The adventure starts off with a flight from Cleveland to Washington DC. Jay is traveling to Greece separately as he is coming from Iowa.

 Once in DC, I ALMOST miss my 8-hour flight to Munich, due to my flight from Cleveland experiencing ‘break issues’ and we waited on the tarmac for an extra hour. I sprint to the gate and JUST make my flight, being the very last person to board.

Our overnight flight to Munich was great, and I get some much-needed rest as we fly through the night. We get a standard airplane dinner of red penne pasta, salad, crackers, roll, cheese, and a brownie for dessert. Breakfast is mini banana bread and some yogurt. In Munich, I meet up with a few group members to board our 2-hour flight down to Santorini, Greece.

I learned Jay must check his carry-on bag in Chicago for his flight to Zurich. They end up offering to upgrade him up to first class for the inconvenience. He enjoys beef wellington, lay-flat seating, and even a shower on the plane! Only Jay…

My plane arrives in Santorini around 5pm (around 11am back home) and we are greeted by our AESU tour guide, Nikolaus. We load a group bus and drive 20-minutes to our hotel. We have a quick 30-minutes before freshening up and loading back up ok the bus for dinner.

Our hotel is darling, with a full pool in its courtyard, and separate little room suites wrapping around the hotel. Our room is cute, with three twin beds, a standard shower, and a little balcony facing the ocean. It’s perfect!

Our first group dinner is at Lithos Restaurant. A relaxed little restaurant tucked into the hustle and bustle of the main walk. Tourists all walk up and down the cobblestone street, snapping photos of the blue water, whitewashed buildings, and the orange sun setting in the distance.

We enjoy a fabulous meal of greek salad, keftedes, pork, rice, fries, and fresh bananas and watermelon for dessert. We also had the option of a drink of orange juice or a glass of ouzo. The ouzo tastes of licorice and is surprisingly good! We enjoyed our dinner as we people-watched and watched the beautiful sunset.

Jay arrives at the restaurant just in time for dessert. The group then walked back to the hotel for bed or the option to keep walking around. Jay and I return to the hotel to drop off his bags. We then make our way back out for another hour, just walking the streets of Santorini at night.

The streets are winding and steep cobblestone, and are filled with quaint little gift shops, jewelry, souvenirs, and tons of little restaurants. We stop for a quick lamb gyro for Jay and some beautiful night views of the city.