Greece (long post)

Hello everyone! We are back home from our amazing adventure. Been home a few days now and still can't believe we were there and the whole wedding thing happened, etc. There is so much to write about that I will have to do the wedding in a couple of separate postings. So for now, I will write about Greece and some of our experiences there.

We got there in the evening after 20 hours of travel. Actually, the plane rides were not the worst part. We had four separate plane rides and a break between each one so we could walk around, etc. Our longest plane ride was 7 1/2 hours so it wasn't horrible. The worst part was after we got to Athens and had to find our ferry to take us to the island we were staying on.

It seems easy enough to say that you catch a bus to the ferry port (an hour ride from the airport) and then catch the ferry to Agistri (our island) but in actuality, it's very confusing! Especially since we know not one word of Greek. The bus driver was not helpful at all. We couldn't really even say the island's name correctly. It was a joke. All we knew was the bus we should take and that we would end up at Pereaus (ferry dock).

We got down there and there were ships (I mean full sized ships) lined up along a dock that went for at least a mile. We got out toward the middle of the line of ships and started making our way along the dock, asking ticket booth agents (that didn't really want to be helpful) which ferry was to Agistri...we found out it was way up at the front of the line of ships. So we walked all the way back rolling our bags on a narrow sidewalk in the 100+ temp in full sun (we were at the dock by 3pm). Kevin dropped me and the bags at one of the only shady places with benches and went along until he found the ferry. We ended up waiting 2 more hours in the heat. So needless to say, we were not impressed with Greece at that point!

Once we got to the island though, things got a lot better I am happy to say! We found our hotel no problem and the woman that runs the place met us and took us to our room. We dropped our bags off, changed into shorts and went down to the beach where I took a picture of this amazing sunset. The next day, we slept in until 1pm!

When we went out again, it was this beautiful blue-sky day. This is the beach in front of our hotel with lounge chairs and umbrellas. The water was cool but very comfortable, very refreshing! Not hard to get used to at all. We spent a part of every day down at the beach under an umbrella, reading, swimming, just hanging out and relaxing.

One funny thing we started noticing after a day or two was this elderly lady in a pink bathing cap who would go out in the mornings and evenings and do water exercises. We would see her pink cap bobbing up and down, her arms windmilling in and out of the water...we started referring to her as "pink grandma". She was there every day without fail.

This cove is seen from a higher road...no way to get down to the water from there but so beautiful. We saw many such scenes on our evening walks. This island is one of the few in Greece that has trees and it's covered in these beautiful pines.

Speaking of walks, Kevin and I took a trail through the pines that someone recommended. We started out with good intentions (started early so as to avoid the heat and sun) but soon realized that the path was not shaded for most of the walk...(much better to go in the evening when the shadows are long). Well, anyway...there we were on this hot, dry, dusty trail with the sun bearing down at high noon..not good. We stopped and ate our picnic lunch in the shade of a tree...beautiful views!!! But then we still had to walk for at least another mile or two to get around the loop back to the village. So we walked and walked in the hot sun. After a while, my sunscreen started wearing off and Kevin hadn't worn any thinking we would be in the shade. So we pulled out this light-weight purple blanket we had with us to sit on and started holding that over our heads as we walked. The ends of the blanket would flap out behind us as we walked holding the two front corners. Did I mention it was purple? We must have been a sight from the air! Good thing no helicopters were around or they might have thought we were signaling them to land!

The food in the restaurant at our hotel was hit and miss...picture a belgian waffle with thick chocolate frosting and whipped cream...that was my breakfast one morning (I had ordered a waffle with "Praline" thinking it was pecans...silly me.) Kevin had "beans on toast" and ended up with a can of pork and beans over a piece of untoasted white bread...oh and some tomato slices on top.

So we started looking around and found some great little markets with fresh fruit, bread, honey, etc...and had breakfast on our balcony from then on. This is an example of the kind of food we ate every day for breakfast. It was all cold food since we didn't have any way to cook anything. But the fruit was really good there.

This next pic is just a funny thing that we had to do to run our electrical converter because it was so heavy, it would fall out of the socket.

Chelsie and Michael joined up with us towards the end of our trip. They only had three days on the island but made the best use of their time I have ever seen. They made friends with all the wait staff and had a great time at the beach. It was the best part of our time there...having them with us. We took a bus around the island one day with them to this little beach/swimming place. It was a beautiful spot and the water there was the best on the island for clearness, sandy bottom, gentle waves...just ideal swimming. That was really one of the highlights...no pics though. Chels has them on her camera. Here is Chelsie and Kevin on our way off the island on our last day...we rode a super fast ferry and it was a lot of fun actually.

Here's Michael looking out...snuck a picture of him! Skip forward at least a week and the wedding, etc has all taken place and we are back in Athens for one night on our way home. Had to spend the night because our flight was so early the next day so we built in a day and went downtown Athens to stay. We took this picture looking out from a rooftop restaurant where we stayed...it's the Acropolis. The picture doesn't do this view justice. The real view seems so much closer and the colors more vibrant. I couldn't believe the scale of this ruin and the cliff it's built on...there are caves underneath that don't show in the picture.

Here are Chelsie and Michael enjoying the beautiful evening at the restaurant and looking out at the Acropolis.This is them goofing around...Kevin is taking a picture that looks like they are holding the Acropolis in their hands. Those two are a lot of fun to have along.

We ate at a street cafe that last day and had gyros...the best I have EVER had..the pita bread alone was so good. I have to say it was one of the best meals we had in Greece.

All in all, I would have to say that we had a relaxing time in Greece. The travel part in and out of Greece is nothing to take lightly and next time (if there is a next time) we will be prepared. But it was very beautiful in parts and we did have a great time there. Jasper and Polina are on their honeymoon on a different island (much more beautiful and in a much nicer hotel!) and are reporting back that they are super pleased with everything. So maybe we'll try that one next time!