Saying that arriving in Athens was heaven was spoken too soon. We got off the bus with brains of jelly and sore limbs only to have to find our way to the hostel that we booked for tonight. Although is was only a short walk we did not have a map so we followed the hostels directions by metro that we had written down earlier. We got to the metro stop and got off only to want to get right back on and leave as fast as possible. Apparently Athens at six in the morning is one big junky reunion. There were people all over the streets shooting up, it was awful but they minded their own business, as did we and found our hostel. Usually hostels don't allow check in until two in the evening but the man allowed us in our room right away. Having had no sleep on the bus we needed sleep before facing the city again so we set an alarm for a three hour snooze. Three hours turned into five and when we woke up with semi functioning brains we decided to get out of this city later today despite having the hostel until tomorrow. There is a ferry to Santorini, one of the Greek islands where the sisterhood of the traveling pants was filmed, at six tonight and gets us there at two in the morning. We booked a hostel in Santorini that has a pick up service from the port to the hotel since we arrive when it's still dark and don't want to deal with transport ourselves especially if its anything like athens. Having time to kill before our ferry we set out towards Monastiraki where the Acropolis, and ruins are. The sun has been hiding since Romania but it decided to reappear with a vengeance today. We never made it to the Acropolis because it was just too hot to be hiking hills but instead settled on seeing the Temple of Hephaestus. After our little bit of sight seeing we stopped into a restaurant (we had no idea what it served or what the prices looked like we just knew that it had fans blowing water on its guests and we were so hot). It turned out to be a lovely little restaurant and we ordered pork souvlaki which was delicious. They even gave out free dessert and bread, what a bargain! We had half an hour left to waist so we hit the markets to shop and I bought some incredibly cute shoes. I had wanted to buy out the store but my wallet didn't account for that. We hurried back to our hostel and gathered our things before leaving the ghetto behind. We found the ferry port by metro and bought our tickets out of here. Common island paradise! The ferry is already a breath of fresh air equipped with swimming pool and all (although the pool isn't running). We got a booth seat which will be a million times comfier to sleep on tonight compared to the bus. Not to mention it has food and running washrooms, paradise is getting closer. We arrived in the port at around four in the morning and there was a hotel shuttle there to pick us up. Immediately we noticed how much friendly people on the island were compared to the mainland, island life is the best life. We got to our hotel in Perissa, Petra Nera, and it was heaven this time! There was a pool out front and our room was directly off the pool. We got a quick shut eye but didn't want to waist our time here so woke up a couple hours later to enjoy the rest of the day. Across from the hotel was the towns only bakery where our new cheese pie addiction could be tamed twenty four hours a day. We headed to the beach, cheese pies in hand, and hit up all the little shops. We found a scuba diving place and although Ashley isn't certified she thought I should at least look into it and I'm so glad we did because we organized that we go out together but someone would take me scuba diving while someone else takes Ashley snorkeling (but that's not til tomorrow we just booked it today). Today however was a relaxing day, after shopping we lounged by the pool side enjoying some casual drinks till our hunger called. We had seen some good restaurants down on the beach so after changing out of our beach attire we headed back that way to eat and enjoy some of Greece's finest dishes, lamb and pork. I cannot even explain how amazing our meals were! I could have ordered seconds even though I was stuffed to the max. To work off the food we walked along the beach (the beach is called the black beach because the sand is black from the volcano near the island) and caught the sunset. Again I have to acknowledge how friendly everyone is here, I feel so welcomed. We went to bed at a decent time since tomorrow is our big adventure day and also Canada Day! We woke up nice and early and got some cheese pies for the walk to the scuba diving place (only a five minute walk from the hotel). We signed our lives away, picked out some wet suits (mine was 'baby' sized as they called it) and hopped in the van with our guides. My guide was George and Ashley's guide didn't speak English so he remains without a name. To get to the dive site we took a speed boat which was one of the funniest parts of the trip, we had to hold on for dear life as they put er to the test and raced along the southern tip of Santorini. We passed the red beach and the white beach, and stopped off just around the bend from the white beach for our first dive. Having not scuba dived since Christmas 2010 I needed a bit of review for safety reasons but I picked it up again quickly. Both of the guides helped me get set into my gear and then into the water we went. Me and George set off to explore the depths while Ashley paddled along the surface with her guide above us. It was so awesome to be back down there, the feeling is like none other and I truly hope that i don't have to wait as long this time before I get a chance to do it again. The first dive went so well that when we came back up to the boat to move locations George said he was taking me next to the caves. The caves were unbelievable! The first one we had to go in a line because it was so narrow so George led the way. It was amazing, so beautiful to look around you at the rock with the brilliant blue water surrounding you, it was like a dream. The next cave went fifty meters into the cliff side so it was pitch black. This time me and George went arm and arm into the cave since we only had one flashlight. Once the opening widened we surfaced to the top to look around. We were completely engulfed in rock! It was sweet, the part of the cave we were in had oxygen allowing us to take our masks off and look around. When we shut the light off you could see a tiny bit of light under the water which was our exit back out to the mediterranean sea. The rise and fall of the waves going in and out of the cave were so relaxing so we took our time in there. Once we left we made one last round by the rock face which is called Bart Simpson because on the surface it resembles his face but underneath is a world of color. There was coral that was pink and orange an green. We slowly made our ascent to find Ashley and the unnamed already in the boat waiting. We climbed aboard and prepared for departure. Once again they put the peddle to the medal and we had to hold on for dear life but again it was so much fun and we were laughing the whole way back as we hit waves and flew through the air. We thanked our guides and walked back to the hotel, gathered our things since tonight we are staying in another little town but closer to the ferry port since we leave tomorrow. We caught the bus to our next town, Fira, and dropped our things at the hotel which is just as beautiful as the last with another pool and all. Even though we're staying in Fira tonight we decided to go explore Oia, a town on the furthest Northern tip of the island. So we hoped a bus there and arrived half an hour later (the whole island is fairly small). Oia was the typical Greek town we had hoped to witness, with the white buildings along the rocky cliffs edge. So beautiful and I had to buy a new memory card as I went picture crazy! The main street was all little boutique shops with jewelry and art and trinkets, and it was at the top of the hill with the houses scaling down the edge all the way to the water almost. We had dinner at a little cafe with an incredible view of the town, I had lamb and Ashley had a pork kebab (both amazing but nothing could top our dinner last night). We finished walking to the furthest point of town which had a view point of the whole island, I could have stayed there all day but Ashley is obsessed with sunset photos so we hurried back to Fira, showered and headed to the sunset point there so she could get some awesome photos with the volcano in the background (also we had yet to explore Fira so we wanted to do that too). Fira was set up quite similarly with the white buildings on the cliffs edge but it felt less authentic and more for show for the tourists. It was still beautiful though and we walked the streets till late at night exploring among the other tourists (not at all like Athens were we wouldn't have been caught dead on the streets at night). On the way home we stopped for a late night snack (lamb kebabs) and caught a couple minutes of the game (Italy vs Spain, go Spain!...Spain won). We woke up early on our departure day to have a chance to walk down the millions of stairs to the water at the bottom of the cliff in Fira. While we made the trek there were tons of people going up by donkey and horse and we just about got run over a couple of times, at one point I had to jump onto the side rail to avoid being trampled. There were so many stairs to climb down that by time we reached the bottom our legs were shaking so we got donkeys for the climb back up! The guy we paid literally put us on our donkeys and left us while the other groups we'd seen had a guy leading them up, so left alone our donkeys had a mind of their own and weren't going anywhere. Delilah (what I named my donkey) liked eating rocks so would stop every two feet while George (Ashley's donkey) liked to weave back and forth on the path cutting Delilah off. Just when we thought we'd never make it to the top a group of horses came barreling past and a guide held up the rear so he got our donkeys on the move too. Delilah was not pleased and snuck in a cheeky rest whenever she could, to try and encourage her I sang 'Hey there Delilah' and 'On the Road Again' (didn't really work though). The donkeys are so well trained that when they reach the top they stop and turn around to go back down, well Delilah stopped well before the others so while Ashley rounded the corner with George and the group i was left behind yelling that my donkey was broken. I wasn't sure if I was supposed to get of because I was alone so I stayed on her thinking someone was coming to help, but then George came bounding back around the corner with ashley chasing him. She said everyone else was getting off up above and just then Delilah started heading back the other way so I hastily climbed down so that she didn't take me with her. What an experience! By that time we had to go catch our ferry so we got some kebabs for the road and checked out of our hotel (we were lucky and they had a shuttle to the ferry for us). We had to take a speed ferry since there were no other ferries leaving the island that day which was fine with us but the wind had picked up and so we had a really rough ride and both of us felt super sea sick. We were practically kissing the ground when we docked but we still had a long journey ahead. We had to take a city bus from the ferry in Athens to the bus station where we caught another bus to Patras (where we fly out of tomorrow). It was a three hour bus ride and we arrived around nine thirty at night. We had booked a place to stay close by the bus station so we walked straight there. Our flight out to London leaves tomorrow at twelve but the guy at the bus station had told us the only bus to the airport leaves at seven in the morning (which the guy at hotel reception confirmed), so we woke up super early expecting to have to catch the early bus. We checked out of our hotel and walked all the way to the bus station only to be told by another person (different from last night) that the only bus is at ten. We were too exhausted to question so we decided to head back to the hotel and sleep some more. Well the guy at reception started yelling at us saying we couldn't get back in our room so we were like oh sorry has it been cleaned already but he said no then yelled some more before handing over the key. We both just stood there in shock not knowing why he was being so mean if in the end we were allowed back in. We went back to our room confused and somewhat annoyed that that had happened and fell back to sleep. This time when we left we hopefully weren't coming back and sure enough we didn't have to because our bus was right on time. The bus to the airport only took an hour and the airport was super small so it didn't take long to get through. Soon we will be on our way to London and I get to show Ashley around!
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