Instead of seeing our weekend travels come to an end, why not book a trip to Santorini for a 24 hour getaway? The decision was easy, 30 minutes of thought and our flights were booked. These spontaneous travel plans may or may not have been hatched at 1am, but hey, only the best decisions are made after midnight.
After a long day of travel, we landed in Santorini at 9:30pm, sped through customs and headed into town. We stayed in Fira, right at the center of the island’s nightlife. Our hostel, Markakis Studios, was extremely nice and very affordable. I would recommend it to anyone looking to stay in Santorini.
Eager to see the city and absolutely starved from our delayed flight, we dropped our bags and hit the town. We ate gyros and drank with the locals. Let me tell you, the Greek’s can drink! The rest of the night was spent bar hopping, dancing and downing cheap tequila shots. This was one of the craziest and most lively nights of my time abroad.
Off to an early start the next morning, we had a catamaran experience booked. The package included round-trip transportation, an open bar, lunch, and five hours of cruising. It was unreal. The water was glistening in the sun without a cloud in the sky. We swam, tanned and indulged in white wine and greek yogurt. The catamaran took us to the famous beaches in Santorini and anchored at a few spots for swimming. The water was not at all warm but I wasn’t leaving without jumping in. Towards the end of our time on the boat, we anchored at a hot spring and swam out to it in the freezing water. The hot spring was slightly warmer but ultimately just made the lengthy swim back to the boat colder. The entire experience was incredible, I tried to soak in every moment as much as I could and could’ve cried when it came to an end. They drove us back to our hostel so we could jump in the shower and hit the shops.
The tiny streets of Santorini are charming. Each pathway led to another and the views from peaks were to out of a magazine. We window-shopped, ate more gyros and even ran into donkeys. It was quite the afternoon. We wanted to watch the sunset over the water, so we sat at water-front restaurant and enjoyed the surreal views in front of us. The rest of the night was more relaxed as we had an early flight out the next morning. We met some friends and the bar and chatted until it was time to head back.
Although we only had 24 hours in Santorini, it was the perfect little getaway to end our semester of travels. Each moment and view was more beautiful than the next, reminding us of how lucky we were to have had the opportunity to experience places like these in our 20’s. There’s truly nothing like traveling through Europe with your friends. The end of the trip foreshadowed the goodbyes of the week ahead, but the moments were bittersweet and I would do anything to do it all over again.
Paige Marie 