GREECE! Part 4, Santorini!

Took me a few days longer than I thought to get this blog up! I spent too much time admiring my own images and wishing I was still on vacation :) Our last stop in Greece was the beautiful island of Santorini. Whenever we told anyone we were going to Greece, the general consensus was that Santorini was everyone's favorite island. I have to admit...they were right. We loved both Mykonos and Paros...but I could have spent day after day on this island just soaking in the views. When the view is this good, you don't even need to spend money on other activities.

Here is a view from below of our cliff-side hotel, the Hotel Ikastikies. I had been lusting after this hotel since the travel agent (Fantasy Travel) first sent us the itinerary. It definitely lived up to every expectation.

The hotel only has 4 suites, and while we were there, only 1 other room was being used (it was still considered off-season. We basically had the place to ourselves! Here you can see the dozens of other hotels of Firostefani, and in the distance to the left the town of Imerovigli.

Our private rooftop deck...

...and the stairs to the deck...
The "Ostria" suite...
Our "cave" bathroom!

Our first night on Santorini, one of the hotel owners, Justin, invited us to join him at his favorite greek restaurant...which was a stone's throw from the hotel. The food and house wine was delicious!
View of the caldera from our hotel...
The next morning we received the famous breakfast we'd been hearing all about on TripAdvisor.com. On top of the huge tray of food we were given, Justin also made us HUGE, fantastic omelets. I'm not even a fan of omelets and I nearly ate the whole thing. Oh, and by the way, Justin is a hobby photographer and had some fun with my 5d...which was great for Griff and I b/c we ended up with way more pictures of us as a couple than I thought we would!

Photo by Justin:
After breakfast, we got to take a tour of Justin and George's other hotel, Aqua, which was in Imerovigli and also beautiful...

You can see the Hotel Ikastikies from Aqua if you look really closely :)
Photo by Griff:

Here's Justin! He's the friendly one...the surly looking guy is who we rented our ATV from, lol.

We drove the ATV to the town of Oia, which boasts the most beautiful sunsets in all of Greece.





Check us out!

The beaches here were a little difficult to access...we drove around until we found one that was isolated...and it was a black-sand beach. Note: Do not go to black-sand, rocky beach without water shoes :)

Headed back to Fira for the evening...and I tried to get some night shots. Definitely difficult but I love this one...

Here's one that didn't turn out as planned, but i think it looks cool and twinkly.

Donkey's passing while at dinner at Lithos...
And my Halloumi cheese and rocket salad...which I loved so much that I re-created at dinner last night!

Fira during the day..

Lots of cruise ships and activity!

Me in my new shirt I deemed "Greece" appropriate...

Wine and figs at sunset at our hotel...

Griff and I...I'm in the new dress he bought me in a shop in Fira for 30euro...probably a vacation only dress :)

And one last point/shoot shot of us in our Cardinal gear in Santorini...we might try to put it in the post-dispatch cuz we're cheesy like that!

Now I'm sad to end my blogging about Greece. Next week I'll finally be back to blogging work with actual clients! Have a wonderful weekend!