SANTORINI!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

ahhh IT IS sooo absolutely amazing here!

Chelsea and I left Crete two nights ago and boarded a 6 pm ferry to the most beautiful place in the world. As it turns out three people that we had worked with at the sunshine house were also on the ferry haha so it was like one big Sunshine House reunion! When we arrived in Santorini it was really dark and we weren't really sure how to get to our hostel (which by the way is only 7 euros a night). Luckily there was a shuttle waiting to take us back to the hostel almost immediately after we got off the ferry. As usual everything was carefree. The night we arrived we ended up going down to the near by blacksand beach and hungout with a couple of people from the hostel and just relaxed and played music.

The next day was a HUGE day. In the morning we decided to rent atvs and explore the island with two other people from the hostel. It was sooo much fun!!! ATVS are honestly so much fun!!!! The only uncool part was that we had to wear these dorky helmets. Chelseas helmet was honestly a close resemblence to that of the rider in the movie seabiscut and it constantly was slipping off of her head. As it turns out I am an awful ATV driver and when given control I go about twenty miles per hour haha and almost manage to run us into a car. Fortunately Chelsea is actually very talented at manuevering these little things and was happy to drive me around. ahh I almost forgot about halfway through the day we were driving along the coastline and I had the bright idea of turning chelseas sarong into a cape!!! ahh so just imagine chelsea driving this badass atv with a seabiscut helmet and me sitting behind her with a cape flying in the wind! haha We decided that when our adventure becomes the movie this will be the opening scene.

The first place that we went to was a light house at one end of the island. It was soo beautiful and there were stunning views of the caldera everywhere we looked. Chelsea and I even managed to get in some action shots of us balanced precariously on the cliffs edge (no need to worry we were perfectly safe...). After monkeying around and taking in sights that I couldn't even really see because they looked completely unreal we drove down to the red sand beach. The red sand beach was exactly that, it was a beach with red sand haha. It was really cool and actually was a result of the huge volcano that resulted in the formation of the caldera. We waddled around for a while and after a refreshing dip we headed down to Fira.

Fira is a very cute little bouncy town right in the middle of the island. We kind of just went where our friends led us because one of them had been there the day before so we basically just did some shopping and ate a Gyro (AHH i'm so sick of those) and kind of just poked around. My favorite part of the day was when we went into Oia. Oia is one of the most stunning places I have ever in my entire life had the priveledge to go to. IT looks like a magical cliffside town full of white and blue and pink and yellow stucco houses stacked on top of eachother in the most precarious fashion. It is the weirdest little town but also one of the most beautiful little towns in the ENTIRE WORLD. In Fira me and chelsea kind of felt like we were being held back by the other two people that we were with so when we arrived in Oia we decided to split up. Oia is simply magical, it measured up to all my expectations and more. We walked around and stumbled down the cobble stoned steps that winded through the cliffside neighborhood. IT was so hard for my eyes to grasp just what they were seeing because what I was perceiving in my mind seemed absolutely unbelievable. This has always been my dream to explore these streets and see the town of Oia and to actually be standing there was an amazing feeling and made me feel so unbelievebly happy and lucky. I'm pretty sure the entire time I just kept saying "OH MY GOODNESS!" over and over again.



A it turns out we ran into five people from the Sunshine House who were now staying in Oia. Three of them happen to be street performers and we watched them sing for money while we were there. Its so weird to run into people that we know from other islands when we have only been in Greece for about 5 weeks it made me realize just how small of a world it is.

While we were in Oia we felt love sick for all of the couples that we were watching. ahh it was kind of depressing... but it was nice to see people being so romantic. Oia is definitely one of the most romantic places everrrr.

Anyways we wandered through for a couple of hours and decided to peruse one of the many fancy jewelry shops. We started talking to the owner and explained that we were poor backpackers and just wanted to look at the jewelery haha. He ended up being really nice and ended up letting us try on 48,000 dollar rings! Ahh it was actually quite ironic because we are like dirt poor backpackers and we wearing the most expensive jewerly in the store.

We felt luxurious in Oia and while waiting for the sun to set we decided to share a chocolate souffle that cost more then one night in our hostel. Ah well it was delicious and in this quaint little shop that overlooked the caldera. Can I just say that the caldera is absolutley magnificent????? It is the most mind boggling sight ever and its absolutely impossible to get sick of seeing it. I think the caldera is probably one of the things I love most about Santorini. After our souffle we headed down to the main look out area and watched the infamous Santorini Sunset. Once again it was too beautiful words. Just imagine a sprawling caldera,white stucco houses hanging onto the cliffs edge, and the beautiful colors of the sun setting all in one view. It was amazing.
I should also mention that at this point my camera decided to stop working and after years of anticipation of being in this place I couldn't snap a single picture of the beautiful view. haha I guess thats life. We then headed back on our ATV and ended up going out to some bar places with people from the hostel. It was definitely a jampacked absolutely wonderfully amazing day.

Today was an entirely new adventure! ahh OMG today was possibly even more amazing then the day before! Today Chelsea and I decided to rent the ATVs on go explore the island on our own. We headed into Fira and bought some fruit and cheese (this served as both breakfast and lunch) and then proceeded to wander through Fira again. WE actually found this whole other side that we hadn't seen before and it too was amazing. It was the side of Fira that dangled over the edge and was very similar to the unsettling amazing view in Oia. Anyways it was in Fira that we decided we MUST RIDE DONKEYS!!!! haha this whole Donkey adventure was quite the chaotic event. First we had to walk down like seven million steps to get to the bottom of the port.when we got down there we were abrupty shoved towards some donkeys, paid five euros, and began what I was imagining to be a peaceful journey up to the town. I was COMPLETELY WRONG. Just imagine like twenty people, on these chaotic donkeys that were all racing eachother up the cliffside. These donkeys were all running into eachother and stepping on eachother and it was seriously like the funniest thing I have ever done. Everyone on the donkeys was laughing soo hard, and I wish that this whole situation could have been tapped because it was so hilarous. I of course was given the smallest donkey of the bunch, this resulted in me taking quite a beating from all the other burly donkeys. We didn't even have like a guide person, we were basically just on our own. Luckily we all made it up alive and in one peice.

After that adventure we poked around fira some more and then headed back to Oia. My camera started working again today which meant i could take thousands of pictures of what I was seeing. We walked around, observed more romantic couples and just kind of explored for a couple of hours. At one point Chelsea and I sat at this nice little spot in the middle of all the comotion and just took in where we were and why we were there. We then decided to treat ourselves to a FANCY meal that overlooked the caldera while the sunset. It was kind of foggy but still absolutely beautiful and my food was delicious! AFter feeling slightly guilty about the splurge we decided to head back and get some crepes in Perissa (the place that we are staying)

Tomorrow we leave for IOS!!! ahh one of the most infamous party islands in the world!!! yayayyyyyyyy

I am having a WONDERFUL TIME HERE!! and I am sooo happy!!! I come home in about a week and it feels so weird to think that this trip is almost ever. Its been so perfect and so amazing and I couldn't of asked for anything more

HOPE all is well

LOVE YOU

Jessica