Santorini
Then we arrived in Santorini and George (who I don't have a picture of, darn it) picks us up to take us to Pension Stella. This hotel was gorgeous and George and Stella, who ran it, were probably the nicest people you'll ever meet. They asked us if we wanted iced coffee or orange juice and brought it out to us while we were sitting by the pool, all gratis. They kept our rooms super clean and always changed our linens while we were gone during the day. The bathrooms were wonderful and clean and the showers had fabulous water pressure. Honestly, you I cannot sing the praises of Pension Stella enough. Here's a picture of Ashley, Laura and I in the pretty blue and purple pool:
That night we all went out to dinner in Fira which is the town within walking distance of Pension Stella and one of the main towns on the island. Dinner was delicious, I had a chicken salad of some sort and some wine and we were able to see the ocean far below us. Santorini was seriously one of the prettiest places I've ever been, the prettiest island by far. Everything about it is serene and captivating. Here's a picture of Ashley, Laura and I at dinner. There were other people on the trip but the three of us sat together a bunch, haha.
The next morning, Ashley and I woke up and took the cable cars down to the bottom of the cliffs so that we could ride donkeys back up the mountain. We had lots of fun and my donkey's name was Pierre. That will become a lot funnier later in my stories involving Mykonos :) Here's a picture of me and Pierre... hahaha
After the donkey rides, George drove Ashley and me to the bus stop on his motorcycle (only like 100 meters) and then we got on a bus that took us down to the port for a tour that we were taking of the beaches. This tour was soooo much fun. It was just us and one other family on the boat and we got to go to 3 different beaches around Santorini and jump off the boat into the water and then swim into the beaches. The guys running the tour were really nice and let us do whatever we wanted so we were jumping off of every part of the boat. The first beach we went to was actually a beach on another island. It was pretty rocky but it was my first black sand beach so that was pretty nice. Here's a picture of me Vanna White-ing on the beach:
We then went to the next beach which was the white beach. Interestingly enough, the white beach was still a black sand beach, just with some white rocks and white cliffs behind it. Here's a picture of Ashley and me doing our best Charlie's Angels impression on the front of the boat. The little kid in the picture is Liam, more on him to come.
Now here's a picture of Ashley and me jumping off of the front of the boat into the water. It wasn't a very big jump, but I'm afraid of heights so it was still slightly thrilling. The water was again extremely salty, but I feel like it wasn't as bad as Cinque Terre. Or maybe I'm just getting used to it.
Now here's a picture of Ashley and me in the water just hanging out right after the above jump. Oh, just in case you didn't notice, I feel like I should point out my absurd tan lines on my right leg in the jumping picture. They were fixed later in the trip but I got them on the boat ride from Athens to Santorini because I was wearing shorts and a tank top. Quite fun.
Now here's little Liam. He along with his twin brother Charlie, little sister Amy and parents were the only other people on our boat. They were from England near Liverpool (can't remember the name of the actual town...). But Liam was the coolest kid. He followed Ashley and me whenever we swam into the beaches, he jumped off the boat with us and he spoke in the most adorable British accent I've ever heard and probably ever will hear. He told me that he was six years old but sometimes he said he was five because he forgot. Then he asked me how old I was and I told him to guess. He guessed 9, then 10 and finally 20. He asked me how old my friends were and I told them that most were 20 and some were 19 and 21. Then I asked him and he said, "Well, most are 5 and 6, but some are 20". Sooo precious! So Liam considers Ashley and me his friends and I'm quite excited about that.
That evening we all went out to Fira and shopped around and had a good time. Then next day, Ashley and I went on our second boat tour which was the other girls' first. We went on a tour to the hot springs and the volcano. The hot springs were less than hot and dyed our swimsuits orange (thankfully my swimsuit is black, score 1 for me!). Here's a picture of us all on the boat:
As well as another picture of Ashley, Laura and me, naturally:
We all decided to climb the volcano in our swimsuits, me mostly to correct the unfortunate tan lines I had acquired earlier. It actually ended up working out really well though because it was hot, but wearing swimsuits we were dressed just right :) Also, the boat tour guy, his name was Radoslav (Rale for short) and I became friends and he invited me to stay on the boat for the tour after the volcano tour for free. I would have done it if it hadn't been my last day in Santorini and I still had to see Ia which is known as the beautiful town where you watch the sunset over the water. Anyway, here's me climbing the volcano:
So after climbing, we went to Ia and walked around taking pictures of ourselves in front of the beautiful city. Here's a picture of the five of us. I'm not actually that much taller than everyone, we were on a slant. But it does make me look like something of a giantess.
Here's a picture of me sola in Ia:
Then we went and watched the beautiful sunset over the water, here's a picture of me in front of the sunset. This picture doesn't really do the sunset justice, but I did the best with what I had.
Comments