Santorinininininini

Wowee. Was Greece a bit of a ride, eh. Uh oh, I've been hanging round Canadians too long and have adopted that 'eh/ay' that hangs by the tip of the ending of each sentence of agreement. Whatever. These posts aren't making any sense any more. So now I'll try and put it all in order.

Santorini. Santorini was absolutely beautiful. The island itself is actually made up of volcanic rock, it was formed by a series of explosions that took place thousands of years ago, and have been evolving ever since. The villages are all located at the top of the island, whitewashed houses with blue-domed churches hug the cliff face of the island, providing some spectacular photographs at sunset. On my second day in Santorini, Amma and I took a tour of the nearby active (ish) volcano and the hot springs nearby. Man, it was so so hot, and walking along that damn volcano reminded me how much I need to see the inside of a gym when I get back. Regularly! That day we certainly built our calf muscles, that's for sure. Some people from the hostel were also taking the tour, and we formed a great group that actually carried over when we travelling to the next island of Ios. But more about that later.

I do actually have som great pics from the volcano (it was not so active - the last action seen, and I mean explosion etc with lava and molten rock, took place in 1956. Now it just has sulfur residue and steam evaporating from a little hole in the ground.) however you will have to wait some more, because I don't have the cord to connect my camera to a computer right now. From the peak of the volcano we had a most magnificent view of Santorini and the surrounding sea. It was absolutely gorgeous, but I guess I can't really convey its beauty without the photos.

Afterwards, we cooled down (or tried to) by dipping into some hot springs near the volcano. It stunk of sulfur and actually stained my bathers - which just gives me an excuse to buy another pair! The brochure promised us that we'd have a mud bath, but it was no mud, just poo-like shapes of sulfur clumps/globs and certain spots where the water was warmer. It was fun just getting into the water, because of the damn heat.

Loving that heat though - due to the great Greek sun, I now apparently am 'black' - loving this tan, I say. I've never been this brown before IN MY LIFE! Seriously.

After the quick dip the ferry dropped us off at an island to have some lunch and a donket ride. The guide told us that there were restaurants at the top of the island in the main village, so we all grabbed a donkey and giddyed up the steep steps to the village perched on top. Restaurants? What restaurants? The whole place was deserted! Except for one with a great panoramic view (the name of the cafe was actually Panorama Cafe) there was NOTHING. But we only learnt that after wandering around the ghost village for half an hour in the vain hope of finding some remnants of civilsation. There were signs advertising hotels and cafes and pools, but when we finally reached them, they were empty derelict buildings - the pool was used as a rubbish dump.

So we killed time in this restaurant (we had three long hours... in a town with no residents!) and then hopped back onto the ferry to the village of Oia on the northern tip of the main Santorini island. Now THIS time we needed that donkey ride. Geez. We walked up all those steep steps - I don't know how many hundred of them there were - we stopped counting, and we also managed not to get crushed by passing donkeys carrying other tourists laughing at our beet red faces huffing and puffing up the path. But it was definitely worth it. Tourists flock to this village for the sunset - and boy does it put on a good show. Thanks, god.
Honestly, imagine waking up at sunrise and every day living your life seeing this most beautiful sunset shower your village in gold and pink. It was magic.

That night we partied like no tomorrow in the bars on Perissa beach. Amma and I have decided there's soundtrack of 2006 that we cannot escape. I'll burn you all a copy when I return to Melbourne. But the sad thing was, it was every dj from each bar knows the soundtrack, and plays it accordingly. We heard the exact same songs from one bar to another. I like good music, and sometimes even repitition, but ifI hear the Black Eyed Peas 'Pump It' one more time... I'm going to shoot the Dj.

The next day we took the party to Ios - the three Argentinians from our group joined us, and we were in for some South American fun!

More on that in the next post tomorrow. Stay safe! xxx