I distinctly remember sitting on my bedroom floor when I was in 3rd or 4th grade cutting pictures out of a magazine. One of them was a waterfall that I would end up living just 20 minutes from in Washington (the famous Oneonta Falls in the Columbia River Gorge), while the other was of the white washed buildings and deep Marine blue roofs of Santorini. For the longest time, that was the only image of Greece to me.
Over two decades later, I'm actually here!
(This particular panoramic was fun because the plane was coming in on approach, and by that time we were close enough to the coast that the plane's own forward motion created the panoramic shot itself - I just had to hold the camera steady while we flew by. FYI, found out the hard way the panoramic feature in the Samsung's native phone app doesn't use accelerometers to detect which direction the panoramic should build in - it detects edges in the image, so if all you have is wide blue ocean against wide blue sky, it'll never get started.)
Over two decades later, I'm actually here!
(This particular panoramic was fun because the plane was coming in on approach, and by that time we were close enough to the coast that the plane's own forward motion created the panoramic shot itself - I just had to hold the camera steady while we flew by. FYI, found out the hard way the panoramic feature in the Samsung's native phone app doesn't use accelerometers to detect which direction the panoramic should build in - it detects edges in the image, so if all you have is wide blue ocean against wide blue sky, it'll never get started.)
Sadly, I only have just a little over 24 hours on the island, but I'm making the most of them. Renting a car was a three minute consideration - all reports on the net was that driving on the island could be a hair-raising ordeal. Luckily, between past experiences driving in Los Angeles, San Francisco, and the Road to Hana on Maui, it was no big deal after all and I'm all too glad I took the plunge.
(Renting was a bewildering combination of ease and unease - the Villas manager referred me to a "friend" who owns a car rental agency. The friend points out the car I can take and we go through the motions of filling out a one-page form for it. He notes that the gas tank is almost empty, there's a station I can fill up at a few klicks down the road - with the presumption that it would make it that far - and says I can bring it back just as empty. He gives me his cell phone number and says to just give him a call when I was ready to bring the car back so that he could meet me to take the keys. I suppose, though, that when you're on an island that only takes 1-2 hours to drive across, that there's really not a whole lotta places for you to take the car off to.)
Aaaaaaaaa Oia, Santorini! *flails* A picture of the very first blue dome I saw - it literally just popped into view right in front of me - and then all of the town itself. I almost drove right past the town - if it wasn't for the fact that I had unwittingly turned through a dead end parking lot I would've completely missed it. Instead I accidentally grabbed the ideal parking spot and now also parked my butt on the best spot on the island for the sunset.
I actually ended up not exploring the town at all except for the short segment that I had to walk from the parking lot to my sightseeing spot. I had read about how you had to claim a space there early in the day, but had totally forgotten about it and simply chanced across it when looking for good photography spots (much like Oia itself). But it was already obvious from the steady stream of people that it would be full quite soon, so rather than give it up, I simply stayed well into the evening, after the last of the photographic opportunities had been exhausted.
(Renting was a bewildering combination of ease and unease - the Villas manager referred me to a "friend" who owns a car rental agency. The friend points out the car I can take and we go through the motions of filling out a one-page form for it. He notes that the gas tank is almost empty, there's a station I can fill up at a few klicks down the road - with the presumption that it would make it that far - and says I can bring it back just as empty. He gives me his cell phone number and says to just give him a call when I was ready to bring the car back so that he could meet me to take the keys. I suppose, though, that when you're on an island that only takes 1-2 hours to drive across, that there's really not a whole lotta places for you to take the car off to.)
Aaaaaaaaa Oia, Santorini! *flails* A picture of the very first blue dome I saw - it literally just popped into view right in front of me - and then all of the town itself. I almost drove right past the town - if it wasn't for the fact that I had unwittingly turned through a dead end parking lot I would've completely missed it. Instead I accidentally grabbed the ideal parking spot and now also parked my butt on the best spot on the island for the sunset.
I actually ended up not exploring the town at all except for the short segment that I had to walk from the parking lot to my sightseeing spot. I had read about how you had to claim a space there early in the day, but had totally forgotten about it and simply chanced across it when looking for good photography spots (much like Oia itself). But it was already obvious from the steady stream of people that it would be full quite soon, so rather than give it up, I simply stayed well into the evening, after the last of the photographic opportunities had been exhausted.
If you look closely at the below panoramic, you'll find a perfectly round white dot near the right hand side about halfway up the photo - that's the moon rising over Santorini, one night after the lunar eclipse (which wasn't viewable in Europe sadly)! I was pretty lucky - it was definitely getting cold after sundown and I was about to leave but wanted a few last shots of the town lit up. So I got up to walk along the wall I was perched on, happened to glance over my shoulder, and then nearly fell off when I saw what was happening behind me. I didn't have either a telephoto or tripod with me but hopefully some pics I'd taken with my Nikon of the moon will have turned out!
Oia, Santorini, Greece
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