple of other Islands surrounding Santorini, apart.
Along the top of the cliff are many hotels, restaurants and jewellery stores, all creating a very romantic place. near by are many cobbled lane ways featuring market stalls, bars and rustic restaurants. In one of the stores we met a great Greek guy who gave us a map and marked all the main places we should see for the duration of our stay. He also invited us out to a bar that night and told us a great place to have lunch called Lucky's. Lucky's is one of the oldest and famous Gyros stores on the Island and was where I had one of the best souvlaki's I've ever had, minus the chips. I don't really like this addition as it it makes it impossible to eat the wrap without everything falling out.
That afternoon we headed back to Caveland and decided to hire a quad bike for 2 days ($70 AU) so we could see our the sights our friend told us about without worrying about busses and taxi's.
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| Our Quad Bike Outside Caveland |
With many things to do on our 4 day stay we got changed and headed off to our first destination - Sigalas Winery. Here we tasted many of the wines (tasting costs $0.50 AU per 50ml glass) and bought a bottle to take with us to our next destination.
In Santorini it is extremely popular to head to Oia to watch the sunset. Our greek friend told us it can be very overwhelming and that the view is actually much better to see from a further distance. He gave us directions to a church which is located at the top of a hill overlooking Oia.
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| View from the Church overlooking Oia |
We managed to get there just in time to crack open our bottle and find a cosy place to sit and enjoy the sunset. I am so glad we were told about this place, it was really magically and a much better view, overlooking the town of Oia with the Islands and sunset in the background compared to the view in Oia which is just of the sunset and water (we went the following night and it was very hectic and nowhere near as enjoyable).
After the sunset we headed back to Fira to have a couple of drinks before heading to Ethnic Bar in Kamari where our greek friend told us he was going that night to see a great Australian cover band play. He was right. The band were fantastic. We stayed and danced for a long time but decided it was time to head back and savour ourselves for the following day of activities.
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| Swimming Spot below Oia |
We headed off early the next morning to the bottom port of Oia. Here there are a couple of restaurants with a path heading towards a sign that reads "DO NOT ENTER. DANGEROUS ROCK FALLS". Not taking any notice we continued on through and weaved our way around the rocky cliff face to our destination. A small area of submerged rocks had made a great little swimming hole towards a large rock in between the deep channel water. There were around 30 other people enjoying the area, some even climbing up on the large rock and diving into the deeper water but I was way too scared of doing that and spent most my time sun baking on the rocks.
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| Port below Oia |
Swimming had made us very hungry and thirsty so we decided to head back up the top of the cliffs and check out the town of Oia. This town is much smaller than Fira, with only 1 main, narrow street that leads past all the restaurants and hotels, to the top point of the Island where many tourists sit and watch the sunset.
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| Oia Sunset by the Windmill |
We had lunch at a small cafe and decided to head back to Caveland and spend the rest of the afternoon relaxing by the pool. That night we headed back to Oia to check out the sunset from there (it was extremely over crowded and not as much fun as the night before) then we went to a restaurant overlooking the bay. Here we tried some traditional greek food including stuffed peppers, calimari and tomato fritters. All were delicious!!! Then we headed back to Caveland for an early night so we could make the most of our last day with the quad bike.
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| Parissa Beach |
The following morning we headed to the red beach down south of Santorini. A few days before our arrival some cliffs fell over the walking path to the beach, making it very difficult to get through to the main entrance. Our next stop was Parissa beach. The beach here has black sand / stones and many beach side restaurants that offer sun beds, cocktails, fresh juices and food made from ingredients sourced from the Island. After lunch it was time to return the quad bike and head back to our hostel for a relaxing afternoon by the pool.
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| A House in Oia, Santorini |
The following morning we caught a small 2 hour ferry to Mykonos.
