Santorini, Greece

We had some issues trying to figure out where we wanted to go when it came to the Greek Islands. We knew we wanted to go to Santorini, but also to Patmos. Patmos is the island where John the Apostle was banished and then wrote the Book of Revelation. Unfortunately, when it came down to it, we didn't have time to do both. If you are going to travel the Greek Islands, you need at least 2 full weeks. This is because you have to coordinate ferry trips, and some only go to certain islands a few times a week. We still had a great time at Santorini. Santorini is the island that at the old port, vehicles could not go down to the water, so donkeys would carry the people up. I feel so sorry for these animals because those cliffs were very steep! Santorini Island is also known for it's white buildings with blue roofs. 

We decided to not pre-book a hostel/ hotel room. We had read that you could get off the ferry and that there would be people waiting to sell us their rooms. "They" weren't lying! There were a ton of people who were trying to fill their last rooms with people getting off the ferries! We ended up getting a discount with a really great room and the second night stayed at an even better place in the "beach view" hotel. 
Santorini has a white sand beach, red sand beach, and a black sand beach all on one side of the island. For someone who collects sand from different place, this is considered- JACKPOT!
Above is one of the beaches that we went to. It was a red beach, that was comprised of volcanic rock that had broken up into pieces. It may look beautiful, but it was absolutely MISERABLE there! The wind was so great, that it was whipping the sand onto us. It was so painful! Our towels were flying... Blah Blah Blah... we didn't stay very long...
Next we tried to go to a black sand beach. It was the same! The wind was just whipping the sand up onto us. Leigh, my Florida gal/ regular beach goer, was pretty much irate! By our third beach we realized that if you pay the couple Euros to get a beach chair you are saved from the sand! What a relief! We wanted some sun before heading back to sunless England and Abby's wedding!

On of the coolest parts of Santorini Island was that we were able to rent an ATV or 4-wheeler as we would call it. It was a little scary because we shared the road with semis, buses, cars, mopeds, and other ATV's- all driven by people from other countries with diverse driving laws...
We had a bit of a fiasco trying to get a working 4 wheeler. The first two we had, left us stranded. Luckily we got the phone number of the guys who rented it to us so that we could call them later to go for drinks- I don't think that they were happy that we called them only to come save us and fix our 4 wheeler! ha ha!

We finally got one that didn't die on us while going up or down a hill, and we were able to cruise around the island with ease! It would have been difficult to travel around the island without any vehicle...There were different villages and beaches scattered around the island that were known for different things. The photo below is actually taken at on of our hotel rooms. We had a great view! And it was cheaper than a lot of the accommodation that we had had up to this point as well!

One thing that we were instructed to do was to go to the village of Oia at sunset. Apparently, it is "the place" to see the sun set. And apparently, everyone who comes to Santorini is told the same thing. And apparently, everyone decides to listen to this advice. It was a mad house there! Everyone is trying to get to the edge of the village through walkways to get the best view of the sunset. SOOOOO many people were there trying to take pictures. I of course got annoyed because people were taking pictures of the sun and zooming into the sun and taking the picture! Who does that??? You could do that anywhere! Most people weren't even trying to get the other buildings and houses that are unique to Santorini in the photo... grrr...
I also lost my other half in the madness. I wanted to get to the tip of the island to take a picture looking back on the city in the sunset lighting, and one second Leigh is behind me, and the next second she is gone! I walked back and forth through the walkways of Santorini to our 4 wheeler at least 4 times! After 1 hour of walking through crowds of people, we finally found each other. It was like the movies!- such a relief! I was tired and hungry! Our night didn't get any better though...
We got to our 4 wheeler, tried to turn on the lights and..... nothing.
The only lights that we had were our running lights. We didn't know what to do, so I ended up driving us back to our room, which was a good 4-5 miles away. And not a regular 4-5 miles, it was a straight down cliff on one side of the road. I tried my best to follow someone with lights pretty closely, so I would know the turns. I kept my cool...I don't know how! Of all the things we did on this trip, I would have to say that this was the most dangerous...for sure! 
We made it back though safe and sound. 

While in Greece we noticed that all of the animals that we saw there were the laziest animals we have ever seen. Every animal that we saw (which were a lot) were always sleeping! This cat was propped up against a wall and didn't flinch while we were photographing it. Another thing that stood out was the bougainvillia bushes and trees, were absolutely incredible! This theme was throughout Croatia and Greece. Above is one of the most impressive trees that I saw during our travels...

Below is a view of the full moon on Santorini!