Sun, Sand and Sensational Sunsets on Santorini... (I am such a nerd)

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Santorini

We arrived in Santorini and managed to snag a double private room, I agreed not to cuddle Kel while we slept and then we were off to find Jem and Grace's accomodation. I followed Kelly's dodgy advice and navigation and we ended up in the entirely wrong direction. We finally turned back to town but were stopped by two girls on a quad bike as they asked the time, I eagerly grabbed my phone out to tell them and they said they couldn't hear me, just show me the phone. When they attempted to grab for it Kelly snatched my hand back and the girls took off. I immediately thanked Kel for saving me from getting my phone stolen. Arg I am so naive sometimes. We found our girls and headed into town for jewellery shopping and then met Johno at the restaurant busabout booked and explained the cut and paste game.

We watched the beautiful sunset over the volcano island near Santorini and I had yet another 'moment' as this was a long lived dream fulfilled. After dinner we bought Greek rings and headed to the highlander bar for a fruit tingle cocktail and then Brad bought me a cocktail named after our new guide Amy which was so delicious. Kel was very unwell so we ended up down the road at the giros stand where the owner, George, took a liking to Kel and gave us a round of shots, goodness only knows what was in it, it was something homemade under the bench! We ran into Kel's friends Trent and Lance from her Croatia sail trip and then had an early night.

Our hotel didn't do breakfast so we headed to 'Mama's house' which was a busabout hangout for breakie. Wow she was SUCH a character. Her first words "well hello sex bombs! Say good morning to Mama and she will get you a table and then some breakfast if you are good girls" hilarious. She was deadly to the other kitchen hands but beautiful to the customers, when we asked if the older guy working was papa? "he's one of them...haha". We immediately fell in love with mama, her pancakes with eggs for breakie and maple syrup and not to mention her hilarious good natured fun. Today was busabout's bucket list day. The first stop was a bus trip to the top of the highest mountain top to see the monastry and amazing views, then to the Black beach, where Kel managed to walk away for a minute and lost half of her book to the ocean as half the pages had fallen out. We also visited an archeological site like pompeii but I forgot its name. We headed down to the Red beach, had ice cream and then went off for a wine tasting. Greek wine is an aquired taste. I am of the opinion that it was simply awful, like metholated spirits. Send me back to Italy anyday for wine.

Our final destination was the famous picture postcard town of Oia where the celebrities all have their summer homes. We got Amy's tour of the town and then got sisterhood photos with Brad and John. Our sunset picnic in the abandonded carpark was crazy windy and our cups kept being blown away. I had no idea what was in the punch but it tasted delicious. That was until I had too much and was so happy I was skipping up the road with Glenn and Johno who thought I was very amusing. We got back to town just in timd to see the fireworks and then Grace went home early. The rest of us headed to the bars where we had free shots, another 'Amy' cocktail, danced at (on) the Irish bar, more shots, a cocktail....you can see where this is heading, it is so obvious when you see it written down. Jem wanted to go home so Kel, Jono and I walked her back but then for some reason I felt unwell and had to borrow the girls bathroom. My dad's advice when I left Australia? "Know your limits and stick to them". Good advice Dad.

Next day we went back to Mumma's house where she looked after us like royalty and threatened to kill her staff screaming in Greek. Haha We decided to hire quad bikes with the four of us and John, we got lost once or twice and lost one or two of our 3 bikes due to wrong turns but we eventually arrived at the red beach, bought icecream and sarongs and went for a swim, read and sunbake. Our next stop, after another wrong turn and nearly running over a rooster was the lighthouse at the end of the island. We came back to the hotel in the evening and made preparations for our mega picnic and picked up Johno (not to be confused with Johno...two different people) to go for an incredible quad drive on the roads next to the beaches all the way to Oia. Unfortunately Jem and Grace's bike was sick and we had to make sure they made it up all the hills. Our picnic was in a much nicer spot than the previous evening (we scared off a canoddling couple with our noise first) and it was so lovely to share it with our most favourite people and delicious food. We drove back in the dark and managed not to get too many bugs in our teeth and then had a balcony party with Johno.

Next morning at sunrise our bikes had to be back in the shop so Grace and I headed out via a wrong turn to a most devine and glorious beach drive, it was an accident but the best wrong turn I have taken! After we returned the bikes we headed to Mama's house again where she told us "I found a new man, he is great, really old, lots of money, and the best part? Heart problems! I hope to marry this one girls!" We took Johno and John with us and Mama went through them out with her fine tooth comb. Haha We had decided to visit the volcano today and had a very very long walk down the donkey track to catch a boat to the Volcano walk and hot springs which were more luke warm and muddy...NZ is much better. We had a very hot and tiring long walk back up the donkey trail listening to stupid tourists say "look at me! I am on a donkey" Yeah hon, you are are a donkey, that poor animal is not being treated well, you are paying into it and apart from that have you LOOKED at your 'donkey'? Because it is actually a pony. There were some donkeys, but there were some ponys thrown in also.

After scaling the mountain on our return we felt we deserved a reward and had chocolate cake a drinks and bought a Greek eye at our fav jewellery shop. We had some pool time in the afternoon with John before grabbing more giros for tea and chilled out by the pool. I went for a walk to the store with John and Fern (who was all over John) for nibbles for our movie/girls night. We decided to dye the ends of Kel's hair pink and blue and Johno, John, Fern, Grace and I ate tim tams and had tea. We then all jumped on the bed Kel and I were sharing to devour our nibbles and watch School of Rock. We had managed to get Johno and then charlie to stay for our movie and then balcony party. Then Christian and Steven also joined in and it ended up being a big night. There were some memorable jokes mentioned but they were too inappropriate for ever repeating. Our last morning we headed back to Mamma's house for our final breakie in beautiful Santorini before we packed up and headed to ferry.

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