April 25: We had to wake up extremely early on Monday around 5am to be at the port by 7:30am for our ferry to Santorini. We took the metro to the port and then we followed the signs for what was supposed to be our gate for our ferry but we couldn’t find it. We ended up having to ask the police where we were supposed to go and they said the gate number was wrong on our ticket and that we had to walk to the complete other end of the port. It was a really good thing we had arrived at the port an hour before our departure because then getting lost wasn’t so stressful. However, it was extremely painful because we were carrying heavy duffle bags and purses!
We finally arrived to the correct boat and got on the ferry! It was interesting to see what ferries were like in Greece because I expected them to be more like our ferries in Washington with big long comfortable seats, but instead for normal second class passengers they had limited seating inside the boat with just maybe a dozen tables and chairs and then all the rest of the seating was outside. We thankfully were able to get seats inside! I can’t imagine having to sit outside for 7.5 hours, it would have been so cold and windy and overall just not a pleasant experience! Although I can’t really say that the ferry ride was that great of an experience anyway because it was very, very tippy so my stomach did not feel so great for the majority 
of the ride! When we docked in Santorini and finally got off the boat I was SO happy! Also our journey from the port to the Villa we stayed at was so easy because the Villa owners picked us up and drove us there! The Villa was amazing(you can see it right above and the pool to the left) – we paid less than €20 a night for a room with two beds and a kitchenette!!! It was amazing and so nice after having stayed in hostels for the last week and a half! We had so much room to ourselves, our own bathroom, our own kitchen, and a BEAUTIFUL view from our balcony which had a table and chairs so we could eat outside; and on top of all of that we even had Wi-Fi in our rooms! After settling into our villa we went to try and find a grocery store! We didn’t think it would be too hard but it turned out to be quite the walk because apparently Easter Monday is a holiday too! We finally found a very small market open and bought some pasta and sauce and made that for dinner!
April 26: Tuesday marks the start of all my camera problems on this trip! This was the day that I lost my camera’s memory card which had all of my pictures from Santorini and Athens! Luckily, since that memory card had been full I had to put all of my pictures on Danielle’s computer and then start using one of her extra memory cards! If I hadn’t done that I would have lost all of my pictures from ¾ of my Spring Break which would have been terrible! I ended up having to buy a new memory card the next day for my camera and then a flash drive to put all of my other photos on to bring back with me 
to France which was quite expensive but it was worth it to still be able to have my photos! Then the next day, Wednesday, my camera battery died so from then on Danie took all the photos and I just put her photos on the flash drive too so I wouldn't be without Santorini photos since it was the place I was most looking forward to visiting!! It was quite frustrating but luckily I was able to replace everything and I’m pretty sure that buying camera stuff in France was far cheaper than buying it in France! Besides dealing with camera issues on Tuesday, we went grocery shopping so we could make our own food since Santorini is VERY touristy which also means VERY expensive!! Luckily the grocery stores were open so we could go to a big one and get everything we needed for the next three days! After going grocery 
shopping we then went to Kamari which is a beach town! It was a really cute, little town and we walked around for a bit and lay on the beach. It wasn’t very sunny, but the sun would come through the clouds every once in awhile so it was still nice to lie on the beach and read and relax! We also walked down to the end of the beach and saw a small church and what looked like a cave but turned out to be just an arch carved out of the rock. It was a great day and very relaxing which was exactly the point of our time in Santorini; we wanted to relax and not be going all the time like we had in Athens and like I had in Barcelona!
April 27: Wednesday was by far our busiest day in Santorini because we saw so much!!! We went on a volcano & hot springs boat cruise! To get to our boat we had to walk down to old port (in the picture above) which is over 600 steps down which wouldn’t be so bad but as you are walking down you have to avoid donkeys coming down and donkeys coming up with passengers, so it turned out to be over a 30 minute walk! As we were walking down we had already decided there was no way that we would walk up at the end and that we would take donkeys just like Lena did in the The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants movie. There will be a lot of references to that movie in this part of the post because we saw all the sites that are in the movie on Wednesday…it was just as amazing as they made it look in the movie! So we finally get down to our boat and about 10 minutes later we left the old port and headed for the volcano! The Volcano is very famous on Santorini
because it’s eruption over 3,000 years ago was what split Santorini into multiple islands and created the Caldera between the islands! Technically we were on the island of Thira the whole time – besides of course when we visited the volcano – which is the main island of Santorini. This same eruption may have also been what destroyed the Minoan civilization on Crete because the eruption caused a tsunami with waves over 250 ft high! When we stopped at the volcano we hiked up to the top to see the non-active crater and the active crater. Our guide dug a hole into the group so 
we could see the steam and then he handed us some of the rocks which were very warm! He also told us that the last time the volcano erupted was in 1950, and that if there is another eruption it could cause Santorini to completely sink and cease to exist. After seeing the volcano, we hiked back down and got on the boat to go to the “hot springs.” I put hot springs in quotations because they weren’t really very hot since they were connected to the Mediterranean so the cold Mediterranean would still flow in. To get to the “hot springs” we had to jump in the Mediterranean which was FREEZING because it was not a very warm day, and we then had to swim to
the “hot springs” which were definitely much warmer just not as warm as they should have been. Then when the boat honked at us we had to swim back through the cold water, and before reaching the boat pretty much everyone had gone numb! We luckily made it back on the boat and then quickly changed into dry clothes! We then headed back to the old port which is in Fira, the capital of Thira, and the cruise was done. We then got on our donkeys to ride up the 600+ stairs, and it was SO much fun! It was probably one of the best experiences of my life, and something that everyone has to do if they go to Santorini! Then after the donkeys we explored Fira a little bit and looked around in some shops and got some ice cream, and then we went to Oia which is where the majority of The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants was 
filmed! This was the one town I was so excited to see because it is the town that you envision when you think of Santorini! It had the white buildings with the blue tops and was ABSOLUTELY gorgeous!!! It is also the town where most of the postcards from Santorini are from and I think we found almost every postcard picture because we walked all over the town! We also found most of the views from the movie as well! Oia is also the place where you are supposed to go for the sunset, so we stayed there until the sun was supposed to set but unfortunately instead of seeing a beautiful sunset, the sun just went behind a cloud so there weren’t really any beautiful colors! After that we took the bus home back to our Villa and we watched The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants which was great because we could see all of the places we had just been!
April 28: Thursday was a beach day, we went to Perissa which had a great beach and even though it was cloudy in the morning the sun came out very strong in the afternoon! We didn’t think we would need sunscreen because it was so cloudy so we forgot it and ended up getting a little bit sunburned! It was even so warm that I got into the water! The Mediterranean feels so much nicer when it is actually hot outside, it even feels warm! Getting in the water and leaving my flip-flops turned out to be a mistake though because a stray dog stole my flip-flop thinking it was a toy and it took 4 of us to retrieve it! That was a bit of an adventure, but he wasn’t trying to be mean, he just thought it was a toy and wanted to play! I then hid my flip-flops so the dog couldn’t find them anymore! We lay on the beach for at least 4 hours and then afterwards we went to a little café and I had my last greek salad and tsatsiki in Greece! We then bought a few touristy things and headed back to the Villa to start packing because on Friday we had to leave on the ferry! 
April 29 & 30: These last two days were travel days and all the pictures are of Oia, because there were some beautiful ones I didn’t have space to include in the Oia post! So we checked out of Villa Manos in the morning on the 29th and the owner fed us breakfast for free which was so nice! We were able to leave our luggage at the Villa until they drove us down to the ferry at around 3pm! We decided to go into Fira and walk around some more and get lunch! We ate at a really cute restaurant where I had my last gyro in Greece and we were able to watch clips of the Royal
Wedding! Also in this restaurant they had a wall where all the guests would draw pictures of where they were from and sign the wall! So Danie and I drew a Space Needle and Mount Rainier and then signed it! After lunch we went back to the Villa and got a ride with the owners back to the port for our ferry back to Athens! Our 7.5 hour ride this time was not so tippy which was nice, but we ended up getting back to Athens a little bit late, after midnight, which meant that we had to take a taxi back to Hostel Zeus instead of riding the metro! The taxi wasn’t so bad except he overcharged 
us about 10€ which was frustrating! We got to Hostel Zeus around 12:30pm and by the time we got to bed it was after 1am. We then had to wake up around 4:30am for me to get to the airport and for Danie to get to the train station! I took my taxi to the airport because it was too early to take the metro and it was supposed to be about 25€ which isn’t too bad. When we got to the airport the meter said 27€ so I handed the taxi driver a 30€ expecting change because you don’t tip in Europe and he said oh its 40€!! After getting overcharged the night before I decided to ask why, and he said “oh for the extra charges,” which I’m almost positive don’t exist but
I couldn’t really argue because I don’t know the taxi system well enough in Athens so I just paid it and went to check in for my flight! I was not very happy, and it hadn’t helped that I had only gotten 3 hours of sleep! So at the airport I got some breakfast, checked in and went to my gate! Security in the Athens airport was so easy because they don’t even make you take off your shoes or coats, you can just go through! Then I waited at my gate for an hour and once I finally got on the plane I fell asleep in about 2 minutes! 
When I woke up before we landed I talked to the woman sitting next to me who was from Athens but she had excellent English because she had lived in Chicago for a few years while her husband went to medical school there! She was really nice and we chatted about Athens, Santorini and Paris since her and her husband were going to Paris to visit! Then we landed in Paris and I had to wait for a few hours in the airport for Cha, a friend who was flying back from Italy, so we could take the train together back to Dijon! Getting from Charles de Gaulle airport to the train station went smoothly and we then just ate some lunch there and then got on the train back to Dijon! An hour and a half later we were finally in Dijon and it felt so good to be back in Dijon again! While traveling is fun, after two weeks I was exhausted and so ready to be back in my own bed again! I then got home and had dinner with my host sister and then we watched clips of the Royal Wedding! The next day we made a chocolate cake before my host parents came home! Then on Monday I started school again, which was the one thing I wasn’t looking forward to!
So that is the end of Spring Break! I had such a great time and saw so many things!!! This next weekend I am off to Provence! Lately the weather had been beautiful, it got up to 80 today, so hopefully it stays that way for us this weekend! A bientot!
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