We've now been in Santorini for about four days. I like this island quite a bit. The first night we arrived we stayed in Parissa. We got off the ferry around 4:00 in the morning, on Saturday. The ferry was about an hour late. After we docked we were approached by several men asking us if we had lodging for the night. We discovered that one of them was named Andreas and since Heidi, the Canadian girl, had heard of his hostel, we decided to stay there. He drove us all in the van up a long, steep, winding road through the cliffson the edge of Santorini to his hostel. Some of us were tempted to see the sunrise, but decided against it in a few minutes.

The next day we awoke to a beautiful day, the sun streaming into our bedroom from the wooden shutters. I had slept on a lawn chair instead of sharing a small bed with my brother. We headed to the beach after we explored the hostel, which was a nice peach color with a huge swimming pool outside. The beach was a typical European beach, with more sand than rocks and unfortunately too few topless sunbathers. Jason, a guy from Atlanta, and I walked down the edge of the coast to the end of the beach and saw only one girl we liked. Her mother kept and eagle eye on us the entire time. The water was not warm but we were able to swim.

At night we purchased alcohol and drank in the cortyard by the pool. Craig, another one from Atlanta, got completely smashed and stripped down to his boxers and swam three laps at excessive speeds. I promised I would follow him if he followed through on his words; he did and so did I. We returned to our rooms to dry off and as I walked back to the pool I heard a great commotion, followed by a big splashing sound. Apparently one of the Aussies in the room above us had stripped completely naked and stuck a funnel of toilet paper up his ass, after which a friend had lit it on fire. Then, with a streak of light, he had jumped from the shed next to the pool into the water. He termed this a "flaming asshole" and after he had toweled off, explained to us profusely that it was much more fun in larger groups, among other things.

The next day we departed for Fira, where we spent the majority of our time. At this point my brother was securely in the clutches of a little girl named Elyse with curly red hair. She had done some acting when she was younger and had appeared with Fred Savage on "the Wonder Years," and all-time favorite of mine. In Fira we swam off a pier in the blue ocean next to fishermen and tour boats. The first day three of the girls went topless which was a treat. We rented motor scooters another day and covered the island, including an excavation lacking any of the frescoes which it advertised. We also traveled to a small island in the middle of the crescent that is Santorini, and visited a hot springs and saw the volcano. The hotsprings were at best lukewarm, and if the small island hadn't been covered with black rocks of an extremely porous material you wouldn't have noticed it was a volcano, so we decided a few of the sights in Santorini were more hype than they were made out to be. But, after all was said and done, the incredible beauty of the island more than made up for any shortcomings or problems we encountered.