Spent the next week Island-hopping around the The Cyclades of Greece.Yes, yes, it was magical, beautiful, incredible, all kinds of other adjectives end in “al” (sound, not spelling), but my biggest conclusion was:  I love ferries.

Miles walked:                      22.5
Miles driven/ferried:         ~220

Aug 17-19:   Mykonos

On the ferry from Athens to Mykonos. If you’re wondering why we look so sad, it’s because we’re listening to Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows (the 7th and final book), Chapter 36, the final battle scene at Hogwarts. And for those of you who have read the books (for those who haven’t, don’t worry – I won’t throw in any spoilers)… well, you know what happens.

Bose – if you ever read this… feel free to send us some swag for this free advertisement 🙂

Beautiful Mykonos, with Paradise Beach over yonder:

Paradise Beach:

Just, you know, your typical Tuesday afternoon:

Meanwhile, in Samsonite’s neck of the woods:

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Aug 19-20:   Paros

Adorable Jackie at our hotel in Paros:

Took the ferry over to Antiparos:

The tiny island of Andiparos:

Samsonite found us an awesome little beach to hang out on:

Dinner back on Paros, where we enjoyed this ridiculous sunset:

As I’d been envious of all the girls who were wearing these sick hats throughout all of southern Europe, I finally caved and bought myself one:

Who wouldn’t want orgies and secrets for dessert?

Samsonite hanging out with a windmill:

And enjoying himself a yummy gyro and Frappé coffee (while wearing a ridiculously cool hat):

BTW – the Greek Frappé coffees are the most delicious things of all time. We had AT LEAST one every single day (they were cheap too – about $1 each!). We actually ended up buying a Frappé machine at our last stop (in Larnaca, Cyprus) and bringing it back home to Israel with us.

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Aug 20-21:   Ios

Arriving in beautiful Ios, on yet another ferry (yay, ferries!!):

Samsonite found us another beach:

Rockin’ little minimart where Francy and Steve found 75 cent beers…

Enjoying said beers:

Steve made a lady-friend:

Neat:

Wandering around Ios in search of food:

Hah:

Gorgeous church and sunset:

Livin’ the life:

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Aug 21-23:   Santorini

Here goes the longest section of this post, because a) Santorini is AMAZING (it was our second time here and we were still in awe of its gloriousness) and b) we rented scooters and, as a result, did and saw a bunch of cool shit that is post-worthy. Enjoy!

On our last ferry (sad!), approaching the “snow-capped” mountains of Santorini (yay!):

The city of Oia (best spot on the island for sunsets, apparently):

Out to dinner in Fira, Santorini’s capital:

Where we enjoyed surprise fireworks right from our dinner table:

Hopped on our scooters the next day and took off to see the island:

Stopped for some coffee and an amazing view of the caldera:

Another windmill:

Stopped at the lighthouse in the southwestern tip of the island to get an awesome view of the entire island and caldera. Totally worth it!

Props to Steve for this awesome panoramic shot:

Back to the scooters!

Random churches along the way:

Paid a visit to the famous Red Beach (sands/pebbles made of solidified lava):

Interesting:

The Black Beaches (also solidified lava):

Tons of people were cliff-diving:

So naturally, we joined in:

Francy:

Steve (the second photo is HILARIOUS):

Me + Francy:

Steve embracing his inner photographer:

And all the while, this is what Samsonite was doing. Typical.

We then popped by the Santo Winery (where we went with our honeymoon cruise two years ago). We somehow managed to tag on to some other wine tasting tour group that was there and got free wine. Great success (said with Borat accent)!

Imerovigli (village just north of Fira):

Continued on north to Oia to catch the famed sunset, along with every single other person on the island, apparently:

Props to Francy for this awesome photo:

Found ourselves a nice ledge to sit on while awaiting the slowly revolving globe:

Like I said, us and every single other person on the island:

And finally, the sunset we (and you, I’m sure) have all been waiting for:

Now look, this was a nice sunset and all, but the 3 of us have spent the past 10 years of our lives in San Diego watching the sun set over the Pacific (and before that, I grew up in Israel, with gorgeous sunsets over the Mediterranean). I mean, if you’d never seen a sunset before, sure… this was nice. But worth waiting forever amongst masses of humans and then crawling our way back to our scooters through the absurd crowds for the next hour? No. Definitely not. 

Anyway, we finally made it back to Fira and had this delicious thing for dinner: