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Published: July 24th 2008
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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 rest of our group arrived throughtout the day, including Shain and Kim who it was great to see after 18 months abroad. That night 6 of us, Luke, Shain, Kim, Stu, Katie and myself had a small reunion meal before Tim turned up to take us out to Bob's Bar where the rest of the group had been drinking. As it turned out, Tim had actually been sent home because he was falling asleep in Bob's Bar. We plied him with a couple of shots of Jager and followed him down. Within an hour he was passed out in the corner. It wasn't much longer after that when Shain became a little ill in the garden next to Tim's corner. For the first time ever I
was one of the repsonsible drinkers and running around all over the place trying to keep everyone safe. My favourite quote of the night was on arrival when one of the girls not known for her drinking was told "Sex on the Beach, strongest cocktail", "Yeah give me that", she replied. Eventually Luke and myself got everyone home safe and I ducked my head in the fridge for a celebratory Jager, next thing I knew the front door was open and we had lost another two. Kim was determined to take a swim that night and eventually got her wish. The next day we hired quad bikes and went exploring the island, visiting Thira, a beautiful city on the side of the mountain/volcano where we had lunch overlooking the caldera watching the ferries cruise in and out of the port. On the way back we found our way to Red Beach which was breathtaking. The beach is black sand and pebbles and only 20 - 30 metres wide with a massive red cliff face of volcanic rock behind it. Then that night we had Michelle's big birthday dinner. Was quite impressed she managed to get 20 people from all over
the world onto this tiny island miles from any of our homes to celebrate. Was also nice to get Shain and my birthdays tagged onto it aswell, although we were really all only there for her. More drinking was done after dinner at the beach bar until we jumped on the quads and ferried everyone back to the hotel, with a quick stop at the 24 hour bakery on the way, love the 24 hour bakery. The next day a few of us drove the quads all the way the other end of the island to a city call Oia for lunch. Oia is amazing, tiny little lane ways snake their way between the builings which are built all over the side of the cliff face. The Greville's were having a family lunch so this was a nice chance to get to know Michelle's freinds from the UK/US who we'd only met a few days before. On the way home we stopped at the Unique Sunset View Cafe where we totally got ripped off with beer prices, but then realised when the sun had set and the whole place emptied that they only get people there for a couple of hours a day so they have to make their money somehow. The sunset was fairly spectacular as it set over one of the distant islands. That night involved more drinking and another trip to the beach bar before stumbling home on the quads, with the obligatory stop at the 24 hours bakery, where I took an univited impromtu tour of their baking facilities. The bakers seemed to enjoy the attention luckily. Woke the next morning wondering how long all this drinking could go on and vowing to take it easier tonight. A few of the group spent the day trying to find White and Black beack until learning late in the day that it was only accessible by boat, although Tim claims he did manage to get to White Beach by quad. I spent the day recovering from the night before, lazing around the pool. In the afternoon TIm, Luke and myself set off for Oia again to see what I'd heard was the most beautiful sunset in the world. The drive out to Oia was fantastic, curving cliff top roads where you can see for miles across the islands plains below and really put your foot down and get the bike tail sliding around the bends. When we arrived we had know idea where to go and I was kicking myself for not finding out beforehand. We managed to pick the right laneway though and knew we'd found the spot when we turned a corner and found thousands of people perched on every viewing spot available. Just the sight of all these people in one spot to watch the sunset was amazing in itself. The sunset itself was just magnificent and is something that has to be seen to be appreciated. On that night alone there would have been over a million photos taken, there were shutters going off everywhere and it happens every night. Then once it was over the whole crowd strted clapping, it was so surreal all I could do was clap along and laugh. Laughed even more when a very young Australian kid yelled out "Dad, what the hell are we doing here... Are we going go somewhere to watch the moon rise next". We stayed for dinner while the crowd dispersed and I treated myself to chocolate ice cream and waffles seeing as though it was my birthday. We then made the cliff top drive back in pitch black darkness which wasn't as harrowing as we expected and proved to be quite enjoyablem altho Tim forgot a jacket and froze his butt off. We got back to find they'd bought a cake for Shain and I and we got the whole Happy Birthday song and blew out the candles, it was very nice. I headed out to Beach Bar on my own that late night after much drinking at the hotel, to find that it was quite dead. Still I found myself a nice spot a sunk a few too many Bailey's until close. The next morning, being Friday, we dropped the quads back to Moto Express where the guy held our drivers licences hostage until we paid him an extra 5 euro each, beware!! Then major paniced ensued as we tried to get packed, buy ferry tickets and get a cab down to the port. It all worked out in the end tho and we arrived at the port with 30 mins to spare plus the ferry was late. Once on board it was only a short hop over to the isalnd of Ios, we'd been warned that this was the party island but I had no idea what I was in store for.
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