Day 8 - SANTORINI!!!!!!!!!!!

Yes! Today is the day that we visited Santorini.  I was so excited because I've seen pictures and I've heard stories and it all points to one thing = Santorini is the most beautiful island in Greece!

Santorini is a special island.  It's actually built on a volcano (dormant thank goodness) so the city lies on the top of the volcano.  To get there, you have to sit a cable car.. or sit this..

That's right.. DONKEYS!!!!  Remember 'traveling pants of the sisterhood'?  Hoo boy.. I wasn't going to up the easy way.. I mean.. the queue for the cable cars were crazy.. think all the cruise ship docked at the same time and everyone left the ship.. no no no..I had to do this..

Giddyup horsey.. whoops.. donkey I mean!  hahaha.. I was scared shitless to say the least.. although the donkeys were the one pooping more than me.  It STANK!  I just grabbed on for dear life and let the donkey do the walking.  At first my donkey was really slow.. stopping after every few steps.. I'm like... what.. load too heavy???  THEN.. he decided that he wanted to be competitive.. he wouldn't let other donkeys over take me.. each time one tries.. my donkey would start sprinting up the road.. I was so scared.. trying to stay on the donkey.. pulling it's reign.. trying not to pee in my pants.. all I could do was scream!  Got used to it after awhile though.. but boy.. was I glad when he reached the end.. 

I later found out that PrincessBling was so scared after watching me go that she shared a donkey with hubby.. and the donkey was led by a man.. so no scary sprinting for her!

Santorini is quire crowded.. with houses after houses pushing each other for the best view of the sea.  

We decided not to join the tour for the day and go off on our own.  Once we got to the city.. it was an UPHILL climb to go anywhere.. and everywhere had donkey poop on it.. it was horrifying!

We rented a little four door car for only 50 Euro and zipped around in it... thank goodness we rented a tiny car.. not only did it take less time for the aircon to cool it down.. the roads were tiny!

We decided to go to the place where they always show on TV.. I can't recall what suburb.. but it's where all the white houses on the hills are.. and boy.. it sure didn't disappoint!

How beautiful is that???

All the houses were painted in white, and their swimming pool had bright blue bottoms..making it look like the ocean.. and just makes you want to dive in it!

After maybe 15 minutes in that suburb, we decided it's time to go to the beach.  Santorini is famous for the black sand beach.. so we tried to go and find it.. unfortunately.. with my navigational skills.. we didn't make it.  We kept coming back to that same darn intersection!

We did drive past a black pebble beach which didn't look very nice to begin with.. so we drove on.  We drove and drove.. went to the backs of the island which was the industrial side.. wasn't very pretty.. 

Until we came to another beach where they had some restaurants, so we stopped for food.

Looks scrumptious doesn't it?  Their octopus was to die for and their fish was soooo fresh.. except for that piece of steak looking thing in the middle.. I had no idea what fish it is and it's chewy.. still nice though.

Once done with lunch, we had to go back to drop off the rental car and make it to the ship before it departs.. so sadly.. we didn't make it to any nice beaches.  

To makes matters worst.. I accidentally left my camera in the rental car.. so I lost all the pictures I had taken in Greece.

We also saw this Taiwanese(?) couple taking their wedding pictures in Santorini.. I can't believe that people would do this.. spend so much money on something that they probably won't even go back and look at one year from now.  Poor groom, he was sweating like mad and sure didn't look like he was having fun! :D

On the way back, we had to catch the cable car down.. and bump into my parents! hahaha  The ride was really fast.. quite scary.. luckily there was no wind so the cable car wasn't shaky.

Ahhh.. Santorini.. they were right.. you are beautiful!