Here is my lovely little hotel, which you can imagine feels like Heaven after a few weeks of sharing dorm rooms with post-teens...
My lovely little room, the top right balcony....
Chapel of Panagia Katefiani, 200 meters up Mesa Vouno mountain. 'Katefiani' means 'refuge', and in times of war and of pirate raids, locals would take shelter there.
Perissa's black-sand beach is just a few dozen meters from my hotel.
Timiou Stavrou Church (Greek Orthodox) in Perissa
Before leaving, I did a triple-island volcano excursion. A boat brought me to three different volcanic islands, two of which have formed slowly over the years in the center of the caldera. One of them --Nea Kameni-- is still active; lava has slowly been spewing from the ocean floor for 2,000 years, pushing the island upwards. It's estimated that this island rises 14 cm each year, as magma builds up far beneath it. We finished off with a sunset stop in Ia, which I was only too glad to revisit.
Santorini's jagged round caldera, with Nea Kameni in the center (left). You can see the white city of Fira at top right and lovely Ia in the center, perched on the tip of Santorini.
Traditional cave houses (there are quite a few of these and yes, people still live in them).
The farthest peak on the left, the nipple-shaped one, had a large castle/fortification built around the tip. Santorini used to have 5 such castles/fortifications dispersed along the island. When pirates or Turkish ships were spotted, the first castle to see it would ignite a large fire or beacon; subsequently, the other 4 fires on the island would hurriedly be lit, warning citizens to take shelter in the nearest fortification. Just like in Return of the King (Lord of the Rings). These castles stood until the 1956 earthquake destroyed all 5 of them.
For reference purposes, pictured here is the castle fortification at the big nipple. Absolutely everything, including the encircled old church, was destroyed. Nothing there but rocks now.
Looking at the town of Fira (Santorini) from the first island, Nea Kameni.
Looking down to the second island we will visit today --Palea Kameni-- where I jumped off the boat and swam to a volcanic hot (well, kinda warm) spring. It smelled like sulfur and it stained my bikini brown, but hey -- it was still a dip in Mediterranean hot springs.
The third and last island to visit today--Therasia. This island is not a new formation like the first two islands, but rather is part of the original crater wall, like Santorini. On this island, I basically ate some really good food at a port-side restaurant and chatted with an Australian woman.
Approaching Ia by sea
I opted to make my way to Ia on donkeyback, seeing it would probably be the only time in my life I could ride one! My donkey was the black one. The entire way up, he walked along the edge of the path which made me laugh hysterically from sheer nervousness. At times, my foot in the stirrup was literally swinging over the ocean water, 300 meters below. It would not have been cool had he lost his footing. I uploaded the video of my donkey ride on Facebook, since my blog won't accept videos.
Experimenting with the 'soft' setting of my camera...
Last sunset on Santorini. Goodbye, Oia. You are beautiful.
Always glad to come back to this little place after a good day of exploring the island...
I loved Santorini; in fact, it has been the highlight of my trip abroad so far (That blue water! Those white buildings!) I'm off to the island of Mykonos now, which is supposedly the glitziest of all Greek islands. It caters to the super-rich and is reknown as a party island. Since I am neither rich nor glamorous, they may very well find me out and kick me off before I get to spend a night there. Ha! Well, it's off-season right now, so they might let me sneak in... Details coming soon!
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