Gorgeous Greece!

View from the roof of our hotel, looking out to the Acropolis

Standing atop Mars Hill where Paul preached

We were up before the sun.  Actually it was probably closer to the sun setting than to its rising when we left our little home at 2:00 AM to catch our early morning flight to Athens Greece!  It's spring break and we were going to soak in the sun with the best of them, if we had to flee this cloudy country to do it.  We arrived mid afternoon to the busy Syntagma Square and quickly realized we would have to take our lives in our hands in our to cross the street and reach our hotel, reminding me of my time in Rome.  We safely arrived at our hotel, and, deciding that the day was yet young, we headed off in the direction (ie: up) of the nearby Acropolis.  After climbing many a steep stair up a narrow, cobble-stoned, cafe-lined street, past a couple of wrong turns through what I think were people's backyards, we reached a dead yet.  We were soon followed by several other obvious tourists, no doubt on the same mission.  After retracing our steps and determining where we falsely turned, we at last reached the much acclaimed Acropolis.  Rather, I should say we reached the gates of it.  Apparently, everything of touristic interest in Greece closes at 2:30.  This was only the beginning of the strange ways of the Greeks, which also included only opening many restaurants at 8:00, while most Greeks sat down to dinner at midnight, metro workers trying to overcharge us for tickets, and ferries taking off 5 1/2 hours later than scheduled.  But that's another story yet to be told. 

Headed up to check out the Parthenon

After this unfortunate discovery, we did manage to see and stand on the uncloseable Mars Hill where Paul preached to the Greeks.  We also saw the remains of Hadrian's library before wandering once more through the windy streets, past the local artisans and crafts shops, till we arrived at the Monostaraki square where we enjoyed fresh strawberries and a rest for the weary feet.  We also enjoyed our first taste of authentic Greek gastronomy that evening, where I had my first dinner of stuffed tomatoes.  Not only are they one of the few vegetarian main dishes to be found in Greece (unfortunately for Jon), they are simply incredible.  Slowly roasted till the rice inside is almost as soft as risotto and scrumptiously seasoned, it totally justified me ordering it two more times, once off menu, later in the trip. 

Eight day old goat :)

Turtle trying to escape from the National Gardens

Jon's attempt at jumping for the picture with the temple

The next morning we arose early, determined to see those elusive Athens sights.  We managed to beat the biggest crowds to the Acropolis, though I can't even imagine how bustling it must be when tourist season really starts.  What does one say about columns and buildings that have been standing since c. 500 BC?  It hardly can be grasped by the mind.  We saw the Parthenon, various temples, and the theatre of Dionysus where the original plays of Sophocles and Euripides were  performed before heading down the hill to the remains of the Agora, the Greek equivalent of the Roman Forum.  We saw the headless, armless, and legless statue of Hadrian (really impressive all the things just his torso managed to do).  It was there in these Greek remains that we enjoyed the picnic lunch of Swiss cheese and tomato sandwiches and local oranges the hotel's continental breakfast had kindly provided us :)  We then looked for other exciting things nearby on our map, and thus headed for Hadrian's Arch, Zeus's temple, and the National Gardens.  As we approached the Gardens, we came across a little fellow attempting an escape :)  We stopped, said hello to the friendly turtle and continued on our way.  Inside the Gardens, we found a bird sanctuary, containing many brightly colored parakeets and the like, as well as chickens, geese, ducks, and peacocks.  They got along well for the most part.  Around the corner in an adjacent pen were a number of goats, including a lovely little 8 day old baby goat who I managed to pet!  That evening I had stuffed tomato dish number two over a leisurely dinner, and we experienced the most delightful baklava ever made, oozing and dripping with honey. 

Parthenon

The delay in departure had created quite the queue at the port

We missed the late night crowds and went to bed early that night, as the next morning we had to be at the docks for our ferry to Santorini by 6:30.  We made it there and settled in to our airplane like seating with its massive TV at the front of our section, quite excited about our ferry ride, even if it was 8 hours long.  We had come prepared, with our mini deck of cards, our game of Fluxx, travel checkers and chess, my Kindle, and a hard copy of Animal Farm.  However, we were soon to discover that all the ways we had brought to amuse us would not be enough, as our 8 hour trip quickly turned into a 15 hour stint on the ferry when at 7:00 AM the captain announced that due to adverse weather, we would be departing port at exactly 1:00 PM.  How they knew the weather would magically clear up at exactly 1:00 PM was beyond us.  The Greeks seemed perfectly content and settled in for the wait.  We had our own theories about what was going on.  Theory 1 is that there was a six hour strike going on.  Theory 2 is that they were simply trying to get us to stay longer on the ship to buy more food and internet time and spend more money in general.  Regardless, we finally arrived at 9:30 PM in Santorini.  Got to Athens port in the dark, arrived in Santorini port in the dark.  What a day. 

Finally taking off! Hooray!

We took a crazy bus ride from the port town of Athinios to the main city of Fira, and what a bus ride.  The island is one giant cliff, and we speedily wound our way up that cliff's switchbacks, with the driver's intent seemingly to ensure that if you weren't nauseous already from the ship, it was his and that crazy road's job to make sure you were by the end of his bus ride.  We had originally considered trying to find our hotel from Fira,  back when we were supposed to arrive at 3:00PM.  Our hotel was located in the small cliffside village of Imerovigli, about 1.5 miles from Fira.  We decided, given the maze-like layout of the streets, and the fact that it was late and dark and we were tired, a taxi from Fira might be a more sensible option.  We were greeted upon arrival at the Ilioperato Traditional Apartments by our hosts, who showed us to our lovely room where we crashed, anxious to awake the next morning and discover the beauty of the island we had just landed on.   And was it ever beautiful !  We had one full day in which to discover the island.  Really, we weren't out there to do too much discovering.  We could have taken a tour boat out to the adjacent volcano island, taken a bus to the southern beaches of the island or smaller villages to the north, but really this part of the trip was all about relaxation and soaking up the sunshine. 

Our hotel in Santorini

The view outside our door

Just returned from dipping his feet in the Mediterranean

After breakfast, we hiked out to a small rock outcropping and sat for a while enjoying the view.  From there, you could see the traditional white washed, blue roofed apartments, Orthodox churches, and the ships coming in and out of the port.  While one could take the main streets to get into Fira, the more enjoyable path followed the cliff side, weaving up and down stairs and in and out of other hotel apartments.  Restaurants and small shops were scattered along the path, as were an assortment of churches of various sizes.  The Santorinians get their exercise, of that we are sure!  We traversed that path many a time over the course of our time there, and our feet complained.  Anyway, we made it into Fira and wandered through the small shops of the tourist driven island.  We made our small purchase of painting of Santorini, to add to our art collection from our travels, and wandered around a bit more.  We started out with the thought of crossing from the western cliff side of the island to the eastern beach side, but after going a short way, we were told that it was an hour just to get there and that the beaches this far north of the island were not particularly worth that much of a walk. 

So we wandered some more before stopping to enjoy a very cozy and traditional Greek dinner, our last of the trip and my last opportunity for those tasty stuffed tomatoes (hence me ordering them off menu).  The owners of the restaurant were quite friendly, the non English speaking husband cooking the food, and the chatty wife taking our order, informing me that the tomatoes about to be used in my dish were fresh from the Santorini market that day and I was in for a real treat (she was right).  We were, once again, the only people there for dinner, as I'm sure most of the Greeks were still sipping their afternoon coffee and letting food from lunch settle in.  After a dark walk back, we enjoyed the last night and morning in Santorini before heading back to the port to catch the ferry back to Athens.  Only about 20 minutes late this time, we managed to get to Athens by 11:30, hoping the metros would still be running for us to get back to our hotel (which they were).  We glimpsed on the metro the first signs of Athenian night life, as at midnight most of the clubs were just beginning to open.  Upon arrival at our metro stop, remember that this is midnight) we passed through a busy restaurant square.  Where all the restaurants were packed.  Some people were still trickling in to be seated.  Madness.  (When does their work day start ??)   Back to good old room 401 at the Central Hotel, happy to be heading somewhere slightly familiar, we were greeted by our old friends at the front desk who checked us right back in.  A leisurely breakfast and another sack lunch and we were off on our journey home.  What a lovely trip thanks to a wonderful Christmas present from our parents!! 


PS- Sorry for the inundation of pictures, but when you're in places like Athens and Santorini, it really can't be helped :)

Spinach Pie. Yum.