Our World Travels...

Wow. The worst traveling leg of the trip “so far” was definitely the journey to Crete (knock on wood!). We decided that since it was such a crazy experience, it deserved its own posting. When we woke up in the morning of our last day in Santorini, we had some breakfast and packed and then decided to hit up the internet before heading down to the port. Our ferry wasn’t until 5 PM, so we knew we had plenty of time. That was, until when we asked the hostel about transportation, they told us that their transport was only free upon pick-up, not drop-off to the port, and that the only drop off time was 2 PM. After a small surcharge and 10 minute ride later, we were safe and sound at the port, and had only three and a half hours to hang out. We tried to go to a local restaurant that had wi-fi, but they wanted to charge us $4 for ½ hour. Too much! One overpriced, but tasty double cheeseburger later, we decided to look around some shops and read until the ferry arrived. Upon setting down though

Santorini was a magical place, so exotic and a world away from the US. We totally liked it more than Mykonos(although all Greek islands are special in their own right). We had the pleasure of a private room, with bathroom ensuite, along with A/C, and a small balcony with a table, chairs, and drying rack. That’s not to mention the swimming pool and beach within walking distance! After getting off the ferry (which was a high speed powerboat!) we met a flock of hawkers, trying to get us to rent cars and go to their accommodation. They weren’t rude or obnoxious though, just a large number. We started asking for our hostel, and our man came and got us, took Laura by the hand and deposited us on his bus. We promptly drove up an amazingly sheer cliff, with great views of the island. In case you don’t know, Santorini is a volcanic island, with a huge sea filled crater in its center from a volcanic explosion in 1600 BC. It was such a large explosion, it completely wiped out the Minoan civilizat

Our time in Mykonos can be summed up as amazing. Greece is such a wonderful place! The people are warm and the sights are great. We arrived on Mykonos via ferry, which unbeknownst to us until we boarded, we were booked in first class. The ride was great and we watched out the window as we passed other islands sitting in the dark blue Aegean sea, as we made our way from Athens. We even got wi-fi on the boat (for a small surcharge of course). After arriving, there was a swarm of locals who were waving signs for places to stay, and we had to find the one we had a reservation at. Ours was called, “Paradise Resort” and we got onto the Paradise bus with other people from a selection of countries. We had reserved a small bungalow for two, within 100 meters (already we are used to referring to distances as the locals do) of the beach. The place had a few bars, restaurants, and an ATV rental place. It was pretty cool, but did remind us a bit of a Mexican resort/beach bar. We spent our time in M

From Venice, we flew to Athens, Greece. After a stopever in Rome, we got in at 10:30 at night, and had to take an express bus and then a metro to get to our place. We made it just in time, as they were closing the gates of the metro right behind us as we were leaving. On our wayfrom the station to our hotel, as wewere walking through the streets of Athens, a man was leaning out of a bar, and eyeing us suspiciously. We were kind of cautious, expecially when he looked at us, pointed and said, "up the street and on the left." Three minutes later, we found out he was nicely giving us directions to the hostel. Apparently, a lot of backpackers come that way. We made quick friends with the hostel staff, and after being shown to our room, we made for the bar downstairs for our free welcome drink. That turned out to be a welcome shot of Ozou (a local delicasy if you will). A few beers and a few shots of Ozou later we made off to our room and to bed. The next day, we decided to sleep i