The blues and the whites: A day in Santorini

 When I got a confirmation about my talk at the conference in Athens, my first thought was to plan a visit to the famous island of Greece. I asked a friend of mine if he is interested and voila! We planned a day trip to Santorini! The excitement and anticipation are the best part of planning. We read blogs and itineraries of travellers, and watched videos about what to do and bring. But when I landed in Athens, it felt real.

The first encounter with the blues and the whites

The church of three bells

The day of the trip started early. We took an early morning flight from Athens to Santorini to reach there by 7:30. The public transport in Santorini is bearable (a little about that later! :P). So we took the Bus from the airport to Thera and roamed a little bit around there, saw the church of three bells and the breathtaking view of the coastal line of the blues and whites. They say that all the buildings are painted white because of the summer heat. White reflects most of the heat and the house is cooler from the inside. The blue, they say, is because it makes a great contrast with the sea. The whole of the island is in this theme. White and blue. There are certain variations in some fancy hotels and resorts, like off-white or beige instead of white and sea blue instead of blue, not hampering the general theme of blues and whites!

One of the windmills of Oia.

So, after basking in these sunny blues and whites, we started our journey to the north end of the island, Oia. The famous windmills are situated in Oia. This part of the island is famous for its windmills. Even though it was quite windy, as it was the tourist season, the windmills weren't in action. The tarps were removed, but the blue and white structure was standing tall. Another noticeable feature of this part was the walks!

The walks around the island were very charming. White walls, blue rooftops and green and pink flowers decorate the architecture! It was very calming. The temperatures were quite high, but the soothing blue and the calm white were making the walks enjoyable. we walked through the neighbourhoods, took some pictures, picked up a few souvenirs, smelled the simplicity and got rid of all the stress in the muscles.

The walk ornate with bougainvillaea

A similar walk in the
beige - blue part of the island

The heat of the sun has started bothering us by then as it was on top of our heads. So we decided to take a gelato break. I had some pistachio ice cream. Greece is the land of pistachios and this was my first encounter with the Greece Pistachios. The gelato was amazing. I never thought I would like pistachio ice cream, coming from India, it is one of the worst flavours of ice cream there. But. I took a gamble and I would say that it was the best pistachio ice cream that I have ever had! 

Roasted Pistachio Gelato by the bay

Gastronomy aside. We sat down in a small cafe by the side of the cliff had the ice cream and went ahead to the castle of Oia.  It is an old round-ish watch tower facing south, towards mainland Greece. It might have been used in pre-medieval times and later as well. Greece has a very colourful history of tribes, wars, conversions and imposition. But the view from the tower was so breathtaking that it made us forget all that bloody part of the past and we focused only on the blues and the whites.

The landscape of the island as seen from the Castle tower

My first greek meal in Greece

We had visited the sights on the northern part of the island by then and so, we took the bus to the centre, Thera and from there took another bus to Akrotiri. Yes. A little about the bus service! The centre of the island is in There (or Fira). The system is centralised. From anywhere on the island, first one has to come there, and then take a bus going to the other place. There's no other way. It is fairly cheap. It is very fast. It is not on time. It is not reliable. But the audience is usually relaxed and in a very chill mood. so it usually doesn't matter if the bus is 10-15 mins late. But. We were doing a day trip! Nonetheless, we had a really good experience with the local transport in Santorini. Except for the airport (about the last journey, a little later! :P)

So. By this time, we were famished and wanted to rest our legs a little bit. We went to a seaside Tavern. I ordered a typical Greek dish, spicy rice-filled capsicum and tomatoes.  It was very authentic and also educational. The table towels at the restaurant had the map of Santorini. 

The places we went in Santorini
The dark blue is bus paths and
 light blue, the walks we had.
We walked close to 18 km!

The table spread at the Tavern,
showing Santorini map!

Santorini is an island made entirely from a volcanic eruption. So, it has a lot of lava rocks. The centre of the volcano is on the central island. The crescent and the island of Manolas constitute the wake of the volcano. It is a dormant volcano, but the rock structures that it has formed are mesmerising. A dream for geophysicists and in general for science enthusiasts. The beaches are made of different kinds of volcanic rocks. So, the most famous beaches here are the red beach, the black beach, and the white beach. So after having a complete beach meal experience, we went on to the red beach.

The red beach. Called so because of iron-rich lava rocks. shades of blue make an amazing contrast

It was a small hike. With an amazing iced mocha in hand, it felt like a stroll. There were flocks of people going on the same route, a sea of people on the beach and inside the sea. Everyone was sunbathing and absorbing vitamins sea. It was very relaxing to walk on the gravel. The beach was made of porous rocks from volcanic eruptions and the calming motion of water made the whole experience a natural pedicure treatment. we spent some time there enjoying the sea and picking up volcanic pebbles as souvenirs.

The red beach treatment

Free pedicure by the sea

As we were in the place of the first human establishment in Santorini, we decided to visit the museum that they made from the archaeological site at Akrotiri. The museum is an ongoing excavation site. They display the excavated rooms and artefacts. It showed water outlets, beds, common kitchen fires and small windows, doors and possibly bathrooms. A full-fledged culture. The artefacts from the excavation had so many utensils and big pots. The pickling must have been a very important part of the cuisine here. The simplicity of the museum made me go back to the memories of history textbooks describing Harappan civilisations. 

The archaeological site displayed at the museum

One of the important takeaways from the museum visit was that the way the history, or nature was conserved on that small island was amazing.  It was accessible to all, so everyone feels that they are a part of it. Yet, it was preserved in such a manner that nobody can deny it. I feel that it comes from a deep-rooted sense of belonging and taking responsibility for the surroundings. The facts and findings were shown as they were without painting any colours of pride or humility. That kind of separation from history and emotions would make the vision for the country and eventually the world clearer. It will push the world a little closer to peace.

The "kitchen" that they found in the excavation

Moving forward, we took a bus to Kamari beach. It is another famous touristy beach on the island. It has a little bit of sand, in contrast to the volcanic pebbles on the beaches on the other side of the island. the day was coming to an end. We roamed around a little on the beach, ate pizza for dinner and thought, 'we have some time at hand, and the airport is just 35-40 mins by walk from here, and the sun is yet to set. Let's walk to the airport.' Spoiler alert: We were very wrong!

We saw amazing shades of the sunset. We started the walk on the beach and then the airport was a few minutes' walk away. We reached the turn for the airport by the time of dusk and then we thought it would be just 10-15 minutes away. Now, on an island, which is a tourist destination, where everything circles around tourists, when the tourists go back to their hotels or resorts the locals also take a rest, so not a single human being can be seen on the road. The road to the airport was a gravel road. At that moment we realised that it would be the first, and definitely, the last time that any human being should walk to the airport. Airports are meant to be isolated and silent and with minimum lights so that the pilots see the runways better. We saw the entrance to the airport and went in, but it turns out that it was the security entrance only for the staff. We had to walk more than 40 minutes in total to reach the airport and we thought that we were going to miss the flight. 

While going back to the airport. Walk through the pink sunset from the beaches

But we reached the airport on time. Went through the security, only to find that the gates for the flight are closed. So we ran to the gate. It turns out that it was an error by the staff. So. We reached the airport in time for our flight. I decided that I am never going to walk to any airport. so we caught the plane and reached Athens by the night.

The mandatory click of the author basking in the blues and whites

 In retrospect, one day is enough to see the sights on the island in my opinion, but if one has to immerse in the experience of the blues and whites of Santorini, then maybe spending some more time would be better. With the time and money that I had to spare, I believe this was the best trip I could have to this mesmerising Mediterranean island.