Snapshot: Santorini

“Why would you go with him, he’s gay,” said one of the touts that met us when we docked into Santorini’s port. Suddenly, I was reminded of our time in Fez, where touts and scams followed us in the medina.

Santorini, for us, did not give a good first impression. The white buildings and blue domed churches are few and far between, specially if you arrive by regular ferries, like we did. The landscape is dry and barren, and with the midday sun beating down on us, it seemed inhospitable.

Fira, where we’re staying, is the commercial center. It was packed with people, mostly tourists from cruise ships that docked for the day. Oia, where the scenes from Santorini postcards were all taken, is a lot more charming, with equally as many people, specially when the sun was starting to set.

I liked Santorini, not for The white and blue buildings, but for the gems we found around the island. Perissa beach, with its black volcanic sands and very deep waters, was very quiet, since summer was over. Imerovigli, a town near Fira, has the same views of the sunset, but with hardly any people around. Beautiful as Oia is, the place that most endeared us was Atlantis Books, a quaint book store that has tons of character and a couple of cats.

To each his own, as they say.