A First Glimpse of Santorini

Our alarm was set for 3:40am, taxi ordered for 4:30 in order to catch our 6 am flight.  We flew from Stavanger to Copenhagen to Athens to Santorini which spanned just over 13 hours - the same amount of time and nearly the same cost as it is for us to fly to Canada.

We were due to land around 8 pm, just before the famed Santorini sunset and I had hopes of grabbing our bags quickly and jumping in our pre-arranged taxi to take in the last moments of daylight from our terrace but as we stood around the luggage belt, the other travellers slowly dispersing with their bags until the belt stopped, it was apparent that our bags were not arriving and I knew we'd miss that sunset. By the time the report was filed and we wearily climbed into our taxi, there wasn't a shred of light left in the sky as we drove through the darkness to our hotel.

We were welcomed by our lovely host who was waiting with a bottle of wine in our candlelit room and while we were certainly happy to have finally arrived, we were exhausted and a little deflated after the luggage debacle.  We poured a glass of wine, ordered a bit of food and gazed out into the darkness before finally collapsing into bed.

The following morning we woke to this...

Within an hour, our bags were delivered to our room with our breakfast and the pain of yesterdays travel quickly faded as we prepared to drink in Santorini.
(Joe just pointed out the double entendre that I apparently missed when I wrote this post but we literally did both!)

Our days were filled with long, slow walks, leisurely lunches, and stops along the way for local beer and wine.  The island was at its best in late afternoon when the cruise ship passengers would head back to their boats slowing everything down to it's quiet and easy charm.  The sun would be warm, the wind calmed and we'd make our way to our terrace to watch them sail off into the Aegean sea, happy to have the Santorini back to ourselves.  We read books, revelled in the warm sun and reconnected over gorgeous scenery.  We dined on delicious Greek food every night and would end the days in our jacuzzi on our terrace.  I'm certain that Santorini must be one of the most romantic places on earth.

It was 8 days of bliss - pure bliss.

{Tonight, May 22,  I'm co-hosting the #SeeTheWorld twitter chat with the lovely @thecultureur & @rovingaltruist as we talk about my homeland - Canada!  Join us at 3 pm EST / 9 pm CET!}