Greece: Sunsets, Beauty, and LOTS of hills

We arrived in Athens and were greeted by our host, Eleni thru Airbnb.com.  Her apartment was lovely and spacious and she made us feel most at home.  Ater unpacking and getting organized, we met up with Jasmine, my dear friend Sonia's sister.  Since she had a car and knew we were going to be traveling only by foot and metro, she decided to take us outside the city for a drive along Athen's coastline to see  the sea.  It was a beautiful drive and she pointed out famous spots on the island, the beaches she frequents, etc while we were going pass.

We travelled to see the Temple of Athena and it was nice because it was our first historic site in Greece and there was hardly any crowds there since it's in such a remote part of the island.  After the Temple, Jasmine took us to a favorite restaurant of  her's that she said had excellent seafood.  The place did not disappoint!  It was absolutely delish!  We feasted on a greek salads platter, steamed mussels with feta cheese (to die) and topped it off with a sampling of yogurt, honey and fruit and a chocolate biscuit/cake dish.

 It was all so good and no other meal we ate in Greece compared to that one.  The rest were still quite good but THAT meal, was amazing!  After dinner we drove back into town and Jasmine took us to her gorgeous apartment for a nightcap.  We really enjoyed our time with her and are so grateful that she took time out of her schedule to show us her beautiful city and home.

The following day we strapped our walking shoes on and trekked all over Athens to see the famous Greek ruins like the Acropolis, Temple of Agora, Parthenon, Temple of Zeus, and Theater of Dionysus to name a few.  We walked a total of 7.5 miles and much of it was up and down hills.  I discovered Greece is very hilly and I definitely got my workout while we were there!  It was amazing to me that the Greeks lugged these enormous pieces of marble stone to build these incredible structures on top of high hills without modern day machinery, truly a wonder.  Now I know why those Greek gods were so fit and buff!

It was very hot in Athens and stupid me forgot to wear sunscreen and so I got burned and now have a funny scoop neck tan line on my chest.  Greece also had a bit of Florida's humidity which Jasmine said was unusual but Bill and I recognized it right away.  Evil humidity!  That evening Eleni let us use stuff in her fridge to make dinner and we had a lovely chat out on her terrace.  She recently went to the US for a month and was telling us all about her trip and asking us why they don't just include sales tax with the sticker price of the merchandise so there's no suprises when you get to the register.  In Europe everything is included in the cost of the item (including tip at restaurants) and it does make things easier.  I simply agreed with her and said the US was behind the times on that point.


The next day we left for Athens for Santorini and were greeted with our first strike.  The Metro was closed and so we were forced to take a cab to our destination.  I reallyl don't understand the point of strikes.  They don't seem to hurt anyone but the people who have to use public transport.  As I'm typing this blog, I'm sitting in the Athens airport on my third hour of delay due to another strike.  This one with the airlines.  Very frustrating.  We were supposed to leave at 1:45 and it's now 4pm and we still haven't left yet and they don't know when it will end.... :(

Anyhow, back to Santorini.  We arrived in Santorini and everything truly looked just like the postcards, gorgeous!  The hotel we stayed at was beautiful as well and we had a nice pool deck, room with a view of the pool, AC (a first since we've been in Europe), and a mini-fridge (which was nice to be able to eat on the cheap from the grocery store, those Euros hurt after a while).  Our first day in Santorini I relaxed by the pool and got some R&R.  We've been going non-stop  so it was nice to take a break and do nothing for a day.  Bill of course could not sit and do nothing so he went hiking all around town.  We were staying just outside of Fira Town so it was about a mile walk (15 mins) into town and a lot of that was up hill.  I wanted some wine to drink for the time we were there and popped into this store and the guy was like you wan to try the house wine, it's 3.50 Euros.  I was like sure!  He takes a water bottle, dumps the remaining water into his plants and then fills up the bottle from a spout in the wall.  Being the budget drinker I am, I loved it and it was actually good wine too!

Later that evening we went into town together and Bill showed me a great view he had found of the Caldera earlier.  Seeing Fira at night nestled in the cliffs was really beautiful.  There was lots going on in Fira, the place was hoppin till the wee hours.  We were amazed at how late everything stayed open, even the grocery stores were open till midnight.  We mainly just walked around and looked at stuff in the shops and I picked up a few souvenirs for my girlfriends back home.  It's a good thing I am on a budget, because I could have done some serious damage in Greece, I wanted to buy everything!

The next day we booked a boat tour to the visit the volcano and swim at the thermal springs.  Apparently Santorini is a very dangerous place because the volcano is still active and just never know when it could wake up.  Our guide was very passionate about explaining all he knew about the volcano and said a little something happens about every 50 years or so but the last time it erupted was 3,500 years ago, still the strongest eruption on record in the world.  He said you see so many churches on Santorini (and there were a LOT) because everyone prays the volcano doesn't erupt!  The hike was cool, very dry and rocky.  It was definitely a workout for me but of course for Bill, he loved it and barely broke a sweat.  It was really windy at the top though but I thought it was nice after all the sweating I did to GET to the top.  After the volcano, we got back on the boat and sailed over the thermal springs for a dip.  You had to jump off the boat (the water was cold too) and swim about 30 meters to get to thermal part of the sea.   Because the thermal springs are a part of the Aegean, the cold water mixes with the warm so it actually wasn't that hot.  I was hoping for hot tub temps but was a little disappointed.  The water was this yellow color too because of the sulfur.  The water that day was a little choppy too so swimming in the ocean to get to the springs, we both got more than a mouthful of salt water along the way.  But all in all, an experience.

At the port in Fira, you have to go down about 575 steps to get there and they have a few options: You can take the cable car (for which there is a long line), walk it, or ride a donkey.  I was okay going down the steps (with the exception of all the donkey droppings you have to endure and sidestep) but I was not about to walk UP.  Plus I wanted to ride the donkeys anyhow :)  So Bill walked up and I rode a donkey.   It was fun!  You have to hold on tight because it's going stairs the whole way and so you're bouncing around.   When we got back to our hotel afterwards, Bill discovered that his credit card must have fallen out of his pocket on the way up the stairs so he had to go back and look for it.  He didn't find it and so he had to cancel and have a new one sent to our next location in a few days, Rome.  So that was a bit of a bump in the road.  Poor Bill he had all the bad luck in Santorini....

One thing I really loved about Greece though  is the food.  It's a cheese lovers dream!   Feta on everything, fried cheese, cheese crouquettes, cheese and bread, I ate it ALL.  I loved all the greek salads and dips too.  Bill however has been having trouble finding beans (his source of protein) in the dishes of the coutries we've been in lately so he's had to have some meat to get his protein intake with all the exercise he's been doing.  Luckily, he's been a good sport about it.  I kept thinking of the scene in My Big Fat Greek Wedding where they're at the engagement party and her fiance say's he's a vegetarian and the whole room stops to look at him and then the mom says "Don't worry, we have lamb!"  LOL

Our last day in Santorini I wanted to take it easy by the pool again because our travel to Italy was going to be go-go-go again.  Bill went hiking up to one of the moutains near town (of course).   Later in the afternoon we took the bus to the famous town of Oia (that you see in all the postcards) to watch the sunset.  It's just like the pictures, very idyllic, but I'm glad we only went for a few hours because there wasn't a lot to do there once you had walked thru town once, not a lot going on.  The sunset and there were a TON of people lining the steps and sidewalk to watch.  It's a must-see sunset while your in Santorini.

We got the bus back to Fira, got some gelato cones for our walk back to the hotel and Bill started walking much faster than normal.  He got back before me and when I got in, he was in terrible pain in the bathroom.  Apparently you're supposed to peel the skin of fruit in any foreign country, even Greece because they don't treat their produce the same as ours.  We think Bill got a bout of food poisoning from the fruit.  We drank bottled water the whole time and I had eaten almost everything he had but the fruit.  I got on Skype with my mom, who is a nurse and she was able to tell us what was going on based on his symptoms and give us the name of the antibotic we needed to get to stop the pain and speed up the healing.  By this time it's 11pm and I have to walk into town to go to the pharmacy and luckily in they had the antibiotic he needed over the counter (without a prescription).  But again, it's a mile walk into town and a mile back so walking 2 miles to get medicine for my love while he was in crisis, I really missed the speed of my car.  I also was able to find powered to help rehydrate him.  The night was a little rough needless to say but thankfully, whatever was causing this cleared his system and he was able to make a speedy recovery.  The medicine really helped the recovery process too.

The next day we packed it up and said goodbye to the beautiful islands of Greece.  We hope to return again as it was the favorite leg of our journey so far.