Greek Islands-Aegina, Hydra, Poros and Santorini!

Where to even begin. How about with the most amazing, eventful weekend EVER!?

June 4th-

Today the whole group left for a 1 day, 3 island cruise to the Greek Islands of Aegina, Hydra and Poros. It was an early morning starting at 6:30am where we had to travel to the port to catch our boat. It was a big boat that had a dining room on the lower level and 2 decks with tables and areas to lay out and catch the Grecian sun rays. The first island we went to was Poros. It was a very small island but so cute. We had time to walk around and explore a little but before we knew it, it was time to board the boat again. Our next island destination was Hydra. On this island there are no cars or motor vehicles allowed at all. It was so peaceful. This was my favorite island because it was my imagination of what Greece really was like. The white houses on cliffs overlooking the turquoise, blue water and churches everywhere. We walked up the cliffs and we found this awesome life-size chess board. Reminded me of Harry Potter! We actually stopped to rest a little and Max and I decided to play a game. After galavanting around Hydra, boarded the boat on last time for our final stop to the island of Aegina. This island is the closest to Athens, and it's the most population among the three. This was actually my least favorite island because it was too much of a city for me. I liked the smaller, more relaxed islands. Don't get me wrong, it was beautiful just not quite what I was expecting. It was very populated. We were so worn out from the day that we found a nice beach to just lay down, catch some sun and swim in the sea. We got back into Athens around 7pm and headed back to our apartments. The sun soaked out all of our energy that we were all in bed probably around 10pm. We had to go to bed early anyway because the next day we were leaving for the island of Santorini!

June 5th-

Woke up around 5:45am today to catch the metro to the port for our Blue Star Ferry to Santorini! Our ferry was 8 hours, but time went by quite fast. I slept for most of the way because I had to get up so early, not so much of an early morning person. Eight hours later, we arrive at the most BEAUTIFUL island of Greece: Santorini. Our first hostel was about 30 minutes outside of the main town. We had 2 separate rooms with 5 in one and 4 in the other. It was a cute location, only about 10 minutes from the black sand beaches and about a foot away from this delicious gyro place. The hostel had a great pool with a pool bar where we met these three guys from Australia. They stayed in Santorini a couple nights before and decided they would show us a great dance club at night. We sat around the pool talking about all of our travels and before we knew it, it was time to hit the dance floor! We went to this club called The Beach Bar (real original) and we walked up to American music filling the streets. It's funny because I've only heard American music since I've been in Greece. Apparently they're huge fans of our pop culture. We danced our booty's off until about 3am just having a great time with new friends and celebrating being in Santorini. After we couldn't feel our feet anymore, we headed back to our hostel because Dom, Elizabeth, 2 other girls and I were heading to Fira (the main town) the next day. Max and the 3 others decided they wanted to go on this excursion so they stayed at the hostel Sunday night.

June 6th-

We left our hostel around 10:30am and took a bus to the Blue Sky Hotel where we planned on staying the night. Elizabeth was playing mom (love when she does that) and was taking care of all the settling in when the receptionist said she had a change of plans for us. We boarded another private bus that took us to this town about 10 minutes outside of Fira. We got off the bus and the brother took us down to where we were re-located for the night. OH-MY-GOD, you would not believe where we got to stay. OUR OWN PRIVATE VILLAS ON THE SIDE OF A CLIFF!!! It's originally $250/night to stay in these villas but we are super special and stayed in them for only $14, talk about a hook up. I can't even describe the view. This was all I wanted to see. The white and blue houses on the mountains, surrounded by water, and sure enough I'm staying in my dream of Greece. We stayed at Irini's Villas which is all family owned. Irini told us that in the morning all we had to do was dial 0 and breakfast was served to us on our balconies. Don't tell me how we deserved all this star treatment, but I was not complaining at all. We rented ATV's to cruise around the island and we road over to the town called Oia which is famous for their beautiful sunsets. The journey to Oia was quite nerve-wrecking. We are riding on the side of these cliffs which all these winding roads, hair pin turns and no guard rails. Talk about your life at stake. TOTALLY worth it though. The view was incredible. We had time to spare before dinner and the sunset so we cruised through these wine roads where all these vineyards are. They have world famous wine and acres upon acres of grapes. I seriously can't believe how we lucked out on all the benefits of the weekend. It was the most amazing weekend of my life. Nothing could have gone better. I'm planning on moving to Santorini, just a little heads up.