Our Last Stop - Santorini

August 14-19, 2009

Bye bye Christine we will MISS you!!!

Another boat ride away awaited our last and most relaxing stop, Santorini. Santorini is the island of Greece that you see in all the movies. The towns that are on the hill with all white houses and blue roofs. If you have seen “The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants” or “Mama Mia” you know what I am talking about.

Our travels to Santorini involve a funny story. The group of New Zealanders we met on the boat ride to Mykonos happened to be on our ferry to Santorini and we found out they were staying at the same hotel as us! It was fun to have a group of people to hang out with. Once we got to our hotel we decided to all go out to dinner near the ocean. We ate some traditional Greek food, rice wrapped with grape leaves, Greek salad, and some tadizi.

The next day Ash and I made breakfast and then went to rent an ATV. We realized after driving it around a bit that we probably got one of the slowest ones on the island. Everywhere we went we were passed up by scooters, cars and even HUGE busses. O well, no matter how slow it was we had a great time exploring the island. First we went to the “red sand” beach. It was located in a little cove that you practically had to hike down to. We took a swim laid out for a bit and were off to our next stop, the light house at the TOP of the island basically on a cliff. We hiked to the very edge took some pictures and then were off to OUI (where the white and blue villages on the hill are located). Our time in Santorini was kind of like Rome in a day because we only had the ATV for 24 hours and the island is big and like I said our form of transportation was really slow.

The drive to OUI was about an hour and a half away along very windy roads. It was actually fun driving through them. We were driving a long the coast for quite a bit of it, it was beautiful. Once we got to OUI we parked our ATV (no cars, scooters, or ATV’s allowed) and explored the city on foot. We walked down the Cliffside on very steep steps that lead to the harbor. On our way down we saw a group of donkeys transporting people to the top. This is what everyone says “to do” when you go to Santorini. We were super unfortunate because that was the last trip of the day for the donkeys. When we got to the bottom we sat down and had some AMAZING calamari. The sunset was just minutes away so we rushed back up the hill and caught it just in time. It was spectacular. The brightest oranges, reds, and yellows. There were hundred of people scattering the street just to watch the sunset. I guess we were in the place to be. It was a great show.

The way home was a little scary because it was pitch black and our ATV didn’t have the best headlights. Good news though, we got home safe!!! On the way home we stopped off on the side of the road to watch a 1-time a year firework show. Every August 17th Santorini puts on a firework show to simulate the volcano that lies in the center of the island (an island itself). We just happened to be in the right place at the right time for this one. She show was nice but nothing compared to 4th of July fireworks. Later that night we had some wine with our friends from New Zealand on our patio.

Our last day of vacation in Santorini we took it easy. We walked down to the black sand beach for a swim in the ocean and then laid out by our pool. We made some dinner and packed for our 40 hour adventure home.