Santorini. It turns out Santorini is a 7 1/2 hour ferry ride away from Athens... who knew? Not us. But we had our hearts set on going and a hotel booked, so we boarded the ferry at 7:30am on Sat, after a crazy public transport trip that would not have been possible if not for the crazy nice bus driver who picked us up at vacant bus stop, the second bus driver who didn't leave the stop we were supposed to get off at until we were off, and the random Greek women who heard us talk about where we were going and told us we need to get on the metro on the other side of the track. The ferry ride went fast and I finished my second book of the trip. We arrived in Santorini after having witnessed the beauty of the island from the ship; an array of white houses on top of a huge mountain in the middle of the bluest water I have ever seen.
The hotel we were staying at offered free pick up from the port, and it was wonderful to not have to worry about some random taxi taking us for an unwanted ride around town. We drove up and up and up and finally reached the cutest little villa, Villa Manos, where we stayed. They welcomed us with Santorini wine and we were taken to our room. We freshened up and then set out to find food. We went to a place called Nikh's, which was recommended to us by the owner of the villa and I had the best cheesy potato dish I've ever eaten. It was like my mom's party potatoes times 10! We were stuffed and tired so we went back to the room and slept. On the second day we went and explored the town of Fira, which is located on upper part of the island of Santorini.(I didn't know there were separate towns on the island until we got there either) We walked and walked and walked. But we found the spot where all the picture are taken from, and rightly so. I could have sat on top of these roofs all day just to look at the water, the mountains, and tops of the white houses all around me.
We got pizza for lunch and divided in two groups. Andrea, Alyssa and I decided to go check out the black sand beach and the other girls went back to the room. We laid out on the beach although, like the rest of the town, we were the only ones there. It's not their tourist season so it felt kind of like a ghost town. We found a really cute restaurant on the beach though and enjoyed a drink while taking in the view. They also gave us tap water, which Alyssa didn't remind me we couldn't drink until it was already in my mouth! We ended up going back to the cute restaurant on the beach for dinner, and like every other place we went in Santorini, were given a free dessert with our meal :) The next day we woke up went back to the black sand beach, ate lunch, found a bakery where I picked up Greek Pound Cake, and waited for the time to be taken back to the ferry. They gave us wine again before we left and we prepared for the 7 1/2 hours of traveling ahead of us.
The ferry ride back to Athens, if I had to pick, was the worst part of the trip. I did not want to be on the boat for that long again so soon, and for some reason I got the most homesick I've been on this trip while riding that ferry. I read though and stared out at the wonders of the scenery.
We got into Athens late and got into a really nice taxi to take us to our hostel for the night. The next morning we were up and traveling again. We got brunch at a cafe in the square and headed to the airport.
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