A Mr. & Mrs. trying to live with the Swisses: "Beware of Santorini's ancient spell- once you come here you'll always want to come back."

We were so sad to say goodbye to Mykonos that we didn't even give Santorini a proper hello. And then the view from our room was one of the most beautiful views we've ever had, we got a 1/2 litre of Santorini white wine welcome drink, and there was a towel animal on our bed, and we realized that our vacation just got even better.

We stayed right on the Caldera, which is a large crater formed by a volcanic blast sometime in BC. There are huge cliffs down the side and then buildings that drop all over the top. This means we also had our very own stairmaster.

The first night we walked around our little town of Imerovigli, picked up some Donkey Beer, made some new best friends (a couple from LA, Teri and Dan, and a couple from Philly, Jackee and Chris, staying in our hotel), and watched the sunset.

We went to a Greek restaurant right up the hill from us with the GBFFs (Greek best friends forever), which is where and with whom we ended up eating dinner all three nights.

One of the couples was telling us that they were seated next to a British couple and American couple at dinner a few nights before, and the American couple was totally hitting on the British couple making plans for trips in the future, inviting them to come visit, etc. And the British couple was totally not interested. So we all decided to be best friends and go on all vacations together from now on. And buy the dilapidated building next to our hotel together on the credit card of the couple who left first.

The next day we woke up to hurricane winds that would not stop. We decided to go on our planned hike to Oia (pronounced ee-ya) anyway. But first we had the breakfast of champions that I will never forget. This breakfast was perfect in every way. When I had to pour myself my own bowl of cereal to eat on the couch when we got home, my heart and stomach yearned for the fresh OJ on the balcony.

The hike is about seven miles along the rim of the crater. It was beautiful. And very windy. Which is why there are only pictures of short haired people along the walk.

We finally made it to Oia, a very posh Greek town with blue domed buildings, marble sidewalks, and people dressed nicely. Except for us who had just walked seven miles in hot wind. But we still enjoyed the scenery even if the scenery didn't enjoy us.

We took the bus back to our hotel and, as gluttons for punishment, went for another little hike to the old capital on the huge rock in front of our hotel. Apparently it used to be the capital city, and now there is just a church and some ruins. We think we should resettle there. There is already one room ready to go.

Everytime we got back to the hotel, there was a new towel animal. Having never had a towel animal before, I was overwhelmed with the variety. John made me a heart with our old yellow towels when we got back. Nice gesture, but no googly eyes, and the view from our bedroom just isn't as good.

We watched the best sunset of the trip from the hotel balcony over Mythos, John's Greek beer, complimentary champagne and our new GBFFs.

Wind shots:

We spent our last day in Santorini walking through even stronger winds (not gusts, like constant wind for 48 hours) and down to the other large town on the island, Fira. We had another successful gyro hunt and then headed back to the hotel so we wouldn't miss the nightly "sunset treat" from the hotel and to meet up with our friends for dinner. The usual.

We were even sadder to leave Santorini. We hopped on the ferry again and got to stop in Mykonos one more time on our way out and had a last hurrah Greek platter for lunch / snack / dinner.