Santorini is the epitome of the "Greece" we all see in pictures. It is the Greece that I thought I was going to (what a shock!!). And it has a very specific feel to it that I didn't notice on Aegina. There are donkeys for riding up the hill, blue and white churches and houses (apparently the colors are because they are cheapest paints), old men sitting in coffee shops with hats, and little winding streets all over that are pedestrian only. I loved it!! So lets see, we took a ferry on Thursday night after we were all done with classes, got picked up at the harbor by the owner of our hotel Stavros (best Greek man ever!!), and went to his villa (hotel), which was adorable!! It was a 15 minute walk (if you walked fast) from the center of town, but it was definitely worth the walk! We were staying in Thira, which is one of the 2 main cities, the other is Oia. Our first day, we got dropped off above the harbor and told where to go to catch the boat for our volcano tour!! Little did we know that the 'short' walk down actually consisted of a 30+ minute walk down stairs! It was killer! And, we had to hurry because our time was limited to get to get to the boat! But, we made it, even though at one point we were little 'parting the seas' (a herd of donkeys) to get down! The boat was a big wooden sailboat that reminded us of a pirate ship! the first stop was the volcano, where we hiked up to see all the craters, including the largest, active one! It was really cool!! From there, we went to a sulfur hot spring (which, because the ocean water was warm didn't actually feel very hot), which was also pretty cool! the tour ended back in Thira, and we headed into the city to get lunch (we took a cable car up, not the stairs).
Day two began at a black sand beach on the other side of Thira, we actually took a bus to get to it. It was a lot of fun too!! The sand was actually little pebbles, and there was a rocky island thing close to the shore which we swam out to. It was a pretty cool beach, although the water was colder than it had been in Aegina and Athens! That afternoon we went back to our hotel and got ready to go out for the night. We were taking a bus to Oia to see the famous sunset, and then eating dinner either there or in Thira (it ended up being in Oia). the sunset was incredible! It was just like a movie, there were hundreds of people watching it, everyone sitting at different levels on this blue and white background, a bride and groom walked from a church through the streets at one point, and the sun went down over the ocean. It could not have been any cooler!! We ate at a cute little taverna, where I had a really excellent pesto pasta dish! After dinner we all hopped on a bus back to Thira, and most of the people we were with went off, but one roommate (Lauren) and I, wandered around the streets for awhile, each bought a scarf, and then walked back the hotel (it was quite late by the time we finished dinner, as the Greeks do not go out to eat until around 8 or 9 PM), and our day had been exhausting!!
Our last day, Sunday, was labeled 'donkey day', as Liz, Lauren, and I were going into Thira to ride donkeys up the hill. This did mean walking back down, which was an adventure, but riding up on my 'demon donkey' was definitely worth it!! My donkey was nicknamed this as he would run up several stairs...quite scary as they are marble, then try to bite and donkeys in his way, then just stop, and wait until more donkeys were in front of him, and repeat. All the way up. It led to some intense laughter, some shrieking from those riding the donkeys-to-be-bitten, and some hilarious videos! All in all, a fabulous trip!!
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