Greece

After a week of touring in Italy we were starting to get a little worn out, Greece was like a vacation from our vacation! The day we were supposed to fly to Athens all of Athens basically went on strike. We were lucky that we even got to fly in, most of the flights that day were canceled. We just had to wait a couple extra hours in the airport (where Ben had the best gelato of his life, so it ended up being a pretty positive thing) and then we were off to Athens! Once we landed we found out that all buses, trains and the metro system were closed for the strike, leaving us only the option of spending more money and taking a taxi. Us and the other 1000 people who got to fly into Athens that day. We waited in a taxi line for over an hour, but luckily Ben had his sister's ipod touch, so we played scrabble while we waited. When we finally got a taxi we had a really cool driver who told us a lot about Athens on our drive to our hotel. Basically, the whole day was a perfect example of my mom's favorite saying, "things have a way of working out." (I apply this pretty much every day of my life).

Since just getting to Athens took all day (the flight itself was only 2 hours), we went to bed and started touring the next day. We headed off to see the Acropolis. It was amazing.

Amphitheater

View from the top

Temple of Athena Nike

The Parthenon. This moment fulfilled the dream that started Jr. year of high school when Mr. Oram taught us about Greek art and architecture. I was so glad we made it here. It was so impressive in real life.

The Erechtheum

After a fun day in Athens we headed off to Santorini. This island was so beautiful, we could have spent the whole week there. Our first day there we went out exploring and stopped to sit and enjoy a beautiful view of the beach and ocean. These three little kids were playing around with a ball. Ben said "hi" to them and before we knew it he was part of their game. And apparently, he's hilarious. The kids were giggling the entire time.

As you can see, Santorini was beautiful! We rented a four wheeler to explore the island. Whenever we got hot we just found a beach somewhere to stop and swim. Swimming in the Mediterranean Sea was a completely different experience from any ocean I've swam in before. Most of the beaches were extremely gentle, with hardly any waves at all (the picture above was the roughest beach we saw). The sea floor was pebbles, so there wasn't sand mixed in and the water was so beautiful and clear! We would swim out to the point where our feet couldn't touch the bottom anymore, and we could still see the bottom of the ocean! It was so beautiful and refreshing!

After two nights in Santorini we took a ferry to Mykonos, our last stop. This island was more touristy than Santorini and reminded me a little of Cancun. It was beautiful though, amazing views everywhere we went and the beach there was even prettier than the beaches in Santorini. We had a beautiful, relaxing day in Mykonos before we headed home!


Besides the beautiful scenery and beaches and historical significance of Greece, we LOVED the food! One of our favorite things was gyros. I think we found the best gyros our very first day in Athens. I was so happy I took a picture:

And Greek salad was our other favorite thing. We had it every day, somedays twice a day. I just can't even explain how amazing it was!