Day 61: 27,000 Steps in Santorini, Oía to Fira Hike

Saturday, October 26th

We get up and get ready right away. We make our way straight to breakfast. We don’t waste any time, because today we are in SANTORINI!!!! We both have high hopes for this day. If you’ve seen photos, you know that Santorini is known for all the beautiful white homes surrounded by churches that have a blue dome as the roof.

We go straight upstairs to see our view, and it was far better than we imagined. We hurried to breakfast and got right off the ship!

We take tender boats to shore today. It’s pretty cool that the big cruise ships anchor up in the middle of the sea and you can only get ashore by taking the little boats. Normally, it’s a long wait and can be a bit hectic, but we were the only cruise ship there today, so they had 4 tender boats going back and forth just for our ship, so there was no wait! It’s a quick little ride.

Once we were ashore, you have the option to take a cable car up, ride a donkey (that is the size of a horse), or hike the stairs. You can only guess which one we did ;) The men trying to sell us a donkey ride said it was an hour hike, reviews that Christopher read said it was 45 min. Yet it only took us 15. It would have been a very enjoyable and easy hike, but the only issue is your trying to avoid donkey poop & it’s smelly the whole way up. It was still worth it though!

We walked around the area of Fira for a little bit, but quickly decided we needed to make the trip to Oía. We grabbed a cappuccino, and walked to the bus stop, which was very close. It’s only €2 per person to take the bus. It was the cheapest, and some of the best transportation we’ve done the whole trip! The ride was BEAUTIFUL. All the architecture and views of the water is incredible.

Once we got to Oía, we were so happy and excited. I told Christopher the ONE souvenir I wanted the whole cruise (other than our simple stickers we grab) was a bracelet from Greece. We found the perfect ones with a cross and the Greek eye. I got gold and Christopher got silver. We love to always match.

I hate to burst your bubble, but there are not blue roofs EVERYWHERE. Only the churches have the blue roofs. Despite this, it was all still more beautiful than I ever imagined.

We got in line to take the most “well known” photo with the 2 churches in the background. We waited our turn to get the “instagram photo” trying not to get people in it. We continued on our way exploring less crowded areas and stumbled across some little hidden spots (we might’ve been in places that were private property) but ended up getting far better photos. All of the “instagram” places are hilarious, because we get to see the reality of it. I love how we always discover our own little hidden gems simply by taking the long way or getting off the beaten path. No matter where you go in the world, I always suggest taking the road less traveled. Of course you want to see the “main attraction”, but once you do, go the extra mile to see even more!

I had never heard anything about the cats of Greece, but then we saw some souvenirs about it and quickly noticed how there are cats EVERYWHERE. There were quite a bit in Athens, but way more here. It was nice though, because they were clean and all looked like they’re taken good care of. I’m not a big fan of cats, but even I can admit these ones are cute!

Christopher then spilled the beans about how there’s a hike/path that goes from Oía to Fira. Once again, you can only guess how we got back. I was in a dress and we were both in white sneakers, but you best believe I was doing it, and it was the best decision in our lives!!!!

I don’t even want to try and type to explain how beautiful it was. I’ve been all over the world, and words cannot describe this beauty. You could see the water on both sides of the island. We got to walk past a bunch more beautiful churches and have the best photo ops yet! We even passed a gorgeous hotel that I joked and said it was the Nobu of Santorini, and sure enough, it was! (We stayed at the Nobu in Cabo, and we were OBSESSED.) We were cracking up. We had the most enjoyable hike ever. It took us about 3 hours, because we stopped quite a bit to take photos. There were too many beautiful spots we couldn’t pass the opportunity.

The hike from Oía back to Fira is harder than Fira to Oía, because of the incline, but it still was very doable. We did it on empty stomachs and not in the best shoes, and we were completely fine. We saw people of all ages and fitness levels along the way, so if you ever find yourself in Santorini, you can’t pass this hike up.

Christopher got a Red Donkey beer once we got back to Fira. I must say, it was well deserved! ;)

We took the cable car on the way down, just for the experience and our feet were sore! Downhill hurts our bodies more than the uphill does. We also were in such a high from our hike, we didn’t want to end our perfect day with the smell of donkey poop. LOL

On the way back, we lucked out, and we got to take a tender boat that we could ride up top. Christopher was so excited. He was bummed earlier when we had a small boat with no view.

Once we were back on the ship, we were beat, so we took a rest day from the weights today. I think it’s a good day to let our muscles recovery from the weights, considering we have 12 days aboard, and we got 27,000 steps today. It was already late as well.

We showered and got ready for dinner. It was white night. So everyone one the ship was dressed in white. We talked to a crew member and asked her favorite spot, and she told us Rhodes. We were surprised (simply cause we haven’t done any research on it yet, so it made us super excited for tomorrow!)

We stopped by one of the bar/lounge areas where they had live music playing. There we quite a few older couples up and dancing to Thinking Out Loud by Ed Sheeran, and it was the cutest thing ever!!!! We are definitely going to take dance lessons when we get back home. We both love seeing others in love and so passionate! It was such an inspiration.

We then went to dinner in main dining. We had a lovely dinner, & the entire night was such a blast.

My highlight today was the hike. This was one of the best hikes I’ve ever done in my life. It was just unreal seeing all the islands. You feel like you’re in top of the whole world.

Christopher’s highlight was the boat ride on the way back. We were just in awe of our day & we had the most beautiful ride back. We talked the whole way about how we had the most magical day, and even with high expectations, we were still blown away! We are so blessed. God is so good and created the most beautiful Earth, and we get to explore it together, with endless kisses and laughter along the way!