If you could choose how to arrive in Santorini, would you go for a short 45 minutes flight or an 8 hours long ferry?
Can’t hear anyone of you saying with excitement ‘by ferry!’.
Well, except me.
I am a bit of a romantic soul and the ferry represents for me a moment of transition from reality to my world.
If I am in Santorini and I need to pop by Athens for a quick visit and come back, I can do it by plane.
If I come back from my Xmas break and I know that’s the beginning of my year or I leave at the end of autumn to visit my family, well, in this case, no way I can do it by plane.
Why would I want to spend 8 hours (sometimes more) on a ferry when I could be in Athens in 40 minutes?
It has to do with my lifestyle on the island and the way things run here.
I live in a small village where there is no noise, few cars, very few people.
At night almost no lights.
I wake up and see the sun rising behind the castle.
I live a very quiet and loner life. My days, they all look like the same but they are also very exciting in very different ways.
I don’t have any kind of distraction and spend my time doing the things that I love the most: reading, writing, taking pictures, cooking, …
My kind of dream life!
Leaving the island means to leave my dream, even if for only a few weeks, and I don’t like it.
These are all the reasons why I cannot take a flight. I cannot be thrown into ”the real-life” so harshly, or, the other way around, I cannot pass from the buzz of the city, from being overwhelmed by my beloved ones, to my daily dream life again.
The ferry is my decompression while, a ‘pause’ moment in between dream and reality.
I usually find my seat and make myself comfortable.
I take with me lots of snacks, a good book, a notebook, music and hot drinks.
I look out of the window longing to be back very soon and tuning my rhythm with the waves.
I think a lot about what I leave behind, family, friends, cultural life, choices.
But this feeling of melancholy is usually washed away after a couple of hours.
I know the life that waits for me in Santorini is the life I chased for so badly. And it is so important to feel that I am exactly where I want to be.
When people ask me ‘When do you go back to Italy?’, I feel this question is wrong: I don’t go back to Italy anymore, I visit Italy.
I go (or come back) to my island.
©OneQuarterGreek/NicolettaBarbata
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