Santorini, Properly...

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Hi Everyone!

I am not going to apologize again for how long it's taken me to get another blog up as I have a)just accepted the fact that I am not going to be able to update this blog as much as I would like (I hope you can accept that, too) and b)I quite happy with the fact that I am out experiencing my trip instead of spend hours behind a computer telling you about it. That's not to say I don't love sharing my adventures with everyone, but I have found myself stressing over not writing as much lately and that's not good! Hopefully you and I can find a happy medium😊

As I am sure you could tell, I absolutely did not come close to doing justice to Satorini. So while I am currently sitting in my friend Ginny's beautiful apartment in beatiful Rome, I am going to write a post about beautiful Santorini. Don't worry, then I will tell you about beautiful Rome.

I am one of those people who would prefer going to see a movie I know nothing about and have heard nothing about. I generally find myself plesantly surprised with these films. When a movie has been built up too much, or even worse, I find out that Angelina Jolie dies in the end, my movie-going experience tends to often be disappointing. This was my fear in going to Santorini. I had heard and read so much about how stunning Santorini is and about it's impressive Caldera (I'll explain about the Caldera later). To make matters worse, my brother, Aaron, and his wife, Kelly, had been to Santorini just two summers ago on their honeymoon and not only raved about it, but had shown me all of their pictures. Needless to say, I was prepping myself for possible disappointment. Impossible. Santorini really is one of the most breathtaking places I have ever seen, and this is largely due to the Caldera. Now, what's the story with this Caldera. The modern isaldn of Santorini is the result of an earth shattering volcanioc erruption. In @%*$ BC (or was it AD?), the volcano that resided in the center of the island known as "the round one" as it looked like a big disc, erupted causing one of the biggest explosions in the history of the earth. Hot lava and ash spewed 35 kilometers into the sky and tsunamis travelled as far as Israel. The erruption also caused the center of the island to drop out and the waters of the Agean immediately filled in forming what is now known as the Caldera. A few more smaller erruptions and some earthquakes finished off the job, but the result is something along the lines of Big Sur on steroids, but in the middle of the Aegean Sea. It also offers up the most beautiful (and famous) sunsets, dare I say, in the world! It is worth every bit of hype.

When Dave and I arrived in Santorini we had not yet booked a place to stay. We decided to go with the trusty "Greek" way of doing things and just pick a place amongst the hoards of hotel owners the greet you at the port. It worked out better than we could have hoped in Paros, so we figured this was the way to go in Santorini. What a mistake. To make a long story short, we were talked into staying at a place one what I call "the wrong side" of Santorini (aka the non-Caldera side) in Perrissa beach. For those of you going to Santorini, DO NOT make this mistake. Not only does it take 45 minutes (not the short 15-minutes the hotel owners claims) to get to any view of the Caldera or to get into Fira (the main town), but Perissa is an unexciting and slightly dirty place. Also, don't be drawn in by the "black sand beach" as it's not very nice. What I will say is that you can find VERY cheap places to stay on that side of the island, but you can also find cheap places just outside the town of Fira. So Dave and I spent our first evening in Santorini driving around on a moped trying to find a new place to stay. As our luck goes (we have exceedingly good luck with finding wonderful and affordable places to stay) we stumbled upon a very simple and pretty hotel called The Butterfly Villas RIGHT ON THE CALDERA!!! For only 80 euro a night (trust me that is CHEAP for a Caldera view) we had a beautiful little studio with a little kitchen, and a balcony that looked right over the Caldera. The only problem with Butterfly is that only one person who works there actually speaks any english so it's nearly impossible to get any information out of them. Luckily, there is a very nice hotel right next door called The Volcano View which we could not afford, but were perfectly happy to use for everything else besides a room. We used their internet, had them call us cabs into town, booked excursions...EVERYTHING. It worked out just perfectly. So we blissfully woke up each morning to greet the Caldera and enjoyed our sunsets sitting on our balcony with a bottle of wine and some yummy cheese and bread.

We also spent some time exploring the town of Fira and the town of Oia. Fira is the town you want to be in for energy and nightlife, but romance and sunsets are nothing to blink at. In Oia, just when you think the sunsets can't get anymore beautiful...they do. Dave and I headed to Oia for our last night (also his birthday night) to watch a sunset. Thinking we were so clever, we snuck onto a rooftop trying to avoid the hoards of people and get the best view possible. About 10 minutes later we were told we needed to move. By this point all the cafes were filled and every bit of stone wall to sit on was filled. So Dave and I found ourselves watching the most beautiful sunset I have ever seen in my life while sitting in a garbage dump...literally. When the sun just began to turn that deep reddish orange, I had almost forgot about the fact that I was using an old mop as a cushion. It was an experience. At the end of the sunset people actually cheered as if the earth had just put on a show for us. You couldn't NOT clap out of appreciation for what we were allowed to witness. I, too, jumped up and cheered. Then I picked a chicken bone off the back of my dress and headed into town to find some wine and dessert.

The next morning we caught an early morning flight to Athens where we had an 8 hour lay-over before heading to Rome. Dave and I decided we would hang at the airport instead of heading back into Athens for the day. This way Dave could get some work done and I could try to get some much needed sleep (we had watched the sun come up two nights earlier and had gotten three hours of sleep the night before). I am sad this day was my last impression of Greek people as I now refer to them as the "sleep deprivators" and not in the make me go out all night and party way. I am starting to become a better traveller as I have FINALLY learned to be able to sleep anywhere (as long as I am laying down, that is). This was something I always aspired to be able to do and envied those who had this amazing ability. So I was actually quite happy with the prospect of a day at the airport where I could just find myself a little bench or row of chairs and curl up with my sweatshirt for a few hours of much-needed z's. Little did I know that every employee of the Athens airport was part of a conspiracy not to let me sleep that day. I first attempted to sleep on a couch at a table Dave and I were sitting at in a little coffee shop. Perfect! It was soft and I could be close to Dave. I had layed my head down (not even putting my feet up!) for five-minutes when the cleaning lady came over and starting yelling "trouble! trouble!" at me. I sort of understood that sleeping in the coffee shop was not really kosher, even in the airport) so I took my sweatchirt and went searching for an open bench. I walked to an empty part of the terminal and found a row of open airport chairs that were calling my name. I got myself settled in and fell right to sleep. However, I was abrubtly woken up, this time by an official airport worker, yelling "Good morning" at me and then telling me that this terminal was too busy and I could take up an entire row of chairs. I lifted my head up to look around at all the people and there was NOBODY there! I shared my observation with her and told her I desperately needed to sleep and if she could just please let me alone for another hour. She then threatened to call security and I was just too tired to deal with that hassle. So I once again grabbed my sweatshirt and headed back to the coffee shop to find Dave. Instead of sleep I chose caffiene and for 3 hours sat their secretly cursing the entire country until we finally boarded our flight to Rome.

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