“You know the caldera is actually the top of a volcano?”
--Lena Kaligaris, The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants
The caldera. I have heard and seen so many things about the caldera that it was almost unreal to actually be there. Fourteen girls and one guy departed on our adventure, and the excitement on the ferry could not be measured. It was absolutely beautiful, and the water that we passed was so blue and perfect. We arrived at the port in Santorini at 10 pm, and the lights of the cities looked magical.
The owner of our hotel picked all of us up at the port and drove us to our hostel/hotel in Santorini. I found it really strange, because all of the girls were freaking out when we got to our hotel about how beautiful everything was. I saw pretty, but I wasn’t as sure about beautiful. There was nothing striking about where we were. A group of us proceeded to stop by a restaurant for dessert.
After our dessert, we started walking towards a club. Everyone had been talking about some cliff near us during dessert that I hadn’t noticed. I turned around at one point in time during our walk and realized the cliff took up all of the view from where I was sitting. It was absolutely massive! I had never realized how rocky the island was.
Nine of us made it to the club, and we danced for a little while. On the way home, somehow only eight of us made it into the cars to be taken back. When the eight of us returned, we tried to contact the bar and a taxi company. Ultimately, we sent a contingency of three girls to walk back to the club, while the rest of us waited at the hotel. The lone girl talked to the bar manager, who called her a cab and helped her get home. So we called the group of girls who returned home. After that interesting evening, we all fell into bed exhausted.
The next morning, we visited the black beaches of Santorini. The beaches have black pebbles instead of sand. Once you get past the pebbles in the ocean, there is an incredibly slippery rock that makes up the floor of the sea. I thoroughly enjoyed watching people slip and slide into the water. I was not coordinated enough to be immune from slipping and sliding myself.
That afternoon, a group of us headed out to Oia, a city on Santorini. It was here that I felt like I was truly in the Santorini I had heard so much about. All of the houses were white and blue. There was a donkey carrying water from a grocery store. And there was a bride in a gorgeous wedding dress walking down the street. We proceeded to explore the picturesque town. The view was stunning, and I finally started to understand the magnificence and stunning beauty of Santorini. Pictures don't even begin to do the island justice. You really can see all over the island. The water is a perfect shade of blue, and nothing seems like it could go wrong in this little slice of serenity.
After an afternoon of exploring the town and seeing numerous breathtaking views, we found a delightful restaurant for dinner. We sat on the roof and watched an amazing sunset with all fifteen of us. At the end of dinner, the same bride that we had seen walking down the street in her wedding dress gave us the complimentary dessert that she and her husband were given (they hadn’t had dinner yet). Our table was probably very obnoxious, but you could tell from our voices that we were so enthralled by this town. The day was pretty close to perfect.
The next day, I visited the volcano. The volcano is basically in the middle of the horseshoe of the main island, so you could see the entirety of the island. It was breathtaking to see the steep cliffs and the little villages at the top. It isn’t exactly beautiful in a traditional sense, but it is magnificent in its grandeur. The piles of ash and volcanic rocks next to the sea and the cliffs is such a contrast but also gorgeous. The island is small but still so large. The guide dug less than a foot into the ground and was able to pull out a rock that was fairly hot. It seems crazy that an island made up of a mess of rocks is capable of producing enough lava and ash to cover the entire island.
We ended our tour with a visit to a hot spring, where you could rub mud all over you. It was a little strange, and my bathing suit was covered in mud, but how many times will I be able to say that I took a mud bath in Greece?
The ferry ride back was a little more miserable, because most of the excitement was gone. We were on the ferry overnight, and it was cold and bright in our cabin. It was a difficult night, but we were able to return home and fall into our beds once more.
I spent a large part of my ferry rides thinking about my family and friends at home. It is so strange to remember that while I am here, others are still alive back home. I don’t always know what everyone is doing, and I don’t really talk to many people from home. There have been two times now that my family hasn’t heard from me in over 48 hours. The disconnect is not normal for America, and there are things that I miss about being able to talk to people right when I want to. It is still so nice to be able to completely focus on my time and experiences in Greece.
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