DEBRIS.COMgood for a laugh, or possibly an aneurysm

When the sun goes down, the cliff lights up. The sight is awesome. Bring a tripod.

We’d inadvertently timed our days in Ia so that the moon rose just after dinner. I recommend this. We would have been walking around anyway, soaking up the atmosphere. In that magical place it seemed perfectly reasonable to think that celestial bodies had aligned just to suit us.

Midway between our apartment and the main shopping district of Ia, paths converge to form a rest stop of sorts. It’s probably somebody’s patio, but we paused there frequently, i.e. every time there wasn’t already a crowd of people gawking. The view is terrific, especially at night, and there’s a low wall ideal for repose. The sight of the city lights curving away in the distance, around the crescent of the island, is especially excellent.

I don’t know why it always seemed so incongruous to me, but the shops in Ia tend to have million-dollar views. Sometimes I’d go into a store just to look out the window. This picture was taken through the open window of a jewelry-and-kitsch shop; I had to press the camera up against the wall of the building to steady it for the long exposure. The string of lights in the distance outlines the wall of the caldera midway around the crescent. I believe those lights mark the town of Imerovigli, which stands 300 meters above the sea, on the highest point of the caldera.

My favorite night picture shows the western edge of the city, from below. I took the picture from the long path that descends to the port town of Amoudi. Looking up the hillside to see the resorts and homes from below, and the darkening sky above, I was struck (again) by how strange the terrain is on Santorini. I felt like I was immersed in it. Santorini is much more three-dimensional than most places I’ve visited, except maybe Zion National Park.