Oh, Santorini. While you were super touristy, you were really, really beautiful.

Emily also found our place for Santorini. We stayed in Imerovigli which was about a 20 minute, beautiful walk to Fira. Maybe even less really…. or more if you had too much ouzo. It was in the perfect spot and it had the most amazing views!!! Here is the listing on airbnb.com for those wanting to check it out. So gorgeous.

One day when we didn’t have much to do, we hopped into this little bar and had a glass of wine or three. We talked about really deep things like Don Quixote, symbolism and parenting….all things we have great knowledge of. And then to speed up the parenting process for Ashley, she got engaged to the owner! Woot!

One day we hiked from Imerovigli to Oia to see the sunset. I am not going to lie: I was grumpy as crap and not really in the mood to hike. Ashley hiked in Rainbows with no problem, I thought I was going to die in my Sanuks. When we were in Athens we met these two girls…one who was from Potomac, MD!…and they said that this was a pretty easy hike, should only take you 1.5 hours. NO. This did not only take an hour and a half. It took hours. And while we did get there in time for sunset, we weren’t in the epic spot we were in the next day when we took a cab. Also one of those nights, can’t remember which, but we went out and drank, likely too much, and then the next day, we had booked this ridiculously dumb tour to go see the volcano – WHICH WAS JUST MORE HIKING!!! – and swim in some not so hot hot springs, don’t do that one unless the hot springs are hot. I’m usually not a giant whiner when it comes to hiking, but without proper footwear, it was no bueno. Plus, I was down for 1.5 hours. Not 3-5, whatever it ended up taking us. I spent most of the time really far ahead or really far behind. I don’t like stopping once I get started and then when I did stop, I didn’t really want to keep going.

Ashley sang the only song from the Sound of Music that she knows. In fact, likely the only lyric that she knows from that song as well “The hills are alive with the sound of music” for a decent length of the trip. Hysterical.

It did make for some really pretty pictures though.

There is a lot of good food and cool bars all over Santorini, but I highly recommend trying out Franco’s in Fira. Make sure to sit in the cave room with the benches, even if just for a few minutes. Sit far away from each other. It was so cool that since it was in a cave – I could hear Ashley whispering even though she was so far from me. Plus, good wine. Speaking of good wine! Make sure to sign up for the Santorini Wine Adventures with Demetrius. That was such a fun outing!!

This night was also the night that I thought it was nice outside and that I should pull my mattress out onto the deck only to wake up with bugs and other strange things that looked like the came from trees despite me not seeing a single tree in Santorini. I dragged my bed back in 4 hours later but did stay up to watch the sunrise. Honestly, even with the bugs, sleeping outside for 4 hours was awesome.

These are some iphone pics from our hike the next day that wasn’t really advertised as a hike… So funny how not hilly this little island volcano business looks from our place…

We flew back to Athens the night before our flight home and we stayed at this amazing home in the middle of nowhere, but 10 minutes from the airport. It was one of the most peaceful places I have ever been. You could see airplanes coming in, you could see the city, but you couldn’t hear anything. There was a tiny church that fit 2 people in it with candles lit, fields of grapes, fields of pistachio trees and olive trees and tons of wildflowers. The not so peaceful part is around 10pm, the power went out. And we were in the middle of nowhere. And girls who are in the middle of nowhere, in a giant house, without power, get paranoid. I feel like I was relatively calm comparatively, but we did make a plan of where to meet in case someone came in and attacked us and we all had to go out separate directions. The good news is that the owner of the house is a candle maker, so we had candles lit everywhere. Also, we were never attacked and some of us made it home safely the next day.

PS – did everyone know Emily can make mazes??? Insanity.

Makes sure to check out Emily’s post!!