October 18, 2014December 22, 2014 Dr Sze Wey Lee

Hooked on the blue domes

Greece, Santorini, Travel

Where is it??

We were walking up and the pedestrian path in Oia (pronounced ee-uh) looking for it. We’ve seen it on posters, travel books and postcards. Yup, in fact there it is on a postcard right in front of us. And yet we can’t seem to see it anywhere.

As you might have guessed, we were looking for the blue domed churches that is iconic of Santorini

Ever seeing it years ago, we can’t picture Santorini as anything else. (Now that we are here, we do know better though)

In truth, there is a blue domed church that tops the skyline in Oia. You can’t miss it and and we thought that was what we were looking for. But it was not.

With 250 churches in Santorini, (something like 1 for every 52 residents) we didn’t think it was that hard.

Failing to do our homework, it took us sometime before we eventually realised hat you have to go into the side streets to look for these churches. They are in fact dotted along the cliff face among residential homes.

So, you have to walk along sometimes narrow streets and steps to get there. Do not be surprised to find crowds (and wedding parties) queuing up to get that shot. But when Peter first found the churches, he was surprised to find that there weren’t many people around at all.

Now if you are really lost and are happy to ask for directions, the churches you are looking for are “Agios Spyridonas” – St Spyridonas church and “Anastesos” church that means resurrection of Christ. Both are open to the public.

I know we’ve all seen photos of Santorini. But I just can’t help sharing more.