SANTORINI

Last weekend some of us said goodbye to Athens and set out on our own island adventure to Santorini! The adventure started with a very early departure on Friday morning. We all got up and left the apartments around 5am in order to ride the metro all the way to Piraeus, the Port in Athens. The boat set out at 7:30, so we watched the sunrise over the water as we set out, which was so gorgeous. It was so windy that the 9 hours spent on that ferry was not enjoyable for my motion sickness and myself. We did have a little fun playing card games and such before it got too rough on the water. Once we arrived in the port of Santorini. The owners of the hostel where we stayed met us at the post and loaded us all into their van to be taken up the giant cliff to our hostel. The name of our hostel was Villa Manos, and it was picture perfect. Jessi, Tori and I jumped in the pool first thing. After settling in, the 9 of us girls dressed up and set out to find somewhere to get some dinner. We headed into Fira, one of the major cities on the island, and stopped at the first restaurant we found, Tabasco. We all tried different things, I had muscles and risotto which was delicious. Santorini is famous for its sweet wine made on the island, so of course we had plenty of that. After dinner we headed back to the hostel, and the plan was to go out. Soon after getting back we realized how completely exhausted we were from such a long day of traveling so we had a chill night in instead.

Beautiful Sunrise on the water

Playing some cards on the early morning ferry

Passed out on the ferry...we weren't supposed to be sitting in those seats...shhh

Villa Monas! 

View from our balcony

Petunia and Gwen hiding in the bushes on the balcony

I made friends with a miniature pony named Zezell at the gas station

On Saturday we signed up for a tour through the hostel called, “See Santorini in One Day” which is exactly what we did. Bright and early we jumped on a bus outside out hostel and headed up to our first stop on the tour, the Prophet Elias Monastery, which is built on the highest point of the island and the view is unbelievable. Unfortunately the Monastery was closed to the public so it was just a quick stop to capture the incredible view. From there we went to the village of Pyrgos, where I was able to get some really fantastic pictures. After Pyrgos the tour took us down to the port where we got on the King Thiras boat, which took us to the volcano. The volcano is it’s own island in the middle of Santorini’s waters and is still active today. Our tour guide was no Michael but he helped us hoof it to the top, and showed us many of the “hot spots” that you can still feel steam flowing out of. Back on the boat we sailed over to the Hot Springs. The boat anchored down so we could swim in the green sulphur water, the water was so thick it felt like swimming in jello, and was really warm from the Volcano. The next stop on the boat was the island of Thirassia. This island had around 600 winding steps made of cobblestone to climb up in order to get to the town so we decided to try out the donkeys, which was hilarious. I named my donkey Earl, and I rode him all the way up to the top, scared he was going to throw me off any moment, but we were all laughing the whole way up. We had a quick lunch and then explored the town of Manolas, which was mostly deserted from what I could see but it was still so gorgeous. We were so high up again that the view was amazing. We boarded the boat again and sailed over to the city of Oia, which is built is built along the edge of the caldera wall, and is the most famous location for watching the sunset. Jessi and I walked around trying to capture as many pictures of this beautiful town from every angel before we sat down for dinner with Jenee and Katie to watch the sunset. It was cloudy so the sunset was short, but still breathtaking.

View from the Monastery

All the girls at the top of the Volcano

Jenee, Katie, Tori and I swimming in the hot springs! 

I named him Earl

Earl and I hoofed it up the hill together

This town was my favorite part of the tour, the entire view is like this picture

Jessi and I in Oia 

Grabbing some dinner in Oia

Cheers to the Sunset! 

View of the still active Volcano from Fira...our tour guide said, "Santorini is often referred to as a bottle of Champagne, you never know when it's going to pop!"

After the sunset and finally returning back to the hostel it was time to go out. We went to a club called Murphy’s as a group and were joined by our new friends that we made at the hostel and on the tour so we danced all night long.

Sunday was the day of sickness for almost all of us. Jackie and Caitlin were sick all day with what we assume was food poisoning since they ate what no one else did, Carly was sick in bed with stomach problems, Mayra’s allergies came on full force and I had the worst and longest headache of my life. I did manage to venture to Fira with a few of the girls for some more sight seeing and shopping, but after getting back to my room I fell asleep around 4:00 and didn’t wake up until 7:30am on Monday. Our ferry was supposed to leave on Sunday afternoon but because of the terrible winds it was delayed until Monday afternoon. That meant missing class and a late arrival of one in the morning back to Athens by the time we took the Metro to our apartments. As completely stressful as it was to get back late, miss class, and have to pay for another night at the hostel I think it was almost a blessing that none of us sick girls had to get on a rocky ferry boat for nine hours on Sunday. The trip was a roller coaster of events, it honestly felt like we were gone for weeks, and it felt so good to be back in Athens, despite all the fun we had.