Greece, Athens and Santorini

We began our little European trek about 10 days ago now. We chose to fly from London to Athens, take a ferry from Athens to Santorini, take a ferry from Santorini back to Athens, fly from Athens to Rome and then fly from Rome back home to London.... needless to say we have been busy :)

To begin, our trip to Greece was blessed with good weather and incredibly friendly people. The flight to Athens took a little under 5 hours with some time differences. Arriving in Athens was a bit overwhelming at first because it was night time. We had to split into groups of 3 and hail cabs to take us to our hostels. Both cabs ended up getting us where we needed to be however, ours decided to take the "scenic route" and give himself a bit of a tip. The first full day started off with a hike up to the Acropolis. This was one of the most amazing sights I have ever seen. Little did most of us know that the Acropolis is the site of many different monuments including the Parthenon. The short hike up there allowed us to see what seemed like a never ending city of Athens below and the only border was the ocean. We spent a lot of time just sitting and looking over and taking it all in. Later that day we decided to sample the Greek cuisine. Oh. My. Gosh... I have found my favorite food! Traveling with 6 other girls has its ups and downs but when it comes to dinning in restaurants that the people love blonde hair and big smiles, it is definitely a perk. We were given appetizers and then after finishing our fantastic meal of Chicken Souvlaki we were given Ouzo on the house. Ouzo is the Greek liquor. It is not something I would ever order because of its black licorice taste but it was cool to try.

The next day we decided to do what comes naturally...shop. We made our way to Plaka which is where all the shops line up leading down to a market. Here we found everything from paintings to magnets, to postcards to crosses. I spent way too much money buying such beautiful handcrafted things. I came away with a bracelet with a special bead that is described as Zeus's worry eye. This is supposed to bring protection to whoever wears it because Zeus is watching. I also bought a ring that has the imprint of the first Greek Calendar on it. We spent the entire day going into many different shops and picking out things we thought people would live. We stayed pretty low key and ate a charming dinner with live music at an authentic Greek restaurant.

The following day brought us to our time to leave Athens and head to Santorini. We were so excited to get to spend 7 full hours on a ferry traveling all the way to Santorini. Well...the fun and excitement quickly tapered off as we were basically stalked by 14 year old Greek boys who wanted to come up with any English word they could to get to talk to us. Long story short, I got frappe (Coffee) spilled on me and they had to go and ask someone how to say sorry in English... it was quite a time. :) But after the many hours we arrived at Paradise.

Santorini is like ever postcard you have ever seen and wished you could jump into. It is a gorgeous and friendly place with white buildings and blue accents. We stayed in a small Villa run by a family who welcomed us at the port. We didn't do much but eat dinner the first night because it was fairly late but the next day brought us to one of my favorite times I've had so far.

The second day in Santorini we decided to walk into the large town of Fira. This is where all the postcard pictures are taken and the sights are used in many movies. As we were walking someone in our group started to veer off the path and walked into a group of houses. As we followed we stumbled upon the most beautiful sight I have ever seen. This random little road took us to a roof that overlooked the ocean and the little houses that stand on the cliffs. We probably stayed there for about 2 hours taking pictures and just trying to take in all of the beauty. I honestly could probably never find my way back to this exact spot and that is what makes it so special. It was the perfect place for friends to sit on top of a roof and just look. Our eyes could never get tired of the sights we were looking at. I'm going to try and attach some pictures but they don't do it enough justice.

Athens and Santorini were two of my favorite places in the world. I know that I am going to go back there some day for the simple reason of how could I not. We continued on our trip coming a little bit closer to our London home by traveling to Rome... to be continued :)

love