Santorini day 2 (09/07/2009)

We started the day with a trip to another beach -- this one in Perissa, further down the coast from Kamari. This beach was also lava rock, but finer sand rather than pebbles. (Still pretty hot!) I liked this beach better than Kamari because it seemed less touristy. Everything was on a smaller scale. We stayed on the beach until mid-afternoon and then headed back to Fira for some more of that delicious ice cream (this time we had both fig and mastic-flavored scoops).

From Fira we took a bus to Oia, on the northern tip of the island. It's known for its fantastic sunset views -- known a little too well, in our opinion. The narrow lanes and steps there were completely mobbed with other sunset viewers. The streets were also crowded with dogs -- not strays, because they had collars. It seems dogs just get to run loose in the streets of Oia. (It's not very dangerous because most of the "streets" are pedestrian-only paths and stairs.) People put out bowls of water and kibble for them -- sounds like a nice life! We enjoyed the sunset but decided we'd like to come back to Oia the next day to see the town a little better without all the crowds.


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We took an extremely crowded bus ride back to Firostefani, during which we got to know our fellow travelers extremely well. (Carl struck up a conversation with an Aussie guy, while I was squeezed in next to some Japanese girls.) We had a delicious dinner at a traditional taverna near our hotel and headed back for an early night since it was actually very windy and chilly.



Click here for more photos from Santorini, day 2!