Greece: Day 4 and 5...

I feel like I'm never going to be done posting about these trips! I swear! So we didn't do a lot during this time in Santorini. One day we went to the Beach at Kamari. It was so beautiful and different! No sand, just black pebbles everywhere. It kind of sucked to walk on, but it gave you a killer pedicure!

 Yes, the Mediterranean is really that blue. It was amazing. Clear, azure blue, and wave-less. It was awesome. I could see the fish swimming all over. They tried to nibble on your toes if you stepped on the ground for too long. I also saw a dead eel at the bottom...kind of gross. This was why I didn't go explore the water near the rocks and cliffs.

 I was so excited. This is Angela and I in our Santorini skirts. We played tourist in Athens and bought them in preparation for our big day at the beach. This was one of my goals on this trip, was to swim in the ocean. I was so paranoid that it would be too cold. And it actually was for two of the days we were in Santorini. But this day was perfect.

Don't you love my Vienna Sausage toes? Jaynie (sister), thought I should post it regardless because the black sand looked so cool. It didn't feel cool.

This is what we got to see on one side of our spot. The two dudes standing up were the lifeguards. They were "sexy Greek men". You have to say it with a Greek accent. They walked around all full of themselves. Forget the fact that they were in speedos. Funny fact, you could always tell the Americans at the beach. They were the only men wearing trunks. The rest wore speedos.

This was the other side. Underneath the green umbrella was a group of Italian women. They sounded like truckers because they smoked so much, and they didn't wear their tops for most the time they were at the beach. Wahoo, Italian boobs! NOT.

This is me after an hour or so in the ocean. I wanted to document my crazy salt water hair. Now that I think of it, I don't really like those sunglasses on me! True fact...it's hard to take pictures of yourself with a huge SLR camera.

One of my favorite pictures from the trip. Weird, I know. But I love the colors.

After the beach, we decided to explore the island on our ATV's. Oh, if you ever decide to go to the Greek Islands. Rent a 4-wheeler. You'll thank me. It's the BEST way to ride around the islands. I was the navigator, but mostly I just wanted to drive fast and in front. It was awesome. Sea breeze in your face, sun on your back. Yeah...I so need to go back to Santorini. Oh, this is Dawn on her's. I actually really like this picture of her.

Angela and I, on our ATVs. We rented them from a smarmy guy named Zachary. He flirted and flirted, but kind of in a creepy way. See above explanation of "Greek Sexy Man". That was Zachary. He tried to get us to go with him to a bar/tavern that all the locals go to. We weren't adventurous enough.

Me, showing off my Santorini skirt (with Angela). I don't know what it was about the sun there. The light was just beautiful.

Me on my hoss. Is that my helmet on the back, you ask? Why yes it is. We were stupid, but I really didn't want a big old helmet that had countless different heads in it. Plus, I wanted the wind in my face, baby!

We drove up to the highest point in Santorini. It had a satellite/military building on it. But we had the best view!

Here I am! The white marks on my shirt are salt. Turns out the Mediterranean is saltier than the average ocean. I had it dried on my arm hairs, even. It was kind of cool. So is this view.

Sunset! and lens flare...

Dawn took this picture, and it has to be one of my favorites of me.

So we went back to Fira, and I slept like a baby. Even on my cardboard bed. I spent most of the day swimming, and it totally caught up with me. I was exhausted. While we were at the beach, we saw this really steep road going up the side of a mountain. And when I say steep, I'm not exaggerating. It was insane. We decided to explore it the next day. It was A LOT of fun to drive up it. Angela might disagree. We stopped and hiked a little. It's kind of cool how much Greece looks like Utah.

Well, except for this AWESOMELY BLUE WATER!!! That's the beach we were at the day before.

This was the ancient kitty of Thira. She was cute, and I really wanted to pet her. I didn't because who knows where these strays come from! So at the top of the mountain we drove up, was Ancient Thira. It's a bunch of ancient ruins from the people who lived on Santorini before the volcano. Turns out Thira is closed on Monday. So the one day it's closed, we came to see it. Awesome.

The kitty really wanted to be my friend!

Here is the view of the other side of Santorini. You can see some ruins in the bottom right hand side. It's kind of amazing to think that people lived up this high and carved simple things like stairs out of the stone.

Here I am walking down the other side of the entrance. We decided to explore a little, even if it was closed.

Yeah, that blue bit? Not the sky, it's the water!

Here are a few more ruins. I was really sad that we didn't get to see the real ones. Oh well, NEXT TIME!

The rest of our day, we hung out in Perissa. I was really sad that we didn't bring our swim stuff. The beach was awesome. It was this ledge of rock. Kind of cool. Oh well. Funny story about this place. It served the most random food. Like Thai and pizza, plus it was out of everything because it was the end of the season. But we wanted to just sit and hang. So here is the funny story. The owner liked us so much that he gave us shots of Ouzo. It's like Greek vodka that tastes like black licorice. This wasn't the only time we had gotten it for free. For some reason they loved us in Greece and we got all kinds of free stuff. But mostly the Ouzo. It's their way of saying, thanks for patronizing our establishment! We like you! Well, the first time we were able to get away without drinking it, but this time there was no way. I have never drank alcohol in my life, and I didn't want to start in Greece. But the guy was sitting right there! So I took the shot, and pretended to like it, and then spit it out in my water bottle, while pretending to drink water. I felt bad, but I really didn't want to offend the guy. It's not like they come up to you and ask if you want it, and then you can say "no thanks, it's against my religion," They just give it to you! Well, it was an experience, that's for sure. Dawn thought it was hilarious. She's not Mormon, so she didn't have a problem with it. I on the other hand, felt like I was going to go to Hell.*

*disclaimer: I know I'm not going to Hell, and this wasn't meant to be offensive to my friends who do drink. I realize it's normally not a big deal, and I honestly don't care if other people drink. Just to this BYU honor code Mormon girl, it kind of was, lol.