Travel Journal: Santorini, Greece

This post has been long overdue. I wanted to work on this for so long but I kept holding it off, and time flies! To be honest, I was part lazy and felt part daunted by having to sort through all my photos to create a coherent log of my trip. I’m finally trying to pull myself together and gather my memories from Santorini and share here. Since my intention for this website is for myself. I want to be able to look back at my travels, reflect and cherish these memories. Santorini is an absolutely beautiful island and I don’t want these memories just tucked away in a hard drive, so here we are.

Firstly, to put it out here, Varun and I made trip to Greece last year in March. Our outbound journey to get to Santorini was absolutely chaotic and stressful. Our flight was cancelled when we were already an hour in the air, due to malfunctioning of the plane. (I was watching “I, Tonya”, and by the time the plane flew back to HK airport, I already finished the entire film). The stressful situation was that we could only fly the next evening which caused a domino effect in the schedule - missing our connecting flight in Dubai to Athens, and missing the flight from Athens to Santorini. In total, it took us 47 hours to get to Santorini!

As with anyone would, I was seriously upset at the start of our trip. I did my fair share of taking my anger out on the airline and Varun. However when we arrived to Santorini, being physically at this island made my anger go away. The views were breathtaking and I had nothing to complain about anymore.

We stayed in Oia village which is perched on the cliff. It’s a convenient location and it’s where most people go to catch sunset. It’s a popular choice to stay in as it’s the most colourful village of Santorini, hence you could say it’s the most picturesque part of the island. The slight downside is that all the houses/hotels are built on a very steep hill at Oia, so it’s not the most friendly place to lug around heavy suitcases. (Thankfully our hotel staff was very nice and helped carrying the suitcase through the village). To be frank, I hate stairs myself, but it didn’t bother me too much since it was fun exploring all the turns and corners, and walking through all the white-washed houses. Plus, staying in a cave hotel was part of the holiday experience.

The best way we found to explore the island was to rent a car. The car ride was a lot fun and you can really enjoy great panoramic views of different villages and rock formations. One of the villages we went to was Pyrgos. It’s the highest village on the whole island so you get a great view. Unlike Oia, the village is not vibrant but the rustic stone houses and narrow winding paths has it charm.

Santorini is a beautiful island with all wonderful Greek white-washed houses and pastel colours. Like all popular tourist and Instagram destinations, it is very touristy. The best way to explore the village is early in the mornings. In particular, Oia gets extremely packed by late afternoon as everyone goes there to catch sunset.