Santorini is the place to be

I think I've fallen in love, and her name is Santorini. If you have ever been here you know how I feel. We've spent the past 5 weeks roaming city to city seeing monuments, museums and memorials. This was quite a change of pace. After about 2 or so days of traveling/ sleeping on floors on a variety of trains and boats we finally got to one of the most beautiful places I've ever been.

We arrived around 5am and began the drive up the massive cliff face. Winding back and forth you could see the small dock lights get smaller and smaller as we rose in elevation. Then we drove about 10 minutes across the island and about 3 turns later we were looking at the ocean. After we checked in we were too excited to go to sleep. As we walked outside we couldn't help but to notice two things in the moonlight. The black sandy beach at your feet and huge mountain that makes you feel like an ant next to a rock. After about 10 minutes that 2nd wind of energy dissipated(gre vocab what up!) and we crashed.

After a well deserved sleep in, we ate and began an adventure I will never forget. We rented ATVs for the day and it was AWESOME(yes it needs to be capitalized). From 1pm to 10pm we drove around the entire island. The view was priceless. At one point we had massive cliffs on our right and the sea to our left. It was hard to decide whether to focus on driving or the view(i think you can guess which won). One small town, Oia, is the quintisential Greek looking town. Rows of different sized homes and small hotels/cottages with white walls and blue doors all facing the open sea. Oh yea and the three small volcanic islands that look as if they were placed there strategically to make the view even more beautiful. After hours of driving around the island we headed back to one of our first stops, a light tower on the south west edge of the island to watch the sunset. There we climbed around a bit and although clouds prevented a clear view, it was still a beautiful sight. We headed to a market to get dinner and drove around with the remaining daylight getting in our last moments with our ATVs. Needless to say it was very sad droppin them back off at the rental place. What a great day!

The next day we climbed the mountain near our hostel that holds the remains of the ancient city of Thira. Then relaxed by the beach and pool in the afternoon. Soooo relaxing. That night we headed out for my bday dinner(bc my actual bday dinner would be on a boat) at place called Atlas, which is owned by a Canadian who moved here after only wanting to spend 2 months island hopping. He said he spent a week in Crete then when he got here, never left. Greg and i had mousaka, a greek dish kind of similar to a pot pie with meat, eggplant and potatoes, very good. For my bday we were brought 3 shots of Raki(pronounced rocky) which is basically a greek moonshine made from the local wine leftovers.

We headed back to our hostel where we watched the Real Madrid vs Barcelona fútbol game and awaited my bday. A few drinks, new friends and another free bday shot of Raki later, it was midnight. 23 yrs old, crazy.

Leaving Santorini was the first time I was actually sad leaving on this trip. We went at a perfect time before tourist season, the people were so nice, the atmosphere was wonderful and the views were spectacular.

My bday was spent sitting on the back of the ferry watching us weave in and out of the islands. "Tough life," as my Dad would say. The only sad thing was watching the Caps get knocked out of the playoffs :(

We spent a nice semi rainy day in Athens seeing the major sights. I was warned this before and will also recommend the same thing, there is no need to spend more than one day in Athens( unless you're a huge Greek history fan).

As Greg mentioned there was a slight delay flying to Rome, lame-sauce. Leaving Greece marked the end of the first part of our trip. With officially all of our hostel/hotels booked we begin heading back west towards our final destination, Mardid. It was a wonderful 4.5 weeks and am very excited for what comes next.

Hope all is well with all of you,

Dave