Santorini and Crete

Town of Oia, Santorini

View of the Town of Thira, Santorini

I have already been to Santorini once before, but I was convinced to go again with two beautiful Australians, and I'm so glad I did. Santorini was the highlight of my European travels two years ago, but I only had one day there which was obviously not enough time to see everything. This time, I managed to relax a lot more and see things I didn't even know existed on the island.

Red Sand Beach, Santorini

We rented ATVs one day and drove around orienting ourselves about the island. Another day, we went into the capital, Thira, and walked around the shops, had coffee, took photos and ate free samples of wine and olives. We visited both the red sand and the black sand beaches, and sailed around the smaller surrounding islands, climbed the Caldera and watched the sunset.

View of Sunset from Oia, Santorini

Coffee Shop in Thira, Santorini

Ever since I went to Santorini two years ago, I've been obsessed with the idea of going back to Greece and seeing the island of Crete. Luckily, I managed to convince both of my friends to join me there, and we caught the 4am ferry to Heraklion.

Crete is a very different island from the rest of the Cyclades not only because of it's size (it is much bigger) but because of it's history. The Minoan civilization is the oldest known civilization in Europe, and they resided on Crete. The interesting thing about them is that their destruction was the creation of the island of Santorini... when the volcano erupted creating the island, the Minoans were wiped out.

One Rock Beach, Near Plakias, Crete

I really enjoyed staying on Crete, but I feel like I didn't quite see everything I wanted to see. It is a big island and it is difficult getting around, especially on public transport because their road systems are awful. It is also a very mountainous island, and the roads weave in and about them.

We stayed on the south side of the island for 5 days on Plakias beach, and then myself and one of the two girls I had been travelling with headed North to stay in Rethimno for another 5 days. The Aussie friend we left behind had met a nice boy and wanted to stay in Plakias with him for a few extra days.

River Walk, Plakias, Crete

Plakias was beautiful, but other than going to the beach and climbing up the river bed, there wasn't that much to actually do there. So when we got to Rethimno we were eager to begin seeing everything Crete had to offer.

Samarian Gorge, Crete

Minoan Ruins, Crete

Matala Beach, Crete

Matala Beach was one of my favourite places. There were neolithic caves carved out of the sandstone on this beautiful beach, and in the 1960s they were inhabited by hippies. Stevie Nicks even lived there at one point and wrote a song about it!

Our adventures continue to the island of Rhodes, where we needed to wait for two nights in order to catch a ferry across to Fethiye, Turkey.

Corfu

Croatia was amazing, but getting from there to Greece was one of the most complicated things I’ve ever had to do. If you look at the two countries on the map, they are quite close, and originally I thought I wouldn’t have a problem getting to Corfu from Split. It’s just down the Adriatic after all.

I was wrong. No buses, trains or ferries go there.

After a lot of research I discovered that the cheapest way (and easiest, if you’ll believe it) was to take an overnight ferry to Italy, and then another overnight ferry to Igoumenitsa in Greece, and then another ferry from there to the island of Corfu. Two days later when I finally arrived I was (needless to say) exceptionally grumpy and tired as hell, and to boot I had no place to stay. The first thing I did was sit and have a coffee. Once I could feel the caffeine pulsing through my veins I managed to locate an internet café so I could find a hostel to stay at and how to get there. Luckily, I chose well, and Spiros, the owner of the hostel, came and picked my up in his beat-up old van at the dock and took me home.

My first impression of the hostel was not good, I admit. I had only seen couples around the place so far, and as a single traveller having a hostel full of couples basically means you’ll be doing everything alone and going to bed early. Granted, I’ve met some really cool couples who socialize and party with everyone, but the general rule is that they keep to themselves. On top of the couple thing, midway through my shower I noticed I was not alone. There was a massive, 4-inch long grasshopper in there with me. I got out of there pretty fast, and if anyone was around they would have witnessed quite the scene: Me, naked and soapy, running for my life out of the stall. After that, I decided a siesta was in order.

Things greatly improved when I awoke and met a girl named Lisa, from Melbourne. She assured me that the hostel was wonderful and that most people were, in fact, single travellers who loved to party. She was right, and as it happens, that hostel in Corfu became by far the best hostel I’ve ever stayed at. Magdalena cooked everyone in the hostel two authentic, organic Greek meals a day for free. Everyone ate together which meant we all got to know each other very well, and dinner was always followed by several drinks. The hostel itself is situated in the side of a rock-face, overlooking a perfect beach. This beach was virtually unknown by tourists, so it was quiet and clean. This also meant that there was still quite a bit of greenery and natural growth on the island so it felt very lush. On our daily hikes, we would pluck wild figs from the trees and eat them along with peaches and almonds and pomegranates and grapes. There was wild Thyme, rosemary and bay leaves growing everywhere, and some of the olive trees have been growing on the island for hundreds of years. There was also a nude beach near by, that was had clay-mud layered underneath the sand and we would make trips down to it and rube the clay all over ourselves and make our skin lovely and soft. I was lucky to have stayed there and I really felt that the hostel enabled me to experience the real Corfu and what it had to offer.

The day after I got there I met another lovely girl named Emma, and her, Lisa and I got on quite well and decided to continue travelling together after Corfu. They were both planning on going to Santorini, and I had already been, but they convinced me to go along and continue our adventures together!