Donkeys, Gyros, and Sunsets

219 hours. I never knew it was possible to have 219 straight hours of pure happiness and bliss until I spent those 219 hours in Greece. I traveled with three other girls and we began our journey in Athens. We arrived on September 23rd at 8pm and walked through the airport doors with big eyes and small fears. We went straight to our hostel and decided to go right to bed because we had a big day planned starting early the next morning. Our first Hostel had a fun atmosphere and the people staying there were very friendly. The next morning we woke up bright and early to conquer the entire city of Athens in one day.

Getting ready to get on our tiny plane to fly out of Iasi!

We started at the Acropolis which is located on top of a big hill in the middle of the city. The views from the top are amazing and the city is much bigger than I had anticipated. We saw the Parthenon, the Propylaia, the Erechtheion, and the Temple of Athena Nike. The weather was perfect and the crowds were small so we were able to explore the Acropolis quickly and thoroughly. Then we traveled down to the Temple of Zeus. Maybe it is because I grew up watching Hercules and am a bit naive, but I was expecting a monument a little more grandeur than a few standing pillars. Nevertheless, I could not stop the song "I Can Go The Distance" from playing in my head repeatedly and I can now say that I went the distance and have stood at the Temple of Zeus. Next we went through the Acropolis Museum and saw a lot of cool statues and artifacts, followed by the Ancient Agora which honestly looked like a bunch of old rocks. However, it still had some cool buildings and history to read about.

Behind me is the Acropolis

By the time we finished the museum and Ancient Agora, we had seen everything we planned on seeing that day. Apparently we were way more efficient than we planned on being because it was only 1 o'clock in the afternoon. So we decided to wing it and ventured into the small streets of Athens full of markets, restaurants, and pushy salesmen. Eventually we made our way to the base of a nearby mountain called Mount Lycabettus which we were going to climb in order to watch the sunset. Once we reached the top we came to the realization that the sun didn't set for another 3 hours. So we hung out at the top of this tiny mountain with about 100 other tourists. Finally the sky turned pink, the air got cooler, and we found the perfect spot to watch the most beautiful sunset I have ever seen.

The next morning we got up at 3am to head to the airport to get to our next destination of Mykonos! When we landed in possibly the world's smallest airport in Mykonos, our hotel driver was not there to pick us up yet so we waited at the airport along with around 5 cats who were just chilling in the airport (which apparently is a normal thing there). Finally, the cutest old man came walking up with a "Hotel Jason" sign and we piled into his van. After hitting a few cars while trying to pull out from the curb we were on our way with the unknown of if we would make it to the hotel alive. When we did reach the hotel alive and safe, it was the cutest hotel I have ever seen. The buildings were all white and each building had blue trim. It was located in the countryside and run by the old man and his daughters. We checked into our cute little room and went out to explore for the day. After walking for about 10 minutes we decided that we needed to rent scooters (mopeds) to ride around the island because all of the walking we had been doing was way over-rated. We found a place and the guy asked if we had experience riding. I have only ever ridden on the back of scooters so I decided to practice before paying to rent one. Let's just say, we all quickly decided that ATV's was the much safer choice for me. So we all rented ATV's to travel around the island and it was the best decision we made on our trip. We had a lot of fun on them and were able to see a lot more of the island that way.

While in Mykonos we did two main activities. The first one was wandering through the labyrinth of Mykonos town and Little Venice that are both located right ton the water. It seriously looked like straight out of a travel magazine and was so cute. The pictures I took pretty much speak for themselves. The other thing we did was spend time on the beautiful beaches there. The water was so clear and a whole lot warmer than the Oregon Coast so I thought it was perfect. We saw a couple more beautiful sunsets and after a few days in paradise we headed off to Santorini on a ferry.

One thing you should know before I talk about my time in Santorini is that it is the one place in the world that I knew I had to see with my own eyes before I die. I have been researching it and planning it for a long time and it is an understatement to say that I was extremely excited to finally be going. For me, having the opportunity to go to Santorini was my dream come true. We arrived via ferry boat in the late afternoon and were taken straight to our Hostel. There are five main towns on Santorini and we were determined to experience them all. We were staying in Perissa and therefore, had that town taken care of from the beginning. We decided to spend the night in the town of Kamari.
When we arrived in Kamari, we headed to the black beach and tested out the water. Since it was later in the day, we didn't have a lot of sunlight to use and only stayed in for about 20 minutes. However, I discovered that the water there is extremely salty and as a result of that, I pretty much float! That made swimming much more fun for the rest of the time in Santorini. After swimming we got hungry and decided to walk along the water and check out all of the restaurants that were lined up on the beach. Outside of each restaurant is a menu along with a very charming and persuasive host who will say almost anything to get you to eat at their restaurant. We quickly noticed this and decided to see what the best deal we could get was. Each time, we told them what the other host's had offered us and the new host would try to do better. We ended up with 10% off our meal, free ice cream, and an ocean side table. After eating, we made our way to an outdoor cinema theater, This theater was adorable and one of my favorite things that we did on Santorini. They had a bunch of comfy chairs in front of a huge screen and had snacks and drinks and rented out blankets. The theme was sorta a vintage movie theater and they played a bunch of old music. It was a great start to our experience in Santorini.
The next morning we traveled to the main town of Fira. While walking through the streets we came across a fish spa! It is a place where you put your feet in a tank full of small fish and they eat all of the gross stuff off of your feet. It was the weirdest feeling and tickled a lot but it totally worked! While we were there, a lot of other tourists kept stopping to watch and I'm pretty sure at least 5 random strangers took pictures of my feet being eaten by fish. After exploring the markets and shops on the street, we began the famous 6.2 mile hike from Fira to Oia. It was longer than I expected and a lot was uphill but the view was beautiful. You hike along the mountains and every once in a while a little white church with a blue roof will pop up and the ocean is around you the entire way. The hike took us 5 hours and once we got to Oia, we were exhausted. We decided to take a bus back to Fira and spend the evening there. When the bus pulled up, it was completely full but they decided to squeeze us on anyways. Myself along with the other three girls got put in the very front sitting right up next to the driver. We were trying our hardest not to fall over while this huge bus made its way down this tiny winding road on the edge of the cliff. Every time we passed another bus, our driver would honk and show off that he had a bunch of cute girls sitting next to him. It was actually a very fun and memorable bus ride.

The fish spa!

The awesome girls I traveled with. We had so much fun together.

When we got to Fira, we went to a small gyro place for dinner and ate our favorite meal of chicken or pork gyro's. By the time I left Greece I probably had eaten 1-2 gyro's a day. They were amazing! I also ate a shameful amount of ice cream. We found a place that had the most amazing ice cream that happened to also be incredibly cheap. For someone who is borderline addicted to ice cream, that is both my dream come true and my worst nightmare. Anyways, we headed up to the edge of the town and watched yet another sun set on the ocean. Santorini is known for it's sunsets and it was incredible to see one in person. Santorini at night was just as beautiful during the day and after taking some pictures of the city, we headed home.

Now, let me tell you about day three in Santorini. This day was by far my favorite and a day that I will never forget. After sleeping in, we again hopped on a bus and went to spend the day in our fourth town in Santorini called Oia. The first thing that we had planned to do was to go cliff jumping in the nearby bay. On our way down the side of the cliff to the bay, we found the house that Lena (from the movie Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants) stayed at and that there were donkey rides from the bay up to the house, just like in the movie. I could hardly contain my excitement. When we got to the cliff jumping spot, we swam across the water to a small island and climbed up to the top. There was a small group already there and so we sat and waited our turn to jump. A few of the guys were going to jump from even higher up, but then realized it was a horribly dangerous idea. On their way down, I guess they accidentally caused some big rocks to fall because next thing I knew someone yelled, "hey watch out!" and I quickly put my head down under my arms. It's a good thing that I have good instincts because I got hit by a big rock on the back of my shoulder seconds later. The other girl who got hit was hit by a rock that was much larger than mine and so everyone was worried about her while I was off to the side making sure nothing was broken. We were both fine but the girl and her friends decided to head back to shore. Since I hadn't even jumped yet, there was no way I was letting this get in the way of a once in a lifetime experience. So I pushed through the pain and decided to jump.

Lena's house!!!

See where that person is standing on the edge of  the cliff on the island? That's where we jumped from.

There were five guys who were still up on the cliff and we eventually started talking to them. It turns out that they were from Sweden and were in Santorini for a worldwide parkour tournament. They had all already jumped and so we were asking them the safest way to go about it. Three of us enthusiastically made the jump and it was so much fun. However, it turns out that Katie got a little hung up on the whole jumping thing and didn't like the idea of throwing herself off of a cliff into cold water surrounded by sharp rocks. So with the help of our new Swedish friends, we spent the next 30 minutes trying to persuade her into the water using every trick in the book. Eventually, she jumped and we were all so proud. The guys invited us to go watch the parkour tournament and it sounded cool so we figured why not? However, there was no way I was missing the donkey ride up the mountain. Luckily, some of the guys also wanted to do it so we all rode donkey's up the mountain and it was pretty much the highlight of my life so far.

The parkour tournament was awesome! Our Swedish friends knew some of the competitors and judges and explained all of the technical things to me. We also were able to go down and watch it up close by all of the competitors which was really fun! After watching for a while we all got hungry and headed to a pizza place for dinner. It was fun getting to know each other and our waiter was the best! After dinner, we were planning on all heading to the edge of the town to watch the most beautiful sunset in the world. However, once we paid and were leaving the restaurant, we realized that it was getting pretty late and we were about to miss the sun setting! So all nine of us start running through the cobblestone streets of Santorini to catch the sunset. I was wearing sandals that were preventing me from running fast and it was so frustrating. One of the guys suggested just taking them off and so that's exactly what I did. So I was full on sprinting through the crowds of people barefoot in order to catch this sunset. We finally get to the edge of the town and we had missed it by seconds! We were all so heartbroken! So we sadly headed back home with the plan of all meeting up at the red beach the next day.
The last section of the island that we wanted to explore was Akrotiri where the famous Red Beach is located. We met us with the guys and spent the day in the water, We wanted to take some pictures with our new friends and all lined up in the water. While we were getting ready to take it, a big wave came up and at first we thought it was funny and all stood there laughing. Then we realized how big the wave was and it was quickly racing towards all of our bags full of our clothes and dry towels. So then we were all frantically trying to grab our stuff before it is all ruined. During the chaos I guess I forgot to grab a shoe because I saw it floating away into the ocean. Thankfully, one of the guys ran out and grabbed it for me. The best part about this is that the guy who was going to take our picture got the whole thing on camera and we got some great pictures out of it. After the big wave fiasco we journeyed to the end of the beach where we found an underwater cave that you could swim through. At first I was a bit nervous to swim through it but after a lot of coaching and encouragement from the guys, I made the swim through and I am so glad I did. Eventually, it was time to leave and so we said goodbye to our Swedish friends and made our way to the docks to board our ferry. We had a lot of fun with our friends and we were sad to say goodbye. Santorini was everything I had hoped for plus so much more. Sailing away was one of the saddest moments of my life but I hope that I can return to the beautiful island again someday.

Our last destination was Heraklion, Crete. Since we only had one full day in Crete and it was the end of our vacation, so we were exhausted, the only logical thing to do was head to the beach for 6 hours. It was a really warm day and the water was so refreshing. It was the perfect way to end our journey. I also was able to see the Heraklion Archaeological Museum which had some super interesting artifacts in it. Finally the time came to hop on a plane that would take us home to Romania. I would have missed my plane and stayed in Greece for another few weeks in a heartbeat but my orphanage babies needed me more than I needed the extra time in Greece.

When I walked into my room the morning after we returned home, the greeting I got from my kids was worth every heartache of leaving Greece. Although the situation my kids are in can sometimes hurt my heart as well, spending time with them each morning I am in Romania puts my heart back together and makes it stronger than it was before. They are the true source of my happiness and although Greece was an incredible experience that I was always remember and hold dear to my heart, volunteering in the orphanage with my kids is where I belong. So thank you Greece for changing my life, but now it's time for me to change the lives of my kids. After all, that is where true happiness and bliss can be found.