From Athens to Santorini

I haven't been able to post for awhile because down in the Greek Islands, the internet speed is about as quick as a tortoise. I'll be going out of chronological order for the adventures of the past month, but will try to catch up soon.

 We stayed in this newly remodeled apartment in Athens from June 21-30. It was nice and clean, but very small. The location was great and so easy to take a taxi to all the fun touristy places in Athens. The family room was also Kiley and Kathryn's room. They enjoyed sleeping on this futon every night.

 This was the boy's room. It had a great closet so we were able to store all the kid's stuff in there easily. Next to Scott's bed on the left was a light switch and many times during the night he would roll into the switch and turn the light on. It took us awhile to figure out how the light magically turned on during the night!

 This was the master bedroom. It had it's own a/c unit and so we were spoiled!

 I think we were the first to use all the appliances in the kitchen. Behind the small door was a little patio where we would hang our laundry out to dry.

 The bathroom was great, but it didn't have the lock on the door. We all survived and learned to knock before entering!

It had a little European elevator in the apartment building that I refused to ride on due to my claustrophobia.

 Once we had arrived in Athens, we started researching how we could visit Santorini because every time we looked into different Greek islands, it was always listed as the favorite. We finally found a really cheap hotel that made it possible for us to go!! We left early Monday morning to head to the port to take a ferry to the island.

 We usually rode in taxis everywhere in Athens because it was so cheap! We decided to take the metro instead to the port in Piraeus so it would be easier for us to stay together since we had to split into two groups to go anywhere by taxi. It was a little bit of walk to the station, but we finally made it and the train arrived soon after.

 It was only about a 20 minute ride.

 We tried to follow the crowd out of the station and found an escalator that took us on a bridge over the road to the port. Lucky day for us!!!

 Jeff had purchased our tickets online and so we waited for him to go and pick them up. The line was already starting to form. We rushed over as soon as we could and boarded the ferry.

 We had no idea what to expect for the ferry ride, but it was so much nicer than we had anticipated. We had economy seats and so you pretty much just sit where space is available. We first sat in some of the assigned seats just to get away from the crowds. Nobody ever showed up to claim them and so we stayed there for a couple of hours. We then went to the public places and found a table to sit at where we could enjoy a few rounds of SkipBo.

 Our ferry made two stops at other islands (Paros and Naxos) where many of the passengers got off the ferry. For the last few hours of the trip, it wasn't crowded at all on the ferry. We finally made it to Santorini 7-8 hours later. 

 Once the ferry began to back into the park, we went downstairs and found our luggage and stood by the doors so we could get off quick. We learned they don't mess around in the Greek ferry business. They are in and out in no time at all!

 The guy in the orange shirt was from the hotel we were staying at and he was nice to come and pick us up at the port, along with a bunch of college students from Australia.

 It was quite the windy road we drove on up to Perissa. I was a little distracted by the loud Australians with no filters and so I was more nervous about what my kids were going to learn versus what was outside.

It was about a 20 minute ride to our hotel. We were excited for our quick stay in Santorini!