Santorini, Greece

All my life, well ok, really since I worked as a Travel agent in 1999, I have wanted to go to Santorini.

My co-workers traveled all through the Greek islands and would regale us with stories of their adventures.  I decided then, that one day I would go to the greek Islands...specifically Santorini.  Santorini is said to be one of the islands that gave clout to the lost city of Atlantis theory.  It was one huge volcano and then the center just blew out one day.  Essentially destroying the island.  All that is left now is a narrow ring, or lip, outlining where the Island used to be.  The center of the crater, if you will, is now ocean.  But a new volcanic island is starting to peak up in the center.  We heard it was a great place for snorkeling, but that is not what we came for.  We came to see Oia (ee-haw).  The postcard of Greece with it's classic white buildings and blue domed churches.

Amazingly, people have been able to eek out a living on this rustic, ancient ring of a volcano.  The towns are all built on the tops of the cliffs, many times down the sides as well.  Nothing is flat, so it is a hike to get anywhere.  We started out in Fira...to get there we could ride the Donkey's up (having a child deathly afraid of riding a horse...we thought that would be a bad idea, especially with cliff like drop-offs on one side), hike 587 steps up, or ride the cable car.  we opted for the cable car.  You can catch a glimpse of Fira outside the window of the cable car we rode up in.  Think ski lift, but x5.

Once in Fira, we were still about 30 minutes from my goal destination of Oia.  We needed to catch a bus to ride to the other side of the island.  This sounded simple, but we fought hard to get on that bus.  I have never been inside a mosh pit, but this is what I think it would be like.  Or that one Christmas when  "tickle me elmo" was huge, and all those people would shove their way into stores at opening to get one.  About a hundred people, trying to shove their way onto one tiny bus...Crazy.  At some point I got on with a few of the kids, but Matt and the rest had gotten separated from me by the crowd.  The bus driver was like "no more, we are full".  Matt pretty much told them that the rest of his family was on that bus, and we (the ones on the bus) didn't have any money to pay, he had it.  So the bus driver kindly let the rest of my family on the bus.

Above is me, finally on the street in Oia...so excited.

We got there in time for the famous sunset.

It was so fun to walk around in this town.  So unlike anything I have ever seen before.  All we did is walk around, watch the sunset, shop, and eat nuts.

They had some amazing roasted pistachio nuts that were to die for.

 Classic Greece postcard

I loved my time in Santorini, and we have like a million more pictures which I will put up on my facebook page.  For now, these are just a taste of the coolness Santorini has to offer.
A funny story, we met this family on the cruise boat a couple of days later.  We kind of talked about different things we have done at the various stops.  Santorini, naturally came up, since it is one of the highlights of the cruise.  They said they went to Oia, like us, and asked how we went.  We told them we waited in the excruciatingly long cable car line, then fought for the bus, and ended up in Oia.  They said that down on the docks, they hopped on one of the speed boat tours they offer there.  Kids were free (which they were not for the cable car), so for not much more then we paid, they were jetted of to Oia's side of the island, bused to the top, and then brought back to the docks for the cruise.  Snap!  Live and learn I guess.  We would have saved so much time if we had checked out the speed boats and compared prices.  Next time right?!
It was still magical for me, and I am so thrilled we got to go!