There aren't words....so I decided to post all of these to the blog....That and its easier than trying to upload over 300 pics to fotki...For the rest, well you guys just have to wait :-) Until we can find another fast, "free" internet connection, which probably won't be until back in Athens, which will be May 20th.

It REALLY looks just like this, only I feel these pictures do not do this place justice. Around each corner is a photo-op

We have gone into "vacation-mode", finally! The weather is warm, the locals are laid-back and pleasant, and its CHEAP!! We were so surprised when we found this out. Venice, also an isolated, heavily-visited area, had insane prices resulting from the need to send everything in by boat. Here, where the same applies, from everything from gas, clothing, food etc, its cheap? We each bought 500ml of beer ( which is like two big bottles in one) for .90 euro, our stay in the hostel here ( which is less than 50 m from black-sanded Perissa Beach, is 6 euro each per night, and fresh bread from the bakery down the street is .60 euro. You can see why the New Zealand folks in the room with us have forgotten the rest of their european itinerary planning to get jobs and stay here indefinitely.

The culture is very different. Think arabian-nights meets bob-marley?? The locals have sincerely welcomed us. We felt happily received by the hostel staff, all of the bars/restaurants have genuinely nice greeks, and we even had one greek woman drive us back and forth in Oia assisting us to find a few cheap nights there.

There are no crowds ( now, anyway ;-) ) in this season. We hear from the locals it becomes a maddening throng of obnoxious tourists late summer ( probably the same jerky-peeps elbowing us a few days ago) Thankfully, we are experiencing it in the same way the first travelers did before it became a commonplace destination. Troy and I had our own private black sand beach over looking the gorgeous cliffs in the background...Not a soul around. This is exactly what I envisioned when I dreamed up this trip.

Nothing to do, nowhere to go.....the only thing to do is relax in the sun and enjoy being ALIVE!!

Tomorrow we are both going to rent scooters and see what little nooks and crannies we can discover all on our own, as this is our favorite thing to do in a new place, especially when we can be all alone.

Hopefully soon I can post more pics...

Mom, we WILL be here together one day. I promise.

Love you all
xoxoxoxoxo