2 posts tagged “santorini”
Show us the best beach you have visited.
Submitted by Marko.
in general i'm not much of a one for beaches. deep water frankly scares me silly and i'm always nervous of being dragged out to see in a rip and eaten by sharks. but there is one beach which i just adored from the moment we arrived - red beach on santorini, in the greek islands. you have to practically climb down a mountain to get there, and the sand is black and blazing hot (not fun on the feet and i highly recommend hiring a sun lounge unless you're made of asbestos) and the water was really rather chilly with tiny little fish swimming about. barely any waves and very calm, even though a decent depth - a perfect wallowing beach.
... and a big happy wave from mykonos, in the cyclades islands!
yesterday we were in santorini and went on a tour out to the (active) volcano, climbing its extremely rocky slopes in the noonday sun (no shade) and gasping at the view from the top and the tales of destruction relayed by our guide (the photo at left just shows a low part of the volcano - it was a good deal higher than this!). we also got to put our hands in a hole in the ground which was warm enough to boil an egg in twenty minutes - how's that for exciting?????!!!!
volcanic hot springs at the smaller island were also exciting - we had to swim out to them from the boat to get to them, which was somewhat bracing at the start and end, but very refreshing.
and our day ended with a hike up 270 steps from the sea to oia, doing our best not to be either flattened against the cliffs or tipped over them by stampedes of donkeys taking those who sensibly were not prepared to walk most of the way up. i am not good with farmyard animals of any persuasion which was why we chose shank's pony instead!
santorini, i have to say, truly lives up to its reputation - just stunningly, jaw-droppingly gorgeous - although unfortunately, being so beautiful, it is of course packed up with tourists - and consequently with tourist-trap restaurants and souvenir shops. we did, however, manage to get a really first-rate meal from a restaurant recommended by lonely planet, "naoussa" - i had the lamb in lemon sauce while djelibeybi had grilled sea-bass. djeli's son resolutely stuck to his spaghetti bolognese, which we seem unable to pry him away from (although he has been trying small pieces of what we're eating) unless it's for keftethes (= meatballs). but we're having a fine time with the food. i am now a total convert to greek yoghurt with honey for breakfast - so delicious!
so today we've arrived in mykonos and about to try yet again to hunt out a fairly authentic sort of taverna and avoid the hideous overpriced tourist food. tomorrow we board another boat and head off to ancient delos for the day to check out where apollo and artemis were born and see the ruins. then on to athens the next day.
i now have 4 cds-worth of photos i've taken and not even one week into the trip - when on earth am i ever going to get to go through them all?????
