Sun-kissed Santorini

We arrived into the Port of Santorini at 12.45am on the 18th of September. People starting herding off the ferry in a great hurry and it was strange, because what we could see outside just looked like cliffs - not very populated and very quiet. The owner, Stelios, from our accommodation "Stelios Place" was waiting for us with a sign- how amazing it was to arrive at nearly 1am to be picked up! Scott and I were a little jaded from our ferry ride and were looking forward to a nice, clean bed. We were not at all prepared for what our accommodation would be like..... 

Don't panic! It was an absolute palace. It was beautiful. Fresh, clean colours- probably recently decorated, a double *and* a single bed and as far as a room goes- huge! Stelios explained a few things to us before excusing himself for bed. As soon as he left, both Scott and I leapt with excitement. Well I did. Scott kept saying "Shit, this is a palace!" as I danced about, and inspected the bathroom- so nice! For anyone who knows me well, it's all about the nice bathroom! (Ooh Dad- great tapware too- all Hansgrohe... I inspected the plumbing! Hehe)

How nice is this bathroom?? For 'cheap' accommodation, anyway!

Amazing... nice and clean :)

We finally went to sleep, air conditioning blaring away much to Scott's pleasure (this boy is seriously hot-blooded!) and woke when we woke- about 10am. After amazing showers we ventured out and headed to the reception/breakfast area where we ordered chocolate milkshakes, bacon and eggs. Epic. Nom. 

This is the breakfast area... oh, and the pool. Quackles and Paddles came on this trip too, of course!

This photo is rad.

Once we were done there we walked across the road to "Moto-mania" to rent a quad bike for the day. There were two choices. The first was a 150cc quad bike, €15 for 24 hours. The other? €30 for a 200cc. Insert "Tim the tool man Taylor" grunting here (in fact I can hear my dad making this noise right now!) How stoked were Scott and I to have chosen the bike with more power as we whizzed past 150cc bikes on all the hills?! Scott, being the boy, did all the driving. I wasn't phased either way but he was dead keen! It has to be said that he was *outstanding* as far as quad bike driving- he slowed for all the corners so we avoided sudden death (Greeks like to cut corners... they appear to be rather lazy drivers!) and was generally very good- I felt perfectly safe as we rode around the island. 

Um. I love Santorini. It is beautiful and SO blue!

Scott and his new toy...

Rocking the helmets - Safety Sarah insisted...

I'm going to mention, briefly, the driving skills (or lack there of) of the Greeks. In one word, Scott would sum the driving up as "casual". And that it was! They sometimes indicate, but rarely. They tend to drive in the shoulder of the road a lot, they park wherever they want- which ever direction they want, even randomly up on curbs outside shops, and they don't wear helmets when on motorcycles, scooters or quad bikes. Casual indeed! We couldn't work out the give-way rule for the life of us- it seemed to be that if there was a space, it must be your turn. People randomly pull out and sneak into traffic- I don't think that the Greeks know what the traffic rules are either, to be fair. 

Some awesome side-saddling going on there...

We rode that quad bike, with just €10 petrol in it, all over Santorini Island. It was so, so much fun! We stopped when it looked interesting, including at two beaches to swim and bask in the sunshine, and we also stopped for drinks and snacks. Oh and togs for scott who didn't bring any!!  Quad bikes are awesome. We had the wind in our hair, bugs and dust in our faces and hair- and we were *happy*. I couldn't stop grinning! It was just so cool being out in the open air when the view was as stunning as it was! I snapped photos most of the way (look Mum! No hands!!) and held onto Scott for the faster bits. 

Yep - it's this way! 

Mmmm. Sunshine, ocean and sand.... WINNING

This was taken from the end of the driveway from where we were staying.
Yep. That's Perissa Beach, right there. AMAZING

We rode from 11am-5:30pm after an epic day which we both thoroughly enjoyed. We didn't see donkeys for riding (much to my disappointment) but it was made up with riding a quad bike! We went back to Stelios Place to shower and dress up before embarking on a dinner trip- on the quad bike again. It was rather random being all dressed up on a quad bike, but hey! We had transport! We found a restaurant which overlooked the sea and ordered Pizza and Fries- not overly Greek but nice all the same. Does it count that I ordered the Greek pizza? We left there and headed home again, via a supermarket which was closing as we entered so the women working there were grumpy that we went in there- but we wanted snacks to have later with our wine we had bought earlier.

Dinner :) Scott looks a litte red there... check out my brown arms!! OoooOooOoooo!

Once 'home' we enjoyed our wine (actually the wine was awful, but miraculously it got better the more we drank it!) with cheese and crackers and had a D&M (deep and meaningful) before retiring for the night, ready for another day on the beach. What we found out that day, is that our favourite beach of the ones we visited was actually only a two minute walk from our accommodation - awesome. 

The following day we woke, packed, checked out and ate breakfast again before heading to Perissa beach- a whole two minutes from our doorstep. We found ourselves a good posse with two sun-loungers and an umbrella (amazing) for €5 and settled in for some rays. Scott laughed at me during this trip to Santorini because I put sunblock everywhere- whereas he never wore any block at all. I'm not keen on skin cancer though. Even though I wore sunblock- I most definitely got a nice tan (for me!) I know this because when I'm naked.... I'm still wearing a bikini! Haha!

We had a ride to the ferry to Crete arranged with Stelios for 5pm departure, so at 4pm we decided to go back and see about getting organised- and hopefully change our clothes. As we strolled up the driveway to Stelios place we were greeted by Stelios himself who said that there was a change of plan and that we needed to leave right now- so there went our plan of getting changed!! We got to the port and I went to collect our ferry tickets, only to be told that actually, the timetable for the ferry had changed since I booked (which was the end of June) and no longer goes to Heraklion- which is where we needed to be. Scott was outside, having a yule, whilst the man at the counter was telling me that it was "Ok- you can go somewhere else". Um? I think not. He then explained that we could board a tour group ferry, bound for another port and catch a bus to Heraklion. So we ended up on a ferry full of French people. 

We were told once on there that we could stay on board when everyone else got off, and then the ferry would take another two hours to get to Heraklion, arriving just short of midnight. We were supposed to be arriving at 8:30pm. Not impressed. Not impressed because 

1.) We paid twice the price to catch the 'fast' ferry, and:

2.) We would not be able to bus to our accommodation as originally planned, so we had to taxi. We got there in the end though. 

The ferry ride was (sorry to use this word again...) casual. When we made the first stop and all the French got off, Scott and I just sat there. It was an eerie feeling - knowing you're the only ones left. Some of the crew thought we had forgotten to get off! From the moment the ferry was empty of the French passengers, we felt like flies on a wall. By this I mean that the crew behaved as if we weren't there. There were casual groups of Greeks sitting around, some were cleaning- some going hard out and some doing the bare minimum. What cracked us up the most were all the "No Smoking" signs posted around the ferry. But once those passengers were out, the crew were lighting up. So random. So chillaxed. So... Casual! Scott was a good passenger and still went out on deck for a yule- he wouldn't do that inside. 

So random to be on board and see what goes on once everyone gets off!

Having a casual rest... he struggled to choose where on earth to lie...cramped for space, you see!

Smoking club... hmmm... no smoking on the vessel... really?

After two hours of reading, wandering the empty ferry, spying on the crew and watching how they behaved when not "working" and having had a nap stretched out across multiple seats, we arrived at Heraklion Port, Crete. Basically the ship crew opened up the ramp, said "Bye-bye" and suddenly Scott and I were in a new city at midnight, with no way of reaching our accommodation without first finding a taxi. We walked for a bit and asked a couple of men at a kiosk about the buses, which had long since stopped for the night. They then said that the options were a taxi (which they said would set us back €50!!) or stay in a hotel nearby. We decided to keep walking and call our accommodation to see what they said (secretly hoping they'd take pity on us and the dramas we had experienced that night and come pick us up- HA!) who explained to us where to find a taxi- luckily it only cost €30.... But still- it should have cost us less than €5 each on a bus. Never mind. We were finally at our abode for the next three nights, exhausted and ready for bed. The man at the accommodation greeted us and showed us to our room. Scott even hauled my suitcase up the stairs for me- an actual gentleman... Well-trained Leanne Gaddes! What happened next? Not much, really... I guess if you really want to know you will need to read installment number four of the Greece blogs!

Cheery bye :)