Our week in the Cyclades - part 1

Hey! Bad updating again, sorry!
If you've been following me on Instagram: I know, I'm sorry - I've been bombing photos from Greece non-stop, and there's still a lot more...hehe, surprise! There is just so much I have to share, because this week was absolutely amazing. In fact, there's so much that I'll have to divide it into two (or maybe even three) posts. I'm thinking two massive photo posts and one on useful travel tips and what we've learned. How's that?
Let's get started with days 1, 2 & 3!

Day 1

We arrived to Santorini pretty late in the afternoon, so there's not a lot we had time for. As soon as we got our room key, we dropped our heavy backpacks off our backs and climbed up the road to Thira town, where we sat down for dinner (with a view!) just in time for the sunset. A really nice start to the trip.

Day 2

Plans for the day: Visit Red Beach and the Antiques of Greece while still in Santorini - and then take the ferry over to Naxos island.
In the morning we got an early rooster wakeup call, apparently there was a henhouse across the road. :D Before breakfast (which was a huge disappointment btw - only dry bread and fake nutella) we took a dip in the little pool. Then we were off to the local bus to Red Beach with our big packpacks and 1,5l water bottles.

Needless to say, Greece in mid-August is preetty damn hot. Especially with all the stuff we had to carry around. After some sight-seeing and hiking we stopped for a swim at Red beach. Since we didn't choose the main side of the beach, that was crowded and further away, we had to deal with a lot of sharp rocks and sea urchins. Swimming shoes would've been nice. But the water was really clear and warm and the view was beautiful anyway!

Our very first gyros - also the best gyros all week! After lunch we were supposed to get a taxi to the port, which turned out to be a lot harder than expected... This is a long story, which I'll talk about later, but luckily we made it just in time all thanks to a very helpful local minibus driver. Relieeef. So we made it safely to Naxos...

...and this hotel. Hotel Grotta. What can I say... pure 5-star service. The lovely and helpful owners (who thought we were American) welcomed us with local family produced wine(which we weren't huge fans of) and home made pie, such a nice gesture! On top of that, great location, perfect room. And amazing breakfast. Free cookies. I could go on and on. We were all so excited to spend our next 3 nights here. I'll probably be back in a few years. :-)

Day 3
Sailing tour day!
We spent all day on board on a sailing boat, sailing the bluest waters I've ever seen. A lot of new experiences in one day: jumping off a boat, swimming, snorkeling, exploring bays and caves, seeing wild sea turtles and dolphins, visiting Schinoussa island, meeting people from around the world. Felt like a mermaid :D. Easily one of my favorite days, I'll have to let the pictures speak for themselves!