Santorini, Greece - Day 1

The 3 AM departure for Santorini came terribly quickly. By the time we got back to the room on Wednesday and packed for the next leg of the trip, it was already very late and we debated even sleeping. Despite trying to sleep a bit, I only got a 30 minute power nap before getting up and moving. We had arranged an airport transfer with our cabby and savior from day 1, Dimitris. Just as we were checking out and settling up with the receptionist at the Jason Inn Hotel, he arrived to take us away. Our flight was departing Athens at 5:30, so he had suggested the early transfer to avoid any issues. He was super kind once again.  We told him all about our experience in Athens and were able to get many of our burning questions answered, including the story of the Polytechnic university that we visited, the reason for so much graffiti in Athens and the the purpose of the ugly sidewalk decorations which line every street in the city. We had invented many of our own purposes for these, including a luggage "track", a drainage gutter and even an aid for the blind. He said they are simply decorations installed for the 2004 Olympic Games!! Haha. Lots of wasted time pondering that... Since he believed we had a little extra time, Dimitris then offered to take us to see one sight that we had missed, which he said was best seen at night. He drove us to the top of Lykavittos Hill, the tallest point in Athens, that offered incredible views of the Acropolis and the entire city to the ocean. Since we were only 2 days away from a full moon, the ocean and mountains were beautiful! Seriously, if anyone ever needs a driver in Athens, this is the guy!!  He took us to the airport and left with another very well-deserved tip! I was nervous in the airport because I knew the baggage allowances were not what they were coming over - we were only allowed one carryon of certain dimensions and the weight limits of our bags were less as well. I got lucky again with the lady at the ticket counter. I explained that I simply wanted to check the one bag, despite the fact that my carryon was slightly over-sized. She was friendly and said since the flight was not full, she would allow me to take the bags without issue, but warned me of potential charges when returning. We kept moving right through their super simple security, in which a kind "helper" was there to assist as you clean out your pockets, organize your liquids and prepare for the X-ray. This was a breath of fresh air after the typically awful TSA experiences. This flight turned out to be one of the shortest, but most interesting of our lives 

We were bussed to the plane and had to board directly from the tarmac. It had very high-tech lighting and kind, smiling flight attendants. For some reason (maybe the low altitude) the plane seemed to be flying much faster than normal and the actual flight time was only about 20 minutes. We felt like we were rocketed nearly vertically into the air and descended the same way, much like a NASA launch! The flight attendants had to actually run to serve us drinks and snacks, then came back in about three minutes to collect the trash - I am a slow eater and had just begun to crack open the croissant, but didn't realize we were dropping 20 miles a minute and needed to pick up the pace. What a wild ride!  We laughed the whole way into the airport. Apparently, all of our good luck had run out and our first hours in Santorini were rougher than expected. My luggage was the last bag off the carousel and shot out of the hole in what seemed like 15 minutes after the place completely cleared out - nerve racking. Next, we got gouged by a taxi driver who charged us 17€ to take us to town, when the internet said the fare should be around 7€. As if that wasn't enough, after he took off, we realized the hotel was shut down for the night and anyone inside was clearly sleeping (since it was just 6 AM and keep in mind the work ethic here).  Lauren and I were handeling the situation, as Dan and his camera, Annie, trailed off, carefree as ever, to photograph the sunrise... Finally we got a telephone number to work, an older lady answered, and shortly a younger lady, who had obviously just rolled out of bed, came to put us up in a temporary room to get some sleep. We passed out instantly and slept until 2 PM! We woke to inquire about changing rooms, but discovered in the confusion of the morning, we had actually been placed in the correct room, so our lower level napping quarters became home.  We left to explore the island's Capitol of Thira, stopping at a cliffside cafe for an over-priced lunch, then stopped at a store for some 4-packs of Mythos to stock our hotel fridge.  These four-packs are really closer to 12 packs since the beer is stronger and the cans are enormous! Haha! We headed home, threw on some swim suits and walked up to the rooftop pool to lay and relax. At the recommendation of Sarah Dolan, we motivated our sleepy selves and boarded the bus to Oia (pronounced Eia) for the world-renowned sunset. We arrived and found ourselves in the middle of a tourist frenzy. We made our way to the point in a single-file cattle herd, when Dan could no longer contain his excitement and ran off to break some rules and get the world's best sunset shot. Lauren and I continued down the street to find incredible views of the ocean, the island and the setting sun. It was great! The drama fired back up after the sunset, when the swarms of tourists were corralled back down the hallway-like streets of Oia and Dan was nowhere to be found. After cursing him for a good 45 minutes, he showed up at the  bus stop, where we headed back out to find dinner. We found a great place, with excellent Greek food. I had chicken souvlaki, a skewered chicken dish, that was delicious along with a glass of white wine. Dan and Lauren got different versions of another chicken dish in really tasty sauces. The meal was one of the best yet and really helped improve the mood after Dan's houdini. We caught the returning bus to Thira, had a fun conversation with some girls from Australia in the back of the bus and went to bed straight away.