Off to Greece! - June 19-20, 2010

June 19, 2010 - Our flight left BWI at 12:30 to Philadelphia. We were all very anxious for this trip! We left Philadelphia at 4:10 and landed in Athens at 9:00 a.m. It was important that we all got some rest on the plane, and we think that everyone did pretty well! We were all very ready to get off the plane. All in all, everyone did pretty well and managed to get some sleep.

We gathered our bags and started our adventure. Julie was not all that happy to find her luggage had been smashed somewhere during the trip and the buckle on the duffel was broken, as well as her curling iron.

Our adventure in Athens began with a Metro ride into the city to find our apartment. Natalie, who we rented the apartment from, offered to send a cab, but we wanted adventure! We managed to get on the right train, heading in the right direction, with very little trouble. Fortunately, the signs are in English as well as Greek! Our first sight when we got off the train was the Acropolis - how amazing it looks sitting so high above the city. It took us a while to find our apartment, but Natalie was waiting for us to show us around. She is originally from California, but has lived in Athens for many years. Her apartment was perfect for us. As she was showing us the bathroom, she says to us.. "no toilet paper can go in the toilet." What? The trash can next to the toilet is where we had to put the toilet paper. This is going to be fun!

We spent the day walking around the city and shopping in Plaka, which is a town of Athens with narrow streets and many, many shops. We stopped for a Greek salad and gyros for lunch. After a long walk we headed back to the apartment for a short nap. Adjusting to the 7 hour time change was going to be a challenge!

We headed back to Plaka for dinner at a nice little restaurant. Tommy, Nicholas and Julie had chicken kabobs - very good! Tom had a veal and pasta dish - also very good! Our first tastes of Greece were delicious. We walked around Plaka, had dessert and called it a night. A great first day in Athens!

Athens - June 21, 2010

June 21, 2010 - Everyone slept for 12 hours! Tom and Nicholas were the longest. Tom and Tommy searched out a travel agent and secured ferry tickets to Paros and Santorini.

We set out at 1:00 p.m. for lunch - Tommy and Nicholas had a pizza and FINALLY Nicholas liked something! At lunch we decided to wait until 4:00 p.m. to head to the Acropolis. Julie and the boys set out for the Plaka to do some shopping, Tom went for a walk. Tom got lost, but by referencing the Acropolis, he found his way back to the apartment.

The afternoon was spent at the Acropolis. We hired a tour guide who talked way too much! It's unbelievable the renovation that's taking place at the Parthenon. We spent several hours there and enjoyed numerous spectacular views from atop the Acropolis hill. We even spotted a restaurant on a rooftop that looked inviting.

After a short rest at the apartment and a quick happy hour, we set out to find that rooftop restaurant. We went through some streets of Athens with a lot of character and a lot of graffitti and we found our rooftop restaurant - Sissofros. The view of the city and the Acropolis at night was amazing. We dined with a clear view of the Acropolis, which was breathtaking. After a short walk through Plaka (quickly becoming a favorite spot) we had Gelato and headed home.

We've decided that Athens is the slipperiest city - so much marble and it's all VERY slippery!

Athens - June 22, 2010

June 22, 2010 - Today was an adventure! We headed for Syntagma Square which is the center of the city. We first stopped to eat at a favorite lunch spot. The waiter made fun of Nicholas for ordering pizza for the second day in a row when they have so many great Greek dishes. By the way, this restaurant is called God's Restaurant and has a sign out front that says "Tomorrow, everything is free." They have very nice waiters that remembered us! While eating lunch today, a reporter came up to our table to interview us about the financial crisis in Greece right now. They asked our opinion about the prices in Greece. Tom spoke to them quite a bit. We have no idea where the interview would ever be shown! We ate Greek salads and headed to the Temple of Zeuss. After that, we made our way to the Panathenaic Stadium, a stadium made for nude male atheletes to compete. It is not the original Olympic stadium, but it was used to revive the Olympics in 1870 and 1875. It also was used in the 2004 Olympics for Archery and as the finishing line for the marathon. Nicholas had a great time climbing all over the 68,000 seat capacity stadium. He also went to the top and snapped some great pictures of the Acropolis.

We left the stadium and made our way to the Kings Palace and the home of the Prime Minister. We watched the changing of the guards, which looked more comical than official. We went around the corner to the Parliament building and the Tomb of the Unknown soldiers. Greek police were out in numbers, we assume because of the recent demonstrations. We watched the guards at the tomb and then got on the tram to head to Glafada to find Tom's old apartment. After a long train ride, getting off at the wrong stop and a crazy cab driver that didn't speak any English, we were unable to find Tom's old home while he was stationed in Athens. By the way, while we were all in the cab with a cab driver that couldn't speak English, we all felt like we were on Amazing Race! Fortunately, Tom remembered how to say "left", "right" and "straight" in Greek so he could at least direct him that way.

We survived that cab ride, jumped on the Metro back to Syntagma Square so we could explore some more. Nicholas didn't understand why we didn't just get off at our stop and go home. The rest of us wanted more adventure! We wandered through Monastiraki and made our way back to the apartment for a short rest. Monastiraki is another shopping area with many cafes, shops and winding streets.

We headed back to Plaka (our favorite spot) to look for another good outdoor cafe for dinner. We have eaten all of our meals outside so far! We found a great spot for dinner and a great spot to watch the Greece vs. Argentina World Cup game. All the cafes and restaurants had televisions outside so everyone could watch the games. Futbol was on everywhere we went! Our spot for dinner was a great spot to people watch and also watch the unwanted street sellers selling their purses, watches and sunglasses. While we were sitting and eating dinner, the police were spotted and all of the street sellers packed up their stuff and ran. I never saw anyone run away so fast! They have all of their goods spread out on a large sheet so that all they have to do is pull up the 4 corners like a sack and get out of there. The people of Plaka don't like these sellers and it is illegal for them to sell, but it doesn't stop them.

Tommy bought a Greece World Cup jersey from a shop owner that he met earlier in the day. When he bought the shirt it was for a #20. Tommy asked the owner if this player would play in the game that night. The owner said "he's the captain, of course!" Tommy was pretty proud to be wearing the jersey while we watched the game. We found a perfect spot to watch at an outdoor cafe. It was unfortunate that Greece lost the game - we were at least hoping they would score a goal so we could cheer with the Greeks watching the game! Tom and Julie shared a glass of Ouzo during the game. Julie just likes the smell of it. We had a great time, but, guess what? That #20 - never played - wasn't even on the team. We looked him up on the web and found out that he was the captain, but he took himself off the team because of an injury. Tommy went back the next day to exchange his jersey and tell the shop owner that he felt ripped off!!! The owner denied any wrongdoing at first, but then decided to exchange the shirt for him. He was obviously just trying to get rid of the jerseys, we noticed that he had quite a few #20 jerseys in his store!!

We took a detour on our way home to get another look at the Parthenon at midnight. We can't seem to get enough looks at the Acropolis - day or night.

On the way home, the street sellers were back and Tom went into action and bought Julie a leather purse for just 15 Euros - he did pretty good! Tommy was impressed and is very anxious to give that a try soon!

A great but tiring day in Athens!

Athens - June 23, 2010

June 23, 2010 - Today started out slow after everyone slept in until 10:30 - just not rush here! We all met up at an outdoor cafe that we all know. We are all comfortable in our little section of Athens. We had lunch at an "out of the way" Greek restaurant. The owner did not speak any English, Tom managed to order a meal that everyone liked. During lunch, the owner's grandson brought his cars over to our table to play. He was cute and we managed to catch him on film. It was a rainy day so we took in the Acropolis Museum - it was really magnificent, but we soon confirmed what we already knew - Nicholas hates museums! Julie finally took him out and Tom and Tommy watched a film on the history of the Acropolis. It has really been through some hard times over the last 2,500 years.

After the museum we set out for another walk to explore more ruins. We made our way through the back streets of Athens to Monastiraki to explore Ancient Agora. The grounds were rather large. We looked at two temples and it started to rain so we quickly ran into a small cafe to have a drink and wait for the rain to pass. The sun came back out and we made our way into Monastiraki Square for some shopping. I bought a pair of leather sandals - Monastiraki is the place to buy leather sandals! Tom tried to bargain with a shop owner for a bottle of Ouzo for Papa, but the owner wanted no part of it! Tom had a good time, but he paid full price for that bottle!! We soon realized that the U.S. World Cup soccer game was about to start and we really wanted to watch it. England was playing as well and, of course, most cafes and bars had that game on. We found a great little cafe that was willing to change the channel to the U.S. game for us. Some of the others in the cafe were not happy, but they soon were cheering with us when the U.S. won! Our waiter was very pleasant and told us that he had family in Baltimore. As a matter of fact, his wife was visiting her sister in Baltimore this week!

After the game, we wandered through Monastiraki and Plaka back to our apartment for a short rest. We had dinner on another rooftop restaurant, took a walk and called it a night.

Athens - June 24, 2010

June 24, 2010 - Our last day in Athens! We didn't really have a plan for today. We sat at our morning cafe to figure out what to do. We decided to take the Metro to Omnia, just a couple of stops outside of our stop. We got off the Metro and saw a McDonald's with a guard out front, watched an incredibly drunk (or high) man, walked by a few drug deals and a hooker - Whoa! not the part of Athens we would like to see! We walked and walked hoping to get to a nicer part, which didn't happen all too quickly. Nicholas named this area "Ghetto Greece." During our walk to safety, Julie was pooped upon by a bird. This put a real damper in the quest to find a safer area! It was all down her arm, leg and foot. The boys were no help, they just laughed and said how grossed out they were! Tom came to the rescue at the first restaurant he saw. He asked for a glass of water and cleaned it all off!! He's a good guy!

We found another Metro station, hopped on the train and headed for Monastiraki - a more familiar territory. We watched some street dancers in the Square and set out to find the Poet sandal-maker. Tom and Julie each had sandals made to fit our feet. The Poet Sandal-maker, Stavros Melissinos, has a great little workshop. Apparently, many big companies, including some in the U.S. have offered a deal to have his sandals sold in their stores, however, Melissinos likes his little shop and says that he is unique because he fits the sandals to each person that buys them. That will not be possible if he sells them to the big stores. His father started the company, he keeps the tradition going! While we were in the sandal workshop, we met a couple from Towson, MD - Yes! they had just gotten there that day and they were from Towson! After chatting with them a bit, we headed to a cafe for a much needed drink.

We shopped and walked back through Plaka on a mission to buy our worry beads - a "must have" in Greece. The worry beads are a small string of beads that you can have in your hands to fiddle with if you are worried. We saw several Greek gentlemen with their worry beads on the streets - didn't see many women though! We wondered what they are worried about.

After a short rest back at the apartment, we headed to the Plaka for dinner. It will be an early night, our cab driver will be at the apartment at 6:15 a.m. to take us to Pireaus for the ferry to Paros. Our first island stop! We have some work to do to get our stuff packed up!

Paros - June 25, 2010

June 25, 2010 - Our cab driver arrived at 6:10 a.m., pretty early for a gang that hasn't gotten up before 10:00 a.m. since we've been in Athens! We made our way to Piraeus, the port in Athens, to meet our ship that would take us on our next adventure. We left port at 7:25 a.m. heading for Paros. Our ferry ride was pretty uneventful. Crowds were very large and there seemed to be a large number of young Greeks heading to the islands to party for the weekend. We shared our seating area with some crazy young girls ready to party! After a 4 1/2 hour ferry ride, we arrived at the port of Paros, Paroikia. The port is very crowded and we had some difficulty moving, but we managed to get through there together. We decided to stop, get a bite to eat (of course), let the crowd die down, find a cab and make our way to our hotel. Our cab driver spoke English very well, knew exactly where our hotel was and told us that he loved the NBA, he was a Celtics fan! He told us it would be busy in Paros from now until late October. He also said he has three daughters and he works 16 hours every day to make a living and to support his family. He's only been swimming 4 times in 10 years. He took us to our hotel, Contaratos Beach/Bay Hotel and we all fell in love with this place! It was the most beautiful hotel, in the most beautiful area with a most beautiful courtyard and saltwater pool! Finally, we were at the point in the vacation that Nicholas was waiting for! We quickly got checked in and made our way to the beach. Tommy and Nicholas immediately jumped into the beautiful Agean Sea. After relaxing by the beach and then the pool, we showered and set out to explore this fishing town of Naousa. It's a very quaint village and we quickly found a little restaurant for dinner. The food was ok - we decided to take the advice of the concierge at our hotel, who suggested this restaurant. When we got there she was hanging out with the owner - not so sure she truly gave us a good suggestion, but just got her friend some business. We still haven't eaten a meal indoors yet!

We walked around the village for a while and stopped for ice cream. The boys each had 2 balls of ice cream (funny Greek to English translation). We headed home, sat on the patio for a while, watched some World Cup soccer (it's the only thing we've watched!) and headed to bed. Tomorrow will be a mellow beach, sun and pool day - I don't think it could get any better than this!

Paros - June 26, 2010

June 26, 2010 - A lazy day at the beach and pool! Tom and I were up early enjoying the morning while the boys slept in. We walked down town in search of a cup of coffee, which is hard to find! No one has it "to go" (remember things are slower here - you don't take your coffee to go, you sit down and enjoy it!) so we sat down on a comfy couch at a town cafe. I ordered a bowl of yogurt and fruit. The waiter brought out the biggest bowl filled with yogurt and fresh fruit - it was wonderful! I hear that Greek yogurt is much better for you than the yogurt we are used to. I now know why the Greeks order it with fruit or honey mixed with it - something has to make it taste better! We found a bakery, bought the boys a breakfast sandwich and headed back to the hotel. We were expecting them to be waiting for us, wondering where we were and they were still in bed!

Nicholas and Tom got their suits on and Tommy and Julie went for a walk back to the bakery to get some fresh sandwiches for lunch. It was our day of relaxing at the beach and pool and we wanted a quick lunch to have in our hotel.

We headed to the beach for an afternoon of swimming. Tommy and Nicholas spent most of their time in the water following fish. The water was clear enough for them to see the fish and they followed them all around our little cove!

After a quick lunch, we headed back tot he pool and beach. The hotel pool was one of the most beautiful pools! It's the first time all of us have been in a saltwater pool. We hung out on some awesome hammocks, tried to ignore the topless old lady sunbathing next to us and enjoyed the sun.

Tom and Julie took a quick shower and headed out to find a winery and museum. We remembered seeing a sign on our walk to town so we set out in search of this winery. We walked and walked and walked, probably 2 miles, and, suddenly, we had the sense that we were heading right back to our hotel. We made it to our winery, which was closed, and we quickly realized that we made a huge circle and ended up very close to our hotel room. We were probably only about 1/4 mile from the winery and we walked about 2 miles to get there!!

We headed into town with our minds set on a brick oven pizza place that we had seen the night before. We were early dinner eaters by Greek standards so we were at restaurants by ourselves most of the time! As we sat down, the waiter warned Julie that there was a dog behind her, he didn't want her to be afraid. We looked down and there was the cutest Golden Retriever puppy named, Sieva. All of us fell in love with the puppy and enjoyed our pizza with the puppy at our feet!

We wandered around town for a couple of hours scoping out a comfy spot to watch the U.S. World Cup game. The town has some wonderful shopping and a maze of sidewalks. We all had our favorite dessert - a Triple Status bar. This is vanilla ice cream with 3 layers of chocolate on the outside - delicious!!!

We settled in to watch the game - what a bummer that the U.S. lost. There were a few other Americans that joined us to watch the game. We walked home at midnight and the town was hopping!! Where did all of these people come from? We all crashed - big day tomorrow - ferry ride to Santorini. We loved our stay in Paros!

Santorini - June 27, 2010

June 27, 2010 - Our cab driver picked us up at 11:00 this morning. This is the same driver from day one. He is a very nice, hard working man. He talked to us on the ride to the port about the houses in Paros and the tourist season. He mentioned that its very expensive to build a house there. You must buy the land and you can only build a house that is no more than 200 square meters. They are very strict, but it's nice not to see any large buildings. The houses are all white because it keeps them cooler in the hot sun.

We arrived at the port, had a quick lunch and got on our boat. The ferry came from Athens and they don't stop very long, they must stay on schedule. We were all corralled into the garage so they could get going - it was very chaotic, but we were on our way. We hung out at our seats until we entered the port at Naxos. We grabbed some seats on the top deck when it cleared out and were ready for the rest of the trip and waiting to see the spectacular view of Santorini as we approach the port. Everything we read was absolutely right, the scenery was unbelievable.

Things are very chaotic as you come off the ferry - people and taxis everywhere. Nicholas made it perfectly clear that he doesn't like this part of traveling! I'm not too fond of it either, but it's how you get around these islands! There was a driver from our hotel waiting for us with a taxi to climb the magnificent caldera. It was crazy busy in that port. We arrived at our hotel got settled in our room and rested for a short while. We set out to eat dinner and Naussa's restaurant - we've read in a few different places that this is THE place to eat. Our first adventure into the town of Fira didn't go perfectly. We got lost - if you saw these roads you would easily understand why - but we eventually stumbled on the restaurant (completely by accident). The owners of this restaurant were by far the nicest people I've ever met. Nicholas had a pork kabob, Tommy had braised beef in tomato sauce and Tom and I each had Moussaka. The owner told us it was the best mousaka on the island and if it wasn't, it was free. We both LOVED it. Nauossas was one of our best meals this vacation. After dinner we were given a shot of cherry sorbet - it did have alcohol - Nicholas wouldn't try it but Tommy, Tom and I did. It was delicious and we all wanted more! Nicholas was too afraid to try it because it was liquor - but he was mad when we told him it tasted like kool aid! Dinners in Greece are very relaxed. No one is rushing you out of your table. Many of our meals took 2 or more hours. The owners and waiters are very pleasant and do not rush you at all. Most of the time they would ask us if it was ok to bring the meals. They wanted you to take your time. This is something that none of us were used to.

We wandered around the streets and shops, got lost in all the windy roads and shops. We entered a wine shop and a expert salesman grabbed Tom. I say expert because he was good, really good. 240 euros later, we walked out of there laughing (and crying) at what we just did! It was hilarious. How much wine, ouzo, olive oil and olives do you really need?? Actually, we ended up going back to tell them that the shipping was too much and we were not going to spend that much - we knocked it back a bit!

Tom and Nicholas headed back to the hotel, but Tommy and Julie were not finished with our evening in Fira. We explored some more, walked around the caldera looking at all the homes, etc. and found our way back to our hotel. Things were just starting to happen in Santorini. We laughed because Happy Hour is from 9:30-10:30. The dinner hour is so late here we almost always have dinner by ourselves even when we eat at 8:00! We've read that nothing happens before midnight in Santorini - I'm starting to believe it.

It's been a long day - everyone needs a good night's sleep for tomorrows adventures!