IF LOVE WAS AN ISLAND…

My heart skipped a beat and my eyes travelled back and forth, looking to be an ultra-wide-angle lens in order to take it all in. It wasn’t until Michael let out a wow, that I realized I was also holding my breath. And just like that I knew I was falling in love with the island of SANTORINI!

I arrived in Santorini already excited to finally explore the island that had for years featured at the top of my bucket list (if you can call a bucket list a I-want-to-visit-every-place-in-the-world’s list).

It was early May and we landed in a very windy island. At first this was quite disappointing, as I had originally planned to go sea swimming or go cliff jumping; but with the cooler temperatures, it didn’t seem like such a good plan anymore. However, despite the weather, the beauty tangled in every street lived up to my expectations.

Oia and Fira are the main towns of the island, built on the steep slope of the caldera, facing the west. The houses found in these two towns were beautifully carved into the top of the red colored cliff, a lot of them adopting the cave-like architecture. The typical houses nestled on top of each other, where one’s roof is someone else’s balcony, are built like so to offer protection from the strong winter winds and the walls are painted with light colors to keep the summer’s heat away.

We roamed for hours through the cobbled streets linked by stairways and alleyways and bumped into the charming blue domed churches scattered across the towns. It was hard not to stop all the time to take in the breathtaking view.

Ah the Aegean Sea! It was just like looking at deep blue eyes, it created mixed feelings of ecstasy and peacefulness. It was similar to the feeling of falling in love, over and over, every time our eyes met.

Love was embedded everywhere I looked! It was in the hand-made crafts and goods sold at the shops. Or in the waiter inviting us to come in and try some of the hundreds types of olives they had on offer. It was in the simplistic details decorating courtyards and terraces. And in the red blooming flowers contrasting against the white washed houses with blue doors.

But not all was perfect. Love isn’t after all. Santorini’s charm has echoed all over the world and travelling souls come from all corners to experience it. So much that, the island is crowded and very expensive in the warmer months.

But to me, it did not matter. Because in that moment I couldn’t be more in love with my life. If love was an island, it would certainly be Santorini!