By Sarah Chawla, Courier Staff Writer
Santorini is one of the Cyclades islands of Greece. It contains one of, if not the most recognizable views of the country.
The iconic scene is in Oia, which is on the Northern tip of the island. Since I stayed in Imerovigli, Oia was about six miles away. We decided to walk the whole way, which does not sound that bad, but it took about three hours to climb to steep hills and stairs on the way. There were some nice views on the hike and in retrospect it was not that hard, but at the time I did not think it was worth it. After finally making it to the Sunset Point with the famous view, just after sunset, we spent about an hour on the stone platform filled with other tourists. The view was nice, but not like the pictures and not worth a six mile hike.
We continued to explore the city of Oia and saw many art galleries and unique shops. The area was pretty populated and busy until about 9 pm, when everyone seemed to leave, but we visited the city on a Tuesday night.
The whole island was very picturesque, with most of the buildings following the blue and white theme. After becoming one of the most recognizable features of Greek Cycladic islands, all new houses built after 1974 are required to be painted white. While I was there, there was a lot of construction and painting going on, probably because I went at the beginning of April, which is the beginning of the tourist season there. Many shops, restaurants, and hotels don’t even open until April 1st, which seemed to officially be the first day of the tourist season.
We rented a car to drive around the island and visited a few places. We went to the red sand beach which was interesting because of the abandoned doors across the beach which look like they were ripped out of the walls. We also drove around to see the views, but there wasn’t much to stop and explore.
However, we did stop at one of the many art galleries on the island. They recreated original historical Greek art. There were two artists who made the art in the studio and partially destroyed them to look like the ancient art. They later sold sold these art pieces.
We also went to the highest point on the island and got a great view of the buildings and green landscapes. We were able to go on the roofs of buildings and explore a maze like neighborhood.
All the islands are relatively close to each other, so it’s easy to get a boat or ferry to another island and be there in a few hours. The boat rides are pretty cheap, and go for about thirty euros. Depending on the island, it’s even possible to go on a day trip to a neighboring island. However, from what I have seen, there is not much of a difference between most of the different islands.