Greece was our final weekend getaway after nearly 3 years of cranking out as many of them as we could during our time here, and it was a cracker! It is always nice to touch down somewhere and notice the heat off the tarmac, our warm tops were quickly shed, let operation skin de-paste begin! We arrived to Santorini at the early stages of the Greek tourist season, perfect time to go as the prices are reasonable, weather isn’t stupidly hot and there aren’t truckloads of people everywhere. Our hostel was more like a hotel, gorgeous pool, brand new room and super friendly Greek hosts. If I was to try to find something to moan about I would have to say the only down point was the amount of young American students dominating the pool loungers whinging that “OMG, I have spent, like, SOO much money already”, all whilst sporting the latest technology devices, designer sunnies and clothing.
Santorini is a volcanic island in the Cyclades which is famous for dramatic views and stunning sunsets from Oia town (the place where you see all the traditional white buildings with blue rooftops that are used on every bit of tourist tack). The Santorini islands has its very own active volcano which we visited on a day trip. We shared the glass boat tour out to the volcano and surrounds with a massive amount of Greek pensioners who loved a good sing song and to talk stupidly loud. Actually, it was the women that were dominating the group, the few men that were there just sat quietly, obviously afraid to speak without fear of getting the bash.
We saw and climbed the volcano (no activity to be impressed at), then zipped around the corner to swim to some natural hot pools (the oldies didn’t strip off for the leap off the boat or the swim thankfully) before having lunch at the very sparsely populated island of Thirasia.
Our final stop was Oia to watch the sunset and to wander around. This part of the island is obviously where all the rich people stay as compared to where we were at Perissa beach the price of everything was insanely inflated. It was a beautiful town though and the sunset didn’t disappoint.
The best way to get around Santorini is to do what the locals do and get on a motorbike. Seeing as Chris’ hand was broken I had to be the driver, because of this and fears for safety with me in control, we got a 4-wheeler instead of 2 and spent the day hussing around all the top sights in the area. One of which was a place called Red Beach which earns its name from the iron-rich sedimentary rocks in the cliff face towering above you, as well as the red sand. I would like to argue this fact and say they named it that because red is the colour you will be after spending a day here – we came away like lobsters!!
We visited the capital Thira for a day, if you look at Thira from the sea it looks like the cliff tops are covered in snow, but in actual fact it is because all the buildings are the same colour of off-white. The remainder of our time in Santorini was around Perissa, which is a black sand beach stretching for about 4kms. Most of this stretch is taken up by restaurants and bars, which is fine by us! We did enjoy eating dinner with the sound of the ocean and the breeze off the water, and especially enjoyed drinks on the beach with our toes in the sand.
It is worth mentioning that we ate a considerable amount of gyros (delicious kebabs with tzatziki sauce), Greek salad and spinach and cheese pies while we were there – way too tasty so lucky we weren’t there for too much longer.
We finished our Greek trip off in Athens, purely to see the Acropolis really. Athens is one big ass dirty hot city. We walked up to a high hill in Athens to get a good view back down over the city and it is looking at a sprawl of white boxes. There are hardly any trees or green space, just maximum use of land to inhabit with people. 
It didn’t take us too long to tick off the must sees of the Acropolis, Ancient Agora, Temple of Zeus, Plaka District, Panathinaiko Stadium (that housed the first modern day Olympic Games of 1896).
After we had achieved all that we just couldn’t wait to leave as Athens was on the verge of rioting as well have imposing a 48 hour transport strike which would have seen us stuck with no way back. Fortunately we escaped in time, avoided the ash cloud and touched back down in London safely. Now all there is left to do is make the most of our remaining weeks in London before the next leg of our worldwide adventures start! 
