Santorini

Yesterday we set off bright and early to go to santorini. We left the house at 6:15 and caught the ferry at 7:30. We were off for a 8 hour ferry ride to the island. Luckly I accidently packed my sea bands so I could wear them so I wouldn't get sea sick, any big boat gives me seasickness, little boats no problems. But I never ended up feeling sick so it turned out ok, we bought out tickets for the ferry the day before and didn't know you could pick seats, and if you didn't pick seats you could not sit in open seating which consisted of chairs in hallways, and chairs and tables. We found seats when we got on but didn't know they were assigned so we ended up having to move and couldn't find anywhere to sit by this point because all the sets were taken. We ended up having to sit outside and it was a little chilly. We stopped in three othe ports before we got to santorini, which was neat to see other islands even if from afar. We got of the ferry and found the bus we needed to get to our hostel, took the bus and had very detailed instructions on how to get there. We had to walk a bit which was ok by me, and while we were walking everyone was saying hi and welcoming us, and one women our age probably stopped in her car and asked us where we were going, we said caveland and she pointed us in the right direction, although we already knew how to get there. Everyone here is so very friendly, it's amazing.

Caveland the hostel were staying in is very cool, it was built in the 1700's and they are tipical cave houses, which are really cool! We learned that santorini actually has no water supply and they have to have their water shipped over! Apperently this is very expensive and I can understand why, so water conservation is huge here. We were also told that most of the Greek islands don't have water of their own. Also the island is so small and has such a low crime rate, hardly any at all actually they only have one police station for the whole island, which means if you need the police you need to call them the day before so they can get there, aka they are lazy. But it was nice to come somewhere and not have to worry about weather it's safe. Yesterday since we didn't get in until 4:00 we went into the nearby town fira and wondered around and watched the sunset.

Today we went to a volcanic island on a boat tour, we hikes the volcanoe island and then got back in the boat and went to a hot spring. In order to get down to the port you have to take a able car or walk down almost 600 stairs. When we got back you can take a cable car to the top or a donkey, we went for the donkey, it was so fun! Hilarious! After this we rented an ATV which you can drive on the streets like a car. We only rented a 50cc, which only goes 12kmh up hill! Ohh well at least it gets us around because on Sundays the buses stop running at 2:30. We took the bike to a volcanic beach, then we were on our way back and the bike started to lose power we were like ohh no whats wrong! Wee out in the middle of nowhere and don't have a phone...yup we just ran out of gas, he didn't tell us to get gas when we rented it. Luckly we were close to a gas station. After this we went to the other side of the island, to Oia which is world renown for its sunset. We wandered around for a while then watched the sun set, it was beautiful and the town is so beautiful. It was the part of santorini that all the google pictures show! It was amazing, everything I wanted it to be and more. I want to come back here in the summer when everything is open, because right now it's not tourist season so most shops an restaurants are closed. But enough things are open to see and do. Tourist season actually starts this week so we just missed it, however a cruise ship came in today so everything will be open tomorrow just for the day.

Did you know...

Santorini has more churches then houses, more donkeys then men and more wine then water...

There are actually over 400 churches on this island, and most have blue domes, and the island isnt that big, you can drive a ATV from one end to the other in a day, actually in pretty much an hour, and this is on a ATV that doesn't go faster then 45kmh so it would take way less time in a real car. More adventures tomorrow then back to Athens until Wednesday. Off to Italy again, to see Florence, Venice and Milan! Since we only seen Rome last time.