Exploring Europe 2013: Living on the edge

We landed in Santorini Wednesday night and were greeted by a taxi service to our hotel, ONIRO Suites, which is just outside of Fira. The hotel is more like a villa on a cliff, overlooking the beautiful Santorini bay. It was as good thing we hired the hotel taxi or we would not have found our place walking through the path along the cliff. Our room was incredible, it had a cave like feel and we had a private jacuzzi on our deck overlooking the sea.

We woke up the next morning to the most amazing view I have ever seen. It actually looked like a postcard. George, who was the worker who ran the villas while we were there, brought us breakfast and coffee to have on our deck. We love George. He was so helpful and fun and really made our stay enjoyable. After we enjoyed our breakfast, we started on our exploration of Santorini. It hard to describe the way it looked. Once we walked down the stairs of our villa, we were on a path that wanders between all the white and blue building and overlooks the Aegean sea. You can see cruise ships docked in the bay as people come to shore on smaller boats. It is the perfect place to take pictures. It is about a 25 minute walk from where we are to the center of Fira, but when you are walking on this path, time goes so quickly.

The weather was absolutely amazing the entire time we were there. We had to buy extra sunscreen and fortunately avoided any sunburns. The rest of the first day was spent exploring, taking pictures and eating great food. We splurged a little on food but it there were so many Greek tavernas they were hard to pass up. We definitely walked it off either way. On our walk home we passes by a man with a crippled leg. Jordan felt that we should pray for him and give him some money. The man really was touched and thankful. That night we ate dinner where we could watch the sun set and were blown away again by the beauty of creation.

Friday morning we walked to Fira, where the cruise ships docked and waited to meet up with my mom, and dad, who happened to be on a cruise ship that stopped in Santorini. We joined them for breakfast on the ship and gorged on the endless fruit and mimosas in their private cabana. After, we all headed to shore and took the gondola back up to the top of the cliff. We wandered through the market and picked up a souvenir for Braeden before we walked the beautiful path back to our place. We relaxed on the deck in the sun for a few hours and ate lunch with my parents until they went back to the ship. After they left we went on a hunt for an ATV. We rented it for 24hr for only $30. And when we brought it back they would dive us to the airport for $10 which was significantly cheaper than any taxi service. We drove for an hour or so before we stopped for dinner and I loved it! Sure I was terrified at first and there are basically no rules of the road but it prepared me for the next day of driving around on it.

Yesterday we woke up and had breakfasts on the deck again. We packed up most of our stuff and George, being the wonderful guy he is, told us to keep our stuff there until we left at 6pm because the room was empty that day. So we hopped on the ATV and drove to Oia on the other side of the island. Jordan was right, there is something surreal about driving that ATV on a cliff with the sea on either side of you. It was such an incredible experience and adrenaline rush. The rules of driving in Santorini are 'If you are bigger, you win' 'If you go faster, you whip past' and their slogan on signs 'I love life, I drive safe'. I can not wait to do that again. After we drove back we went to our villa and sat in the sun for an hour before we dropped off the ATV and got a ride the airport. We had our first flight delay (1hr) and landed in Athens for our overnight layover before heading to Rome. Good thing we booked the airport hotel as we were only in Athens 8hrs.

We are now on the plane and excited for a new county. Because Greece is hard to get to and the ferries shut down last week, this is our 4th plane within Greece. Milan -> Athens, Athens -> Santorini, Santorini -> Athens, Athens -> Rome and I just want to say I would totally recommend Aegean Air to anyone. For the price it is, you get incredible service and they have been very reliable. We are about to land now.... hello Italy!