Santorini

They say that a picture is worth a thousand words. If that's true, than being in Santorini in person is worth at least a million words.

When you see pictures of Santorini with it's dramatic ocean views, it's white washed homes with blue domed roofs, you get a sense of Paradise on Earth and you wonder what could be more beautiful than that. Then you're really there in person and you realize, a picture simply doesn't do the island justice.

I hadn't really thought ahead of time what Santorini would be like. I admit, I'm not much of a beach person, so strictly visiting an island wasn't really high on my list of "to-do's," but this was far from that.

The one thing you notice about Santorini when you first arrive at the island is how far above sea level the island really is. That's because Santorini is really a volcano. One of the largest volcanic explosions ever recorded occurred here at Santorini. The explosion was so powerful that the volcano basically destroyed itself. The explosion caused the dome of the volcano to literally be blown away and then fall into itself. So there are a number of outlying islands that ring what was the caldera of the volcano. The residents of Santorini today live at the very top of the caldera.

The cruise ship drops anchor off shore, and a local company tenders passengers to the island. Once off the tender, there are 3 options to the top of the caldera: 1) there is a cable car that will carry you to the top, 2) there is a zig-zagging donkey path with donkeys that will take you to the top, and 3) you can walk up to the top following the donkey path. We opted to go with the cable cars.

When you arrive at the top of the caldera, you are in Fira (sometimes referred to as Thira). We had known that our destination was to be Oia, a small city that lies on the southern tip of the island. We also wanted to beat the crowds. From the top of the cable car station, we walked directly to the bus station and took the first local bus out to Oia. It was a pleasant and pretty 30 minute drive out to Oia.

Oia is one of the most stunning cities I've ever seen in terms of raw beauty. Every which way you turn is a jaw-dropping moment. The whitewashed houses really do cling, almost precariously from the rocks off the edge of the caldera. There are very narrow cobblestone lanes that leads to smaller and smaller lanes. These lanes are their "streets." Supplies and goods are donkeyed-in rather than delivered by freight truck. There are buildings at the edge of the caldera that have infinity pools that seemingly just drop right off the cliff. It's one of the most visual stunning cities you'll ever see.

I could have easily spent the whole day just in Oia. Supposedly sunsets from Oia are otherworldly. So much so, that people come from near and far hours in advance to reserve a seat to watch the setting sun.

This is the reason why I knew that if I was going to go back and travel in this region, I'd have to go back to Santorini. It's not just that I had to go back to Santorini, I needed to go back.

In the afternoon, we took the public bus from Oia back to Fira to do a little wandering and shopping. While Fira isn't as "wow" as Oia, it still is awash of beautiful bright white houses and blue shuttered windows and blue domed roofs. It's one of the most beautiful sights in the world.

If you only ever travel to one Greek island, this is the one to go to. Pictures, videos, postcards don't hold a flame to the true beauty of Santorini.