Monday, August 18, 2008

Island Hopping in Greece




The long awaited and much anticipated trip to Greece with Nicole finally happened!



The minute after arriving at my flat, (after a 13 hour connecting flight a taxi ride), Nicole and I spent hours catching up on all the gossip; girls got priorities!

A hop, skip, and jump away the next morning, we arrived in the amazing island of Santorini. What makes Santorini so beautiful is the volcanic eruption left a crescent shape island with steep cliffs (caldera) dropping to the turquoise water. All of the hotels are literally inset into the cliffs so there is nothing blocking your view. We stayed in an area called Imerovigli, which we thought was the best place we could have picked....not too busy, super fantastic view and right in the middle.
We celebrated Hans' birthday (Nicole's long time college friend who we were able to meet up with) in Oia at a restaurant built the same year Hans was born...he thought it was fate.
Each day we walked along the cliffs to different towns, ate more Greek salads to hold us over for the next year and watched the sun set into the water. 6 amazing days in Santorini was way too short. Next, we headed to Naxos. Much different island as we arrived at our hotel on the beach (Santorini only has one small beach with tiny black rocks). We biked around the quaint town and spent a couple of lazy days on the beach (under the umbrella...Greek sun is hot!)
Mykonos reminded me of Venice; the water almost enveloping the island reaching practically the door front of the restaurants. The highlight of Mykonos were the maze of streets with shops and dance music to lure you in.
To end our trip we said farewell aboard a gigantic ferry (more than 200 cars drove on to make their way to Athens as well!) and spent the 4 hour journey watching the Olympic games (didn't know speed walking was an Olympic sport...)

Many laughs and good times we will never forget!

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