our trip to santorini, greece.

After my family’s stay in Oslo we all went to Santorini, Greece. Ever since I saw the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants movie, which is set in Greece, I have wanted to see the beauty of the Greek isles with my own eyes.  It's a pretty amazing place and it was incredible to swim in the warm sea after a winter in Norway. The only swimming I did in Norway (besides at a Spa that Fulbright paid for) was in Sognsvann and the Oslo Fjord- both were very chilly. Santorini is one of the Greek isles and was formed by a volcanic explosion. The crescent shaped island surrounds beautiful blue water called the caldera. We stayed in the small (very touristy) city of Oia, which looked exactly as I pictured Greece to look. We stayed at Oia's Sunset Hotel with a view of the ocean and a refreshing pool. It's centrally located and the guys who work there are very friendly. 

In Santorini we met up with some family friends, the Keillors. In total we had a group of nine which could make decision making tricky, but we seemed to all have very similar desires for this trip. We pretty much rotated between swimming in the ocean, swimming in our hotel's pool, eating delicious greek food, playing "up the river/ down the river,"relaxing/reading and eating gelato. We ventured out to several of the island's popular beaches and even dove off one of the docks. One day we took a catamaran trip which included a ride to the volcanic remains, swimming in the hot springs, snorkeling and a delicious lunch. I love boat rides, don't you? 

In addition to swimming, we love to eat. In Santorini we usually ate a low key breakfast and lunch either at our hotel or a restaurant close to the beach. Dinner was our big meal of the day; we made reservations for a different restaurant each night and ate around 8 or 9pm. My favorite meals were greek yogurt with fruit and honey, greek salads (tomatoes, cucumbers, feta, red onion, olive oil and capers) and ravioli. Maybe ravioli doesn't sound too exciting, but it was incredible. I wanted to lick the plate after I ate all the ravioli because the sauce was just so good. I also greatly enjoyed getting gelato everyday. There was a great gelato shop very close to our hotel that made their gelato by hand. My favorite flavors were melon, banana and dark chocolate. Mmmm.

There are 300 steps from the port to the top of Oia. Many tourists enjoy a donkey ride up the stairs, but Layla, Josh and I decided to run up these steps a couple times. That was no easy task. Although I had to stop to walk several times, I felt a great sense of accomplishment at the top of those stairs. Oia is such a cute place. There are lots of shops lining the cobblestone paths. I enjoyed wandering around, checking out Atlantis Books , and helping Josh pick out an icon to bring home. The layers of shops, houses and hotels are so amazing. We'd often look out over this little city (like the view below) and decide which nook or cranny would be the coolest place to live. There are so many beautiful rooftop pools and restaurants tucked into the hillside.

I never got tired of the view. I loved looking at the village of Oia with all the blue domed churches and I loved seeing the blue, blue caldera. But, I must say that it's good to be home.

Are you getting in any last vacations before summer ends?