We woke up early today and checked out of our hotel reminding them that we'll be back on Monday for another night. Given we were leaving before the breakfast was ready, they had packed us a doggie bag to eat on the ferry - so thoughtful.
We caught the metro to Piraeus station and wandered down to the port to pickup our tickets and go to our ferry. We were pretty amazed at what they call ferries here - they are massive ships and are very spacious and comfortable within. We settled in for the 4.5 hour journey and quickly fell asleep, followed by some reading and short walks to stretch our legs.
As we cruised into Santorini 's port, we could see the famous view of all the white houses perched on the side of the cliff. The port was chaotic but we found a bus that said Fira (which is the main centre and is where our hotel is located) and got on it. Luckily Nuha had suggested leaving our luggage in Athens and just taking a small duffle bag. This was so handy when boarding the bus and even moreso when we reached the hotel. We found our way from the bus stop to the hotel very easily and were able to check-in immediately. We had to walk down a few stairs that were definitely not luggage friendly and found our room with a great view of the famous caldera (volcano) and the vast waters surrounding it. The room was nice and roomy, clean and well appointed with breathtaking views. We put down our stuff and decided to spend sometime taking in the views from our private balcony. After this, we headed up into the main area to sample the best gyros in town - very yummy. We then bought some groceries and came back to relax.
At night, we walked to the top of the cliff to enjoy the sunset from there. It seemed like everyone in santorini had the same idea but there was room for all.
We then had dinner at a place recommended as #1 on Trip Advisor and it was really nice, great food, excellent service and reasonably priced. As we walked back to our hotel at night, most of the shops in the laneways were still open and we casually looked through some of them.
With stomachs full and our first day in santorini having been everything we'd wanted, we settled in for a good nights sleep.