santorini, pt. I – Adventurings

the moment i’d been waiting for for almost a year: when our ryanair flight from athens touched down in santorini (thira) at 7:50am that mid-july morning, bright and early. the anxiety-inducing bright yellow and blue colors of the ryanair brand did nothing to ease my flying nerves*, nor did a greek yogurt and honey i’d recently ingested at the airport, NOR did the fact that the ascent and descent (least favorite parts) seemed to be the majority of the time of that very quick flight. but when we finally touched down (“WHERE IS THE LAND?!!!”, me, sweatily gripping the arm-rest moments before landing as we were still flying over the sea), all was well. we had made it!

*do they do that on purpose? also, thanks for showing the emergency cartoons on the back of the seat. not.

we were whisked away to absolute bliss suites in imerovigli. i had read about this place a few years ago after jay wrote about it and i knew it was one of those special, one-of-a-kind sort of experiences to splurge on for a honeymoon. i was not wrong! we arrived pretty early that first day (8:30am), yet sofia, the kind owner, seemed happy to see us and served us one of their amazing signature breakfasts on the terrace while we waited for our room to be made up. i definitely wasn’t even expecting that! first indication of how special this place was.

my favorite parts of staying at absolute bliss? the peaceful imerovigli mornings. watching the birds flutter around the side of the cliff. the fabulous breakfasts. the quiet. being about five steps away from the pool. the understated yet gorgeous whites and blues that were found in and out. ordering room service. the most comfortable sleeps of my life. drinking an icy cold lemonade by the pool. the breathtaking views out onto the blue aegean. this is what my honeymoon dreams were made of.

really, the breakfasts were game-changing. fresh-squeezed orange juice, on the regular. i don’t think i’ll ever be able to have regular “from concentrate” again! (actually, fresh-squeezed orange juice was really popular everywhere in greece i went… the rest of us need to get on this!)

that first day in imerovigli, we had a “bliss day” and then dinner out at a little restaurant up the road called avocado, which would actually be the only restaurant we went out to for dinner in santorini (really!) although they didn’t have caldera views, the atmosphere was lovely, the menu had loads of interesting choices, and we got to try raki, one of the many popular greek liquors, as well as santorini’s own yellow donkey beer (there is also red and crazy donkey if you like IPAs) and watch the sky change colors as the sunset.

our time had pretty equal amounts of relaxation to activity. there was a nice amount of pool and balcony time, but we had some activities in mind as well. our first full day, we dipped our toe into the world of being somewhat active again and walked to fira, the capital city of the island, which is only a half hour hike from imerovigli on the main walking path.

fira is great for shopping and picking up some souvenirs, but honestly, i enjoyed the walk to and from rather than the actual city! it was a bit of the loud, crazier, touristy part of santorini, and i was happy to go back to our little village. but not before picking up a few things, of course.