last day! :(

Friday- March 23

An alarm went off way too early for my liking. Why, you may ask. Because it went off before the sun was up. Bethany and Lydia wanted to see the sunrise from our balcony, and I wish I was a morning person to be able to do that. However, it looked just as pretty through the window from sitting in my bed. I rolled back over and drifted back into my sleep. 

Probably about an hour or so later I heard the girls rustling through their things, showering and getting ready. It didn't seem like it was time for me to wake up, so I went back to sleep. 

About and hour later I was shaken by Bethany to wake up. It was about 9:00, and it was finally time for me to wake up. I learned Lydia and Amy had met Erika and Kelsey to ride the quads to the red sand beach since we couldn't find it the other day. I forgot Lydia said she was going to ask me, but then decided not to because she knew my answer would be no. Glad she knows me. 

Fun fact: I have officially scared my friends from waking me up in the morning or talking to me. It makes me laugh. I told them I'm not a pleasant person in the mornings and to not take what may come out of my mouth for real. I'm not a morning person, and I really don't like being woken up, unless it's by an alarm and I have time to relax. I also don't like talking right away — just how I've always been.

Well throughout the whole week Bethany would tap me a little and then say "it's time to wake up" and not talk to me. She told me later that she would wait for me to sit up and then know it was semi-okay to say something. When I would smile and say good morning, she would realize I was awake.  I've never had people afraid of me, with me being a 5 ft 5 in. blonde girl, so I enjoyed it. 

After I smiled at Bethany, she said good morning and I got ready for the day. I wanted to get coffee from Poppy, the villa owner, because Bethany and Lydia had it most of the week and said it was good. So while I finished getting ready, Bethany went to go order her coffee and my coffee frappe. 

After I had everything packed for the day's adventures, I went outside to sit with Bethany and wait for our coffee. It was a gorgeous, sunny day, with little to no clouds. It was my last day in Greece, and I really didn't want to leave.

Kate and Jess came outside with their helmets and asked us if we were almost ready to go. It was 10 and we were supposed to meet Lydia and Amy at the quad rental place to return our quads. We still hadn't seen Poppy come out with our coffees, so we told them to go ahead of us, and we would meet up with them as soon as we finished our coffees. 

We were starting to get nervous about time, but soon enough Poppy emerged from the kitchen inside and brought us our coffees. Mine was quite refreshing, but I knew it wouldn't end too well since I had to chug it based on lack of time. 

After we finished our coffees, Bethany and I packed up our quad. Of course since we were rushed on time, the storage case wouldn't lock. After a few minutes of messing around with it, we got it. As we were driving on the main road Bethany slowed down to let someone turn into a parking lot. Then our motor shut off. In the middle of the road with traffic moving along. I nearly crapped my pants. "Bethany...why is our quad off?"

"I don't know."

After Bethany kicked-started it a little, it roared to life and we hurried along to meet our friends. Then Bethany passed the turn. A lot of roads are one-way roads, so we had to turn around to go back to it. This day was starting off quite well, and I just kept laughing to myself. 

We drove up through Fira and down the road to the quad rental. We passed Kate and Jess walking up and Lydia stood up from an outside cafe where she was sitting with Erika, Yelena and Kelsey. 

Bethany and I returned the quad and helmets and walked back up the street. Lydia said Kate and Jess already started walking down to the port. We were supposed to be there at 10:45, and it was 10:30. Lydia said it would take 30 minutes to get down to the port, so we started power walking. 

The stairs were steep and winding. As I was trucking my way down the stairs I was avoiding donkey crap and trying to hustle. Then a cramp came on. "And there's the coffee," I thought to myself, but I couldn't waste a second. Lydia and Amy had fallen behind Bethany and I, and Bethany and I eventually caught up to Jess and Kate as we were essentially booking it down these stairs. "Thank goodness I wore shorts and a light shirt," I thought. 

At first when we made it down to the port we thought we were at the wrong one, but an older man told us we were at the right place. There were a few boats situated at docks, and we spotted a boat starting to load people.

I got really excited because the boat was so cool looking and I couldn't believe I was going to ride on it.

Lydia and Amy caught up to us just in time for us to board. We handed a man our tickets and he helped us on. There were probably about 15-20 people on the boat total ready to go climb the volcano on the island the ferry was taking us to and then jump into the hot springs.

I couldn't believe how clear blue the water was either.

As the boat led us to the mini island, I looked back at the hill I just climbed down. I couldn't believe that was what I just ran down. It was massive!

Santorini today is what remains after the volcano erupted many, many years ago in B.C. It caused the lands to crumble and, therefore, the volcano sits on it's own on a tiny island in the middle of Santorini.

Here's a view of the map of the island

The volcano sits on Nea Kameni Island and the hot springs are off of the Palia Kameni Island coast. The past two days I drove my quad to both ends of the island. 

As the boat pulled in to the dock of Nea Kameni, my friends said, "Caitlin, is this the type of water you wanted to see?" I jumped in excitement. It was teal-blue water to the max, and I could see it changing from the darker shade of the Aegean Sea.

After we docked the captain told us we had until 12:40 to explore and then we had to be back on the boat. That gave us an hour and 20 minutes. More than enough time!

As soon as we stepped on land, Kate was off like a speed demon. We called her our little adventurer because she was always the first one off to explore. 

Bethany and I followed, and Jess, Lydia and Amy fell behind. 

As I hiked up the steep, dirt hills I saw volcanic rock all around me.

I was good at hiking until I started losing my breath. Not exercising will do that to a person. I kept pushing through my huffing and puffing and every time I got to flat land I was thrilled to rest my legs. Kate kept leading up farther up because we all wanted to see this volcano, which last erupted in 1950.

There were a few steep ditches that we thought would be the volcano, but we eventually found a massive one that had steam coming out of rocks everywhere.

We were 99.9% sure this was it, and I couldn't wrap my head around it that I was climbing a volcano. It wasn't on my bucket list, but it was something cool to be added to it!

Lydia, Amy and Jess kept catching up to us and then falling behind again during the hour and 20 minutes. When I reached the highest point on the island I could see everything.

I also saw where I thought the hot springs were, and I was excited to head over there to swim.

We descended back down the paths, thought we got lost for a bit, but eventually made it back to the boat 10 minutes early. Jess, Lydia and Amy cut it close and had us worrying, but they made it. 

As the boat made its way to the hot springs I was starting to get nervous and excited. I didn't really know what to think, actually. Here's the thing. We weren't jumping right into the warm water. The hot springs were too shallow for the ship to dock up close to it. SO it would dock about 20 meters away from it and we were going to have to jump in to the water and swim to it. Well...in March, the water is pretty darn cold. When I had my feet in the water on the black sand beach, my feet eventually went numb. I mean, it was bearable with just my feet, but I didn't know what to expect my body to do.

Kate was starting to tweak our and get nervous. All of us but Amy were doing it because Amy forgot her swim suit. We were pretty sure we were also one of the only ones on the tour doing it. A couple in their 60s said they were going to do it, so I thought to myself, "If they can do it, I can surely do it!" 

Once the older woman learned that the boast wasn't docking right in the hot springs though, she started doubting whether she was going to go through with it. 

When we docked 20 meters away we started stripping down to our bathing suits. It was starting to get a little cloudy, so it wasn't exactly warm sitting in my bikini. As we were all getting ready, we were all tweaking out saying, "are we really going to do this?!"

Then we heard a splash. And then another. A couple a little older than us jumped in. It was time. Lydia started walking from the front of the boat to where we were supposed to jump. Kate followed, then me Bethany and Jess. 

Lydia seriously didn't even think. She didn't even stop while walking to the edge. She just walked and then jumped in. "Crap, I can't even think about this. I just have to do it," I thought. 

Then Kate jumped in without even a blink. I couldn't just stand there and contemplate when I was going to jump in. My heart was racing and I couldn't believe what I was about to do. It wasn't like I could even dip my toes in to feel how cold it was going to be. 

In those very few seconds those thoughts had time to wrap around my head I did just what Lydia and Kate did. I just jumped right in without even thinking about it.

As soon as my body went into the freezing Aegean Sea, my body froze and I tried pushing to the top for air. The water was ice cold and my body went into minor shock. When I got to the top for air I couldn't even breathe in because I was such in shock. After a few seconds of terror I breathed and started swimming as fast as I could to the hot springs.

Lydia and Kate were in front of me and Bethany and Jess were behind me. Somehow Kate seemed like she was miles away from me. She was like a speed demon. 

The only bikini I packed was my strapless one. Problem. When you swim the top falls down. If I doggy paddle it does not, but if I wanted to make it to the hot springs fast, I had to actually swim. I swam with it falling down and figured I would fix it later. I forgot a very important detail. The water here was clear. Well, as I swam past the front of the ship, everyone got a good view of me. 

As I was swimming I felt like I was swimming through schools of minnows. I don't know what I was swimming through but I felt tiny things hitting my hands constantly, which made me swim even faster. 

Bethany and Jess caught up to me and we caught up to Kate and Lydia. As we were swimming I could slowly start feeling the water getting warmer. I started doggy paddling and fixed my top. Kate stood in front of my and I realized I was doggy paddling in two feet of water. I tried standing up and then fell right back down. The rocks on the bottom were incredibly "slippy" because of the algae on it. It was all slimy and disgusting so I kept swimming, despite the fact I could walk.

If you should know one thing about me, I hate feeling odd things, especially if I can't see it and I hate when things stick to me. My mom laughed when I told her about the algae because she knows how I am. I also hate it when sand sticks to me when I get out of the ocean. It's a pain. 

The farther we swam into the spring, the warmer it got, but it was only in certain spots. If you swam away from those spots, it would get a little colder, but not as cold as the 20 meter swim in. You also couldn't see the bottom because it was all muddy, which made the water foggy.

When we were all the way in I went to try to stand and put my feet down. When I did I sunk a bit into this squishy algae. There were no rocks, just this squishiness. It was like quicksand of something, without the fact of it sucking you up and killing you. I immediately squealed and went back to floating in the water. 

My friends asked what happened, and I told them what the bottom felt like and immediately we were all doggy paddling around and floating. 

I soon found a spot that was warm and floated in it with the sun peaking through the clouds onto me. It was wonderfully relaxing. 

The couple in their 60s ended up jumping in and were swimming toward us. I was very impressed and thought to myself, "Wow, I hope I can do that when I'm their age."

Everyone but Bethany and I decided to head back to the boat. The two of us just kept floating until we were interrupted by the boat honking, telling us we had to get back. We only had a total of 30 minutes at the hot spring, which included the swim to it and back, so I was in the hot springs for maybe 10 minutes. The older couple had just gotten to it when we all had to turn back. 

This was the hard part. At least I didn't know what the temperature was like before I jumped in, but now I had to go from warm water to ice cold. Bethany was in front of me and when I saw her stand I knew we were back at the rocks where I had slipped and fallen. She started swimming out into the cold sea.

I slowly could feel the warm water slipping away from me as I began treading water. Without any warning the rocks dropped and I had to swim. The water was back to being ice cold, but it wasn't as bad as what I thought it was going to be. I think it was because I knew what to expect this time. As I swam back to the boat I could feel those tiny things again, but the more I swam the colder it got.

When my hands or feet fall asleep and I have to "wake" them back up, it feels like needles are poking me. That's what it felt like all over my body. It wasn't painful, but it felt really weird having a needle-like feeling poking me everywhere. 

We reached the boat and Bethany climbed up the ladder first. She was trying to fix herself before hopping up on deck, which left me treading water. "Bethany, I'd like to get out too!"

She hopped up, and then I pulled myself up and darted to Amy for my towel. She had to pull it out of my book bag, which of course was at the very bottom. Finally when I wrapped it around myself, I felt warmer.

I asked Kate how they heck she swam so fast to the hot spring and she said it was shear terror that made her swim so fast, and I just laughed.

The ride back to the port was a bit chilly, but at least my hair was drying.

When we docked a man came up to me asking me if I wanted something. At first I couldn't understand him, and then I realized he was asking if I wanted a donkey ride up the hill. I had no interest and I knew the girls had done it yesterday down the hill, so I said no thank you. He was a little pushy, but eventually left us alone. 

We decided to take a cable car back up the hill, but had to wait 25 minutes until the next one at 2:30, which was fine. The time flew by anyways, and before we knew it we were back up in Fira. 

For the next two hours we walked around Fira and did some souvenir shopping. It was nice to just walk around and enjoy our last afternoon in Santorini.

The downer to not having our quads anymore was that we now had to walk 20 minutes to get home. So when it started getting close to dusk, we started heading home. By this time we were exhausted from our long day and I was starting to feel a sore throat coming along. I knew what it was from. I always get colds when the temperature changes in seasons and since I jumped into the ice cold water and went in a hot spring and then back into the cold, I knew it was only a matter of time before I caught something.

Our last night in Santorini I packed and we all hung out. Lydia was extremely slap happy, and one would probably have mistaken her for being drunk. It was entertaining to say the least and before I knew it she was passed out in her bed. 

I went to sleep a little earlier because I knew I had an early morning and a long day ahead of me.