We woke up early and got ready to head to the most famous Greek island, Santorini!! If you've seen "The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants," this is where the Lena spends her summer. We started off...rough. I forgot my passport so we had to get to my apartment first which set us back a half hour. When we got to the airport we boarded right away, except the term "boarded" means something a little different here. We boarded the BUS. Yes we all stood on this septa-type bus and that took us to our plane, which was tiny with propellers instead of jets. Terrifying. We got in and all sat in aisle seats near each other. The woman across the aisle from me was funny, though I'm not sure she spoke much English. She and I both were holding on tight during the take off, and exchanged smiles when it took off, and then both freaked out again as we experienced some pretty strong turbulence on the way up. Once we finally got up, the flight attendants took out the drinks, but since the flight was so short (30 minutes), they did not get to everyone, stopping just a few rows before me. The lady laughed and looked at me and said, "I guess no coffee!" and it was, for some reason, the funniest thing ever.
The landing was a little rough also, kinda like we hit the ground, skipped a little, and then for real landed. When we got up, the lady from across the aisle came over, hugged me and gave me a kiss on the head and said "have fun!" Such a sweet lady. Little things like that remind me how wonderful these people can me.
Anyways, after we got off the bus at the airport we hopped in our little baby rental car. My dad asked for a 4-door, not realizing that they don't actually have SUVs here, and we got a tiny Japanese car. Our GPS did not actually get us anywhere except lost, sending us in the complete opposite direction of anywhere we wanted to go. Eventually we made our way up some mountain to find the ruins of Ancient Thira, which was destroyed by an earthquake and covered over by grass and dirt for thousands of years. Pretty cool stuff. We then followed signs to our town, Thira, the capital of Santorini. After parking and walking all over, we finally found our hotel. The people were so nice, informing us that our hotel was once a monastery for the first Catholic church on the island. Monks lived in the room we stayed in. Crazy.
Just as we were about to go to the bar, the room service man showed up with wine, cheese and fruit. I felt like a celebrity. We then made our way around town and found a man offering to do donkey rides down to the port. We wanted to take them down and then take this cable car/ski lift type thing back up for the view. The man put up a big fight, the conversation between him and my dad went something like this.
Dad: Just down please.
Man: No. Down, up.
Dad: No, we are going to take the cable car up.
Man: No cable car, donkey down up.
Dad: Just down.
Man: Down up
Dad: No, just down. We want to take the cable car up.
Man: Down up.
You get the idea, it was very humorous, but eventually as we started to walk away he said we could just go down. Sounds fun though, right? WRONG. This was terrifying. They donkeys were going so fast, and their hooves were sliding on the paths. Not only that but this was all on the edge of cliffs so once slip-up and you are...a goner. Once we got down we had a drink and then hopped in the cable car to go back up. This is when I learned that my mom is claustrophobic, she was cursing like a sailor and terrified. Then we got back to the town and went through the stops, and stopped to taste some island wines. This is when I realized I had hit my limit with drinks. Oops, a little too late. I had to pee SO bad that I could barely walk, and I was having trouble keeping myself together in general. My mom also had to pee and she was laughing so hard...ugh it was hilarious and horrible all at the same time.
After finally hitting the restroom, we got in the car to drive to Oia, the town that you see pictures of on postcards, and famous for it's beautiful sunsets. Unfortunately, the GPS led us astray and we missed it by about 10 minutes, but it was still beautiful. We then had a delicious dinner, got some ice cream, and went to sleep.
The landing was a little rough also, kinda like we hit the ground, skipped a little, and then for real landed. When we got up, the lady from across the aisle came over, hugged me and gave me a kiss on the head and said "have fun!" Such a sweet lady. Little things like that remind me how wonderful these people can me.
Anyways, after we got off the bus at the airport we hopped in our little baby rental car. My dad asked for a 4-door, not realizing that they don't actually have SUVs here, and we got a tiny Japanese car. Our GPS did not actually get us anywhere except lost, sending us in the complete opposite direction of anywhere we wanted to go. Eventually we made our way up some mountain to find the ruins of Ancient Thira, which was destroyed by an earthquake and covered over by grass and dirt for thousands of years. Pretty cool stuff. We then followed signs to our town, Thira, the capital of Santorini. After parking and walking all over, we finally found our hotel. The people were so nice, informing us that our hotel was once a monastery for the first Catholic church on the island. Monks lived in the room we stayed in. Crazy.
Just as we were about to go to the bar, the room service man showed up with wine, cheese and fruit. I felt like a celebrity. We then made our way around town and found a man offering to do donkey rides down to the port. We wanted to take them down and then take this cable car/ski lift type thing back up for the view. The man put up a big fight, the conversation between him and my dad went something like this.
Dad: Just down please.
Man: No. Down, up.
Dad: No, we are going to take the cable car up.
Man: No cable car, donkey down up.
Dad: Just down.
Man: Down up
Dad: No, just down. We want to take the cable car up.
Man: Down up.
You get the idea, it was very humorous, but eventually as we started to walk away he said we could just go down. Sounds fun though, right? WRONG. This was terrifying. They donkeys were going so fast, and their hooves were sliding on the paths. Not only that but this was all on the edge of cliffs so once slip-up and you are...a goner. Once we got down we had a drink and then hopped in the cable car to go back up. This is when I learned that my mom is claustrophobic, she was cursing like a sailor and terrified. Then we got back to the town and went through the stops, and stopped to taste some island wines. This is when I realized I had hit my limit with drinks. Oops, a little too late. I had to pee SO bad that I could barely walk, and I was having trouble keeping myself together in general. My mom also had to pee and she was laughing so hard...ugh it was hilarious and horrible all at the same time.
After finally hitting the restroom, we got in the car to drive to Oia, the town that you see pictures of on postcards, and famous for it's beautiful sunsets. Unfortunately, the GPS led us astray and we missed it by about 10 minutes, but it was still beautiful. We then had a delicious dinner, got some ice cream, and went to sleep.
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