Vacay Continued - Croatia and Greece

Next stop on our trip was Dubrovnik, Croatia. I kept hearing that Croatia is the new 'hot spot', but I wasn't blown away. It was beautiful, but it wasn't my favorite place we visited. We walked the walls of the old town, since it was surrounded to protect it during war. Spent most of the afternoon back on the ship in our self-titled area "Relaxation Station" outside on the 3rd deck in lounge chairs.
Our first stop in Greece was Corfu. Took a taxi to the beach, driven by our favorite new Greek, Demetrius. I think it's funny how so many people we met on the trip would immediately say they only speak a little english and then be able to carry on a pretty full conversation with you. I was lucky to be able to say anything in Greek! Anyway, the beach was beautiful but the sand would literally scald your feet if you stood in it longer than 5 seconds. I had never experienced that before, and the sand wasn't even that dark in color. Then you stepped in the water and it was freezing. Very strange combo.
Definitely my favorite stop in Greece was Santorini. We took a tour of some villages and then went to a black sand beach, which was really cool. Strangely enough, the sand was not as hot as the orangy colored sand in Corfu.

After our tour, we embarked on our donkey ride up the side of the mountain into town. You either have to take the cable car or donkey to get up, and we knew we couldn't leave Greece without our 'Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants' moment. Little did we know that the trip up on our donkeys was on our own, so we got put on donkeys and off we went. I mean, our donkeys know where they're going since they do it every day, but it was still an adventure. Every so often, they would just stop walking and we'd have to coax them into starting up again. When we got towards the top, we ran into what we called a donkey blockade. Our donkeys stopped and were not interested in moving again. Since we were almost at the top, we figured our ride was over. As we discussed it, trying to get our donkeys moving, the locals had gathered above us watching us sort this all out. Lauren and I got off pretty easily, but Bethany's foot got caught in her stirrup and the saddle slid with her as she dropped to the ground. It was hilarious, and she didn't get too hurt or covered in donkey poop, so it was ok. Here I go up the mountainside on my donkey, Stella...We shopped in Santorini like it was going out of style, and saw the most beautiful sunset. I want to go back there and stay a week...I loved it. Plus, the Greeks are much nicer than the Italians! (Probably because I spent so much damn money.)
Sunset in Santorini...


Next up, back to Italy...