Santorini

When I think of Santorini, I think of the bright blue sea, white caves and sun. Hand on heart, Santorini lives up to EVERY single image I have ever seen of it- it is a little heaven on Earth and now I really want a holiday home there LOL! I went with my sisters in the August of last year and we managed to book an apartment (Villa Pezoula) and flights for only £388.00 for a duration of 5 nights (found flights on Easyjet and apartment on booking.com). The flight was only 2/3 hours and when we arrived, I was taken aback by the TINY airport- it looked like a back room and didn't have anything fancy, it was quite literally for arrivals and departures. This didn't bother me though as the queue for passport control passed fairly quickly and soon enough, we were out in the beautiful HEAT!! We we were greeted by a driver from the apartment and he picked us up aswell as another British couple. The airport was roughly a 30min drive from where we were staying in Finikia and we learnt about some of the sites we needed to see and how far Oia/Thira was etc. Upon arrival at the hotel, we were met by the owner and she asked if we wanted to do any excursions and told us about the general things we needed to know- she then gave us the keys to our apartment and had Antonio drive us there. NOW, the apartment was quite a bit further from the actual hotel and further from Oia, however, it was still only about a 15-20min drive and an hours walk. Our apartment was on top of a fish tavern restaurant and right opposite a beach, it was so pretty! The style of the apartment was that of a cave- it had a kitchen and a terrace with a sea view aswell as an upstairs. After acquainting ourselves with the area, our first stop was the supermarket! It is fairly easy to find small supermarkets in Santorini and they sell all the necessities such as water (we were told we couldn't drink the tap water as it was salty), snacks, deodorant etc. On our first day there, we took a taxi to Oia which is BEYOND beautiful! Oia has plenty of high end stores and restaurants, the restaurants have a tendency to rip you off so look carefully. Once you walk through all the restaurants and shops, you get to a sort of "peak" where you get the most stunning view of Santorini surrounded by the white cave homes and blue domes. I was in absolute awe and couldn't believe I was somewhere so beautiful- I'm not even exaggerating, it is breath taking! The next day, we went to Oia and from there, we took a bus to Thira. The buses are VERY cheap, literally 2 euros, and they are air conditioned so I definitely recommend utilising them. The journey was not too long, If I remember correctly it was about 30 minutes and were SO HAPPY to see a Mcdonalds! I can't say Santorini has many halal food places and alot of what is sold is fish so we were elated to be eating chips and a burger. Also, I cannot express to you how KIND the locals of Santorini are. At times, it felt like we were the only covered people there, but, everyone made us feel so welcome and some even stopped to tell us how lovely we look covered despite the heat! We met so many amazing people and I still keep in contact with some of them- this is the best thing about travelling, meeting new people and hearing their experiences. Thira was quite similar to Oia in the sense that there was lots of high end shops etc, however, the streets were slightly different and they were more cobbled than Oia. On our 3rd day, we climbed a volcano! We bought the experience for 30 euros which was cheap considering you get to go on a boat trip around Santorini, climb a volcano and visit Thira. On the boat trip, they allowed people to jump into the water, however, we didn't do this as we didn't bring the correct garms- it looked so fun though! We then made our way to the volcano and had to pay an entrance fee of 2 euros. We were allowed to climb freely, however, we had a set time for which we had to return to the meeting point. My sister and I climbed right to the top, I can't actually remember how long it took but it was boiling and we were SWEATING! The sense of accomplishment was amazing and I am so glad to have did it. Whilst in Santorini, we also managed to visit the beach and tried to swim- we ended up getting scared as the waves were so strong and left ASAP! You could also ride Donkeys, however, we had heard that many of these donkeys suffer animal abuse, it's so weird but you could see the pain in their eyes- we steered clear. We walked around our area and found cliffs with beautiful views, watched the famous Santorini sunset and quite honestly, pictures cannot do it justice. We bought various skin products such as donkey milk soap and black volcano soap- might I add, these actually work! I'll probably do a little post on them with results later. So, that is my trip to Santorini in a nutshell. It is by far the most beautiful place I have ever been to and I cannot wait to go again. The locals are amazing and so kind, the area is completely safe and swarmed with toursists like yourself and it is just a place of serenity, making it perfect to clear the mind!