Hoags in Europe - Santorini

Our next stop was the part of the trip I was most excited about: Santorini, Greece. For years I've heard people talk about the Greek islands and how they can't wait to return, how its one of their favorite European destinations, etc. One of my dearest friends even got engaged in Santorini and has some of the most picturesque proposal pictures I've ever seen (he's good, he set up a camera on a timer and caught shots of himself on bending knee!) So, I had HIGH hopes.

See how excited we were on the flight over? Happy happy!

My excitement continued to build looking out the plane window at this.

We've arrived! Doesn't Matt look like a backpacking pro?
This was his first trip breaking in the backpack and he loved it.

We had a kind of bizarre drive to the rental house, the van driver was driving crazy slow and nearly stopping in the middle of the road to point out interesting things about the island. And he kept taking phone calls and speaking in Greek to someone. We later realized it was probably the rental owner because she was still preparing the house for our arrival.

The slow drive was worth it because we got to see this view from our patio!

And she had cold beers ready for us to enjoy along with the view.

 We spent a total of four nights in Santorini, in our wonderful rental located in Oia. We quickly adopted the carefree, relaxed attitude common on the island and soaked in one of the most beautiful places I've ever been.

Brian and Jen on our balcony

Our balcony

View from our balcony. Can you see why we barely left the house!?

The balcony again. And look, someone taking pictures of the view (shocker!).

Looking at town from our balcony at sunset

And by daylight

Yep, it's really that blue.

We did a fair amount of this.

Okay, so we did manage to peel ourselves away from our balcony and enjoy more of what Oia has to offer. We even went out on the town in Fira and danced the night away, but those pictures aren't as fun to share!

The crisp white contrast against the bright blue sky and ocean is classic Santorini.

And those white buildings don't stay crisp on their own, that guy is rolling on a fresh coat of white pain, dressed in all white of course!

We got a great deal on a private boat tour for one afternoon so the six of us piled on this sailboat. It was so nice to have the boat to ourselves and a great way to see more of the area.

A little church, accessible only by boat, that people actually use!

Jen and DJ both caught fish. I stayed clear because the fish just gross me out!

Just gorgeous.

After swimming in a cave, our next stop were the sulfuric hot springs. Yes, it smelled like sulfur (ew) and yes, the water was warm, and yes, we smeared the mud all over ourselves like crazy tourists because its supposedly good for your skin (and surprisingly fun to play in stinky mud).  But an unfortunate lesson we learned: the mud can stain swimsuits, especially light colored ones and they maybe ruined beyond repair.

The sulfur changes the rock coloration, and in the hot springs a lot of people (us included) take the mud and write messages on the rocks.

Proof that we smeared mud ALL over.

Mature, I know.

Just swimming in the Aegean Sea, no big deal.

You can kind of see how Matt's trunks are ruined by the sulfur with all that discoloration on the sides.

Jen and Justin soaking it all in.

Are you sick of pictures yet? I hope not, because I have more to share. It was just too hard to narrow them down any further.

They really do use donkeys to take away people's garbage. Crazy, right?

Sunset on our last night.

DJ, Jen, Brian, Matt, Me, Justin on our last night in Oia. We'll be back.

It was tough to bid farewell to Oia. I wish we could have stayed a week there and explored more of the islands. Before we left we were already plotting when we can return and I absolutely plan to. I hope you have the chance to go as well. I've seen many parts of Europe and this was one of my ultimate favorites.

Stay tuned for one more post with the comedic ending to our time in Oia.