Our time on Santorini wasn’t exactly what we were hoping it would be. I think this island was the backdrop for a movie, maybe the one about the traveling pants. Something has happened recently that has brought some fame to this island, and during our time there, it was clear that it is where the tourists want to be. Let me try to explain our take on Santorini.

It is, without a doubt, beautiful. When you think of Greece, if you picture countless white cube buildings covering the side of a mountain, this is Santorini. The architecture is absolutely impressive. We drove to 2 different towns on this island to explore. Here’s how it works: Neighborhoods spill down over the side of the mountain, and at the top is where shops, restaurants, banks, post offices, etc. are located. So you walk along the ridge at the top and peer over into the mess of houses and hotels. These fit together like puzzle pieces…walkways, stairs, balconies all nestled together. Roofs of one layer of buildings become sitting areas for the layer just above it. We loved this sight.

But here’s what you need to know: There really should be a cap of how many tourists they let in. It is such a maddening mess of cars and scooters and gawking tourists, that it’s a real challenge to appreciate the beauty. My blood pressure has always been shockingly low, and I fear that our time on this island really threw that for a loop. The streets are barely wide enough for two cars. When you’re not driving through a town, you’ve got a drop off down to the ocean on one side of you and when you are driving through a town, you need to understand that you’ll probably take a wrong turn (or lots of wrong turns) that will wind you deep into the tiniest sliver of a road, at which point the only way out is a twelve point turn with the assistance of Sarah standing behind the car, saying – a little more, a little more, STOP! And an audience of about a million tourists passing by. And when you’re not making a twelve point turn, you will find yourself squeezing through streets lined with parked cars. It’s a good thing our rental wasn’t wider by even an inch, or we would have come back minus a mirror.

And the people on Santorini…well they’re just not very nice. Obviously that’s a generalization, but I’m having a hard time remembering anyone we met who didn’t fit that description. At one point we pulled over to ask directions from a lady sitting outside a shop. Susan rolled down her window, and in her very polite voice said – Excuse me, do you speak English? The lady’s response – long drag on her cigarette as she turned her head away from us and raised her cell phone to her ear. And we’re pretty sure she wasn’t even talking on it. Boy did we get the giggles.

So the island seems to be a destination for very high class travelers, and maybe this is why prices were offensively high to us. We were only there for two nights, and I certainly would have had to sell an organ if we had stayed longer. The first night we strolled around and stopped in a tavern that overlooked the water. Again, breathtaking. But it’s really hard to enjoy a view when you’ve just spent $4.00 on a 12 oz. bottle of water and $8.00 on what the menu advertised as toast with ham cheese, and tomatoes, but seemed to be nothing more than a hamburger bun with a slice of bologna. And for a country that boasts such a variety of fresh veggies, the tomatoes were a bit appalling.

A highlight – we hiked to the top of a promontory (bonus points if you know what this word means…we had to look it up…) where a castle used to stand. We loved it. It’s a relatively grueling hike, not long, but a bit treacherous along the way, so the uppity tourists tend to stay away. We only passed a handful of people also doing the hike, one of whom was a man running, blaring Rocky from his headset. He was a real inspiration to us all. I’m not going to say too much about the peak of the promontory, because if Carol is reading this, her heart will start racing. But I will say that you can ask the very scrappy Sarah for a description.

Also – we looooved our accommodations here…completely cozy with a swanky pool.

The Santorini sum up: Completely beautiful, too crowded for our taste, so expensive you might need to cash in your retirement, and really beautiful (I guess I used that one twice. Oh well).