Wholehearted Adventures: Sunsets and Cliff Diving

Santorini July 8-13

Arriving in Santorini after our luxurious ferry ride, we were greeted by our taxi driver, holding a sign with Jenny's name on it- just like the movies! Around the corner was a small coach bus - apparently we'd be riding up the windy cliff roads in style! Once we arrived in Oia, we were greeted by Visili, our porter, who was a Bulgarian version of Arnold Schwartzenager. After a quick greeting he hoisted Jenny's bag over his shoulder and jetted through the step laden streets of Santorini. Leading us in an exhausting chase for this elusive man with some of the most defined calf muscles I've ever seen. It was well worth it when we arrived at the beautiful Danai house that would be our home for the next few days.

We spent the first night taking in the beautiful scenery and wading through crowds of people to watch the breathtaking Santorini sunset. The next morning we stumbled upon a local bakery which became a favorite for the gluten eaters in our group. A certain member of our group may of inquired if it's possible to ship several kilos of honey cheese tarts to the states. Then it was off to rent ATVs and with 150cc engines (versus the 50cc engines we had in Mykonos) we had some power and independence. We were off to navigate the steep winding roads of Santorini with the sun at our backs and wind in our hair. This day we did some black sand beach hopping and learned some important lessons while soaking in the sun's rays including the fact that you need to buy a drink to sit in the shaded beach chairs and just say no when Asian women solicit you for massages on the beach.

Once back in Oia with hungry bellies we went on a search for dinner and found PitoGryo, a local gyro/souvlaki grill, we knew we had found our feast! Only problem was a power outage had surged through a majority of the town leaving our hopes of dining on delicious souvlaki almost dashed. Thankfully the kind grill owner offered to take our order from a limited menu. We were able to stave off extreme hanger and our friendly foursome was able to remain in high spirits. With what turned out to be an appetizer we collectively decided to "look for something sweet". Now this term has been very subjective in our group and for some of us this means eating 2 kilos worth of sweet cherries in one sitting and for others it means a $20 (USD) waffle with scoops of Carmel cookie ice cream or massive chocolate banana crepe. In a seaside taverna two members of our group found themselves cheering on the other two, who each decided she wanted to tackle a sweet treat by herself. Lets just say that waffles and crepes in Greece are quite large and I believe that these two ladies could shut down a competitive food eating contest!

With some of us still on a gut busting sugar high we woke up the next morning to watch the sunrise. This time in the morning was daily used to experience God in nature, pray, journal, draw and of course take good Facebook profile pics! Afterwards we headed to breakfast at a local restaurant with amazing views of Santorini. We befriended our waitress who originally was from Russia and warned us not to fall in love with a Greek man because we'd get stuck in Greece (which honestly doesn't sound half-bad). Whilst sipping fantastic frappes and falling even more in love with Greek yogurt and honey we made a game plan for the day. We hopped on our ATVs and headed to check out the archaeological site in Akrotiri, a town destroyed by volcanic eruption and earthquakes.

After experiencing these ruins the Santorini beaches called our names and we were off to the beach at Akrotiri with black/red sand. This beach was well worth the view but required a bit of hiking up and over boulders and lava rocks in order to reach its shore. With a workout in the scorching sun a nice dip in the ocean sounded like a fine idea to one member despite her other group members likening the tide to "gross chocolate milk". Thinking she was going to make everyone else jealous when she was cooling off in the water she waded into the water up to her knees and quickly realized why no one else at the entire beach was in the water. With algae and black/brow debris coating her legs, the hike off the beach was filled with regret and a plan to thoroughly think through potentially dicey decisions in the future.

Exploring the island and looking for a beach, we stumbled upon the adorable family owned Faros Market with their very own sun dried tomatoes. There we sampled a myriad of things from honey to capers to olives. We watched Kosas prepare the tomatoes to be sun dried and he gave us a tour of the expansive garden out back. He was very kind, gave us a couple melons from his garden, and tried to thwart the plans of a little boy who kept throwing rocks at Heather. Then riding off with our purchases, we set off to find "the perfect beach". We found it - clear at the other tip of then"C" shaped island, a black stone beach with clear water and not many people, just the way we like it. All too soon it was time to head back and we rode off, taking in the views as we made our way to our cave home.

The next morning we got up to watch the sunrise again, some of us promptly went back to bed, didn't get up at all, or stayed up to journal or read or draw before going back to bed. We went to an adorable and delicious pizza place for lunch, owned by Assia, a Bulgarian who told us not to fall in love with a Greek man (again) when we asked how she ended up in Santorini. She taught us some Greek dancing, how to make the perfect frappe, and told us how to get to the tiny beach in our town. Well, We didn't quite understand her directions and ended up walking down a very steep road that we thought lead to the water. About 20-30 minutes in we began to question our choice. One of our members in particular wasn't too keen on this misdirection as her bladder wasn't too pleased that we were in what seemed to be the middle of nowhere. We came upon some donkeys, then some sort of plant or dam and a "Danger" sign, so we decided to turn around. After we made our way back to the top we saw donkeys coming up the path - if only 15 minutes earlier we could've ridden them. We went back to our place to regroup and set out again. This time we found the beach! A bit of climbing over some questionable rocks that looked like they could have been from an avalanche, was totally worth it as we sat on the ledge and took turns going in the water two at a time. It was gorgeous!! We swam over to a giant rock and Heather even cliff dove! It was amazing. Three of us rode back up the 200- some steps on donkeys which was a fun/terrifying experience! We did a little shopping, watched the sunset, and went to Dimitri's down by the water for a fresh fish dinner. We even got to pick them out of the tank! It was a delicious meal of fava bean dip and bread, tomato fritters, and fish. At the end of the meal Joy (the owner, who is from the states and told us again not to fall in love with a greek man) gave us a chocolate soufflé with ice cream on the house!! We thought we were stuffed, but we downed it! A delicious dinner for our last night in Santorini was just what we needed. We walked back up the couple hundred stairs doing our best to dodge donkey poop and stood for a while admiring the view; denying that it was our last night.

The next morning we got up for our last Santorini sunrise, had quiet time, packed up and made sure we stocked up on Greek pastries from our bakery before Visili came to pick us up to take us to the taxi to ferry back to Athens.

Thank you Santorini for giving us a taste for sun dried tomatoes to match one members fire engine red skin, toned thighs from climbing your numerous steps, honing one members ability to attract every stray cat in the city, unmatched sunrises and sunsets and wonderful memories with soul friends.

Off Athens and the Acropolis Saturday morning we packed up and left our cave home. Though none of us were ready for our adventures to be over, we soaked up every minute until we had to catch our cab. In Athens we saw the Acropolis as the sun was setting - it was beautiful! We got one last Greek dinner of gyros souvlaki, and lemon fanta. For dessert a couple of us tried Greek frozen yogurt...boy was it delicious!! We then went up to the rooftop bar at our hostel where we met a group of British men who had early enjoyed happy hour. They pinpointed us as Americans right away, apparently because of some of us wearing running shoes and one of us was "the edgy one" because of her headband and having lived near Camden Town in London for a summer. Somehow they started singing the theme song from the Fresh Prince of Bel Air, so of course we joined them, it was hilarious and fabulous, though we're not sure how the rest of the bar felt about it. We definitely went out with a bang our last evening.