Long Awaited Getaway, Turkey & Greece ; Part 3 - Santorini
Continuing our Turkey & Greece escapade, we reached our third destination for the trip which is, Santorini. Santorini is famous with it's blue sky, azure sea and white-washed houses built over the cliffs. It was as perfect as a postcard. Bear in mind though, this post might be a long one.
We flew to Santorini from Athens via Volotea Airline, a Spanish budget airline which covers the EU. The airfare was about MYR 390 [ 81 Euros ] for two person. The fares were cheap, but being a typical budget airline, they charge you from choosing the seats up to printing boarding passes at the airport. For the money that goes to the flight, we actually had a good experience with the airline. There was no queuing at all at the airport, their staff were polite and the plane itself was new too.
The plane was a tiny, cute one. The seats were arranged as a 2-seater on one side, and a 3-seater the other. It was a relatively short flight. When we were in the air for about 5-10 minutes-ish, I got up to visit the washroom & the stewardess politely declined my request as we were already descending. Total duration of the flight took around 40 minutes I think?
Upon arrival at Santorini International Airport, we were promised by a local company that we had booked a car to rent to meet at the arrival. We arrived at 11.15am, but they were nowhere to be seen. We called (bought a Greece sim card in Athens) but no one picked up the phone. We waited until it was close to 12pm and had to give in to one of the car rental companies at the airport. The staff was kind enough to call and wait with us even though other booths were already closed. They are only open whenever a flight arrives which in low season (October to February), there are only 3 flights a day.
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| As you can see, only one booth were still open. |
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| We rented a Peugeot 108 and everything went by smoothly. |
Santorini is an island in the Southern Aegean Sea. The island is tiny. If you were to tour the island by car, it only consists of 35 km of asphalt road. Our first destination was the Red Beach. Located at the southern Santorini, 15 minutes drive from the airport. The beach was named so due to the red towering cliffs overlooking the Aegean Sea. Be careful when you are here. The paths consisted of small volcanic sand that are prone to sliding - if you've been hiking at a few volcanoes, you'll know what I meant.
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| Magnificent, masyaAllah. |
Our plan was to visit loads of museums and historical sites in Santorini - which dates back to pre-historic era. Little did we know, all those museums & sites were closed during the low season. Basically it only opens from March up until September each year. Even restaurants were closed.
Pro-tip:
- There are no halal food here guys. Although there was a shop claiming they were selling halal gyros, BUT they sell pulled pork gyros too... So...
- Buy eggs and cook rice at your accommodation. Book one with a kitchenette like we did.
We decided it would be best for us to check into our studio. We rented a studio via Booking.com named Musses Studio in Oia, the northern part of Santorini. This studio, although it's a small one but is dear to me. It was beautiful.
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| The living room - all Santorini white. Small kitchenette on the right. |
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| The bedroom on the upper half-storey. Bed came with bedwarmers. Score! |
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| Our terrace. Overlooking the sea. Need we say more? |
With not a minute to waste (actually after a nap & few rounds of chocolate croissants with coffee later), we decided to stroll around Oia - to capture Santorini at Sunset. We started with the northernmost tip of Santorini, but the view was almost similar to the red beach, only not very touristy. So we walked around the famous main tile promenade of Oia and captured few pictures here and there.
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| The sky, the sea... |
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| Tip of Santorini. |
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| Perfect combination, white-washed houses and sunset hues. |
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| Santorini over the fallen caldera. |
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| More sunset - I could not get over how beautiful this place is! |
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| Random stairs we found while walking along the caldera. |
Nothing much you could do in Santorini if you're here in the low season. Apart from sightseeing, you could go to the local bakery to enjoy the delicacies. BUT, they close at 3PM in winter. So... plan ahead. Since we had nothing to do, we went back to our studio, watched a movie and sleep.
Our morning started with a stunning view. We enjoyed making a cup of coffee and eating chocolate croissants on top of the studio - like this.
Done with our breakfast, we took our time lounging around the studio reading and watched a movie before it was finally time to check out. We had to bid farewell to this enchanted place. Our flight was not up until 4pm and it was only 12pm when we checked out. So we took more time to dawdle along the promenade before returning our car at the airport. Supposedly we had more pictures, but a certain lady dandy organ of mine wanted to cramp and give me a hard time walking (thanks, endometriosis) - so only few were captured.
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| Same outfit as yesterday, cause why not? See the iconic Greek blue door. |
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| Those who could afford the pool is lucky. |
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| More stairs around the nook. |
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| Even more stairs and a view beyond words. |
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| Was not hoping to see bougainvilleas in winter, but yay I found some! |
This wrapped up our entire journey to Santorini. It's a place directly drawn from the hands of Allah. Only God can create such places. Came 4 pm, we took our flight back to Athens where we stayed one night before catching our flight to Cappadocia the next day. Hoping to return in the future and maybe island hopped next time!
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| Bye Santorini! |
Our total expenses;
- Flights ;
- Volotea (MYR390)
- RyanAir (MYR185)
- Accomodation ;
- Musses Studio, Oia (MYR287)
- Skoufou Apartment, Athens (MYR125)
- Rented Car (Santorini) ;
- AVIS (MYR202 - full insurance coverage, full tank & additional hours allowance)
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