If my sort-of Canadian friend Cody Brandon set the standard for Canada and Roman Holiday gave me all the expectations I carried to Rome, then the brilliant, magical musical Mamma Mia set the bar incredibly high for the Greek Islands. This movie along with the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants were all I had to go on before I landed in beautiful Greece. I knew the history, I had a firm grasp on the many gods, and I’ve been hearing about mythology since I was a baby, but much of my impression of Greece was founded upon my many viewings of Meryl Streep in my favorite movie musical. I set off for my island adventure with ABBA playing in my head and was not disappointed by the beautiful sights and people in my island adventure.
We set off for the island of Santorini at about 11:00 p.m. Earlier that day we had a pretty stressful time purchasing tickets, and Leah and I ended up with the last two tickets on the ferry (or so the ticket clerk told us) and had to pay a little bit more than Krystin and Kara, our travel companions for this island adventure, who ended up with cheaper coach tickets.
By some miracle our cab successfully dropped us at the correct port, and I was faced with one of the craziest scenes I’ve encountered in my entire life. I should have guessed that the only midnight ferry to Santorini leaving on a Thursday evening in the tourist season might be a little packed, but nothing could have prepared me for these crowds. With a similar degree of anticipation and fear to what I had last fall at an outdoor Kings of Leon performance, I struggled with thousands of backpackers, families, Athenians, mopeds, eighteen wheelers, smart cars, college students, and ferry workers to cram onto the boat before it left the port. I was not looking forward to sleeping on the floor for the entire night that it takes to get to the island, but I approached the situation with a positive outlook. When we found our check-in desk on the ship we were ushered to the spotless personal cabin Leah and I had to ourselves and it was bigger than our cabin on the MV Explorer. To my utter delight, it came fully equipped with a personal bathroom, shower, two beds and reading lamps. In short, it was heaven on earth. Our travel companions were unfortunately relegated to sleeping on the floor of the ship and sharing a bathroom with hundreds of other ferry travelers. It was the best extra 20 Euros I’ve ever spent.
After a heavenly night’s sleep, I awoke to the ferry pulling in at the paradise island of Santorini. The sun was shining, the water was blue, and I hadn’t a care in the world. Except, of course, that we didn’t yet have a place to stay. For this adventure we subscribed to the wing-it college travel theory. We didn’t book ahead and we didn’t have a clue where we would be spending the night. Within minutes we were approached by a Greek man with a ponytail twice as long as my own who showed us pictures of an apartment 5 minutes from the black sand beach on the south side of the island near the fishing village of Perissa. Under normal conditions, I would not condone getting in a van with a man who wore his hair past his waist, but the room was only 17 Euros a night, and the pictures sure looked pretty.
Things couldn’t have turned out better for us, and after a short bus ride to the other side of the island we arrived at the cutest white washed, blue roofed hotel I could have ever imagined. Best of all, it was a short stroll to the black sand beach where we spent the entire first day soaking up the Mediterranean sun. This was seriously the best beach I’ve ever been to, and I’m not a beach person. The water was crystal clear and the perfect temperature and we swam in it all day. The black sand created a startling contrast to the blue of the ocean and the sky and the beach was lined with the most charming bungalow bars I have ever seen. What was most unexpected was the complete lack of people. We literally had an entire stretch of beach to ourselves for the entire day with no one around to bother us besides the occasional traveling street vendor peddling very convincing Ray Bans. The only negative was that I had forgot my sunglasses on the ship, but more on that later.
That evening we proceeded to Fira, the main town on the island, for dinner and a view and slept quite soundly in our apartment by the sea. Not too much debauchery on Santorini today, but a surplus of pure bliss.
The next day was packed with shopping, eating, donkey rides and some beachside bar hopping before it was unfortunately time to leave. Santorini is an amazing place to be. It has great beaches, great shopping, breathtaking sunsets and a blend of ancient charm, rustic wilderness, a color palette unsurpassed by any other place I have visited and a heavy pinch of fun. It is covered in valleys of grape vines popping out of rough volcanic soil and woven into a living basket around themselves, sprinkled with small fishing villages built on and around breathtaking sea cliffs, and brimming with its own unique brand of charm. It is paradise and I can honestly say that it is my favorite of all the places we have visited so far. I was not ready to leave on the midnight ferry.
By this time, however I had noticed that something was definitely wrong with my eyes. They were incredibly itchy and would not stop running and after a long day I had no makeup left for all the rubbing and itching and tears. I was terrified that I might be getting pink eye, that perhaps I was allergic to donkeys or that I was somehow adverse to seaside island life. When I went into an Internet café while waiting for the ferry, the guy behind the register asked “why you crying?” and I knew I had to do something. I woke up the next morning in the luxurious ferry cabin to eyes glued shut, and once we were back to the MV Explorer I went straight to the clinic. Want to know what the problem was? My eyes were sunburned. Sunburned!!! Yeah, it is actually possible. I had slathered sunscreen over every inch of my body, but since I left my sunglasses at the ship the Mediterranean sun burned my fair colored eyes. Nothing a bottle of eye drops can’t fix, but definitely something I didn’t see coming.
Eye sunburn aside, Santorini was amazing. It was the most relaxing experience of my life, and fully lived up to all of my Greek island dreams. I wasn’t ready to leave, and I’m already set to go back. Next stop: The Acropolis at Athens.
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