TRAVEL AND LIFESTYLE DIARIES

I am always way behind my travel entries but this is the last of the Santorini holiday: the evening cruise in the Caldera. Caldera is a cauldron-like opening formed by the collapse of land following a volcanic eruption. In my earlier posts about Santorini, I mentioned that the island is the remains of a volcano eruption thousands of years ago before inhabitants occupied the area. Santorini’s caldera is formed by the following volcanic uninhabited and inhabited group of islands: Nea Kameni, Palea Kameni, Aspronisi, Therasia, and Thera. The view of the Caldera lagoon from the bus. We have to go down the scary zigzagged road to the Athinios port where we will board a traditional ship for the evening dinner cruise. This is a satellite view of Santorini archipelago showing the mouth of the Caldera. The cruise was really nothing fancy but we wanted something different from our beach - pool - visiting small villages schema of things, so we chose the evening dinner cruise, which we t...

Perissa is the longest beach in Santorini with approximately 7 kilometers stretch of fine black sand due to the volcanic terrain. It is also the oldest beach in the island I believe. This humongous mountain in the picture divides the 2 beaches: Kamari and Perissa (yes, Kamari is on the other side) but there is no short cut route to get from Perissa to Kamari or vice versa, only with the boat, which is approximately 5+ minutes compared to inland travel which is 30+ minutes. This mountain is also the location of the ancient Thira archaelogical ruins. We almost booked a hotel in Perissa as Dutchman was quite familiar of the place having camped here during his younger years, but the reviews we read online were not all jolly compared to Kamari. We didn’t take chances and booked instead in Kamari but wanted to see Perissa while there. The online reviews of holidaymakers that stayed in Perissa were right on smack. Unlike Kamari that has a compact and lively beach front, and resorts ...

Santorini is a very windy island and the motorbike is not really encouraged at all but many locals use this transport because the island is so small and riding around in a motorbike is the easiest and most efficient way of reaching point A to point B. Right in the middle of the island stands this white mountain and from a distance it looks like a mound of salt or a whipped cream topping. White is theme of this place. A white village. White houses. White roads. White staircases. White walls. Yes, this is a white mountain village and everything is white here. Moi in sitting in front of a Greek Orthodox Church. On the second foto, the little white crop mountain from a distance is Pyrgos. So we checked the map to see the name of the village. It says Pyrgos. The little unspoiled white town with 500 inhabitants used to be the capital of Santorini. Upon closer look, I noticed that the stonewalls rounding up the mountain resembles that of a wreckage of an ancient castle. The village was ...