an evening at santorini

I went to Santorini a couple of years ago. And it was every bit as beautiful as all the tourist websites claimed it would be. And yes, if you are headed to Greece, go there! Also we did go to Oia and yes, it was gorgeous! And we even regretted not staying there, however touristy it actually ended up being it was pretty. That’s the thing with some popular spots, they are popular because they are genuinely nice. In the attempt to do ‘different’ sometimes we miss the beautiful mundane, which because it is so gorgeous is not mundane even though 1000s have a shared experience with you. My search for uniqueness sometimes leaves me faltering at the doorstep of the mediocre. But never mind all these mindless rambling thoughts…

We had spent an evening at Oia, and the next day decided to hire a car and drive around the tiny island. Santorini in simple words that I understand is the outer wall of a volcano, the caldera, the part of land that collapsed after the volcano erupted has filled with water. So you are actually living, breathing and roaming around the higher boundary of the volcano, external wall of sorts. Am I explaining this right? Back to story — we hired a car and drove around. We went to the famous Kamari beach with its gorgeous black pebble shore and the blue water that provided this contrast of colours that a designer might shun, but in nature, it shone. We chatted with this extremely friendly Greek kid who didn’t know a word of English and we didn’t know a word of Greek. His name was something like Tatato, I could be mixing it up.. We then went further south and ended the day with the sunset at the lighthouse. In every city we visit, we try to do the jumping, mid-air, quick-click snap! This time we decided to bring in some Bollywood Masala too – recognise the pose?

If you head to Santorini, public transport, i.e. the buses are great, but it’s something else to hire your own car and drive around. Resident Indians — all you need is an International License with a limited period of validity, which you can get here before you leave the country.