[YEAR 7!] Quit our jobs, sold our home, gone riding...

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White church, Greek flag at the parking lot of Red Beach

We're here early enough in the morning that the crowds haven't built up yet. Neda lays a towel and we settle in for the day

So, funny story about laying towels down on Red Beach. Right behind us was a cordoned off area sectioned off with yellow tape like a crime scene. We thought that that whole area was out of bounds, as did everyone else around us. So all the towels were laid down in front of it. As the morning wore on, the tide crept up the shore, eventually soaking everyone's beach blanket. At the height of high tide, the waters lapped right up to the yellow tape of the cordoned-off area.

And then the light bulb went off. The yellow tape was a tide marker to tell people where to put their towels to escape high tide, not to keep people away!!! So here's a pro-tip: Place your blanket behind the yellow-taped-off-area at Red Beach and don't get your blanket soaked!

Snorkeling is a popular activity in the clear waters off the Red Beach

 

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Neda is on a mission

Before we left Athens, our AirBnB host asked us to pick her up some red rocks from the Red Beach. The colouring is so unique that she collects them in clear glass jars that she leaves around the house as decorations.

Little did she know who she was asking to collect these rocks. Neda immediately exclaimed, "I've already specially modified my tank bag to store rocks, sea shells, leaves and small puppies from all over the world. Mission accepted!!!"

Wedding photoshoot on the rocks of the Red Beach

We replicate the wedding photoshoot, but in the water... hehe

Having grown up on the Adriatic coast, Neda prefers the beach over a swimming pool.

"I'm not leaving this beach!", she yells out to me. "I'm serious!"

 

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The colour of the red rocks are such a striking contrast to the azure waters. So pretty here.

As the afternoon approaches, the temperatures rise and the late-riser crowd starts arriving to Red Beach. Everyone's blankets are all behind the yellow line now and it's getting pretty packed in the reduced area of the shoreline. Sorry Neda, I think that's our cue to leave.

Riding around the villages in Santorini

As we ride along the coast, we see the fancy accommodations that are set on the top of the cliffs overlooking the Aegean Sea

These little apartments are not anywhere near the main resorts on the island, they were just off the main road between towns. I checked the pricing... €200/night.

 

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On the way back from Red Beach to our hotel, we pass through a town called Emporio. It's an old trading settlement from the medieval times and it generally gets by-passed by the majority of tourists who flock to the more Instagram-friendly towns of Fira and Oia in the north.

Perfect for us! We must explore!

Everywhere we go, white buildings and blue domes dominate the landscape in the countryside and in town

It seems like the blue perfectly matches the cloudless sky and the sea surrounding the island.

I did some research and traditionally, houses in the Cyclades (island chain that include Santorini) were painted white to reflect the sun and keep the interiors cool. In 1974, a law was passed that all buildings *had* to be painted white. The domes on the churches were already painted blue, so that was allowed to remain. The new scheme neatly correlated to not only the sea and sky, but also the colours of the Greek flag.

The blue on white motif continues

Wandering the narrow streets of the old town in Emporio

 

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Some of the architecture almost feels like the buildings in Tatooine from Star Wars!

We ended up getting a bit lost in the labyrinthe of the medieval town. *shrug* We're in no big rush to be anywhere.

A great morning at the beach and an afternoon exploring the old town of Emporio! Great vacation from our vacation so far!

 

[RichJacot]

I just discovered your thread and spent the last week and a half reading it from the beginning. Great trip and thank you for sharing your experiences with us!

My wife and I wish you and Neda all the best and will continue to follow your adventure!

Subscribed. ;-)

 

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Updated from http://www.RideDOT.com/rtw/333.html

It's our last day on Santorini and we're trying to see as much of it as we can. Having spent time in the south, we're going to head up to the north where all the tourists hang out. Part of me is not looking forward to fighting the crowds, but another part wants to see what all the fuss is about, and whether the views are as good as everyone's Instagram pictures make it out to be...

Setting out for the north in the late afternoon

We've heard the best time to visit the towns of Fira and Oia are in the late afternoon and evening. Since the towns are western-facing, they get a fabulous view of the setting sun as it dips below the Aegean Sea. Since this is actually the longest day of the year, the sun is due to set at 8:40PM. So to avoid having to wait around a long time, we head out in the late afternoon.

Also, we leave late because we are lazy. Which is why we wasted the whole of yesterday and this morning lazing at the pool instead of exploring. Well, I don't think it was wasted...

 

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Lazing around the hotel pool is a popular activity, even in Fira

Our first stop is in Fira, right in the middle of the island on the western coast. It's Santorini's commercial capital and is where most of the touristy shops, restaurants and bars are.

And blue-domed churches as well

 

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Catholic Cathedral of St John the Baptist in the background

These pyramids of church bells are a popular sight around Santorini, as seen through this street vendor's awning

The narrow streets are packed with stalls selling souvenirs and trinkets

A glimpse at some of the older un-renovated buildings

 

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More pyramided church bells in front of an impossibly blue sky

This is all you see when you look up in Fira.

We walk to the edge of town and peer over the cliff's edge

And see a flotilla of gigantic cruise ships in the Aegian waters

These cruise ships remind me of Imperial Destroyers, with Tie Fighters buzzing around them, taking Imperial Tourists to and from the islands on nefarious business. Step off the cruise ships. Join the Rebellion!

If you look at a picture of Santorini, the fetus shape is actually the eastern part of a caldera of a volcano that erupted 3600 years ago, roughly the Bronze Age of human history. It is the largest known volcanic eruption in recorded history. More Greek mythology trivia: The people that inhabited the islands at the time were called the Minoans, after King Minos, the name of which later spawned the myths of Theseus, the labyrinth and the Minotaur. Minos... Minotaur...

Well, *I* found that interesting...

Anyway, that little island off the coast of Fira is actually another dormant volcano called Nea Kameni, right in the middle of the Santorini caldera. It's erupted 8 times in the last 2000 years, the last time as late as the 1950s. Tourists from Santorini and the cruise ships take boats over to hike around the lip of the volcano. It's dormant, people. Not inactive!

 

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Stunning views of the inside curve of the Santorini caldera from the cliffs of Fira

There's a hiking trail that goes from Fira down to the bottom of the cliff.
Or you can take a horse if you're as lazy as I am...

Different kind of horse

I saw this guy walking around Fira. It's like he had a camera glued to his face.
He just couldn't stop taking pictures of everything

 

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Church with a view

Hard to see where the sky meets the sea. Everything is the same exact colour as the blue domes of the churches.

I slipped my camera though the gates to take a picture of this swanky hotel

Fira is the place you go to if you want to live large. Any vacation resort advertising "Caldera Views" automatically triple the price of other similar accommodations that were on our side of the island - the ones only offering "Sea Views".

These "Caldera View" resorts started at €700/night!

I don't know if it's worth €700/night, but that view though! Santorini has no other industry other than tourism. They make almost all their money during high season and everything basically shuts down during low season. The prices on the island are probably slashed by half or more during shoulder season.

 

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We had fun exploring all the narrow staircases that led to Fira's balconies and restaurants lining the top of the cliffs

Some of the swanky places had fancy faux-doors

Glimpse of Darth Vader's cruise ship in one of the stairways leading down

Amazing! The blue on the domes lines up with the sea and sky perfectly! Very aesthetic.

 

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The sun was getting lower in the sky and it was time to head out to our final destination for the evening. Oia is on the northern tip of the crescent that is Santorini. This is the Instagram capital of Europe. Any serious hash-tagger must take a selfie in front of a blue dome in Oia at sunset. It's actually in the terms and conditions when you sign up for Instagram.

A race against the clock. Unfortunately for us, the GPS takes us along the back way from Fira to Oia

It takes me a while to realize we are going the long way. The sun is quickly sinking and we have to get to Oia to get our perfect sunset picture! Where the heck is this road taking us? They will delete our Instagram account if we don't get this picture! Pressure!!!

We get to Oia with a little less than an hour before sunset. Finding parking is a nightmare and when we walk into town, we run ********** dab into a wall of people. It seems like half of Europe had the same idea we did. There is barely any room to breathe, let alone try to make our way through town to the edge of the cliff. Instead of a pretty sunset, all we're going to be seeing is the back of thousands of tourists' heads.

I wish I had a selfie stick so I could beat a path through the crowd with it.

Slowly making our way to the end of town at the cliff's edge

Oia is a very pretty town, less commercial than Fira. It seems much smaller, with not as many souvenir shops and blue-pool-covered resorts. It has a lot more bohemian cafes and art galleries. It's the perfect place for granola backpackers and hipster tourists to catch a romantic sunset. All twenty-thousand-million of them...

Eventually we get to a spot where we can at least catch a glimpse of the sea. The crowd is the most dense right at the very tip of Oia. These people must have been sitting there for hours before sunset to reserve their spot. We get to a certain point and then it was impossible for us to move any further.

This sucks! I really hate crowds. I hate being here during high season. Even though the weather is kinda perfect.

This is what all those lovely Santorini instagram photos don't show... wall-to-wall tourists!

 

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Bah. We get our Santorini picture for Instagram. Hopefully they do not delete our accounts because of no blue dome behind us.

We figure it's the exact same sunset no matter where you are sitting anywhere in the island. So we throw our butts in reverse gear out of the sea of people, back into the centre of Oia, to find somewhere with more breathing room. Fed up of crowds.

Bye bye, professional Instagrammers. You win this time! We'll be back during low season...

Back in town, here's a blue dome. We'll photoshop ourselves and a sunset in later

We just want to flee the crowds and find a quiet place to enjoy the sunset all by ourselves. We wander the streets of Oia as the sun makes it way to the horizon. There is no unoccupied quarter in the city, so we just sit on a rooftop with a whole bunch of other people and slowly watch the sun go down.