Thira and sunset at Oia

We woke to a beautiful morning with the shade of the caldera casting a blue light over the white terraced houses and villas, the cool of the morning being a nice change from the scorching heat of the day.

We began the day with exploring Thira, the capital of Santorini. Our villa is in a suburb north of Thira, called Firastefani and is about 20 minutes walk into town. There are two avenues into town, the "main road" which is about 5 metres across at it's widest, or the cliff hugging cobblestone coastal path filled with cafés, shops and galleries. We chose the latter and ambled our way down the side of the mountain towards the main square.

Thira roads are similar to Mykonos apart from the fact that they are a little wider and comprise a lot of steps. As the city clings to a cliff face it is hard to go anywhere without encountering steps - which is fine on the downward journey, but we were a bit worried about the homeward trip. In any case we window shopped and photographed our way down until we decided we needed lunch and some respite from the heat. We stopped at a rooftop taverna and had a great lunch of Greek salad, and chicken souvlaki before heading off again on our way home, as we wanted get back so that we could catch a bus to see the sunset from the northern most tip of the island.

We soon got lost as we tried to take a shortcut, and had to back track and find our way again. We were very hot, sweaty and tired by the time we got back to our villa. We rested and changed (each day needs a morning and an afternoon outfit in this heat) before leaving to catch a bus to Oia (pronounced Eeyah) the village at the northern tip of the island which is famous for its sunsets and high concentration of blue domed churches.

We crammed inside the bus with a load of other tourists, and made our winding way along the narrow chicanes, (at a fair pace I might add!) and before long we were in the sunset capital of Santorini. It was 6:30 and we had a good 2 hours to wait before the sun went down, so we wandered along to find a good vantage point. We stopped for a beer and some local appetisers before heading off towards the north of the village.

There were so many many tourists cramming the high points it was crazy, you certainly wouldn't want to live in Oia during summer, you would never be able to get in or out of your house come sunset. Every narrow terrace and spare bit of space had someone facing the west, waiting for the sun to dip. One high point, an ancient landmark of some kind was crawling with camera laden spectators jostling for the best position. We found our own space, and waited and waited. Eventually the sky started to redden as the sun fell towards the horizon. 

After taking a heap of photos we watched as the sun fell behind a distant island, to waves of applause from the tourists (maybe they were just relieved that they could now go and get on with their lives, for another 24 hours at least; or maybe it was the locals glad that they could soon dust down their doorsteps, window ledges and roof tops from the dusty footsteps!)

We hurried away to get a table at a recommended Oia restaurant before the bulk of the tourists, and ate a meal of beef with orzo pasta, and lamb with lemon sauce before jumping on board another crammed bus to make our way back to the villa.