Oía

We met our guide at the cable car exit and visited the most photographed blue dome church and the Three Bells of Fira as our first stop. Because we had 3 other cruise boats also docked, both Fira and Oia were crazy busy with people everywhere.

Thankfully our guide who has lived on the island for 23 years had plenty of experience getting us to our stops, knowledgeable about how the islands were formed by a volcanic eruption, and provided great recommendations. Once in Oia, we walked to another famous blue dome church and walked around the northern city checking out the shops, patisseries, and restaurants. The streets were crowded with other tourists, some lugging their bags to their hotels located just off the cobblestone streets. We would stop every so often to catch more amazing views of the caldera.

From our guide, we learned that Santorini was originally one island, but is now five separate islands due to a volcano eruption in 1615 BC which was the biggest eruption in history. This went on for 3 days and it is believed that an earthquake caused eruption. I wish we had more time to go to the museum to learn more about this, but we were limited due to our time ashore.

We spent some time walking in the streets of Oia and Sydney found an amazing spot for baklava and I was able to sample a beer from the Santorini Brewing Company.Lue lisää