http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Greece/South-Aegean/Santorini/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from Europe , Greece , South Aegean , Santorini en-us Thu, 16 Oct 2008 03:13:46 BST Thu, 16 Oct 2008 03:13:46 BST Hello loved ones and friendsWell once again I find myself far far behind on this blog. I am going to tell you about the best weekend we have had yet in Greece.Santorini Island...for all of you who might not know what I am talking about think the place where they filmed Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants and Mamma Mia.It was more beautiful in real life than it is in picturesWe took a 9 hour fe http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/Greece/South-Aegean/Santorini/blog-334616.html Aegean Dreams in Greece Catching up with our travelers as their plane descends into Athens Greece shortly after midnight. Arriving in the middle of the night presents its own set of difficulties such as transportation and finding a reasonable place to stay. Thinking ahead we had booked a room online before we departed to eliminate at least one of the issues. However the transportation is http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/Greece/South-Aegean/Santorini/blog-333674.html Hi everyoneI have on 12 minutes left and my money will run out so this will be brief. We have just left Santorini. I rode a donkey up the mountain side to arrive at the top. It was fun I haven't laughed so much for a long time. The holiday on board the ship has been great. We have are own shower and toiet. The rocking of the ship has been miminual and i have loved it. Will like to do it again som http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/Greece/South-Aegean/Santorini/blog-332662.html After reading up on what islands had what to offer and where they were located the best and most interesting plan led to Santorini Also known as Thira one of the more southern most islands towards Crete The camper was to be left on Santorini Packing up the night before and leaving the van at old port meant we slept the night there and woke up the next morning with enough time to walk around 2mi http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/Greece/South-Aegean/Santorini/blog-328823.html Europe here we come...After leaving Egypt we were dying for some kind of luxury familiarity... anything Western reallyTash A was excited as her first 'real' venture into Europe and a first for both Tash's to Greece. In short we had 1 week to see all we could of what Greece has to offerFirstly 2 nights in Athens The Hermes hotel was ultimate luxury compared to where we had been the previous http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/Greece/South-Aegean/Santorini/blog-327722.html Amongst the ruins we tramped. The occasional tree blocked the sun momentarily. Our feet stirred up a fine choking dust. The hot still air let the dust hang there for a moment. Then if it didn't reach the back of your throat it lodged in between teeth. I wondered if Santorini would be like Rome.Looking out the Aegean Air jet doing a flyby of this Waihekesized island pop 12000 tourists http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/Greece/South-Aegean/Santorini/blog-327406.html Days 18 19 20 21 22 and 23 SantoriniSo after leaving Ios due to fog we pulled into Santorini to see fog covering the cliffs. It was an amazing rolling fog on the cliffs. London fog had nothing on Santorini fog Luckily we were there for 5 days so we figured it would clear up. It did slowly revealing the amazing caldera. Each day it got clearer so we saw more and more until it was clea http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/Greece/South-Aegean/Santorini/blog-325636.html Today we awoke in beautiful sweet hospitable glamorous photogenic friendly Oia Santorini. What a getaway this place isAs I am writing this blog my enjoyment of life glands are tingling at the thought of the place. It is romantic and peaceful beyond anything else in this world. We woke up in a cave house that was cool even though outside was getting quite warm. We walked around and just wandered http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/Greece/South-Aegean/Santorini/blog-324721.html Thursday Sept 11 2008After anxiously awaiting the end of classes all day finally finished up at 230pm. Came home my bath tub laundry was dry Success Brought it all inside did some homework took a quick shower and packed for the weekend. Left the apartment as soon as Leslie was done class about 6pm for our 8pm ferry. For some strange reason I didnrsquot notice until we got on the boat http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/Greece/South-Aegean/Santorini/blog-324365.html Another hot spot crossed off for us ladieshellip we have just spent the last week in Greece. What a beautiful place We arrived in Athens and stayed the night in a bit of a dodge area but that was only until we got the ferry across to Santorini Island the next day. What a trip that was 8 hours it took us to get there. We started out with the cheap tickets which get you on the deck but after bei http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/Greece/South-Aegean/Santorini/blog-323411.html Yasu here I am in the Greek Islands. Sorry for the long absence but things have been getting pretty wild around here. I could write about everything that I have been doing but I am getting a little bored of recounting every little detail. I guess I will just have to hope that the pictures do the talking at the end of the tour.So I am going to fast forward from Barcelona through the French Riveria http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/Greece/South-Aegean/Santorini/blog-321323.html Okay so it actually was every computer in Greece that hated me because there's nothing wrong with my camera. In fact there's a limited number of photos here because I burned all my photos onto CD's the other day then switched out my memory card now in my money belt for a fresh one resulting in a limited number of photos to choose from for this blog. No worries though there are still some g http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/Greece/South-Aegean/Santorini/blog-320969.html My contiki tour of Greece 608. Overall I had a really wonderful time in Greece Turkey. Definitely the highlight of the trip was visiting Oia in Santorini. Unfortunately I had only 1 hr to see it so I took as many pictures as I could. I am by no means a pro photographer but it is definitely one of my passions. Hope you enjoy the pictures and feel free to ask any questions. http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/Greece/South-Aegean/Santorini/blog-313318.html Cant believe its our last day here already. The pace is slow but hectic at the same time. We have managed to take a trip to the black beach for a day yesterday which was fantastic but the black volcanic sand and the hoardes of Italian tourists proved to be a bit of a challenge Mat has gone black in this weather as you can probably imagine. I'm a little tanned but I've never felt so white in comp http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/Greece/South-Aegean/Santorini/blog-312910.html Second attempt at uploading our photos..... seems to be working this time...Clearly didn't think Greece through very well here I was wondering if I would be able to eat anything other than souvlaki and tzaksiki dip. Well i have certainly changed my mind... we are here in a country where the following key elements apply1. lots of beautiful weather2. everyone drinks and smokes3. everything is cov http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/Greece/South-Aegean/Santorini/blog-312048.html Hey EveryoneWe're leaving Santorini today and headed to Crete one of the biggest Greek Islands. We're sad to leave this beautiful place but I think we've seen most of what there is to see. Yesterday we rented an ATV typical mode of transport here and drove down a beautiful road along the coast to Oia which is rumored to be the most beautiful town in Santorini. It was. We ate a fishy dinner do http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/Greece/South-Aegean/Santorini/blog-311586.html Hello friends and familyLet us start by saying CONGRATS AMANDA AND KRAEMER For anyone who doesn't know two of our closest friends just got engaged one is the naked guy. As for us the last few days on Santorini have been spectacular. Yesterday we attended an island and wine tour. All the local wines were pretty good but Tamara and I weren't too keen on the Vincento. We watched the be http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/Greece/South-Aegean/Santorini/blog-310910.html Beautiful beaches great atmosphere stunning scenery. All things we thought we were heading to. We got the ferry from Athens to Santorini. Slept on the deck which was great at the start novelty factor. But by the middle of the night we were quite cold. The ferry stopped at almost every possilbe stop on the way. It took us 16 hours Which didnt bother us at the time because we just thought abou http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/Greece/South-Aegean/Santorini/blog-310518.html We have made it to our final resort in Santorini This area is called Oia you pronounce it E ahhh It is at the very tip of the Island A lot slower of a pace than the middle of the city Thira We had to walk down a ton of steps just to make it to the reception The bell men here have the toughest job carrying all of the luggage down to the rooms The hotel is carved into the cliffshillsid http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/Greece/South-Aegean/Santorini/blog-308746.html Day 37It is so hard to keep track of time and dates. Today is Monday I think and we are off to Crete this evening. About three hours by boat. We have just spent the final two nights of our island hopping package on the famed Santorini. It truly is quite spectacularly amazing with the towns perched precariously on the cliff tops. Today there are six cruise ships anchored in the bay below. One ge http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/Greece/South-Aegean/Santorini/blog-308220.html So we made it here with almost no problems We decided to take the hydro foil from Crete to Santorini The total boating time was about 1 hour and 45 minutes but we had to wait and dock at the port for a little while Not nearly as bad as our J.F.K experience We sat up in business class which was nice because there was no smoking We had a small table that we shared with two young Greek guy http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/Greece/South-Aegean/Santorini/blog-307981.html After 8 hours of boating torture we finally arrived at Santorini more then happy to be getting back to dry land. A short cab ride and we were soon at the hotel Ira Studios No2 Nikita's Appts. From the outside it looked beautiful but Nikita although a lovely guy has falen a little behind on the maintenance of late. Still it was great just to have a bed and warmish shower at that point. The http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/Greece/South-Aegean/Santorini/blog-303882.html Aneliess and Amyrsquos 2 week vacation through Italy and Greece.First stop was Pisa where after we took a taxi ride that cost way too much we were eaten by bugs and saw all the sites in about an hour. We saw the oldest botanical gardens in Europe not the biggest or most beautiful and drank cappuccino for 1euro. Next was a stop on the 4th of July in Firenze or Florence Italy. Our tour guide http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/Greece/South-Aegean/Santorini/blog-301517.html Hi EveryoneI am not going to apologize again for how long it's taken me to get another blog up as I have ajust 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 bI 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 lo http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/Greece/South-Aegean/Santorini/blog-300430.html I have 7 minutes before I am kicked off of this computer so I am going to make this short.This is no secret but Santorini is just one of the most beautiful places on earth. It's like Big Sur attempted poorly at an immitation of this. Dave and I managed to find the biggest steal on the island. We stubled across a modest yet beautiful place tucked right into the cliffs of the Caldera. I will give http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/Greece/South-Aegean/Santorini/blog-298352.html We are now in Santorini. The flight from Australia went quite smoothly except for an extra delay by Qantas in Singapore making it a 5 hour stop. At least this allowed for a nap of about 1 hour on the floor. We spent our first night in Rome. It was hot and we didnrsquot have much energy but enjoyed a short walk around the city backstreets and a meal out at night. We were pleased to get our Skype http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/Greece/South-Aegean/Santorini/blog-296884.html Hello AllWell Andrea and I have spent the last two weeks island hopping here in the Aegean Sea. We haven't done a great deal of sightseeing mostly just relaxing and hanging out. Below is a short description of each island we've been to with some pictures. We're heading to Crete later this afternoon and after we spend a week there we're flying to EgyptMykonosWe spent about four days here and http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/Greece/South-Aegean/Santorini/blog-294779.html Well it's seems forever since my last blog. Last I wrote we were in Meteora which was wonderful. From Meteora we headed back to Athens to finally mail our third bag to the states. Four times we lugged that damn thing to different post offices Mark was very happy to see it go Luckily I had purchased a 50.00 yes...50.00 Lonely Planet from a bookstore that was kind enough to give me http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/Greece/South-Aegean/Santorini/blog-294415.html Got a dune buggy today with Mom and drove all over the island. Went to Perissa Beach and the Red Beach then back towards the hotel to Kamari Beach. Just driving around mostly then went up to the mountain town of Pyrgos and checked out the crazy maze of streets and got lunch. Split a pizza and each had a drink. Can't believe I have never been up there. Maybe my favorite place on the island. T http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/Greece/South-Aegean/Santorini/blog-290903.html