SANTORINI!!!

After a 15 hour ferry ride from Athens we arrived on the volcanic island of Santorini. The first thing that hit us was the huge cliffs pertruding from the ocean, absolutely massive! Perched precariously on top of the cliffs are the many famous white buildings and domed roofs that this part of Greece is famous for. Luckily the guy who runs the place we stayed came to get us from the port, otherwise we would have been so lost and facing a huge hike to the town. The drive up the cliff face was a bit scary, zig-zaggy roads with massive busses and semis coming down is a scary site. But we made it and from the top the views were amazing.

Santorini forms one side of a huge underwater volvano, the othersides being other islands further out to sea. If you could imagine it as a ring of islands forming the sides of the volcano with a mound of hot rocks and dirt in the centre, that being the vent for the volcano and in between is a ring of deep caldera, flooded with water. Clear? Hehe, my description is pretty bad so you'll just have to wait for my photos, trust me its beautiful.

The unique thing about Santorini is its black sandy beaches and beautiful sunsets, both of which we've enjoyed mulitiple times in our four nights here. On Friday we did a full day trip which took us on a ferry out to the volcanic centrepiece (which we climbed!! hehe, so much fun looking back but boy it was hot and very hard work getting up there), around the other side of the mound to swim in some hot springs (so nice but I accidentally got a mouthful of the disgusting tasting water...so gross and we came out smelling like rotten eggs, Ashlea's new bathers got stained with the rusty residue of the sulphuric acid...not happy Jan), to the island forming the opposite side of the volcano's wall where we had genuine Greek souvlakis for lunch and enjoyed the beach before heading back to Santorini for the sunset. An exhausting day.

This afternoon (Monday) we catch the ferry to another Cycladic Island called Ios. It has the reputation of a bit of a party island so it will be nice after being totally relaxed.

Got a bit of news about my returning plans as well. I will be coming home after two weeks in beautiful Thailand with Nick on the night of the 5th of November. So mark it in your diaries!!