SANTORINI DAY THREE: STRAIGHT SHOT OR ZIG ZAG?

Today was probably the coolest most adventurous day of my life. I woke up pretty early, had some breakfast and then had Dimitris call for three ATV's. We took advantage of driving on the right side of the road instead of the left like in Ireland, and advantage of the fact that the Island of Santorini is really only about 20 miles long. A quick lesson on how to start and stop the ATV and we were off. I hopped on the back with Peyton and we headed for the black sand beaches!

We rode the ATVS for about 35 minutes before getting off. We pulled them to the side of the road and walked down to the beach. The first one was the black sand beach. Here there isn't really any sand. It is just rocks and little pebbles that REALLY hurt your feet. I definitely would recommend wearing something on your feet if you're going to be walking on the shore line. The water was actually so warm and it made me so happy. I miss the ocean so much. We were pretty bummed that the air has been so cold otherwise I totally would have gone in right then and there.

Being on the back with Peyton was so much fun. We were literally living the dream riding an ATV across an island. All the roads were clear and the views were absolutely incredible. There is no possible way to describe what we saw and there is definitely nothing better than experiencing seeing the island than on the back of an ATV.

We spent about six hours on the ATV just driving around. We didn't have a map and not all of us had service on our phones so we winged the directions pretty much the whole time. I liked following the signs and seeing where we ended up each time. Peyton and I lead the way the whole day and at one point we ended up driving the ATV's up a foot path rather than an actual road. The result of that was all three ATV's backing down the inclined path, which was only as wide as the ATV, backwards. Im sure you can imagine how that looked to locals.

After riding for a few hours we got lunch at a restaurant in a local town, Porto Bello. Peyton and I shared another Greek Salad like most lunches, and a margherita pizza. We sat on a porch outside and ate. Although it was a little chilly, especially freezing from the wind on the ATV's.

We spent the rest of the afternoon riding the ATV's from Akortiri back to Fira. It eventually got freezing cold from the wind and not all of us were prepared with more layers so we headed back to the hotel. I mapped the route back to our hotel on my phone and thought that we were taking one straight road the whole way back, but instead we took a wrong turn and ended up going the zig zag way back. Peyton and I were laughing so hard going around the bends practically feeling like we were gonna fall off. It was kind of one of those things that you had to be there for.

We laid around for a while and hung out at the hotel before heading to Oia to see the sunset. This sunset was one of the coolest sunsets I have ever seen. Oia is known for its sunsets and usually in the summertime it is super crowded and you have to get to Oia about two hours before the sunset to get a decent spot along the wall or in a restaurant. Thankfully it's the end of the season and not as many people were there so we had no issue moving about Oia and getting a nice spot for the sunset.

Oia was really cool to see. To me, the buildings, houses and restaurants are all a little more connected and built together than the ones in FIra. But that is just from observation I don't know if it is a known fact. I do know that RedBull holds an event here in Santorini called the RedBull Art of Motion. You can find it on the RedBull website here to check it out. The event is where men and women run from roof top to roof top doing flips and crazy, abstract moves. They are professionals at this and is definitely something I would not recommend people to try haha. It happened in October here this year and wish I could have seen it. Maybe when I come back to Santorini I will be around to see it.

Tomorrow we will be doing a Wine Tasting tour which will be fun so look out for that post. Not as adventurous but will be a nice realxing thing to do after this ATV day. I really loved the ATV's it was such a fun way to see the island. If you come to Santorini, are on another island or just a new place in general, if there is a different way of getting around like an ATV or scooter, do it! Its so much fun and you have the ability to get off anywhere you want, plus it's super cheap!

Cheers, Nikki

#feltcoat #cotton #white #oversized #Europe #Santorini #Series #Island