Santorini, Greece

Oia, Santorini

This past week, my family got to visit me and come 7,000 miles my way to spend a short week with me. I got to show them around my neighborhood in Aghia Paraskevi as well as the center of Athens. But my favorite part of the visit was when we got to explore a new place together...

Santorini was absolutely beautiful, and although we were only there two days, my family and I made the most of it! We ate fried calamari and other delicious foods while watching the sunset from one of the restaurants on the ocean. This chain of ocean-side restaurants rests below the city of Oia.

They strung up the octopuses across lines after catching them in the ocean. I'm pretty sure it was just for decoration, but it was cool regardless.

We swam out to a rock and cliff jumped into the cold ocean, and later that weekend we swam through caves at the black-sand beach (the entrance to the beach below). These two mini adventures were the highlight of my trip.

We went through the two main cities: Fira and Oia.

Here, in Oia, us girls had our feet tickled by tiny fish mouths. We went to a fish spa called Kissingfish and it was one of the funniest experiences I've had while in Greece. We couldn't stop giggling the whole time.

We viewed the Red Beach from a distance.

And appreciated the architecture from the cobblestoned roads to the white buildings.

Model: Brie Tofaute

But one of my favorite facts about Santorini is that it is an active volcano. It is part of a caldera, which is a very explosive type of volcano. A caldera is formed when a volcanic chamber below the earth's surface collapses and the lava emerges. It always results in a depression in the land where a volcanic dome of cooled magma seals the flow of lava. The volcanic dome in this caldera can be seen in the two images below. It is the small island closest to the shore of Santorini. The island seen furthest from Santorini past the volcanic dome is Therasia, and it completes the circular edge of the volcano surrounding the dome.

Santorini was short, but amazing. I enjoyed all of it, including the Villa we got to say in (the Greek flowers outside the cute little house are pictured below).