At the airport, we grabbed McD's Egg McMuffins (yum!) and went through all the Ryan Air lines (they had a line for everything). It was a short 35 minute flight to Santorini. And so beautiful to look out the window as we flew over a handfull of Greek Islands. The feel on the island is totally different from the mainland! Our hotel picked us up from the airport and brought us to Maria's Place in Oia.
Our room wasn't ready yet, so we left our bags at the desk and wandered into the town. We started with drinks with a view! Everyone else was having breakfast, but we had already been up for 7 hours, so thought beer was appropriate ;) Plus, we're on vacation!
I instantly fell in love with Oia. I probably took more photos today than I have the entire trip. Every turn is so picturesque! The white painted buildings, the cliffs, the majestic looking caldera, the teal water at the island's edge...
After checking into our room, we changed for the unexpected warm weather (again, the forecast was about 65, but it felt like 80....) and headed into town. We were planning to go for lunch, so I wore a skirt and flip flops....but we ended up putting in 9.5 miles again today! Instead of having lunch right in the main pedestrian area of Oia, we wandered down to Ammoudi Bay. It was 250 steps down...which didn't seem like that many in our heads, but each step was a long slanted cobble ramp in itself!
It was so worth the hike down. This was actually my favorite part of the day. The bay was so beautiful. The water was some of the clearest I've seen and had such a pretty teal color. We also took this path along the volcanic rock that led us to to a spot where you could swim to a little rock island. We were not prepared to swim, but this could be tempting in the next couple days.
We stayed down in Ammoudi Bay for lunch at Katina. It's interesting that there are no guardrails or railings. Just tables right up against the edge of the floor...which makes for an unobstructed view :) Shawn ordered the octopus (tentacles...ick!) and I had an amazing Santorini Greek salad.
The hike back up was a little harder, but we had full bellies and a fresh jug of water. You need a ton of water and sunscreen around here.
If needed, you could hire a donkey to take you back up the stairs!
After some chill time at our hotel, we headed back into the little town of Oia (a short walk from our hotel) for dinner at Melitini, again eating outside. After dinner, we continued to stroll through the dimly lit pedestrian area to make a stop for dessert :) Chocolate cake with prickley pear jelly topping. Yum!
We have another big hike in mind for tomorrow (from Oia to the town of Fira), so hopefully our feet will recover overnight! So far, we feel like we had a very full, awesome first day in Santorini! This place is seriously beautiful!
1 comment:
So much walking and so many stairs in Greece!!! I remember always feeling like I'd earned my dessert ;) Keep enjoying all of it!
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