sunrise sunset

Caught a bit of the sunrise over Crete from the hotel balcony before ferrying off to Santorini.

You might be better off searching #santorini on Instagram.  Because I did, and my pictures pale in comparison to what more artsy people were able to capture.  I kind of gave up after awhile because I just couldn't do my eyes justice with an iPhone and my abilities.

Santorini was by far my favorite island.  Even if I got disgustingly intense prickly heat all over my arms and chest from weaving through Oia.  Kind of surreal seeing the classic Greek postcard scene before me.

I tried to find this exact angle... but Oia is bigger than I imagined for a small island city, and no one wanted to keep walking (but I'm half convinced I spotted the church from a very far far distance).  So we turned back and tried to find a restaurant with a beautiful view of the sunset.  It was mad hectic with all the herds of people rushing Westward, so we ended up climbing to the rooftop of Strogili... about three hours or so before the actual sunset... which we didn't know until paying the check while the sun was still up.

Anyways, dinner was saganaki with honey and Santorini tomatoes, washed down with a couple sips of Volcano beer, a Santorini blonde.  Water from a "Lava rock filter" and blended with "exotic hops, fragrant Santorini honey and essence of citrus medica leaf" - won me over.

Then, pork stuffed with sun dried tomatoes and cheese and a side of roasted veggies.

Since my fam eats too fast to occupy three hours time, we scurried over to get a different view of the slow moving sunset.  Much standing and squatting and shoving and snaps later...

Sigh.  Too gorgeous.

Post sunset, all the lights were on, and beautiful blue and white Oia looked like a fairy town.

And the clusters of white houses all tucked into the rocks and crevices look like snow-capped mountains from a distance.  Chances I'll be able to retire here when I'm at that age?

So you know what goes on behind the scenes of a beautiful sunset...