Katherine & Andrew's Excellent Adventure: Santorini, Greece.

Santorini (Thira) is thought by many to be the most picturesque of all the Greek Islands. Thousands of years ago, the island was circular -- However, a massive volcanic eruption around 1600 BC caused the center of the island to sink, creating a caldera that became filled by the sea. Further volcanic activity gave way to the today’s geologic formation.

Oia.

It took me a long time to decide where in Santorini to stay -- all I knew is that we wanted to be overlooking the caldera. I finally settle on Oia, and when we arrived, I don't think anyone was disappointed with the choice. We had two apartments with a beautiful view of the caldera from our front balconies. You really can't complain when you can wake up, walk outside, and sit in lounge chairs with unobstructed views of the volcano rising from the sea...if you look to the right or to the left, there are views of whitewashed buildings carved into the mountain edges along the caldera.

From Oia, we decided to walk down to the "beach". By walking down, I mean we descended down a winding path that consisted of about 350 steps. By "beach", I mean an incredibly rocky area along the water that was flat with a few more steps down into the water. I didn't actually go in the water, but Andy couldn't get in fast enough once he saw other people jumping off a high rock a short swim away. Below are pictures of the winding path from the bottom of the cliff and three jumps Andy made off the rock.

Oia to Fira.

For some reason, we thought it would be a great idea to hike from Oia (where we stayed) to Fira (the main city in Santorini). Depending on who you're talking to or what you're reading, the walk was said to have taken either 1 hour, 2 hours, or 3 hours...whoever said 1 hour is either has a sadistic sense of humor or is an expert hiker. It took us 3 hours. Not so horrible considering that:

The hike was uphill much more often than it was downhill (I thought we were choosing the easier direction -- this is not the first time that I have been wrong on this trip).
The "trail" was not clearly marked (At one point Andy frantically ran back down his trail and up the trail myself and the others were on, only to realize that they eventually met up).
We got a late start and were hiking under the scorching sun from 10:45 am - 2pm (Two of us ended up with light sunburns outlining our backpack straps despite hourly suntan lotion applications).
We stopped periodically to take pictures (read: rest) and buy more drinks.
According to one website, hike was about 12km (My delusional self was thinking more along the lines of half that distance).

Despite the minimal pain of the hike, it was awesome to be able to walk along the cliffs and view the caldera. There was also several small villages (including Imerovigli and Firostephani, two other picturesque villages overlooking the caldera) we got to walk through along the way, which made for some nice photo ops (when we weren't too tired to get our cameras out, that is). Once into Fira, the five of us met up with my mom (who smartly took the bus into Fira) for a quick lunch at a gyros stand before hopping on another bus to Kamari.

Black Sand Beach, Kamari.

After our long hike, we were more than ready to jump into the sea. We chose Kamari because we figured that its not everyday you get to sit at a beach entirely comprised of black sand. And by sand, I mean pebbles and small rocks. Andy and I were able to get some snorkeling in (apparently the hike wasn't enough exercise for the day), where we saw a small variety of fish. Mostly it was cool to see the sea surface underwater.

Red Sand Beach, Akrotiri.

From Fira, you can take the bus to Akrotiri, where you can access a red sand, white sand, and black sand beach. I've heard from friends that you can actually see the beaches from the island of Crete, but I wouldn't know. We chose the visit the red sand beach, again, because how often do you get the chance? It was pretty red. And similar to the black sand beach at Kamari, "sand" refers to pebbles and small rocks.

Andy's Artistry.

After four months, we are close to being experts with our handy, little point-and-shoot camera. These are just a few of the photos Andy experimented with...