Get amonngst it

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It was supposed to be an early start the morning we caught our ferry from Athens to Ios. Instead of waking up with time to spare, Alyx's alarm didn't go off and she was sick (yet again) with not much energy for a fast walk to the metro station about 15min away.So, we woke up an hour late and had to bust our asses to get to the port in order to not miss the ferry! they wait for no one!! Long story short we overshot the metro station and took a cab. We totally lucked out and got one of the only honest cab drivers left in all of Athens, so the charge to the port was only 8 euro after he took us to the wrong one and we walked on the ferry pretty much as it was pulling out. Close call.
We made it to Ios! The far our beach club, a gorgeous resort for backpackers and people of all ages....was amazing!! 2 big pools, the beach right across the street, restaurants, bars, really nice affordable rooms. I want to stay there forever! The water was clear and warm...just perfect. Ios is very much a party island. The typical routine is spend all day in the sun around the beach, have a snooze in the late afternoon, grab a late dinner and head to town at midnight! It's so weird when you go out at 12 or 1 in the morning and all the clothing and jewelery shops are still open, ofcourse the bars are as well! The little town of Ios is the typical hilltop town with winding streets and white buildings with blue trim. At night, all you have to do is look the other way and there are 3 more bars to go to. The place is a party zone. I'm sure you're all thinking that my liver has had about enough, so don't worry....i only went out a couple of times! haha. We've been taking it pretty easy, lots of time on the beaches and by the pool. Enjoying lots of greek food for sure! My favourite place was a restaurant called Karma. It was more like a lounge/patio overlooking the beach and ocean. There were hammocks that you could just hang out on, and the chairs were benches with piles of pillows on them. I could have spent the whole time in that hammock!!
It's funny how first impressions don't always last. We met these canadian boys (19...just younguns) in corfu and they seemed like the biggest douchebags ever! All they do is drink, day and night, everyday. Turns out they were in Corfu the whole time we were, then Athens in the same freaking hostel, on the same ferry to ios, and at the same resort in ios!! We ended up getting to know them and they actually were fun. A bit much sometimes but fun. I went out with them the one night in ios and had a blast!! They couldn't be all that bad if they were from canada right? haha

After 4 nights is ios, we made our way to Santorini where we met up with Celia and Kelly, our aussie friends from Nice! We spent 2 nights there in the cutest hostel in the world! Hotel Babis, family owed and run, they have no emplyees. Old man babis was quiet an eccentric with little english, and the younger babis was so energetic and friendly, just wanting you to have a good time. And the breakfast was unreal! my new favourite thing is yogurt and honey, but the real thick original yogurt, not the sweetened kind!
Here's a little history of santorini...it's ancient name means 'the round one.' But if you look at it now, it's 4 or 5 islands...this is because it used to be one big round island, but after a ginormous valcanic eruption in the middle of the island thousands of years ago, there is the volcano in the middle, then island surrounding it that were previously the border of the island. And the water around the vocanic island is over 400 meters deep now! So on our first day we went up to explore the volcano. Imagine a typical hot day in greece (it must have been mid 30s that day) on a giant island made up old lava so it's all black rocks, with no shade and no greenery! Holy hannah it was hot. But we hiked to the top nontheless where we say the crater that is still active. It stunk like sulpher and menerals and there was steam coming out of it! You could actually put your hand up to a little whole and feel the heat and steam coming out of the earth. SO COOL. There's another active volcano on the ocean floor and it has created a salt water hot spring on the shore of the island beside the volcano. So we jumped off the boat to see just how warm it really was. Getting into the little cove the water got very dark with this redish, copper looking stuff and you couldn't see the bottom because it was so red! It was pretty warm in this little cove and there was pockets of really warm water within it. That night we just hung out at the hostel after a fabulous dinner of gyros. yuummm.
Kelly and Celia had met up with some friends of theirs so there was 6 of us altogether, so we all rented quads to check out the island! Because santorini is a vocanic island, it's known for its black sand beaches, and there is also a red beach from another mineral. So we went beaching it and saw those beaches. The black beach had crystal clear water and the sand was so soft, just really hot!
Oh!! the sunsets. oh. my.god. Blazing red/orange/pink sky every night when the sun sets. thousands of tourists go to the edge of the island to check it out. So beautiful. We went out and watched the sunset on July 1st. Canada day. i wore my flag and a red dress. i'd say about 5 people all evening and night said 'hey it's canada day, wooo' or something to that effect. It was ridiculous!! In ios bars were having canada parties and going all out. In santorini, no one knew or cared!! Even still....i wore my flag and i wore it proud! Kelly even wore it and took in the canadian pride! We ended up meeting another canadian and just chatted with him all night. Everyone was looking at me like a was a canadian pride freak wearing my flag out to the bar. hahaha but it was still a good time. Kelly took my flag under the condition that she sends me an australian one when she gets home! It was tough saying goodbye to those girls, we had so much fun with them and got along like peas and carrots. There's talk of a canada trip for them, sure hope it happens!!
So last night we caught a midnight ferry from Santorini to Athens. We're flying out of athens in a few hours to munich. Why fly you ask? Well there is a reason we're doing it the costly way other than the looonnnggg cheap way.....

...i got some not so good news while in ios. Alyx checked her bank account to find out there wasn't as much in there as she had thought. This is a problem with 4 weeks to go. (Seemed oddly familiar and really funny since the same thing happened to adam and rasmus around the same point in their trip!)
Alys is going home next week! AHHH. So taking 2 days to get to germany was a long time. We altered the route a bit and we're both going to munich for 3 nights, then berlin for 4.....and then we go our seperate ways. Alyx will go back to amsterdam and fly out of the 12th of July, and I will finish the last couple of weeks going through a bit more of Germany, czech and austria before heading back to amsterdam to fly home on the 27th. Just let me say that I will meet lots of people, and always be around someone when i'm travelling alone. That means you Grandma, grandpa, mom and pat. Don't worry, i will be fine! Just 2 short weeks. I decided it's not even an option to pay $300 to come home early when i can still afford to do the rest of the trip. We're cutting up to germany early so that alyx can still do it since she's a history minor, especially european history and World War 2.

We're going to a concentration camp tomorrow that is just outside of munich. It's going to be an eye opener for sure. I'm excited for the change of pace going from beaching it to tours and the history, stories and sights that germany has to offer.
Sarah i wish i had learnt some german before we left, Alyx and I are going to sounds so dumb trying to do a german accent, its definately a tough one! I hope we don't end up spitting all over someone in a sad attempt.

Talk to you in germany!

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