In October 2015, I went to Greece with one of my wonderful friends. We visited Athens and then, way too early in the morning in my humble opinion, we flew to Santorini. This island is magical! I had the greatest time with Florence there. At first, we thought we would rent a car, but in the end, the best option was an ATV: amazingly cheap and ideal to go everywhere. In Santorini, roads are really small, and it would have been scary to cross another car, but with a tiny ATV, it was perfect!
Renting an ATV in Santorini
When we arrived at the hotel, we were exhausted. Not enough sleep, a headache, some problems with my credit card. We had no energy. So we sat on deckchairs on the beach to relax.
Except my friend and I are the same type of restless people, and we must have lasted about 10 minutes before starting to get bored. So we stood up and went for a walk. We saw ATVs, rented one and spent the next days driving on the island looking for beautiful places.
Florence was the one doing the driving. I tried. When you drive an ATV, you have to constantly press on the handle, otherwise the engine stops. It was an issue for me when I had to drive and signal that we were turning left at the same time. My hand turned on the signal, but let go of the handle. We were going uphill… Our ATV started going down and I grabbed the handle in a panic! Nothing happened, it was just a little fear, but then, Florence drove us.
Santorini’s beaches
There are all types of colours in Santorini: we went to red and black sand beaches. The first beach we saw was the Red Beach, which is located at the village of Akrotiri. It is beautiful and surrounded by red cliffs. In October, there weren’t too many people, and it felt nice to walk around and sit for a bit. I don’t know about Summer months, it might be more crowded.
We went later to the Black Beach of Perissa. It was less impressive than the Red Beach, but quite relaxing, even less crowded. I don’t remember staying long though. We walked in the clear water and that was pretty much it. As I said, we had trouble resting on a beach doing nothing…
Eating Good Food And Taking Pictures Of Santorini’s Cats
There are good restaurants on the island, but also a lot of not so good. As Santorini is very touristy, some restaurants are just there to catch newcomers who don’t know where to go. If my memory is correct, the restaurants that we found on the coast were usually better than the ones next to beaches, but maybe it’s because we didn’t know where to look. Still, despite a few disappointing meals, we managed to eat good food.
I was particularly pleased with a wine tasting in a winery at the top of a cliff. We stopped there at the end of the day. The wine tasting was done on an individual table, on a terrace with a splendid view on the sea and the cliffs. We ordered stuffed vine leaves with the wine, and it was perfect. I can’t remember the name of the winery, but I’m guessing several of them offer that type of service.
In most of the places where we ate, there were cats. They are used to people, so they are a good subject for photos. Next to the sea, on a white wall, near flowers, just let out the cat lover inside you!
Going On A Boat Trip To See A Volcano, Hot Springs And Oia
In Santorini, we did a boat trip with the Albatross. On a wooden boat, we saw the coast and some villages. Then, we stopped for a short hike on a volcano to see some active craters. The walk is not too hard, but make sure you have solid shoes. The rocks can cut soft shoes. Avoid at all costs flip flops. Then, when we came back from the hike, we had the possibility to swim next to the coast where there are hot springs. These are supposed to be good for your health.
At the end of the day, we stopped in Oia and climbed to the village on the backs of donkeys. This was a test for me, as I really don’t feel comfortable with horses. Donkeys are smaller, yes, but still. I got really scared because my donkey was walking too close to the edge and I had to regularly move my leg so as not to be scratched by the wall. And also, it was way too close to the edge of the cliff for me to be at ease. I might have imagined myself falling on the pointy rocks at least a dozen times.
I survived. And we proceeded to visit the city. Oia is quite stunning, this is the typical image of Greece on postcards. And just like a thousand tourists on that day, we took several pictures of the sunset. People applauded, and we laughed. It was a bit ridiculous and Florence was saying “Well done, Sun, well done!” as a joke.
This trip felt like a dream, we did so many other fun things, like a fish pedicure for example. Try not to laugh as these little fish tickle you under the foot. Today, I regret not taking notes because some memories fade. But the feelings remain, and I cherish those. Right now, this is very hard to meet because of Covid, but I hope to see Florence soon.
To see more photos of Greece, you can visit the gallery Greece.
