The 7am ferry meant sacrifices.. sacrificing sleep (especially after a late night talk cock session on Filapipos Hill) and sacrificing breakfast (which was included in our hostel price). But well, this is travelling.
It was a bloody 7 hour ferry ride.. and when we got on the ferry all of us just concussed. Seriously.. We only had a table to ourselves and we all just slapped on the table like dead rabbits for a good 3 hours at least.. while the rest of the world whirred past us.. people sunbathing on the decks.. groups playing cards.. kids running around.. all we wanted was to enjoy our well deserved sleeeeep. The ferry was kinda cool though.. like your typical cruise ship just that everything isn't exhorbitantly charged.. oh except the wireless internet.. 9 Euros for an hour! Crazy madness.
3pm and we docked at our destination - SANTORINI!!
Guess what was the first thing that greeted us? The sea! Duh.. THE BLUUUEEE SEA!!!!
Goodness I've never seen water this BLUE before. We were exclaiming like kiddish swakooks like we never saw water before.Hustling amongst all the locals holding placards advertising for their hostels.. I tried my luck asking one of them how to get to the one that we had already booked online - Manos Villa. And to my surprise he enthusiastically pointed me to this guy standing behind holding a card showing well 'Manos Villa'.
They actually provide FREE FERRY SERVICE to the hostel! OMG!
What was even more wet was that because we booked last minute (the day before) he didn't expect us to be there and he didn't cater for a bigger van. So he actually
MADE ANOTHER TRIP BACK TO FETCH US!
Wow.. We were like how grateful! So while waiting we snapped photos.. while figuring out what to do on the island. For a moment renting vans and scooters sounded too interesting to be true.
The most memorable part about Santorini (apart from the sunset the beaches the fantastic weather the food the price the view the hot springs the volcano the view the fastastic view the superb view and the people) was probably the owner of the hostel itself. THEY WERE SOOOO NICE! Gave us a welcome glass of red wine each.. talked to us oh so earnestly about the hostel and Santorini and where to go and which tours to take and was just so so nice! I was like touched to tears can? So touched we even wanted to stay one more day in Santorini... Well.. the day wasn't spent doing much.. just splashing around in the pool in the hostel.. then went to the town of Fira for dinner.. which once again.. the waiter displayed splended Greek hospitality that we were once again so touched we just had to take photo with him. Boy I love Greece!!
The next day we embarked on the tour we paid for.. it's a one-day-round-Santorini-bao-kah-liao thing. The usual climb the highest point take panoramic photos.. history of Santorini stuff in the earlier part of the day. Intersting thing about the buildings here is that they are all painted WHITE.. with BLUE domed shape roofs! Cute huh? The whole of the afternoon was spent on the boat cruising around the islands.. First we went to this dormant volcano which yeah.. once again.. we climbed our lives out to the peak of each crater.. hoping to see molten lava bubbling in front of us but no. Of course the view was fantastic as usual. =) Next was the highlight of the boat trip.. HOT SPRINGS!! But..
Wah lao the swim to the "hot springs" was a killer lor.. Everyone plunged into the icy cold water and swam biathlon style towards the springs. It was really a mad swim that drained the energy out of me. Heng I got biathlon experience otherwise swimming in the open sea wil just drown me.
And the so called hot springs was like LUKEWARM water lor. Biangz! Risk our lives to swim there for that 20+deg water? The Budapest ones were so much hotter. But of course.. there was real mud this time la.. haha quite fun to play. At least for me. The rest weren't really impressed with having mud slapped on them.
The death swim back was really a killer. Allan and I were struggling to keep Yiling alive as we paddled against the current to the beckoning ferry. Lucky the rescue boat came and rescued everyone to safety. SHAAAGGGGGGGGG!!!!!
The next highlight was probably chopping seats for the Sunset-of-the-lifetime at Oia. Allan and I went scouting around the tip of Oia for the best place to watch the perfect sunset. Oh well.. I suppose we did find the perfect spots and let Allan Photography do all the talking.... For records sake.. the we spent the night walking around Fira.. where there was supposed to have a whole lot of nightlife. Well.. nothing much.
