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We arrived at 2am to Athens and found a corner of the airport to stretch out and try and get some sleep. We had 5 hours until Karina's flight arrived and then 3 more until our flight to Santorini for 4 days.

We checked in with Aegean Air and got to sit in the front row - First Class. Except the flight was late leaving so they gunned it to Santorini and we only had 30mins to enjoy our glass of Sprite and el primo seats. Damn!

Santorini was as pretty as every postcard ever printed. The blue sea and the cliffs and the blue-domed tops of whitewashed buildings…it's all there. The food was excellent all round, the Greek Salad impeccable and the service really friendly. I reckon in August, summer tourist season, they wouldn't be so friendly. Santorini lies around a dormant volcano and old caldera. Karina and I took an old wooden yacht to the volcano island which was a grey mountain of sand that everyone crawled over like ants and then we sailed to some hot springs which ran into the ocean. From there, we stopped at Thirissa, a sleepy island and had a seafood lunch in the port and then swam in the crystal clear water. Then we sailed back across the caldera to Oia, the edge of Santorini to watch the famous sunset. We decided to take a donkey up the neverending steep steps and we became a train of 10 or so tourists. The donkey dudes were calling and whooping them along at a fast pace, hitting them with sticks and when one of them got spooked and slammed its rider's leg into the wall, we were all ordered off and we did so without hesitation. it was quite frightening. At the top we collapsed in a café for an iced coffee and thanked the Greek Gods for sparing our lives.

Gav joined us for the sunset which was lovely but we have better sunsets at home.

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Next stop: Rodos.

We had to island hop to Rodos to get our direct flight to Budapest. We managed to find a charter plane to take us, 10 passengers in all. The plane was no bigger than a large mosquito. I'm very claustrophobic and as we boarded, I took one look inside and very nearly backed straight back out again. But I had no choice. The only other way to get to Rodos was by boat, in 4 days time. If we missed our flight to Budapest our mother would kill us. The whole reason for this European Tour was to return to the motherland.

Anyway, again we got First Class seats and when Gav stretched his legs in the aisle, they went through the curtain to the pilots. I concentrated on my Sprite and the blank wall in front of me while the pilot announced that we were flying over…he couldn't remember so Gav helped him out by yelling "Australia". When we landed on Rodos an hour later, the pilot posed for a photo and said "Welcome to Australia".

I loved Rodos. I could live there. Big enough to not know absolutely everyone but small enough to have only 10 mins of peak hour traffic every day.

We stayed in a 2 star hotel near the beach with a balcony and ocean glimpse and everything was cheap. Sun loungers were 4euros per day (20euros in Monaco). The castle was very cool, the beaches divine and the food good as usual. Not enough time to see it all though.