THE Wedding

This post is not complete without pictures. But we dont have time to upload yet. Regardless, we HAVE to tell you about the wedding we attended in Santorini.

Lia and Mark were the couple. They put on an event like no other. We feel like we experienced Santorini better on this one day than we could have in a whole week. Here's what we did:

...We made our way down a cliff to a tiny chapel overlookiung the water, where the ceremony took place. All girls were given parsols, guys were given hats - and the drinks were flowing early. Lia was stunning...

...We all rode in convoy on 4-wheelers to the other side of the island. "Just Married" sign included. There was 24 guests.

...We ate an enormous and delicious lunch of Greek Seafood in a gorgeous restaurant in a gorgeous bay. Speeches were lovely and heartfelt. There was several toasts with  Greek Raki. (Never again!!). The setting was perfect.

... We wandered over to a boat that was waiting for us.. and cruised back to our side of the island.

... We stopped along the way to swim in a bay...

... On arrival at shore, we were offered the chance to ride (a) a chairlift or (b) a donkey to the top of the hill. We chose donkeys.

... We walked back to the resort where the wedding party was staying (beautiful views along the way).

... We made it there in time for the amazing Santorini Sunset.

... Then the party continued through the night. 40 x yiros arrived. Cocktails were flowing and the dancing started.

It was one of the best days of our lives and we were so pleased to share it with this fantastic couple. AMAZING!!!!!

Santorini

Late on Tuesday we arrived in Santorini. It was a crazy, hectic welcome to the island with loads of locals trying to entice us into cabs, buses, accommodation, etc. We rejected them all... which resulted in us being stranded - last ones at the port!

We finally got to our apartment, which we were sharing with 4 other couples. (3 of which we shared with in San Sebastian, plus one extra couple from Australia). Kristy has excelled at finding us great accommodation. It was perfect. We all had our own "wings" with separate bathrooms, lounge rooms and kitchens.

On arrival, Adam and the boys got re-acquainted with the booze. Kristy immediately took me to see the sunset over the other side of the island. A-MAZING. We had a great night catching up with the others on where we've been, what we've seen, what we've loved, not loved, etc.

Santorini was a pretty crazy island - a much faster pace than Paros. In some ways it reminds me of Thailand - people everywhere, no road rules and just a buzz in the air. On our first full day, we went and hired a 4-wheeler and set about exploring the island. In convoy, the group of us made our way to "Black Beach" to spent the afternoon. It was exactly as it sounds - a black beach which was something new for us. We spent the day swimming, drinking and lazing under umbrellas. It was perfect.

That night, Adam, myself and Kristy and James headed out for dinner and lovely little retaurant on a cliff overlooking the sea. Yum.

Somewhere in amongst this was another 8 or so yiros. I cant even think about them right now - too much!!

The next day was the wedding of Lia and Mark (James' sister) and this deserves a post all of its own.... next up.

Pics to come. Santorini NEEDS imagery.

From Paros with Love

Sunday morning bright and early (as in 3:30am) we left Paris en route to Paros, Greece.  We had to fly into Athens first, which quite frankly doesnt even rate a mention. We thought we were in the bronx. It is a dirt hole, with rubbish strewn across every road and derelict houses and it just looks dry like a desert - but ugly. I was actually singing the whole way in the bus without knowing how this song got in my head... "U-G-L-Y, you aint got no alibi, you're ugly". Sorry parents - you probably wont know that one. We only rode from airport to ferry - but it was a good hour of us looking at each other in disgust.

After an 2 hour ferry we arrived in Paros. To be honest, the islands are still very dry and desert like (not the tropical paradise of other islands we've seen), but when we reached the village of Naoussa we were happy. It was like the postcards. Tiny laneways of white and blue buildings, with pink flowers overhanging the balconies. Just gorgeous. It is actually impossible to take a bad photo in Greece. We'll upload some soon.

We've since realised (in comparison to Santorini) that Paros is a quiet island as far as the Greek Islands go. It has enough buzz to feel like a destination, but it has a cruisy, relaxed atmosphere that suits us well as a holiday. You can walk pretty much everywhere once you're in the village and it is simply beautiful.

Our little hotel was run by two guys, George and Michael. Ha. George Michael. This made us laugh.

Day one - we headed out for a greek dinner and a couple of cocktails, but a relatively early night after a long day of travelling.

Day two - we spent the entire day lazing in the sun and around the swimming pool of our hotel. We wandered into town for lunch and shopping.. then back to the pool. This might seem wasteful on a beautiful island, but Naoussa village offered enough entertainment for us, and after a busy 3 weeks were were happy lazing about.

That night, we headed out for drinks. We had sussed out the happy hour of every bar in the village and thought we'd time it so we got to all of them for half price drinks. At the first one though, we encoutered a really lovely bartender who kept serving us bowls of nuts and fresh fruit. Maybe because we were the first ones there. After we'd ordered, he suddenly went inside and changed the music to John Farnham 'You're the voice'. Coincidence?? No. The next song was Men at Work 'I come from the land down under'.

Ok.. so this guy wanted to please us. And he wanted to chat. Turns out his name was Danny, he comes from Pakistan and works in Paros in high season. He told us all about the island and how in September / October it completely closes down. Everyone boards up their shops and leaves and they dont come back until April.. when they start painting everything blue and white again and preparing for the tourist season. Oh, he's also a massive fan of cricket and took to calling Adam "Adam Gilchrist!!' all night.

Danny was so nice that we felt bad about moving on to the next happy hour. So we made friends with a few germans and a fellow aussie.. and we made our own fun. We had them dancing round the bar and playing our catwalk game.. It was classic.

Late in the night we left for yet another yiros. And somehow stumbled home to bed. Made for a tough morning packing and leaving for Santorini the next day.. but we got through. We had time to explore a close-by beach, eat ANOTHER yiros and laze around a bit more, before jumping aboard our ferry. Ahh it is bliss just remembering it...

In summary.... GO TO PAROS! You wont regret it. It is stunning.