Santorini

So this is the last of our post about the honeymoon. Then we will be back to posting about the true purpose of this blog and that is our adventures in Alaska!

Santorini is another gorgeous Greek island that has a caldera. There are two volcanoes in the middle, one old which is "dormant," and one new which is still "active." The parts of the islands facing the volcanoes are steep and any structures, such as hotels, are built one on top of the other. Needless to say, you are constantly going up and down stairs. The other side of the island is completely flat and level. Our hotel faced the volcanoes and the sun set for that matter (Santorini is world famous for their sun sets).

Much like we did in Athens and Mykonos, we spent much of our first day in Santorini relaxing and familiarizing ourselves with the area. We ate a pretty delicious restaurant and finished the night off with some gelato and wine before retiring to our hotel which had a view of the entire caldera and the sun set.

Paige insisted that I scuba dive in Santorini also, so without much struggle I headed out again. I went for two dives. The first one we took a boat out to the old Volcano, we dove right off of the boat while Paige stayed up on the boat reading in the sun. This was a neat dive. First, we dove around the crater of the old volcano which is now submerged underwater and becomes deep, real deep, quickly. We then followed the lava rock around part of the island finding our way to an underwater cave. We spent some time exploring this cave. While I am not one that gets claustrophobic and I thoroughly enjoyed this intense experience, I would not recommend submerging yourself 60 feet underwater and then squeezing yourself into a cave. Even for me it felt tight and I was constantly making sure I knew where the exit was. Lava rock doesn't seem too stable to me either. The second dive was one around the island, its reefs and to several places where underwater life is known to congregate. An experience I will not soon forget.

 Because the European 4-wheelers were not powerful enough to get up and down the hills of Santorini we rented a smart car. Yes, it is one of those two seater cars that when you see one in the States you think "yes, I can tip that over." But in Santorini they were perfect. Strong enough to get up and down the hills, small enough to park and maneuver anywhere. We had a lot of fun traveling to various different beaches and sights with our smart car. In Santorini they have the white sand, red sand and black sand beaches. Original I was thinking that these beaches semi resembled their names, but no, they where true red, black and white sand beaches. And we made sure that we put some good leisure time on them.

One of the evenings in Santorini we took a sail boat ride from the main island to the new volcano. Once at the volcano we docked and hiked up to the crater. From this vantage point you had a full 360 degree view of Santorini and the other surrounding islands. Also, you could see the gases from the crater spewing out. When down wind of it, the sulfur smell was strong and the temperature rose from just shy of 100 degrees to well above. When you placed your hand on the ground you could feel that it was being heated from below. When you dug your hand into the ground it burnt you because the temperature increased that quickly! Lesson learned.

After hiking back down we continued on with our sail boat journey to another part of the island where the water was heated via thermal vents. Being to shallow for the sail boat to enter, Paige and I dove off the sail boat (15 feet or so) and swam about a quarter mile to the hot springs. We enjoyed ourselves in this warm but red water for some time before swimming back to our boat and climbing aboard. The sail boat then toured other parts of the volcanoes and islands for our viewing before stopping off in some slightly cooler but refreshing water to swim. We spent some time jumping off the boat, swimming and relaxing in the sun. When we were done with our swimming we climbed aboard where the crew had a light dinner and wine ready for us. While eating and listening to music our sail boat sailed out into the Aegean Sea so we could watch the world famous Santorini sun set. After spending several hours hiking, swimming and eating. This was the perfect way to end our evening.

Our last day in Santorini also happened to be my birthday. Paige and I went and got ourselves a fancy couples massage, ate some lunch, and relaxed on the patio of our hotel which overlooked the caldera. We made sure to purchase some goodies and ended the evening with an outstanding Sushi dinner. Santorini was incredible to us. We ate some of the best Greek food, including a restaurant called "Karma." If you are ever in Santorini we highly recommend finding Karma and eating there. Located in the town of Oia, Karma was a short drive from our hotel in Fira. Karma is romantic and was some of the most delicious food we have ever had!

We could not have asked for a better wedding or honeymoon. For this we are very thankful. We look forward to returning to Greece in the future, but in the mean time it is back to our Alaskan Adventures!