Mamma Mia and Sisterhood of the traveling pants taking place in Greece made me always want to visit the islands! From Athens it was a 30 minute flight to the famous island. We left Athens after Beth got about 2 hours of sleep at 5 am for the airport.
When we arrived at our hostel in the town of Permissa we got ready, ate lunch, and then rented an ATV. I have seen pictures of my friends doing so and would highly recommend. We jetted around the island being able to go wherever and whenever we wanted and it only cost 25€ for the day!
We got lost and took some of the less traveled roads ( some were dirt roads and quite dusty so not sure if I would recommend them all lol). Some of the sites were!
The red beach
Fira
And we finished the night with a sunset in Oia. On the island of Santorini there are several towns including Permissa where we stayed on the south part of the island, Fira the more tourist one ( they have a McDonald’s & Starbucks), and Oia at the tip on the cliff with the beautiful white houses and sunset views!
The next day was my birthday!🎉🎉🎉 I was feeling 22 so we booked a tour through the hostel to see all of the important tourist things. The bus picked us up at our hostel and took us to the port where we boarded a boat for the volcano that is right across from the main island. Here, we walked to the top (at noon on the black rock in the sun-it was quite hot) and took in the views of all the towns and the craters. It is a active but dormant volcano that hasn’t erupted since 1959, but we could see some hot spots with sulfur.
Next, we went to the hot springs that are next to the volcano. I didn’t jump in since the sun from the volcano got to me a little, but had fun looking around and taking pictures during the 30 minute dip. From the hot springs we ate a late lunch on the island of Thirissa. They have only 250 inhabitants (but lots of tourists during the day lol). We had traditional Slovaki which is basically skews of chicken with fries ( they called them potato salad) and tomatoes. We relaxed and walked around the island while enjoying the cats running around.
Afterwards, we got back on the boat for Oia and docked there. It was quite the climb to the top so we opted for the donkey rides instead! I literally paid and got thrown on a donkey so fast! Turns out mine was the lead so we basically ran up the hill. It was totally worth as you can see from the pictures since it was quite steep, especially in the hot sun.
Later, we grabbed gelato after the donkey rides with the most incredible views, grabbed dinner, and reserved our spot for sunset. It is amazing how many people come out to watch the sunset!
We took the bus (over an hour back) to Permissa and walked around the beach and grabbed a little something to eat at the 24 hour bakery before calling it a night.
The next morning we took it easy by relaxing on the black sand beach before heading to the ferry for Ios. Sad to say I have less than a week left on my European adventure although I am getting excited to see all my friends back home!
❤️melanie
Smiles from Miles Away 