Santorini is amazing! I love all of the white and blue buildings. The cities are on the hills overlooking the water which makes it extra beautiful. The sunsets are incredible! It is so pretty to see the slowly-changing sky as the sun sets as well as the volcano and other cities on the hill. On our last day in Santorini we went on a boat tour to the volcano and the hot springs. The boat left at 11:00a.m. and we left our hotel early so we could get there in time. Little did we know, we were about to have the experience of a lifetime, what we now call “The Donkey Death Trap”. The city we were staying in was called Fira and it was on a big hill overlooking the water. We either needed to take a cable car down or walk down a path which turned out to be crawling with donkeys. This path, for some reason, is also open to walkers going up and down the hill. Before we knew how crazy it would wind up being, we decided to take the walking path. Bad choice!! The donkey ride was supposed to be a fun experience for tourists or locals to get up the hill. But on the trail there are way too many donkeys and not enough space. There are donkeys coming up and down the path and angry old donkey owners shouting at them, in Greek, probably telling them to keep moving or something like that. The trail was very long. For a lot of the time we were on it, we were trying to keep from being trampled on by the poor donkeys carrying people running up or down the hill by climbing onto the short walls and doing our best not to fall off. When we were on the ground, we were hopping around or over the donkey poop that was all over the path. When we finally got down to the port, we had a hard time figuring out where to go because there were so so many people everywhere! When we found the ticket office, Mom went to stop the boat from leaving without us while Dad bought the tickets. We successfully made it onto the boat without a second to spare. On our way back up, we took the cable car!
Those pictures are so pretty!
Thanks Keegan!
so, so beautiful (I’ve never even heard of Santorini!} I’m leaving for Tacoma tomorrow afternoon, so will catch up on blog. Have had an amazing time with friends and family. They kept me busy …I’m ready for another vacation….a cruise perhaps. hahahah. Love you ALL and and Happy Birthday Mike 2 days ago.
Thanks Twyla! I’m glad you’ve had a nice visit with friends and family, sounds like a lot of fun! Have a safe trip home.
Thank you! I hope you had a fun time on your trip!
You are missed but it is incredible to witness this journey! What an amazing time for the family. What a beautiful world!
Jenn!! So good to hear from you guys — we miss you all too!!
Thank you Mrs. McDonough!!
Ugh! Too many people and donkeys – there must have been a lot of cruises in town or something. When I was there, I walked down the path and I was the only one on it – no donkeys. Then I didn’t want to walk back up, so I rented a donkey (whom I names Pedro) and we rode back up…very slowly… There was only one other couple on the whole path with me – and no donkey owners. They just put me on the donkey and let me go all the way by myself. It was pretty peaceful, actually. And then at the top, there wasn’t anywhere to put my donkey either, so I just got off him and he stayed where he was. He clearly knew what he was doing, even though I didn’t. I was sure lucky with my experience!!!
Your time with Pedro sounds like a much better experience!! It’s funny that the donkey knew to stay put at the top! It’s such a nice view—I bet that was very peaceful.
Oh my gosh, that sounds like an experience! One to laugh about now, but I can see it being quite nerve wracking when it was happening!
Yeah it sure was—but funny now!