Everything I hoped for and more...

I am currently in Santorini, Greece right now taking a break from the hot sun before I continue laying out by the pool of our hotel (Anny Studios if you wanna check out pictures online) with a cocktail. What a life...this is definately the most relaxing and enjoyable part of our trip so far. A little recap...day 1..we seriously could have missed our flight because the stupid Italian trains are always late and put us into the airport about an hour later than we expected. We were RUNNING in the airport with our backpacks to try to find our teminal..pretty funny to imagine, but it happened. We finally got on the plane and made our way to Santorini about 5 PM. We had a guy waiting to pick us up from the airport which was very nice. Our hotel is literally less than 30 seconds from the black stone beach. It is like the water in Cabo, but even better and the white houses with blue roofs only make the whole thing more greek! We bought food and water from the market in town and had our first Gyro...it was amazing. We had a few drinks in other bars around the town and the people here are just SOO nice.

Yesterday was an adventure. We went on a whole day excursion for only 20 euro. We took a bus to a port and got on this ship. We were suppose to have tour guides to tell us about the places we went to but the Greek people were on strike for the day?? Yay, seriously who does that! When in Greece... but anyway, we first went to the volcano and hiked up to see the great view. I am taking plenty of pictures so I can put them all on facebook later. It was beautiful and I couldn't help but sing mama mia! After the hike we went to a hot spring where we were able to jump off the ship (scary!) into the freezing water. As we swam into the brown/red water it turned warm (the sulfer hot spring). It was really neat and quite the adventure. On our next stop we ate lunch on another beach and this one had very clear water. I ate calamari on the beach (I was pretty proud of myself considering i hate fish), but it was actually really good and fresh. We then had ice cream..surprise surprise and headed to our final destination which was Oia, the place where everyone goes to watch the Sunset. Now make sure you are listening to this story because its the best one so far...

We are told that the only way up is either walking 260 stairs or riding the donkey. After almost dying while walking up 10 steps we decided 5 euro for the donkey was definately a better decision. Well, if you have ever riden a donkey you might know, but otherwise you have NO CLUE what you are in for. This was one of the scarriest times of my life. All of a sudden a litle greek man is yelling at you to get on the donkey and slaps the ass to make it run...mine was the leader type of course and just starts running, literally running, up these cobblestone stairs. The little greek men whip the donkeys to make them run faster (because they want them to get there faster and bring them down faster so they can make more money). Mine kept peering over the edge of this cliff and I seriously thought he might jump. I was saying my prayers that I would not die on a donkey. All of a sudden I hear an, "ahhhhh...oh my god oh my god" Gripping tightly to the donkey I try to turn around and I see leigh on the ground with the donkey with her. Her donkey had tripped on the stair and she went flying. THe little greek man just put her on his donkey and kept us going up the mountain. I was like "Oh my god, we are seriously going to die on a donkey". Needless to say, we made it safely..kind of...to the top and saw the sun set which was beautiful. It was quite the day and we were pooped. We went home and crashed at 11 and didn't wake up until 11:45 today. We have been laying out on the beach under a straw hut and after this email I will continue...The moral of this story is: Greece is amazing, but beware of the donkeys!

We leave for Ios, Greece tomorrow...I'm so excited. I love you all.