Easy Peezy

Santorini was the second island that our travel group hopped to.  It was also the farthest away from the mainland.  Even by high speed ferry, the journey took us about 5 hours!  When we arrived at port, the first thing I noticed was the giant cliffs right in front of us!  Santorini is known for its cliffs and its extensive volcanic history.  I enjoyed this island the most out of all our stops. 

Santorini is one of the most visited of the Greek islands.  It appears in calendars and its name rolls off the tongue.  Some of the things I enjoyed most about it were its culture, beauty, and lack of crazy parties.  There was plenty to do here... almost too much!  I decided to do it all which made me really ready for Ios by the time we got there. (I'll explain later...)

The first day in Santorini we received an orientation/overview of the island by tour bus.  We visited a church at the highest point of Santorini which commemorates the prophet Elijah.  Next, we visited a town and walked its winding, steep alleys to another church and another view.  We had the opportunity here to do some brief shopping.  Our next stop was a winery!  I tried a sip of a friend's dessert wine and found it incredibly delicious.  To be honest, though, the views were worth drinking in more than the wine!

Believe it or not, that was just the morning!  After lunch, we hopped on board another ferry which took us over to a volcano!  This very same mound of land was the same volcano which had erupted thousands of years ago to form Santorini as we know it now.  It was a little unnerving to know that the volcano was still considered to be active (!) but the tour guides assured us that it was safe to be there.  We worked up a sweat on our hike but thankfully the next stop was a swimming spot!  The boat stopped a short distance from shore and anchored there while we jumped off and swam into a volcanic hot spring!  The hot spring was more of a warm spring, but it was still exciting to feel the pockets of naturally warm water, see the bubbles, and put volcanic mud on ourselves.  

Upon arrival back at the main land we were presented with several options of how to get from sea level up to the town at the top of the cliff.  I decided to ride a donkey instead of taking the gondola or walking.  It was an exciting, and slightly frightening, ride!  At times I thought my donkey would surely throw me off the cliff or try to scrape me off along the stone wall, but he brought me all the way to the top in one piece.  

I capped off Santorini on the last day with an ATV ride to some black sand beaches and a hike along the caldera out to a plateau with some amazing views of the island!  That hike was much longer than advertised and the temperatures were the highest of the entire trip but worth the effort in the end.  I'm proud to say that I did it!  

Santorini is perhaps most famous for its blue domed churches and sunsets.  Both can be found together in the little town of Oia (pronounced E-ah) at one tip of the island.  Believe it or not, the blue domed buildings are hard to find!  I always thought that the entire scenery in Greece would be dotted with them.  I was wrong.  The three in the picture above are basically the only ones!  They're not easy to find either.  If you don't know where you're going, you might never find this photo op.

Oia put on a show for us later that same night.  As the sun set over our last day in Santorini, we relaxed on our private balcony, sipping drinks as the sky lit up with hues of orange and pink.

When we arrived in Ios I was ready to relax.  Good thing too because there wasn't much else to do. The main town in Ios caters more to the party crowd and less to the tourist crowd.  There are literally no shops open during the day!  Everything stays closed until the sun sets and then opens up for an entire night of revelry.  Good thing I did most of my souvenir shopping on the first two islands!

I can't complain too much though because laying by the pool, swimming, eating amazing food, walking on the beach, and getting a massage at the hotel spa were all pretty wonderful.  In addition to all that, I also spent one day on a sail boat which anchored at one of the most beautiful beaches I have ever seen.  The water was surely the clearest blue I have ever encountered and the beach was clean and quiet - unmarred by other people or the trash they often leave behind.  We spent the afternoon playing games, relaxing, and eating a picnic lunch under the pavilion.  Hopefully they never decide to make a road to this beach.  I would love to see places like this remain undiscovered for as long as possible!

The picture above is a good summary of what this trip meant to me.  Great weather, amazing food, diverse and fun travel companions, and a talented trip manager who held us all together.  I will never forget this adventure in the Greek islands.  The Greeks know how to do life right and I'm glad I got to take a lesson from them!

Opa!

It has been quite a while since my last trip!  Martinique feels like it was both forever ago and just yesterday, all at once.  Hard to believe an entire year has passed since then... As a result, I was clearly long overdue for another world adventure!  It actually took me quite a while to decide where to go.  At first I was thinking Norway, then I shifted gears and tried to plan a visit to England and Scotland (both are trips I hope to do in the near future), but finally I settled on GREECE!  I'm so glad I did!  I have my supervisor to thank for allowing this trip to happen.  He gave me 2 weeks off right after Memorial Day! Those are prime dates for a vacation. I never would have even dreamed of asking for those dates (because that's smack dab in the middle of our busy season in the park) but it could not have worked out better.  The tourist season had not fully kicked off in Greece yet so the crowds were very manageable and the temperatures were PERFECT!  I don't believe it got above 85 the entire time I was there and the humidity felt very low as well.  

The trip was 12 days long.  On my first day in Athens, I met my travel mates from Contiki (the travel agency I booked my trip through). We met in the lobby of the hotel on the first evening after I had arrived and checked in.  I was really excited to meet these 20 other adventurous young people and they all, in their own way, helped make this trip special. We spent the first night chowing down for the first time as a group at a local Greek restaurant.  We learned quickly, the hard way, that the Greeks eat multi-course meals and that its important not to fill up on the appetizers, no matter how delicious they are!  This is a lesson we would carry with us throughout the rest of the trip.

Our first full day in country was spent exploring the ancient ruins of Athens and learning about the rich history of the city.  To wrap up the day we spent time swimming at the roof top pool before dinner. Pool time was multi-purpose, however.  On the first night our trip manager, Jacqui, gave us a long list of optional activities that we could sign up for.  She gave us a summary of each option and it all sounded amazing!  The only catch was that each option also cost an additional sum of money.  Well, after pondering my options for a day, I was supposed to know which ones I wanted to add on and which ones I wanted to skip.  It's hard to really know what you'll be wanting to do 2 weeks from any given moment but there wasn't any other option... and, not wanting to have any regrets, I signed up for basically everything.  C'etait tres chere! (It was very expensive!)

After leaving Athens, we took a ferry to our first island: Mykonos!  Mykonos is known for it's windmills.  It is the windiest of all the places that we visited on this island hopping excursion.  I was quite glad that the other islands were less windy... although the wind keeps temperatures down, it can be a bit strong sometimes. 

Our walking tour of Mykonos town brought us to the famous row of iconic windmills right as the sun was beginning to set.  I took the above panorama with my iPhone and I think it does a great job of accurately depicting the beauty of this island.  The deep blue sky, the shimmering waters of the Aegean, white washed houses, and a relentless sun.  

   

On the last day in Mykonos, I had the opportunity to visit the island of Delos.  This island is an active archaeological site and best known as the mythical birthplace of Apollo and Artemis, the Greek gods of the Sun and the Moon.  This was one of the optional excursions.  Because of the fact that it was largely educational, and involved no opportunities to consume alcohol, most of my trip mates decided to pass up this amazing opportunity.  I will admit, the island was very windy, the sun was hot, and if you aren't the type to enjoy a slow, guided, walking tour then this probably would not be for you.  Our tour guide also did not speak very loudly so if you wanted to hear her over the wind, you had to make an effort to stay close by.  But the artifacts were very interesting and the stories that our guide told helped to bring the place to life again.  I was glad that I went! An additional bonus to that day was a fresh seafood dinner in Mykonos town after we got back from Delos.  I have never tasted better lobster!!!

(On Delos, ruins in front of the Aegean Sea)

On one final note, I would be remiss if I did not mention the parties on Mykonos... I never went to one of them so I cannot speak from experience but that's a good thing, I think.  It became clear from Day 1 that I should expect to be surrounded by drunk and/or hung over people for the remainder of the trip.  It was a bit sad hearing the stories of lost personal items (i.e. phones, wallets, virginity, etc.) at breakfast every morning.  But the drama was also quite entertaining.  Let's just say that I will remember more details of this trip than anyone else will and I do not for a second regret skipping all of the parties!

There's still more to tell but this post is getting a little long... so hop on a ferry and meet me at the next post to read on about the rest of my Grecian adventures!