THE Adventure - Santorini

From Heraklion we took the big red Vodafone boat to get to Santorini. I remembered seeing these the last time I was in Greece with Jonathan, and since they were the fast boats, assumed they were better.


I didn't know how wrong I was until about 10 minutes into the ride. We had the first class cabin because that was all that was available, so our seats were pretty cushy, but once we hit open waters, I knew I was not going to keep my breakfast. When the boat started rocking, it kept on rocking (+/- 2 feet from where it should have been) until we hit Santorini. So, of course, the first thing we do when we get there is get this wonderful drug called Dramamine. It really is a beautiful thing.

When we hit the dock we got tickets to Oia (pronounced "EE-uh"), and after a couple of hours (layover at the main city of Thira), we were at the idyllic mediterranean city famous for its blue-domed roofs. Our directions to our "hotel" were basically to ask around for Restaurant Lotza, and from there they would take us to our house. We found this place from oldoiahouses.gr, and it's a group of 15 or so old houses--the old-syle cave houses--that are rented out for days or even weeks at a time. It was facing in towards the center of the caldera so we had an excellent view of Thira and the active part of the volcano.

Our porch for the evening.

After showering we went to explore our little village.

Mini photo-shoot of Matt

In Oia, there is only one place to be at sunset, so of course all of the tourists from the island come here to watch.

It took a few tries to get the flash and shutter speed to cooperate and get the correct exposure

View of Thira from our window

A picture of the sunset point during the day

Yes, the city is THAT beautiful

A random doorway

We ran into a couple other photographers and they were kind enough to take our picture

Since the whole island of Santorini is a caldera, the cities are set at the top of the island, but to get to the ports you have to walk down a stepped path with lots of switchbacks.

A look back up at Oia from one of the switchbacks

The dock at the bottom of Oia

You'd think they just put this stuff here for tourists, but no, everything is just that colorful

A classic blue dome

A delicious restaurant with a great view, though it's hard to NOT have a great view here!

Santorini was just a time for us to relax, take pictures, get a little base tan, and just take in the beauty. Our only night there, instead of going out to eat, we got sausage, pasta and tomato sauce and made our own dinner after sunset, and it was just what we needed. The following day we were able to hang out at the house for a while until we had to make our way back to the port and catch our boat (before which we were sure to take our dramamine) to go to Athens.

So next stop, Athens!

THE Adventure - Crete

THE Adventure began at Vilseck train station. If you've visited me, you have most likely been to this very simple train station. At this point, it was hard to imagine the places that were ahead of us, and that in 16 days we would be back at the exact same spot having visited the countries that make up the cradle of life on this planet.

Since there are so many pictures, and I don't have uber amounts of time, this will ACTUALLY be mainly pictures. (yes I know you're breathing a sigh of relief)

Here is us, with no idea of what adventures await.

We took a train to Nuernberg --> Munich --> Munich airport, and then flew directly to Chania. We were the only ones on our flight that didn't get off and get onto a tour bus, other than another German family, so we shared a cab into town.

Our goal for Crete was to experience Greek culture and hike the Samaria Gorge, so our first day we got up bright and early, and made the incredibly sicky drive up to the top of the gorge.

View from the top

The fearless travelers!

The hike ended up being Matt's favorite hike, ever. It was all down-hill through beautiful landscape and quite a pleasant temperature somewhere just below room temperature. The bottom was also filled with these purple/pink desert flower.

The flowers that filled the gorge's ravine

View of the bottom

We got to the bottom before everyone else and ate this interesting-looking hot-dog (it's INSIDE the roll, there is no slice in the roll).

This hot-dog is special

When we got to the town at the bottom of the gorge we were met by the most incredibly blue sea that we have ever seen. Matt said that he felt that if he dipped a white shirt into the water it would come out blue.

After admiring the view and asking casually for the bus stop (for which we had bought tickets), we found out there WAS no bus, only boats, and the next one was in 6 hours. In the midst of our despair, a girl came up to us (she looked like she could have been Ilse's--bridesmaid--sister) and suggested we and two other boys hire a boat taxi. As we waited for the overly-expensive-yet-perfectly-timed taxi we found out they were Dutch military, hence the semblance to Ilse, who is also Dutch! What a fun group of people they were.

Shot of me in front of the south coast of Crete

Matt being his always handsome self

The first couple minutes were fine, but then the waves hit. Though it was a beautiful day, the wind was strong and in a direction such that each crest would launch us high only to slam into the next crest. My new Dutch friend later claimed she was going to have back problems from it. I didn't mind that part, but for the second part, the wind had kicked up the ocean spray as well, so we all just got completely soaked and could hardly see the coast for the brine. But all in all, it was an incredible experience that we reminisced about the rest of the trip.

View right outside our hotel

Downtown Chania - watch out for the restaurant hosts, they're so aggressive they'll step right in front of you to get your attention whilst saying "Please look at the menu I am SURE I have what you want"

Other side of downtown Chania

From Chania we took a bus to Heraklion. I didn't feel good from the bus so when we got to the hotel I let Matt go check out the palace of Knossos on his own. He said he would definitely not recommend it, especially not after experiencing Petra, Jordan later in the trip.

Some cool pots from Knossos

Next issue, Santorini!

THE Adventure

Matt and I just got back from the adventure of a lifetime. Here's the preview:

Stats: 11 cities, 4 countries, 3 continents, 17 days.

Modes of transportation: Airplane, taxi, water taxi, bus, camel, horse, ferry, train, 4x4, and our own two legs.

Cities: Chania, Hiraklion, Santorini, Athens, Cairo, Nuweiba, Aqaba, Wadi Rum, Petra, Jerusalem, Tel Aviv.

Pictures taken: 1147

I'll be writing over the next few weeks, so come back and check it out as our adventure unfolds!

P.S.- sorry for the long hiatus. I'll try to not let hit happen again ;).