Santorini - Day 2

The plan for the day was to take a tour of the volcano. Santorini is a volcanic island shaped like a crescent moon and if it was a complete circle, in the center is an island where the volcano is located. The last eruption was in 1950 and it is due to go off sometime before 2025. We signed up for a tour of the volcano and some nearby hot springs at the hotel and headed out for a quick breakfast. We went back to the place we went yesterday and we both ordered Greek yogurt with fruit and fresh squeezed orange juice. It was amazing! The Greeks sure know how to do breakfast. Then we walked down the steps from Fira to the port. There are three ways to get down to the port: 550 steps, a cable car, or you can ride a donkey. We opted for walking down but didn’t leave enough time so about the last third of the way we were running to make sure we made it to our tour boat in time. The view of the ocean and the island was incredible.

The donkeys we could have ridden down on

The stairs down to the Old Port

We made it to the tour in time and rode the boat out to the volcano. The tour of the volcano was interesting and we saw all the pits where the volcano has erupted in the past. At one point we were able to put our hand in a hot spot and feel the heat coming up from the ground. We walked around the island with our tour guide giving us some information about previous eruptions and how Santorini was formed.

On the boat heading to the volcano island. You can see the small dock in the distance

The pit where the most recent eruption (in 1950) occurred

After the volcano tour we hopped back on the tour boat and rode around the volcano to a nearby uninhabited island where there’s a hot springs in a bay. It was great because you jump off the tour boat into the Mediterranean and swim a few hundred yards to the hot springs! The cool water felt great on the hot day and the hot springs was awesome.

The hot springs are the brown water in the bay. Someone just jumped off the boat on the left

After we sailed back to Fira, we took the cable car up the cliffs and headed back to the hotel for a quick shower to rinse off the salty sea water. We ate some savory pies for lunch at a delicious bakery and took the bus to Oia. Oia is a town on the most northwestern tip of Santorini and is famous for watching the sunset. Once we found the town (we got a little confused initially after getting off the bus) we walked aimlessly enjoying the incredibly beautiful town until we realized we’d reached the end of it. We stopped for a glass of wine and some grilled feta and relaxed for a bit until it got close to sunset.

Oia

Where we stopped for a little snack

Turning around, we walked to the other end of town where there are the famous cliffs for watching a perfect ocean sunset. The pedestrian walkway was filled with lots of shops and picturesque buildings. We seriously saw three different weddings going on as we walked through town - understandably, the town is so beautiful (and it was a Sat evening)! When we reached the cliffs, there were tons of people also waiting for the sunset. Steph spotted an awesome spot where we sat on a ledge with a perfect view of the ocean and sun and watched the sun set. It was the classic ocean sunset and people even clapped once it was over!

Oia

All the people on the cliffs watching the sunset

Watching the sun set

So pretty!

Afterwards we walked back along the main walkway, bought some gifts and some jewelry, and then took the bus back to Fira. In Fira, we tried to find a restaurant recommend by a friend back home for dinner but after a lot of searching, we had no luck and instead ended up going to a lovely restaurant recommended by our hotel. The food was delicious and we had some more ouzo before heading back to the hotel for an early night.

Fira at night

Steph with some ouzo at dinner