I have a few posts left on Greece still to get up but wanted to share this first. Our 2nd day on Santorini was spent in Oia and before I get you all the details, here are some pics from our donkey ride. It was definitely on my list of things to do on the island and laughed the entire way up. It was so much fun!
These girls were hilarious.
And now for the video…
I’m so excited to share Santorini with you! We spent the last 3 days of our Greece vacation on this volcanic island and really lived it up. Ever since watching The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, I’ve always wanted to travel here. Guess you could say we saved the best for last!
Day 1 was getting there, checking in to our Villa, eating, seeing Fira and relaxing.
Five hours on the ferry…
..made us thankful to get to our Villa and be greeted with a glass of fresh orange juice.
The view from our Villa:
These Villas were wonderful. The staff was incredibly friendly, taxied us to and from the port and offered to help us book tours, gave us complimentary drinks and served us breakfast by the pool.
Next we headed into Fira for some more Greek food!
The view from Thira was AMAZING. However, I’m realizing now that I needed to have cleaned my lens more, hahaha.
We went back to our Villa to spend the afternoon by the pool.
That night we sat on the patio and watched the sun go down, snacked and went to bed early.
So much more to come!!!!
The second portion of our European adventure was spent in Greece – the first two days being in Athens. We originally only had one day planned, but failed to book our ferry to Santorini early, so we ended up staying two nights in Athens. Truthfully, we would have been fine with just one day, but oh-well. The first thing we noticed was that the transportation was MUCH easier to understand than in Italy and mostly everyone spoke English. Such a relief!
Athens was HUMONGOUS!
Upon our arrival we settled in to our hostel – Pella Inn.
Aside from the uncomfortable bed, out of suite bathrooms and travelers partying into the night, it was rather nice. The view from the rooftop patio was amazing:
We then set off for lunch at the Restaurant Steps (a string of delicious restaurants along this particular alley of steps) and the Acropolis.
We ended the day with some Mythos on the roof top to watch the sunset.
The 2nd day we woke up and toured Ancient Agora and Plaka.
Then when we found out we had overlooked the ferry times, we spent two hours booking our tickets for the next morning and I was at the verge of tears. Thankfully it was nothing a little McDonald’s couldn’t solve.
Then I still needed some cheering up, so we went to Chocolate street for… chocolate! I had to buy this little guy – it was an owl! And it was DELICIOUS.
That night our hostel was hosting a barbecue so we ate (AGAIN), mingled, and Facebooked.
This was the girl who worked every day we were there. She was sooooo nice! She kept giving us free shots of Oyzo! Tasted like black licorice.
She looks like she could be the daughter of Denzel Washington. Right?
Overall, Athens was pretty rad. I found some great buys for my friends, we saw the ruins, and ate some delicious food. It was incredible to be in one of the oldest cities in the world!
And it was by far the best vacation I’ve ever been on.
It’s 4 am and I can’t sleep. Wide awake. Been up since 1 am. Went to bed at 9:30. Is this what jet lag is? My eyes burn but I can’t calm my mind.
Back to my blog post.
7 cities in 18 days. I still can’t believe we did it. I’m so proud of us. Proud that we survived all the modes of transportation needed… the map reading, nights of being lost, language-barriers, sleepless nights, pushy Italian crowds, and minor hiccups along the way. There were a lot of “should’ves” and “wish we would’ves”, but also a lot of “glad we did’s” and “thank God’s”.
Here is just a glimpse of what you’ll be seeing more of (in more detail of course). I took over 2,000 pictures and can’t wait to clean them up and post them! Not all 2,000 of course, just the highlights! Still digesting them all. I still feel like I didn’t take enough! I’ll definitely be including all the food shots, as we ate some pretty amazing food. Oh, and I will try to post some videos, too. HILARIOUS.
Rome, Italy
Orvieto, Italy
Venice, Italy
Naples, Italy
Capri, Italy
Athens, Greece
Santorini, Greece
I fell in love with my husband all over again. He was the best travel partner I could have asked for. He made this trip absolutely amazing and I’m so thankful to have him in my life.
I was happiest when I was watching him eat (lots of pictures to come like the one below), or swim in the ocean, or smile at me, even when I was about to have a nervous break-down. We laughed a lot and will hold these memories in our hearts forever. Getting a little choked up now. Jeez.
I’m glad to say that I did everything I wanted to do while I was there. More on that to come!