Santorini Sweetness

Being off that ferry was a blessing. Saturday I had a full day in Santorini. Destination - the entire island. First breakfast at the local 24 hour bakery. Mmm...ham and cheese in bread has never tasted so good (and at such a cheap price!).

A beach was high on the list, so Red Beach it was! We rented ATVs for the day (at a great price) and rode off. We parked the ATVs and hiked a ways to Red Beach. I finally made it to one of the beautiful Mediterranean beaches! I took some time to just lay and take the sounds of the sea in. Peaceful.

By the time we made it back to our parked vehicles, lunch beckoned our names. The capitol of Fira is where we stayed and decided to eat lunch there. A short 30 minute ATV ride from Red Beach, I was eating a gyron. If you have never tried one of these, please do! It is delicious especially wit zeekriti (spelling ?).

Then I indulged in strafulito gelato. Oh my it was exactly what I craved!

Back on our ATVs and ready to see the other end of the island, Oia was the new goal. About 30 minutes later Oia greeted us with open arms!

The quite town of Oia is the poster child for Santorini. And for all of you Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants fans, this is where the movies were filmed! (And we think we foudn the house Lena's family lived in in the book and the movie!)

Oia is the epitomy of local Greek life. Naturally we spent awhile in this town taking hundreds of pictures. The views were spectacular! I spent some time drinking it all in. I will vividly remember the white and blue homes along the hillside and the ocean crashing against the rocks.

Having to pry ourselves away, we rode back to Fira. In Fira we all agreed to see the Greek beach one more time. Instead we just found some little roads off the main road that appeared to lead towards the sea. Sure enough it did. But our time was cut short because the ATVs had to be returned at a certain time.

ATVs returned, sunset watching was next. We found a nice area to gaze over the Meditteranean and Fira as the sun went down.

Because of the cloud cover the sunset did not last as long as I would have liked. Oh well, my stomach reminded me it was in need of some good Greek food. So we shopped around for about 20 minutes, changed into warm clothing that did not include a swimsuit, and found our final Santorini Greek dinner.

My meal was Gemista (Yem-sa) which is stuffed tomatoe and pepper with rice and baked potatoes on the side. Mmmm...so good!

A little souvenier shopping and then back to the hostel to finish blow drying (yes dry our clothes with a hair dryer) and hopefully get a couple hours of sleep.

The ferry left port at 7am which meant we had to be there at 6:30am. This translates into another very early morning with very little sleep.

Thankfully the ferry this trip was not busy! Rejoice Rejoice! I had a legit seat. A seat that sits on the ground for me so I do not have to. Oh the simple things in life I have come to appreciate thanks to this trip. Let me not fail to mention it was a seat in a non-smoking area away from all the lung disease!

Back to Athens. Because I am pressed for time currently at an internet cafe I will update you later on Athens and Rome (which is where I currently am). Rome did feel some after shocks from the recent earthquake but I am perfectly safe. I personally was not here when they have happened. Please pray for those affected though! I met some girls a few weeks ago from that area, and I have not been able to reach them. As always thank you for your prayers!! Please keep praying. I and the rest of my group need it daily.

Daughter of the Great King,
Kaitlyn