Day 20 - Santorini

Two blogs posted at the same time again.  Start with Day 19...

The overnight boat ride is where I believe I left off on my last post.....  We pulled out on time and headed out for the 11 hour trip...  I will back up just for a second.  We had an option when dealing with Marios to get a sleeper, or just a seat on the boat.  The difference was about 22 Euro, which is about $35.  So, being the cheap backpackers we are (who go shopping in Milan), we decided to just get the seat.  I am not sure if I would have done it any differently, but it was not the most pleasant experience.  Imagine an airplane seat (with maybe just a little more leg room), all lights on, the TV blaring the whole night, and the only laying down option being a dirty floor.  That's what we were up against.  I tried the seat but just could not get comfortable.  So, I grabbed my sleep sack and hit the cement floor.  Blake did the same.  Josh decided to stick with the seat, and as he explained later, he was "in about 100 different positions in a span of 7 hours or so".

11 hours later... very little sleep and super hungry we pulled in to Santorini.  By the way, it's the 4th of July for those of you not keeping track - God Bless America!

Breakfast was a quick stop at a little place in the port.  Blake and I did the "special omelet" which was cheese, ham and bacon (not sure what's so special there and I probably don't want to know).  Josh did a banana crepe with Nutella.  It was all surprisingly excellent.

Ok, to the good stuff... All I can really say is that Santorini is unreal.  It's picture perfect.  Super white buildings accented with bright, vibrant colors.  Then behind the buildings is a backdrop of bright blue water.  I really can't describe how beautiful it is, so you will just have to take a trip here if you have not been.  I will let you all stay in my vacation home here, which I will be buying just as soon as I can sell enough coffee to do so.  

Our activities for the day consisted of walking through the narrow streets of the city, and then heading off on a 15 minute bus ride to one of the black sand beaches (we chose ???). We soaked up some cosmic rays, and just chilled out for a few hours on the beach.  We headed back to the hotel, chilled by the pool, changed clothes and headed off the the northernmost part of the island, ???.  Here is where the sunset is at it's prime.  Around 8:30 we watched the most incredible sunset I have ever seen (over a beer of course) from a random perch above one of the many unique, small hotels.  No fireworks though... I guess they don't care too much about our independence.  Pictures of this will be posted in the gallery, so please check them out.  There will be a good collection of green doors in this gallery also.  I am not sure if I have talked about this yet, but we are taking pictures of every green door we see this whole trip.  Green Door Coffee opens soon!!!

Sorry to ramble on this post, but it was such a great day...  I will wrap it up.  We finished the day with a good, hearty dinner.  Hamburger stuffed with Cheese and a side of fries for me.  Blake and Josh both had pasta.  Heiniken was the beer of choice for this meal.  After spending 30 mintues trying to find a cab, we finally got back to the hotel, opened up all the doors and windows, and crashed hard.