With classes truly finished, we bid "au revoir" to our professors and classmates at a dinner in Clermont to mark the end of our first year of classes in the IMBA program.
Early the next morning, the real vacation began!
Javier and I took the train up to Paris again, where we stayed in Montmartre (literally in the shadow of Sacre Coeur!) and trapsed around the parks and museums of this beautiful city - in between delicious international dinners of Spanish and Indonesian food.
From there, we took off for Greece - on a budget that meant about 12 hours on the way there and 24 to get all the way home to Clermont at the end! But, it was well well worth it.
We said "Yasoo" to Santorini on Monday night. Fanes, who owned our hotel, met us at the airport and helped us map out some plans for our week ahead. (Note: definitely check out this hotel, Aroma Suites, if you ever get to Santorni! With only 8 guestrooms, Fanes is able to give each guest incredibly personal attention; the rooms are romantic, the views from the shared patios are amazing and the location is perfect. http://www.aromasuites.gr/)
We started off early on Tuesday morning with a trip to the black sand beaches, and from there, a steep hike up to the ancient Greek ruins that were hidden on the cliff far above us. By the time we got back to the beach, we were ready to eat, so we feasted on grilled octapus, baked eggplant, tomato fritters and stuffed mushrooms before heading back to explore Santorini's capital and our "home" for the week, Thira.
Wednesday took us on a sailboat to Santorini's volcano, hot springs, and other island, down to Oia (the Island's chic-est town, and in our opinion more polished, but much much less friendly than Thira!), and then back to Thira where we got our first of two spectacular sunsets.
Thursday was our last full day to fit everything in, so we started early on our three hour hike from Thira to Oia. The entire walk was along the top edge of the island, giving us endlessly changing, and all equally breathtaking views of the Caldera and the volcano.
A little history: some three thousand years ago, Santorini was a fairly large, volcanic island. When the volcano blew, it destroyed most of the island (and buried the Minoan civilization, which is fabled to be the true "Atlantis"). The outside edges of the island were left, and a steep cliff was formed, dividing the land from the crater in the center. The sloping far end of the island, as well as the cliff-tops were slowly re-populated, and now those cliff-top towns offer some of the most astonishingly beautiful scenery on this planet.
So, after our hike, we gratefully found the Gyros stand at the bus stop, and wolfed down our chicken and pork in pita pockets before taking the bus system to the far opposite end of the island. There, we climbed over red rocks to access the famed red-sand beaches hidden behind them. We did get in the water briefly, but in April, the water is still cold enough to knock your breath out, so we mostly just basked in the sun.
That night offered us another wonderful sunset, which we enjoyed while sipping a glass of wine on the patio of our hotel before heading out to dinner again.
Sadly, Friday came around, and it was time to say "adio". We still had most of the day to explore, so we hiked out to a more remote restaurant that came highly recommended by Fanes (and indeed was filled with nothing but locals! "Mario's" behind the airport, for anyone looking to visit Santorini - but if you do, definitely take a cab here; the hike wasn't our best idea...). We then strolled through Thira one last time, picked up a few final souvenirs, admired the Orthodox Easter flowers decorating the main church and headed to the airport.
While the trip home was long, it provided its own adventure - it is worth noting that Athens is a hopping airport, 24 hours a day; Lufthansa provides free coffee and newspapers in Munich; Terminal 1 of Charles de Gaulle is a crazy, modern structure with people movers that go up and down winding hills; and Uno is the best game for a train ride!
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