Hey all!
So Erin and I slept in til 8:30 this morning! Normally we are very good sleepers but we cant seem to sleep in past 9 on this trip. So we got a nice bright and early start to the day. We had breakfast at our hotel. I personally am a huge fan of the croissant with chocolate dipping sauce - sooo good (but maybe not the healthiest start to the day). After breakfast, we took a bus over to Paradise Beach. It was nice but scorching hot! We lasted for about three hours before heading back to the village to do a bit of shopping. Now we are going to hang out by the pool, drink some beverages and then get ready for a nice dinner at the hotel. Oh speaking of dinner, Erin and I got all dressed up last night and went to Little Venice for dinner. We ate at Aqua Taverna which had a beautiful view of the sunset and the famous windmills. Erin had the cod which was amazing and I had the caprese salad which was also good but paled in comparison to Erin's seafood. Anyway, it was a great night!
Kelly and Erin
Tuesday, May 11, 2010
Monday, May 10, 2010
Lazy Day
Kelly and I started the day with breakfast on the deck of our otel. We started enjoying our meal when we were approached by two cats. Stray animals are everywhere in Athens and it appears to extend into the islands as well. Normallym we are not big cat fans anyway and with our last experience eating around the birds we decided to take precautions and move inside. The staff looked at us like we were strange but had they known we apparently have a vulnerability to animals eating our food I think they would have understood. After breakfast, we headed to the closest beach to our Hotel, Ag Stefano. We stayed there until the afternoon and came back to the hotel midafternoon. You know how exausting laying in the sun can be! WE are headed out now to get some dinner and browse the town again. Mykonos is the party island, so we might go see what that is all about tonight!! ;)
Erin
Erin
Sunday, May 9, 2010
Mykonos
Hey Everyone,
Kelly and I arrived in Mykonos by ferry yesterday. The ride was beautiful and we arrived midday. Our hotel is picturesque Cyclades. White with blue shutters and a cute little balcony overlooking the Sea. We went into the town and checked out the local scenery. Surprisngly, we ate our first gyro yesterday and lived up to oru expectations! WE then hit the beach for a little while.
WE just ate breakfast at our hotel and are headed back to the beach to get some sun, hopefully! Its a little chilly here!
Erin and Kelly
Kelly and I arrived in Mykonos by ferry yesterday. The ride was beautiful and we arrived midday. Our hotel is picturesque Cyclades. White with blue shutters and a cute little balcony overlooking the Sea. We went into the town and checked out the local scenery. Surprisngly, we ate our first gyro yesterday and lived up to oru expectations! WE then hit the beach for a little while.
WE just ate breakfast at our hotel and are headed back to the beach to get some sun, hopefully! Its a little chilly here!
Erin and Kelly
Saturday, May 8, 2010
Delphi
Hey everyone!
Erin and I had a great day in Delphi today. We woke up bright and early (again! - shocking, I know). Our bus picked us up and we quickly realized it was going to be a small group. There were about 12 of us total. We stopped at two villages along the way - Levadia and Arachova. Levadia was a cute little town with houses built along the mountain side. As our tour guide explained, all houses are built up the hill so as not to skew the view from anyone else's house. How polite . . . :)
We stopped at a little cafe where Erin and I split and a pastry. It was almost like a fried dough bathed in honey and sesame seeds. I thought it was pretty good. I also found my first souvenir of the trip - the Hippocratic Oath handpainted in Greek on original papyrous paper. We then hopped back on the bus and the next stop was a very small village call Arachova. It was breathtaking. The city was built in the same fashion with rows of houses built next to each other and up so as not to skew the view. The crazy part was the steepness of the hill on which it was built. Imagine that worse black diamond on the ski mountain, the one you are too terrified to go on but if you are feeling adventurous you may give it a shot. This was a similar vertical drop down the mountainside. It made for a spectacular view and we got lots of pictures. The town specializes in making wool products. We thought about bringing one of those wool hats with the tail coming off it back for Tim but couldn't actually do it :) The wool rugs were actually quite nice, though. We then continued on to Delphi. When we arrived our tour guide took us throught the beginning part of the old town and showed us tha Agora and the old treasury house. We then headed out on our own to see the Temple of Apollo, the theater, and the stadium. I think the stadium blew me away the most. It was pretty cool. Apparently, on the Olympics off years, they would hold another set of games called the Pythian Games. These were also held every four years and offered a chance for athletes to compete. The stadium was breathtaking especially if you sat for awhile and tried to imagine how long ago athletes competed in this arena. I wanted to take a lap around the middle but unfortunately it was closed after an earthquake due to instability. After our free time, we had a short trek through the museum and were then off for lunch. Lunch was okay. The best part was probably the baklava at the end. The appetizer was cheese pie and main entree was lamb with gravy and french fries. After lunch, we headed back to Athens.
We will probably try to get some gyros for dinner and enjoy the rooftop garden deck on the hotel (wine glasses for 2 Euro - best price in the city!).
Tomorrow we will be up by 6 AM for our ferry to Mykonos! Stay tuned . . .
Kelly and Erin
Erin and I had a great day in Delphi today. We woke up bright and early (again! - shocking, I know). Our bus picked us up and we quickly realized it was going to be a small group. There were about 12 of us total. We stopped at two villages along the way - Levadia and Arachova. Levadia was a cute little town with houses built along the mountain side. As our tour guide explained, all houses are built up the hill so as not to skew the view from anyone else's house. How polite . . . :)
We stopped at a little cafe where Erin and I split and a pastry. It was almost like a fried dough bathed in honey and sesame seeds. I thought it was pretty good. I also found my first souvenir of the trip - the Hippocratic Oath handpainted in Greek on original papyrous paper. We then hopped back on the bus and the next stop was a very small village call Arachova. It was breathtaking. The city was built in the same fashion with rows of houses built next to each other and up so as not to skew the view. The crazy part was the steepness of the hill on which it was built. Imagine that worse black diamond on the ski mountain, the one you are too terrified to go on but if you are feeling adventurous you may give it a shot. This was a similar vertical drop down the mountainside. It made for a spectacular view and we got lots of pictures. The town specializes in making wool products. We thought about bringing one of those wool hats with the tail coming off it back for Tim but couldn't actually do it :) The wool rugs were actually quite nice, though. We then continued on to Delphi. When we arrived our tour guide took us throught the beginning part of the old town and showed us tha Agora and the old treasury house. We then headed out on our own to see the Temple of Apollo, the theater, and the stadium. I think the stadium blew me away the most. It was pretty cool. Apparently, on the Olympics off years, they would hold another set of games called the Pythian Games. These were also held every four years and offered a chance for athletes to compete. The stadium was breathtaking especially if you sat for awhile and tried to imagine how long ago athletes competed in this arena. I wanted to take a lap around the middle but unfortunately it was closed after an earthquake due to instability. After our free time, we had a short trek through the museum and were then off for lunch. Lunch was okay. The best part was probably the baklava at the end. The appetizer was cheese pie and main entree was lamb with gravy and french fries. After lunch, we headed back to Athens.
We will probably try to get some gyros for dinner and enjoy the rooftop garden deck on the hotel (wine glasses for 2 Euro - best price in the city!).
Tomorrow we will be up by 6 AM for our ferry to Mykonos! Stay tuned . . .
Kelly and Erin
Friday, May 7, 2010
Concerning the title
Ok I completely forgot to mention why I titled the last article "So Birds like Nuts in Greece"....but dont worry Kelly is telling the story on this coming post. And yes they were scary, and yes a nice British guy saved us.
A Night in Athens
Erin is SOOO diligently typing away about our amazing day here in Athens but I don't want her to get carpel tunnel so I thought I would help out. Here is an overview of our night here in the beautiful city of Athens.
We took a long hike to Mount Likavitos to see the sunset as this is apparently "the place" to watch sunsets in Athens. Our hike was amazing(ly hard). We took a very steep route up the hill and clocked our HRs in the 120s. About 45 minutes later when we had finally reached the top (and were -2L of water), we saw a beatufiful chapel called St. George's that stands perched atop this mountain. Inside it was incredibly ornate with beautiful paintings on the walls and old remnants from when services were conducted. Outside of the chapel was a very small area lined with stone walls and benches (not park benches the kind of benches that are just carved outpouchings of the wall itself). One look out at the city of Athens is enough to amaze anyone! It was gorgeous. You could see the vast expanse of Athens: houses lining the streets, mountains that surround the city, the Aegean sea hugging the eastern border, and the Acropolis perched out among its surroundings. After we took in this beautiful view, we realized we were about three hours early for sunset and decided to grab a drink at the cafe slightly down the mountain. We had a couple of drinks and the waitress brought out soom nuts to accompany our beverages. As we sat talking about how enjoyable our vacation has been thusfar we began to realize that we were being watched. Concerning?! Yes and you will never guess the perpetrators . . . two birds. One of the birds, a chubby guy, decided to inch closer and closer to us. They gave us a look like "I want those nuts and you better watch out cuz I can take you". Erin noted this odd behavior and I brushed it off because I thought "Really, how are birds going to hurt us?". I was wrong!! This bird and his partner would get in really close to our table when our waitress was away and then once she came scoot away as if not to get caught. Finally, the chubby bird decided to make his move and jumped on our table! And then he began pecking at and eating our nuts (inches away from us!). Erin and I freaked out started screaming and Erin started making some weird hand movements in an effort to scare the bird away. Then the bird just looked at her like "You foolish little girl. I am not afraid of you." Then his partner and crime came onto our table and started eating the nuts. Now we were completely freaking out! Thank goodness for the UK cuz some nice British guy came and scared them away. Well, for a second anyway . . . They came back with a vengeance so our hero came to the rescue and we got the nuts to another nearby table. The birds then attacked the nuts like nothing I have ever seen before. One bird even got mad at the other bird for taking the last piece and they started fighting! It was crazy! All we could think was at least we didn't order dinner.
After this ridiculousness was over, we made it back to the top of the mountain for the sunset. It was as beautiful as everyone said and we got lots of pictures and video.
Another day, another adventure . . . tomorrow we will head for Delphi and hope that all meals from here on are lacking aggressive animals of any kind :)
Thanks for reading!
Kelly
We took a long hike to Mount Likavitos to see the sunset as this is apparently "the place" to watch sunsets in Athens. Our hike was amazing(ly hard). We took a very steep route up the hill and clocked our HRs in the 120s. About 45 minutes later when we had finally reached the top (and were -2L of water), we saw a beatufiful chapel called St. George's that stands perched atop this mountain. Inside it was incredibly ornate with beautiful paintings on the walls and old remnants from when services were conducted. Outside of the chapel was a very small area lined with stone walls and benches (not park benches the kind of benches that are just carved outpouchings of the wall itself). One look out at the city of Athens is enough to amaze anyone! It was gorgeous. You could see the vast expanse of Athens: houses lining the streets, mountains that surround the city, the Aegean sea hugging the eastern border, and the Acropolis perched out among its surroundings. After we took in this beautiful view, we realized we were about three hours early for sunset and decided to grab a drink at the cafe slightly down the mountain. We had a couple of drinks and the waitress brought out soom nuts to accompany our beverages. As we sat talking about how enjoyable our vacation has been thusfar we began to realize that we were being watched. Concerning?! Yes and you will never guess the perpetrators . . . two birds. One of the birds, a chubby guy, decided to inch closer and closer to us. They gave us a look like "I want those nuts and you better watch out cuz I can take you". Erin noted this odd behavior and I brushed it off because I thought "Really, how are birds going to hurt us?". I was wrong!! This bird and his partner would get in really close to our table when our waitress was away and then once she came scoot away as if not to get caught. Finally, the chubby bird decided to make his move and jumped on our table! And then he began pecking at and eating our nuts (inches away from us!). Erin and I freaked out started screaming and Erin started making some weird hand movements in an effort to scare the bird away. Then the bird just looked at her like "You foolish little girl. I am not afraid of you." Then his partner and crime came onto our table and started eating the nuts. Now we were completely freaking out! Thank goodness for the UK cuz some nice British guy came and scared them away. Well, for a second anyway . . . They came back with a vengeance so our hero came to the rescue and we got the nuts to another nearby table. The birds then attacked the nuts like nothing I have ever seen before. One bird even got mad at the other bird for taking the last piece and they started fighting! It was crazy! All we could think was at least we didn't order dinner.
After this ridiculousness was over, we made it back to the top of the mountain for the sunset. It was as beautiful as everyone said and we got lots of pictures and video.
Another day, another adventure . . . tomorrow we will head for Delphi and hope that all meals from here on are lacking aggressive animals of any kind :)
Thanks for reading!
Kelly
So Birds like Nuts in Greece....
Hey Everyone!
Kelly and I are just getting back from a very long day of sightseeing and wanted to give a quick update. Whem we got to the hotel last night, we were given some complimentary ouzo to try. We took it up to the rooftop garden that had an AMAZING view of the Parthenon and watched it light up. (Marisa, fyi the ouzo even tasted worse than our beverage consumption in Italy if you remember what I'm talking about) I don't know what the proof is on that stuff, but Kelly and I each took a sip and were literally knocked off our feet. We ended up having some red wine and prosecco and had nice long talks on the rooftop. After 36 hours awake, with some naps here and there, we managed to stay up til a whopping 10! I didn't even think I was going to make it that long, but somehow managed :)
This morning, we headed for the Acropolis bright and early. After getting lost ina mix of houses, and stairs, and trees all looking like they were heading to the Parthenon, we quickly realized we were not even remotely on the right path. We ended up having to climb back down, walk around, and make the hike again. We eventually made it up, and what a sight it was. We have soooo many pictures, and cant wait to show you all. Speaking of which, Kelly grabbed her camera without the memory card so we had to make a little purchase in the Plaka for her. Needless to say we now have 1500 pictures to take!! After a nice walk through the Plaka, we made an attempt to see the National Gardens and the Parliament Buildings. By made an attempt I mean failed miserably. We saw the parliament buildings, but walked around for 2 hours at least trying to find an entrance to the National Gardens (the National Gardens literally surround the Parliament building so its pretty much impossible not to find them). We did think it was kind of funny that there were a bunch of police gaurds surronding the gates that appeared to be closed to the gardens. Sure enough after circling the entire place twice, we realized ALL the entrances were closed. We decided to nix the idea, head for some lunch and take in the Ancient Agora.
A nice cafe was sitting around the National Gardens, and we decided after a long day we needed to sit down and have something to eat. (On a side note, our hotel breakfest was soooo good! yogurt and honey, meats and cheeses, olives, hard boiled eggs, you get the picture) At lunch, we had some Greek pizza with feta cheese, tomatoes, peppers, and of course olives! After lunch, we spent some time at the Roman and Ancient Agora. The Roman forum brought Kelly and I back to our days in Rome with Marisa, and it was a nice memory for us to both think about while walking through and still seeing the Partenon in the skyline. By the time we arrived at the Ancient Agora, we were both pretty tired from all the walking. We strolled through to see the major highlights (Temple of Hephaestus, arcade of Attalos, and a beautiful Christian church in the middle of it all).
We headed back to the hotel around 4, got a quick run down from the UK CNN (which I now love), and headed back out for Mount Likavatos, which Kelly is updating you on now!!!
Erin
Kelly and I are just getting back from a very long day of sightseeing and wanted to give a quick update. Whem we got to the hotel last night, we were given some complimentary ouzo to try. We took it up to the rooftop garden that had an AMAZING view of the Parthenon and watched it light up. (Marisa, fyi the ouzo even tasted worse than our beverage consumption in Italy if you remember what I'm talking about) I don't know what the proof is on that stuff, but Kelly and I each took a sip and were literally knocked off our feet. We ended up having some red wine and prosecco and had nice long talks on the rooftop. After 36 hours awake, with some naps here and there, we managed to stay up til a whopping 10! I didn't even think I was going to make it that long, but somehow managed :)
This morning, we headed for the Acropolis bright and early. After getting lost ina mix of houses, and stairs, and trees all looking like they were heading to the Parthenon, we quickly realized we were not even remotely on the right path. We ended up having to climb back down, walk around, and make the hike again. We eventually made it up, and what a sight it was. We have soooo many pictures, and cant wait to show you all. Speaking of which, Kelly grabbed her camera without the memory card so we had to make a little purchase in the Plaka for her. Needless to say we now have 1500 pictures to take!! After a nice walk through the Plaka, we made an attempt to see the National Gardens and the Parliament Buildings. By made an attempt I mean failed miserably. We saw the parliament buildings, but walked around for 2 hours at least trying to find an entrance to the National Gardens (the National Gardens literally surround the Parliament building so its pretty much impossible not to find them). We did think it was kind of funny that there were a bunch of police gaurds surronding the gates that appeared to be closed to the gardens. Sure enough after circling the entire place twice, we realized ALL the entrances were closed. We decided to nix the idea, head for some lunch and take in the Ancient Agora.
A nice cafe was sitting around the National Gardens, and we decided after a long day we needed to sit down and have something to eat. (On a side note, our hotel breakfest was soooo good! yogurt and honey, meats and cheeses, olives, hard boiled eggs, you get the picture) At lunch, we had some Greek pizza with feta cheese, tomatoes, peppers, and of course olives! After lunch, we spent some time at the Roman and Ancient Agora. The Roman forum brought Kelly and I back to our days in Rome with Marisa, and it was a nice memory for us to both think about while walking through and still seeing the Partenon in the skyline. By the time we arrived at the Ancient Agora, we were both pretty tired from all the walking. We strolled through to see the major highlights (Temple of Hephaestus, arcade of Attalos, and a beautiful Christian church in the middle of it all).
We headed back to the hotel around 4, got a quick run down from the UK CNN (which I now love), and headed back out for Mount Likavatos, which Kelly is updating you on now!!!
Erin
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
