Trips III

Day 4: Our Excursion Day

Being the adventurous and brave women we are, we took the advice of our South Carolina friend and rented an ATV for the day. And by ATV I mean small four wheeler. We studied our trusty map of the island, picked a route, and set off to tour. We literally rode around the ENTIRE island. While Santorini isn’t a huge place, traveling by ATV isn’t exactly the fastest way to travel on very narrow roads with buses and trucks whipping around you. We thoroughly enjoyed our morning sight- seeing. Hailey took some great photos and we really got a feel for the lay of the land. Problem one happened at noon; we stopped for lunch and couldn’t get the ATV to restart. We walked to the shop we rented it from and they came and “fixed” it for us. Problem two: trusty map- not so trusty. We ended up on the east side of the island instead of the south end. Problem three: ATV wouldn’t crank and we were stranded on the south end of the island. Needless to say there were a few issues, but it was still an awesome day and I think we made the most of it! Now the food we had this day was incredible. That morning while riding around the island we bought a bag of locally grown cherry tomatoes. They looked more like tiny red pumpkins to me, but they were some of the best tomatoes I’ve ever eaten! For lunch we found a cheap little place and loaded up on the goodies; they also happened to have the best gelato around. We became buddies with the cutie that made it while he explained the flavors- and by cutie, I mean HOT! I almost asked him to marry me so I’d never have to leave and we’d have beautiful children. Not even kidding… Anyway, we cleaned up that night and made our way to Nikolas’s Tavern. Delicious!! By far my favorite place on the island! We ended up eating there more than once and it was all heavenly! We even made friends with our waiter who invited us back next summer to teach his children English…perhaps I should have written his number down??

Day 5: The Excursion via Boat Day

Since we had a few issues the first day on our own, we joined an excursion group and let them handle the logistics. They took us via boat to the volcano, hot springs, town of Thirassia, and Port of Oia. Riding on the boat was wonderful and we had such a relaxing trip! First, we stopped at the volcano and hiked to the top. Hailey and I didn’t exactly do our research with this one…we wore dresses, swim suits, and flip flops. Oops? We made it to the top and took some cute pictures but it was like climbing a mountain of pure gravel- somehow the Tevas got me up and down. Once we pulled into the inlet of the hot springs the boat stopped and put out anchor a good 100 yards from the actual springs. Our tour guide, Ava, explained at this point we were to jump off the boat and swim in. No life jackets, no lecture on water safety, just jump in and make sure you come back in around 30 minutes. We couldn’t help but laugh at how differently that would be handled in the States. While I didn’t find the hot springs that “hot,” the red sulfur did stain my swim suit and I STILL can’t get it out. By the time we got to Thirassia we were feeling lazy and ended up just playing in the water and people watching. Our excursion ended with the boat dropping us off at the Port of Oia. The town of Oia sits on the northwest end of the island and is known for its fabulous sun sets. While we had visited the city the day before, we approached from the island side and just had a steep road. The caldera side is like a cliff; either you walk almost vertically or take a donkey. Of course I voted to ride. My experiences with said donkey convinced me to never ride a donkey on a slope again. We weaved from side to side on the trail. If he wasn’t staring over the edge (obviously contemplating jumping!), he was rubbing my leg into the rocky cliff wall. Once we reached the top, we had plenty of time to pick a prime location to watch the sunset (I have approximately 40 pictures of this if you would like a play by play of the setting sun). Food: I literally ate a feta sandwich. It was a BLOCK of feta with a few veggies on a hoagie- *heaven!* Then there was more feta that night on my Greek salad…oh, feta how I love you. We also had tasty stuffed mushrooms and non-feta covered foods.

Day 6: Pool/shopping and the ferry to Athens

We lounged at our hostel’s pool that morning and did our touristy shopping. Let’s just say my suitcase would not have held one more bottle of anything, and we are very lucky nothing broke. Now that I’m home and have sampled all of my purchases, I wish I had ordered cases to be shipped home. Our ferry arrived on time for the trip back and we settled on the top deck to enjoy the view for the long ride home. We took a slow (also cheap) ferry back to Athens so we didn’t arrive at the port until around midnight; after a few confused English/Greek attempts at conversation, we found the bus to the airport. Our flight out was at eight the next morning and we planned to nap at the airport to conserve time and funds. News flash- the airport in Athens greatly dislikes people who attempt to sleep there. Some woman walked around waking people up and making you sit upright in the chairs. Oh, and did I mention the airport is tiny? Very limited food options at 5am when you can’t sleep.

Regardless, I loved Greece- especially our time on the island! We met some very interesting people from Spaniards at dinner one night to the locals on the island and of course the Americans sprinkled along the way! I would go back any day! One of the couples we met told us about their previous 7 trips to Santorini. For our brief stay, I think we maxed out on fun and had a wonderful trip.

Greece Loves: FOOD!! I can’t stress this one enough…
Slower way of life
Scenery!!

Greece Dislikes: Mean woman at the airport
Having to leave :(