I cannot believe we're going on three days in Santorini already. After an amazing hike yesterday we were ready to have a slightly less physically exerting day. We finally slept through the night and woke up at a reasonable time. Our plan for today was to rent a car and drive it around Santorini. We booked the car through the hotels front desk and were told it would be ready at 10AM. 

I write you today from the balcony of our suite overlooking the tremendous caldera, with nearby church bells ringing and a slight breeze just giving me enough cloud cover to see my laptop screen. Its magnificent, and so too was our day today. After a long day of travel yesterday, today is the first full day in Santorini and it was a great way to start the week.

And just like that the first leg of our Epic Europe trip has come to a close. We woke up this morning early but luckily this time fell back asleep only to be jolted out of bed by our alarm at 5:30 AM. We got up, packed our stuff, and got ready for our next leg of the trip, Santorini. 

I might have spoke prematurely. After an absolutely incredible first day in Istanbul, and one that had us getting a full night sleep after the 14+ hours of flying, things didn't go as well last night. We got back to our room from the amazing dinner at Nicole at 11pm and fell asleep shortly after. Unfortunately we woke up at around 3AM and were up until breakfast at 8AM. A couple of hours of sleep was not ideal.

We started our second day on this three week long journey with another first. We slept through our first night after a transatlantic flight. Every Europe trip before we've woken up in the middle of the night hungry, wide awake, and not sure what to do with ourselves. We woke up this morning at 5AM (a little too early) and felt refreshed and ready for our first day in Istanbul.

We made it! The trip we've had planned since the last few days of our China/Bali trip has finally arrived. As I sit writing this post in Istanbul, Turkey, I can tell its the start of something truly spectacular. The trip started easier then any trip before it. Instead of staying the night at an LAX hotel, Jake spent the night, the night before our departure and drove us to the airport. It tuned out to be a great start to the trip, even if we almost died trying to take a picture of us driving.