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We couldn't wait to get to stunning Santorini, but then the ferries screwed us again! Our 2pm ferry was cancelled due to "technical difficulties", and we couldn't get another one until 7pm which meant another 11pm arrival! So we wandered around Mykonos some more and cursed the ferries. Santorini was worth the wait and is an incredible place! With a population of around 14,000 the island is a huge semi-circle of shear cliffs atop which most of the towns are perched. Santorini overlooks the volcano that shaped it into what it is today. With heaps of beaches, heaps of shopping, and heaps of stuff to see, Santorini is awesome and it's a shame we lost half a day thanks to the ferries again!

Santorini is widely regarded as the most spectacular of all the Greek Islands. Its volcanic past is visible everywhere, and through the centuries eruptions have regularly changed the shape of the island. Before a massive volcanic explosion in 1650 BC Santorini was circular, but the explosion caused the centre of the island to sink producing a caldera that the sea quickly filled in. That would've been good to witness!
Not everything is high on the cliffs. These houses are built right into the bottom of a cliff.		Ahhh gyros - I could live on these!
Shot of the volcano from Santorini. Most of what can be seen here is (or was) lava. We took a trip out to it as part of the tour.		Another volcanic crater much like that of Mt. Vesuvius. In fact this volcano is linked to Vesuvius underground, and one is usually quiet while the other is more active and vice versa.
Lava (or at least it used to be)!		Around the back of the volcano are hot springs, although they were more like lukewarm springs. The mud that can be seen here is supposedly good to rub all over your body, so like the suckers we are, we did. Then someone noticed an outhouse up the hill and said "I wonder where it runs down to" hahaha! I, and one other guy, got small stings from jellyfish here while swimming back to the boat (felt just like stinging nettle)! They were too small to be harmful to humans however.
To get down to the boat (for the volcano) from the cliffs we took a gondola. To get back up again, we took donkeys!		These poor bastards spend their day lugging people up the side of the cliff right to the top. Apparently they are well looked after and get a better life than they would if they were put to work in a field somewhere, but I still didn't feel good about it.
Good life or not, they don't look to happy to me. That donkey on the left has really white legs ;)		This is looking down the cliff over the path that the poor donkeys just carried us up.
Some iconic shots of Santorini. Beautiful!

Our last Greek Island sunset, and last meal of the tour. We were quite a close group by this stage so what do you do? Get terribly drunk and hit the town!

The ferry back to Athens didn't depart Santorini until 3pm, so we had a bit of time to hire another quad bike to explore the rest of the island. The shot on the left is looking down from the cliffs on the right (yup, I screwed the poor little quad bike up the cliff hehe). Note the black beach. Santorini also has white and red beaches too - pretty unreal! This is Cape Mesa Vouno on the southeast of the island.
The ferry to Athens was a long eight-hour haul.		The coast line of Athens en route to London. I didn't want to leave!

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