we are NOT united states...

We have officially arrived and I can hardly believe it! Wednesday was quit an adventure starting with the security employee in the Athens airport kindly (cough cough) telling me “we are NOT United States!” well no duh! I figured that out when there was nobody to check my bags as I went through customs nor did they even pretend to look through my bag at security.

The flight to Santorini was gorgeous! When I arrived I was met by McKinley, Elisabeth, and Katie who still hadn't left the airport because there bags hadn’t arrived. And as of Thursday morning they still aren’t here.

Once we decided that the bags weren’t here and that they weren’t coming anytime soon we decided to head to the hostel. Great idea except that all of the taxis were gone because there weren’t anymore flights coming in. great.

So the alternative: a nice man pulled up in a car and I asked him if he was a taxi. When he responded with no i attempted to have a conversation about how to get to Oia by bus but unfortunately his English was no better than my Greek. With a lot of hand gestures we finally gave up until my new friend asked if we could hitch a ride with a man named Andres. Without really knowing what we were doing we hopped in the car and the four of us made it to Oia for 20 euro. Not a bad deal.

Once we got settled in the hostel and united with Kendra and Ellen we set out to explore Oia and have dinner in Fira. (But before I go any further I’d like to dispel the “hostel” myth. Yes, I’ve stayed in better places in my life but the view is gorgeous and the stars are unbelievable!) Anyways, we had a wonderful dinner of Mousaka and Saganaki in Fira and then headed to the West side of the island where we shared a bottle of wine while watching the sun set. Unbelievable. I think so too.