Lost in the Caldera

Hello Greece. Its wonderful to see you again.

Once more, writing about a country after I have left it. Its hard to keep up on this thing...

Going back to Greece was strange for me. I had been there 2 years ago with Kevin. It was the destination he chose for our trip. So being there brought up a lot of thoughts. But Santorini, that was a new place. An island in Greece that we had not been and that I really wanted to go.

My best friend from college, G, was to meet us in Santorini and spend a week traveling with us. Since we couldn't get on her flight, the plan was for us to get there the night before, find a hotel and pick her up from the airport.

We left Berlin, had a 5 hour layover in Athens and finally arrived in Santorini at 11pm. We had booked a hotel online for one night so that we could go to the port to try to get a deal the next day. Well when I booked the hotel, it was for 6 Euro which sounded too good to be true. Well, it was. Seems there was a mistake on hostel bookers and after about an hour and a half of talking to this person and that person and checking email and all this, we got our room for 15 Euro each. Fine, whatever, lets go to sleep!

The next day we got the bus down to the port as I remembered that in all the islands, there are tons of people who wait at the port for the boats to come in and sell rooms. Well, we got a room but it was a bit of a shithole so I complained and we moved to a slightly nicer hotel. It was not quite the deal I was hoping for but it worked out ok. However, I would proceed to beat myself up for the hotel we got for the rest of the time there. I am working on self acceptance...but its hard. I am realizing that life is much easier if you just go with the flow and try to not make things so stressful.

Anywho that day, Morgan and I rented an ATV (they are used all over the islands and we had already decided it would be absolutely hilarious if I picked G up from the airport on one) and went to Red Beach to take a dip.

Santorini is the most unique of the Greek islands as it was created by a (still active) volcano and has these beautiful cliffs (the Caldera) all along one side. So this beach was coming out of the cliff with beautiful red rock "sand". It was a lovely place to start.

Then I got to pick G up. This is G's first time out of the country and what a great place to start! I was so happy to see her and she just about died when I strapped her suitcase on the back of the ATV and drove us to the hotel. I am so happy to see my friend!

A quick rundown of what we did...

Saturday:

G arrives, sunset with a bottle of wine, dinner at a little restaurant the scooter guy, Isac, told us about,and early to bed.

Sunday:

It was suppose to be beach day bit its a little cloudy so we get one ATV (for Morgan and G) and one scooter (for me) and roam around the island. We go to the lighthouse and climb around the rocks, and then back to red beach when it warms up enough for a swim. Then to dinner at a great restaurant in town and out to dance the night away.

Monday:

We discover a great little bakery, get some supplies and head to the beach for the day. Its a little windy but still a very relaxing day. We do yoga in the sand and get a nice tan. That night we learned that we could not get tickets to Mykonos for the next day as we had planned. We waited to see if there were any cancelations and went to dinner.

Tuesday:

We booked our tickets to Mykonos for the next day. We would arrive an hour after Morgans friend Helen who was meeting us there. It will be ok. We take the bus to Oia on the northern part of the island and hike down the 300 steps to Amoudi Bay. We round the corner on a little path off the bay and find a wonderful swimming hole with a small island to swim out to. We swim and then jump from a very tall cliff/wall thing. We decide we are just like Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants (upon G's retun home, she will watch the movie and find out the cliff jumping scene was filmed in the same place...we ARE them!)

We then have a nice dinner and watch the sunset on Santorini one last time. We are all glad we did not get on the ferry.

Wednesday:

G and I get to the bakery one last time and then we head off for our very bumpy journey to Mykonos.

I can't even begin to describe how beautiful the island is (hopefully my photos will do some justice). But I was also very aware of how much of a tourist destination the islands are. I think I like places a bit less touristy than that...but onto Mykonos.