island trippin'

you know how water parks dye the water in the lazy river and wave pools to be this unrealistic shad of blue? well... that's what the water actually does look like by the islands. even the foam behind the ferries are all blue!

this is me, being the luckiest girl in the whole world.

and obviously levels of relaxation like this can cause one to not remember everything. so, my memories from santorini are all in list form. and inbetween them all was either 1) poolside, 2) stop and stare, or 3) shop.

- we did what we came to greece to do. break some plates.

- dan mastered the "advanced lizard technique" which is a complicated series of reading, sleeping, listening to music, and swimming all in the sun.

- dan also managed to use the word "interesting" in conversation about 1.2 million times. i'm just sayin'.

- there is a sunken cruise ship from 3 years ago right outside of the hotel we stayed at. the woman who ran the place said that you could hear plates shattering while it was sinking. freaky.

- greek food is the best food. this is the introduction of my thighs beginning to touch.

- old saggy euro boobs. i think some women have taken the topless beach thing a little too far. i don't want to talk about it anymore.
- my favorite part of santorini: watching the asians take photographs of eachother. this is not a simple click and go action like us westerners. they have tripods, light directors, and they take at least 5 photos in a variety of positions, usually streached out on a ledge with the head proped up by the arm. while, i think, the one taking the photo is telling the other "lower your chin! now tilt to the left! good! ok, now wink at me! yes!" i could watch this for hours.

- hiked to the top of an active volcano. (50 stories high, and super hot.) then cooled off in the hot springs. which felt like stale bathwater compaired to the rest of the ocean.

so much amazing rest that i didn't know what to do with myself, and one night on the phone with marshall my mom told him i was beginning to get restless. his response, "what? she feels tied down to one country for to long?" bravo, marshall! bravo!

i know i mentioned before that we were going to crete. well we had a change of heart and headed to ios instead. which i had no problem with!

i failed to mention before some amazing people that i met in madrid a few weeks ago. (even though they are from oklahoma. texas fight!) we sent emails to eachother at exactly the same time saying that we were each going to ios, if the other was coming or not. so i jumped on the fast ferry the next morning leaving mom and dan in santorini.

i've never done one of those spring break pre-packaged party trips to cancun, south padre, or the jersey shore before- hell i've never even been to las vegas before. so i had no idea what i was getting myself into. (or what i recommended mom and dan to participate in.) the beaches were packed of beautiful, young, tan and fit beautiful people! everyone was so happy! and beers were only 2 euro. deal. music was playing, the umbrellas were free, and boys were playing rugby. deal. oh, and there was the blue ocean right infront of us. after the beach we napped till 9 and then great fun continued.

let me tell you a bit about the nightlife...

all 10 clubs/bars are right next to eachother in a huge cluster. they all have different themes like shooters, the shot bar. flamers, all shots are on fire. flamers also has a weak-ass foam machine that dribbles small and scattered amounts of foam on people. those wearing black dresses, like me, unfortunatly look like they have dribbles of other things all over them whenever they enter a bar with a black light on after this club. which is all of them. moving on- my favorite of the bars, slammers! with the mottto, 'slammer with the hammer'. for some reason they find it easier to take a shot of tequila while wearing a helmet and being hit over the head with a variety of items as of an extinguisher, baseball bat, and of course, a hammer. (call me old fashion, but i prefer salt and a lime.) and the night finished by dancing, at rehab.

D and i made friends with some locals. well not quite locals, more like australians who came here 3 years ago and can't figure out how to leave. and according to them- the beach is the place to go at 6am. nothing is better. done. and it was beautiful!

i wake up the next morning to the sound of waves crashing on the shore and birds chirping. yaaawn! streeaaaachhh! OMG. we fell asleep. i have no idea what time it is. we have to check out at 10 and D has a ferry right after. for all we know, it could be 2pm. the campground we were at was like a maze of shed like material in the shape of tents. oh, great. now we have to jump a fence. we ask the only two people on the beach if they knew what time it was. nope.

earlier in the story of ios i didn't mention one perticular thing- simply because it is the worst thing ever and i was hoping that i would never experience this again. therefor it never happened, and doesn't exhist. but there it is again, my eveil friend laughing at me right to my face. the stairway from the beach to the top of the mountain. this morning i started death by dehydration in the face.

not really. but that sucker was a bitch.

my favorite part of ios is sitting on the port and watching the ferries come in. my mom, the port-ologist, would let us know when one was coming so we could look up from our books. the energy of the group arriving is so high. they all look beautiful- clean clothes, fresh smiling faces and so excited! now flash 10 ft. to the left. the group leaving ios. they are sweating, sluggish, you can see last nights make-up and loss of dignity. my personal favorite is the addition of bandages, wrist guards, and yes, crutches.