Here in Paradise

The next morning we woke up bright and early and joined the crowd to Santorini. We took the Blue Star Ferry, which was a eight hour trip. It made two other stops on the way and we were the last. On our ferry ride we enjoyed the view, slept a little, took in the sights and finally were able to enjoy ourselves after a rough day of travelling. Since we just had general cabin tickets we bounced around quit a bit trying get different views and stay away from the wind. There were so many little islands on the way it made me wonder how people lived out here on a day-to-day basis. They seemed so far away from everything and held such a different life. We enjoyed some beverages and watched the world move by us slowly, soaking up every moment possible.

 

 

 

 

Upon arrival to Santorini we were faced with huge cliffs of green, brown and a rustic red. On top of these cliffs sat extremely white houses. Hundreds of people went down to the bottom of the ferry where they herded us off. We found a gentleman holding a sign for us and he took us to our villa in Oia. While the island is fairly large Oia is a very quaint quiet area that looks over the still active Volcano. Tania had met us in Oia and showed us to the Villa. Since there are a lot of winding cobblestone paths they do not all have names, which makes it very hard to find your way around. She went over the map of the island and the villa.

The villa itself was breathtaking! We had a magnificent view over the town and water. There were many smaller shops close by as well. After we got settled we made our way to the ruins a couple steps from our villa to watch the sunset. We climbed around a bit, as much as we could anyway and settled into watch a gorgeous sunset. Although it was extremely windy where we were standing the view was perfect. We had found paradise. When the sun went down we went back to freshen up for dinner.  On our little climb up to our villa we passed by another balcony with an American girl sitting outside. While I was getting ready Sean struck up a conversation with her. Unfortunately for him she was with her parents and could not join us that evening. She gave us some great suggestions for food though which came in handy throughout the trip.

When everyone was ready we made our way to dinner. It did not take us long to get lost, but luckily we passed by someone will to show us the way. We found ourselves at a very lively restaurant where the owner welcomed us and was very friendly. I had a lamb past which was absolutely amazing. Sean enjoyed his shrimp pasta. We shared a couple of bottles of wine and treated ourselves to a nice meal as our first in Santorini. It was a wonderful evening despite Sean and I debating on politics and worldly issues which Kyle didn’t particularly care for. We headed back to the villa and enjoyed our evening. Skyping our family members and sitting out on the patio thankful we had made it to paradise.