Santorini!

Our 3 day excursion to Santorini was incredible! It began with a bit of frustration but hey, I'm in Greece! Who cares?! We unloaded to boat and were packed into multiple small vans that were to take us to our hotel. The drive up the mountain was pretty scary not only because of the tight cliff edge roads, but the insane driving! When we arrived, 3 of the 4 vans unloaded while all the girls in mine were instructed not to get off. It's pretty nerve racking to see 30 of the 37 people in your group get off at one hotel with your director and professors, while you're shipped off with non-English speaking Greeks. I was sent to another hotel 10 minutes away from everyone else, which was one of the most frustrating situations ever, but I'm in Santorini and there's no way that was going to dictate the rest of my visit!

We continued the evening with a walk around town and were set free for some shopping and eating. The sunset was amazing.

For those of you who don't know, Santorini was formed from a volcanic eruption, which created the caldera. The caldera is a massive ring essentially of cliff and the island towns reside on top of the caldera. It definitely creates the most amazing view I've seen in my entire life.

My "I'M IN SANTORINI" Face

On Tuesday, we woke up bright and early to Hike from Fira to Oia. I believe the hike was about 3 ½ miles. It took us about 3 hours because we went up and down the steep cliffsides. Feeling like I was going to have a mini heart attack walking up the steep cliffs was completely worth the view that came alongside. 

After ending our hike in Oia, we stopped for some lunch then made our way back down the sea level. We jumped in the sea from a spot that was off the beaten path on the side of a cliff. From there we were able to swim to a tiny island that simply consisted of a chunk of rock. We swam to it and cliff jumped down! It was such a rush.

Afterwards, you had the option to walk back up the steep stairs or pay 5 Euro to ride a donkey. Needless to say, after a 3 hour hike, my lazy butt wasn’t walking back up. Plus, I can officially say I’ve rode a donkey in Greece!

The rest of the evening we hung out in town and chilled at the pools in our hotels before going out for the evening.

This morning we woke up pretty early to check out of our rooms and headed to a museum of Cycladic history. (The Cyclades are the series of islands where we live and have had our excursions)

From there we packed up the buses and headed to the ancient ruins of the Minoan people. They existed during the Bronze Age and mainly came from Crete, Greece, although multiple settlements existed elsewhere, including in the Cyclades, and more specifically, Santorini. Years later, layers of volcanic ash covered the ancient city and farmland was on top. Farmers began noticing their water was running downhill in one direction which led archeologists to find the ruins of the Minoan people. Ironically, no human remains were found, showing that they knew the volcano was going to erupt and fled. 

The most interesting part is how well the ruins are preserved. They are maintained inside of a building built around the entire ruin site. 

From there we a had lovely 2 hour wait at the boat port... but once the we were on the boat headed back home to Paros, everyone seemed a bit more at ease. 

Unfortunately, I developed a little bit of a cough/sniffle ordeal. It was straight to bed for me and I fell asleep in the middle of posting this blog! haha. 

It is now Thursday and originally I would be getting ready for my day and for class. Well, I just received a knock on my door saying that  classes are cancelled and at 3:30 we are headed to Mykonos! We will be staying the night on a sailboat... pray for me, and then heading to Delos in the morning. It's my last excursion to any of the other islands! I can't believe how fast this trip is going by! One week from today my program ends and I'll be headed to Athens to catch my flight back home!

I'm sure I'll have updates on the Mykonos/Delos trip tomorrow evening! 

Hope all is well over there in the "first" world. ;)