Santorini: six awesome things about my trip

I spent last week on the Greek island of Santorini, and it was awesome. There were so many great moments and gorgeous sights (there are about 1,000 photos from our trip) but I’ve whittled it down to six things…

1. Santorini is freaking beautiful

I swore a lot when we got to Oia, the town we were staying in, but in a good way. Because Oia is absolutely amazingly beautiful. We’re talking blue skies, white buildings, windy steps, cobbled streets and gorgeous sunshine. It’s one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever been and it was great to hang out there for a week.

Blue domed churches rule

2. Food

I love food. And holidays are a time to enjoy food in a whole new way. We had some amazing meals and it was so nice to eat fresh, delicious and seasonally appropriate food. Some highlights: grilled octopus, grilled feta (I’ve never had hot feta before – it was a miracle), veal with goats cheese and tomatoes, and one pretty awesome chocolate mousse.

3. Sunsets

I couldn’t write about Santorini and Oia without mentioning sunsets. It’s pretty well known for having some of the best sunset views in the whole world. People ship in for it every day, and scramble to get a good place to see it. We were lucky: our hotel had prime views straight out across the sea. We were also pretty lucky to be there for a whole week, so we didn’t have the pressure of getting one great spot on one day. There are tons of sunset snaps, but I’ll just share this with you:

Santorini sunset from the Oia Mare Villas hotel

4. An awesome coffee place

Dave’s pretty into coffee. Like, really into coffee. Most of our London weekends involve hunting down the strongest coffee in the land. So we had to find somewhere to go for the caffeine hit. Fortunately, Oia has a perfectly placed little cafe called the 39 Steps. (There are a lot of steps in Oia. Hundreds.) We totally made friends with the dude there and hung out there for a bit almost every day, watching the crowds wander by. We got invited back for beers and had a really cool last night hanging out there with a group, a guitar and a whole load of beer.

39 Steps, Oia

5. Swimming pools and naps

I’m not so good with the heat. I get hot pretty quickly and then all the heat in my body tries to leave via my face. It gets really red. Not cool. So I was extremely grateful to be able to jump in a nice cold pool in the afternoons to cool off and return to being a normal (ish) human being. These pool antics were usually followed by a nap. I love napping and it was SO GOOD to sleep when I was tired, rather than have to soldier on.

6. A beautiful beardy man

Ok, so I’m about to get a little bit, y’know, romantical. The last great thing about my trip to Santorini was that I got to go with Dave. He is a seriously fun and awesome person and I sorta, kinda, maybe love him a lot. Being able to run around and do stuff and not do very much at all and eat great food and read books and write and doodle — that’s all fun. But having someone to do that with and share it. That’s kinda the best.

Here’s a photo of me and Dave being totally cool:

Me and Dave and a bowl full of yoghurt and honey. Mmm mmm mmm.

So that’s kinda it. I went on holiday. It was amazing. Now I’m just trying to keep that relaxed feeling and remember all the good ideas I had for improving my life now I’m back. Fingers crossed!

All photo credits go to Dave.

October 4, 2012. Tags: greece, happiness, holiday, inspiration, project, santorini, summer, travel, vacation. Jenny project, life. 1 comment.