Eurotrip 2015 - Day 5 (7/1/2015) - To Santorini

I developed a fever overnight, but it thankfully broke early in the morning and I began to feel better.  My stomach also mostly stopped hurting around that time, though I still had no appetite by the time Joe and Tina left for breakfast.  They did kindly bring back some bread and water for me and asked the hotel to extend our check-out time to 1 PM (from 11 AM) so that I could rest in the room (which the hotel very gracefully obliged).  They went out to do some shopping while I lay around, ate as much as I could tolerate, and eventually took a shower.  I was feeling pretty good by the time they returned, and had no real troubles the rest of the day.

After checking out, we took a van that we had ordered for 1:15 to the airport.  Traffic was not bad, and we arrived about 20 minutes later, well in time for our 4 PM flight to Athens.  The airport had a pre-security screening, similar to what I had seen in Kuwait except right at the entrance.  After going through that and regular security we took our flight to Athens, went through passport control, exited and went through security again (our connection was in another concourse), and then took the 7:30 to Santorini.  As an aside, Aegean Airlines served a small meal (maybe more of a snack) on the flight from Istanbul to Athens even though the flight was barely 1.5 hours.

We had arranged to rent ATVs from Motor Inn in Santorini, but when we arrived the representative was not there to meet us as promised.  A helpful transportation organizer (who was waiting for another party) kindly called Motor Inn for us, and their guy headed our way.  When he arrived, he took down our info, gave us a crash course on how to operate the ATVs, and took payment.  He also scribbled directions to our Santorini Palace Hotel on a map and advised us to get gas soon (the ATV tanks were almost empty).  The advice on gas was probably the best thing he told us, as we would spend the next hour or so trying to find the hotel - we probably had enough gas to make it to the hotel if we had found it immediately, but not much farther.  His directions which involved turning left at a blue church were far less helpful.  Joe and Tina led in their ATV while I drove behind.  We stopped to ask for directions a couple of times, but that didn't help too much.  Eventually, my Google Maps app was able to locate us on the map (we found out because we were using my phone and the downloaded map of Santorini to ask for directions) and we used that to try to guide us.  We still had trouble finding the place, and at one point drove by the turn that we were supposed to make.  Joe and Tina switched positions, so Tina was now driving and Joe was navigating, and this somehow turned out to be the magic that helped us turn into the right side street and find the hotel.  We arrived around 11, checked in, briefly explored the place, and then headed to our rooms for the night.

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An album of all my favorite photos from the trip can be found here:
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