Greece, until we meet again...

Since we were flying out early the next morning this is our last day in Greece. Su really wanted to do the Delphi tour. I wasn't so into it but it was an all day thing and I'd hate to miss a day with my girls so I agreed. The great thing about traveling with the girls I travel with is if someone wants to do something and someone doesn't, we can go our separate ways. We don't have to do everything together. If you're going to travel with someone you haven't traveled with before, I recommend doing a short stateside trip before you go oversees with them. It will be an expensive and tough lesson to learn in a different country.

From our research, the highlight for many people who went to Greece was renting a personal taxi for the trip to Delphi so I loosened my purse string (which I gladly open for food) and we all chipped in for one. Su shopped around and got us a great deal (I can't stress enough how much money you save going offseason). They say the trip is personalized for you and on your schedule but it's not really. They pretty much have a set route, the only thing that really differs is how long you spend at a place. If you want to stay longer, you can. But while it was a pretty set itinerary, it was still a lot of fun and worth doing. Our driver showed up at 8am, Lina woke up early to go watch the sunrise at the Acropolis. Since we went to bed when the sun was almost coming up, none of the rest of us were doing that. 

I think our driver's name was Paul. He was extremely nice and had been a cab driver for 22 years so very knowledgeable of the area. The company we went thru was family owned and he works for his uncle (but his cousin really runs the show, she keeps them all in line). I can't remember the name of the company but Su will know if you need that info in the future. The coolest thing about Paul, he was Brian Williams personal driver for 2 weeks during the Olympics. We showered him with questions about that. Yes, Brian Williams is as cool and funny and down to earth as he comes across. 

Since it was early the 3 of us in the back quickly fell asleep as soon as we got out of Athens city limits. Lina sat in the front and her and Paul chatted til we hit our rest stop. They have great rest areas in Greece. You can get food, snacks and drinks. Nothing really appealed to me but Lina bought a dessert for the 4 of us to share and it was my favorite dessert of the entire trip so I had to wax poetic about it.

          

It had a very small cake like bottom layer, then a chocolate mouse, then a white mousse then more cake, then a frosting and the chocolate that was sprinkled on it was unsweetened which kept the dessert from being too sweet. I dived right into my side as you can see. It took all I had not to eat every one else's portion. I had to take a photo because it was so good. 

Once we got back on the road the back seat woke up. We just needed a little power nap to get us going. Actually, they needed a power nap, me, unless I'm driving, I always fall asleep on road trips. My dad used to joke that he could drop us off at the mall and we wouldn't be able to find our way home because we would all fall asleep on the way there. The mall was 15 minutes from our house, LOL. In our defense, we moved cross country a few times and always by car, usually packed to the gils. Sleep was our only refuge. I'm much better then I used to me. 

Our next stop was the Monastery of Osiou Louka. Paul gave us some history of the place and then set us free to wander. It was a beautiful place. So serene. I love that it wasn't crowded. 

Nancy's favorite spots were the monasteries. She says she could easily spend all day at them. It really was quite beautiful. 

Less then half an hour later Paul pulled over so we could take a couple of pics of Arahova, Delphi is on the other side of it. Arahova is a big ski town in the winter and driving thru it definitely feels that way. The buildings were cute, the roads narrow, lots of fun shops that we would have loved to browse in if we had had the time. A very Swiss Chalet feel to the town.

Apparently Delphi is famous for their Oracle. I didn't know that, I hadn't really done much research on it. I like to research where to eat, leave the history to the other gals. Of the 4 of us, only Lina actually saw the Oracle. Su and Nancy forgot to look for it and I had probably turned around at that point. 

Su and Nancy ran up the theater steps, I took the pathway up (big surprise, LOL).

The Temple of Apollo is pretty big. If you click on the pic and enlarge it, you'll see the people standing at the base of it. Would have been amazing to see when the building was in its entirety. 

While the rest of the girls went all the way to the top, I went back to the cab to rest. We've been living on 3 or 4 hours of sleep a night, I was exhausted. Paul was quote surprised to see me back so soon. He says it normally takes people a couple of hours to go thru. He should see how fast I go thru a museum. I told him to go back to talking with his friends, the other gals will be awhile and I curled up into a ball in the back seat and took a nap. 

Once the girls came back we made one more stop at the Temple of one of those A goddesses. I chatted with Paul while the ladies made the trek. Unfortunately my camera battery had died so there are no pics from it. Paul was showing me how the various temples and landmarks made a triangle but from different points in Greece, way before google earth. That was pretty fascinating. I'm amazed at what was accomplished over a thousand years ago without technology. 

We stopped at a family owned restaurant for lunch. This was our view with lunch. I don't know what this plant is, some kind of flowering cactus with lots of thorns but they had them in pots all around and they were beautiful. There is water out in the distance in case you can't tell from the image. 

Because we've been eating so much seafood lately, we were drawn to the meat platter, well, not Lina, our vegetarian. This was a platter for 2. The three of us couldn't finish it. None of us bothered with the chicken (we're all dark meat gals) but the pork was divine. So juicy but crispy on the edges, loaded in flavor. I also really enjoyed the sausage. We ordered another salad swimming in dressing. We really need to remember to order the dressing on the side! It was a lovely meal tho in a beautiful location. 

After lunch it was time to head back. I think we all stayed awake for the ride home, I was refreshed, LOL. They actually grow a lot of cotton there and you can see it all along the sides of the road. Paul said that there are actually people who gather the cotton on the road (that most likely fell from trucks) and sell it. Smart! 

Lina found a place for us to go to dinner, once we all finally got ready. 360 Degrees had a great website and awesome reviews. Unfortunately, others had the same idea we did and it was packed. BTW, we were right next to the building and I still asked the cute cops where it was located. It's a good thing I did, we were going to walk right past it. :) Since it was too loud for us inside and too cold for us on the roof we snapped a couple of pictures with the Acropolis behind us and went somewhere else to eat. 

We just ate at an outdoor cage in Monastiraki Square. For our last meal there, it was nothing to write home about but I believe the ladies got some wine out of the deal and it wasn't a very expensive meal on our part. 

Afterwards we went back to 360 Degrees and it had cleared out so we went to the bar to have a few drinks and enjoy our last night in Greece. They had a passion fruit martini which I totally loved. The bartender is one of those bartenders who takes his job very seriously. Everything is just so. He was very exacting. It was fun to watch him make drinks. I was waiting for him to flip a bottle over his head. We were watching mix up some weird shot concoction and it turns out they were for us, the DJ had bought us a round. Have I mentioned how much I love Greece?

Unfortunately, we had an early flight out and were leaving our apartment at 5am so we only had a couple of drinks and the shot before we called it a night. If we had found this bar earlier, we would have spent more time there. It was a lot of fun, great music and it's a given that the waiters are cute. 

I think we got back to our apartment sometime after 1 and needed to leave at 5am. Course we still had to pack. If you're gonna play, you gotta pay. Thank goodness I can sleep on planes! 

If you ever get a chance to go to Greece, jump at the opportunity. I've had a lot of wonderful trips in my life but this was by far my favorite one. I loved the people, I loved the food. If you go thru airbnb you can get great deals on apartments and if you don't want to go thru that route, the hotels we stayed at were all extremely reasonable. In the states they don't really notice if you have more then 2 in a room but the places in Europe are so small, you have to tell them so you do pay extra if you have more in your room but you're splitting 4 ways anyway. 

The waiters said they knew we were American right away because we smiled. The stigma of the ugly American hasn't reached Greece. I guess because those of us who are in Greece are thrilled to be there.

Pickpocketers do run rampant, but there are signs everywhere, the cops always told us to be careful and on the metro they have announcements telling people to be aware, as long as your mindful of that, you'll be fine. We took the metro at all times of day and never felt uncomfortable. Well, other then the old man who wanted to try and strike up a convo with Su and talk about the end of the world in a crowded train. That was funny, maybe not to Su. 

The riots that everyone was worried about are really controlled demonstrations. There are a handful of people who show up to make chaos and that's where all of the news footage comes from. Other then the transportation inconvenience, we'd never know it was happening. 

I will definitely be coming back to Greece. I feel like there's so much I missed. It might be a few years and a few more vacations to other destinations but Greece will forever hold a piece of my heart. 

Now I end our Greek adventures with the two last pictures taken in Greece which are some of my favorite pictures of the entire trip. Why Su thought she could wrestle with me I have no idea. I know her kryponite, am twice her weight and have 5 brothers. 

What I love most is this pic was taken less then a minute later. We are two peas in a pod! Do we look good at 2am or what? Can't wait for our next adventure!

A culinary adventure…even more then normal

We had a 2pm ferry ride back to Athens, well back to the metro stop that would take us back to Athens. If we had to do it all over again, I would definitely recommend buying a plane ticket versus taking the ferry. While the ferry is a nice ride and more economical when on vacation, time is precious. The ferry ride was longer then I thought it was going to be and even tho we had a 2pm departure we didn't really have time to do much in Mykonos before we left for the ferry. We wanted to go into Mykonos town to do a little more shopping but George advised against it. I did take time to wander around the hotel and take some more pics and work on my tan one last time while the gals returned the ATVs. 

 I will miss the Paradise View Hotel and George and his staff. We had a wonderful but brief time there. I can't wait to go back!

 The blues of Aegean sea are just gorgeous. 

By the time we got back to our apartment it was late. Lina found a restaurant that we could walk to from our apartment. It was a Greek style tapas bar. As always we were going out late for dinner but this was even later then normal. Due to the time of night and the time of season, not everything on the menu was available but we still had a culinary experience. Once our waiter found out how adventurous we were he started making suggestions. 

Lina ordered a raw zucchini salad. I'm so used to eating zucchini cooked that I was leery but it was actually quite delicious. I really enjoyed it. 

I live in the pacific northwest, why I insist on ordering mussels elsewhere is beyond me. But these mussels weren't bad. They are not as good as what we can find here but they weren't the worst we had. 

This was a smoked mackerel with dill. We didn't expect it to be a dill salad, LOL. I love the taste of mackerel but it's a very fishy fish, if you don't like that, you won't like mackerel. This was a little dry but the taste was enjoyable. 

The fried young calamari was a big hit. While I prefer my squid grilled, these puppies were very light and airy. I just wish they would have a dipping sauce like we're used to in the states. I miss my aioli. 

This was probably my favorite thing of the night. They were tiny little fish fried up with tomatoes and peppers and they were sticky and flavorful and all kinds of things yummy. My mouth is watering just thinking about this. 

This was an experiment. Our waiter said most people either love it or hate it. I was ambivalent about it. It's not something I would ever order again but was happy that I tried it just for the experience. The above is fish roe that's preserved in wax. On the ends of the plate are halves of apricots to give you and idea. It's served with bread slathered in butter (probably Nancy's favorite part of the meal, it was really good bread). You put the piece of roe on top of the butter to eat it. This was a very salty, fishy, waxy dish. Not really a surprise, LOL. I think I would have liked it if it was less waxy tasting. Apparently this is bottarga, the greek version of caviar. 

They didn't call these rocky mountain oysters but that's what these were. They were pan fried bull testicles. I have to say, tastes like chicken fried steak. If you can get past the idea of what you're eating, and obviously I can, it's pretty dang tasty. I think it would have tasted even better with a side of rice.

One of my favorite customs is the free drink or free dessert. This place brought us BOTH! I'm not a fan of this dessert, that was served everywhere, its a super moist grainy cake but this was probably the best one of the ones we were given. We got 2 kinds of liquors. One of them was made only on one island with the sap of a specific tree. Nope, can't remember the drink or the island. I didn't like the drinks but didn't want to be rude so drank them. Luckily these were little bottles. How cute are they?

Our second to last night in Greece, I'm not ready to go home yet!

Paradise by the dashboard lights

People say go to Santorini for beauty and go to Mykonos to party. I have to say, Mykonos is pretty dang beautiful in it's own right.  Surrounded by the gorgeous Aegean sea, how can it be anything but beautiful?

We got up and had breakfast provided by the hotel, yes, it had Greek yogurt and it was fabulous. When we checked in, George told us we could rent scooters or ATVs for cheap since it was off season. There's no way I'm driving a scooter, I could barely drive a Segway but I was down with riding an ATV. I originally thought I could drive but then decided against it and so Lina became the driver for us and Su was the driver for her and Nancy. We had to be picked up and taken to the rental place where the girls got driving lessons. 

Kudos to Lina and Su for driving. The roads here aren't very wide and they are curvy. I had a great time as a passenger, then again, I wasn't responsible for anyone's life. ATVs are a great and fun way to get around town. 

After a quick stop back at our hotel to refresh and orient ourselves we headed to Mykonos town for some shopping. We really haven't done much shopping on our trip but the town is so cute and we needed some souvenirs. Since I can't buy something for someone without buying something for someone else I only shop for myself. Makes life easier. 

Remember the sea urchin I was talking about and how they said that you can't fish for them in Mykonos. Walking from the parking lot into town we could see sea urchin all along our walk.  The water was so crystal clear it was easy to see. Where I go clamming here in WA there is sea urchin but it's very muddy. Nothing as pretty and clean looking as this. Those black spots on the rocks are the sea urchin. 

A closer look. 

I loved walking around Mykonos town, it was fun walking around at night but it was just as much fun walking around during the day. It's just so different then what we're used to here. When the ships get into town the streets are teaming with people but we beat the ships which was nice. I was able to get some pics without people in it. 

We were looking for new dresses to wear to dinner. As you can see, Zoolander showed up to go shopping with us. 

It was a pretty successful shopping trip. I bought a cover up that I was going to use as a shirt (if I had brought the right bottoms I would have worn as a dress, LOL) and a beautiful water color that will always remind me of being in Mykonos. The shops are really small so when you want to try something on, they make do. The full length mirror gets turned sideways and that's the wall you change behind. Sometimes they don't even have a mirror to hide behind. It's a good thing I'm not shy. 

We had lunch on the end of town. The food was wonderful. We tried a fish roe salad which is basically a fish dip. It was salty but I enjoyed it. They also gave us free olives and a tomato spread that the girls said was great. 

Our fish here was served deboned, was awesome!

After a quick trip back to the hotel to change and drop off our goods we headed out to Super Paradise Beach. There are so many beaches to choose from but since we're always limited on time we went to a close one and it was still a 20 minute ride. By they time we got there, it was, you guessed it, 5pm. The good news is it makes it easy to get a beach chair. 

While the day is still warm, the water was a little cool but not as cold as the pool was yesterday. Lina planned on lounging in a chair and relaxing. Nancy was going to join Su and I in the water but she was attacked by a minnow and decided she was safer on the shore (and she was in the middle of a good book). 

Su and I spent our time in the water being totally goofy. I can't even remember what we were talking about but there was a lot of Asian cackling. We weren't laughing so much when we were almost run down by a yacht. At first we thought we were safe because they were heading for the dock but they weren't. They were heading strait towards us. Thank goodness they dropped anchor before they got to us because our paddling to get out of the way was very slow. Very very slow, lol. I think Su could have gotten out of the way if she wasn't also pulling me and my spare tire.  

Once we got out of the water we thought it would be fun to go on the dock and take pics with my inflatable tire. The others on the beach were entertained by us as we entertained ourselves. Then we got goofy with each other. This was one of the more presentable photos. 

Our ATV didn't really have much of a get up and go and the beach was at the bottom of a steep hill. Not a great combination. Lina had to do the rocking motion to get us up. Go partway up the hill, roll back down to get momentum to get up. We got a little bit of momentum that way, I was leaning as far forward as I could to help and chanting I think I can, I think I can. I honestly thought the engine was going to blow, it was straining so hard getting up the hill, but it still beat the alternative of me walking up the hill. Just as we started going again we got passed by a couple on their ATV and he shouted out encouragement, we were trying! Once we made it up the big hill we finally got going and caught up with Nancy and Su who were pulled over waiting for us. Oh and on the ride home we also had to drive around a hobbled horse and his trainer who was just chatting to some guy in the middle of the road. Fun times!

By the time we got ready for the night, Lina was pooped so she stayed in. Good thing we had George there to do a shot of tequila with us. We offered to buy him a shot if he drank with us. At first he said no but we were able to talk him into it and then bonus, the drinks were on him! It's fun to drink with the owner of the hotel. 

Since George is Greek he eats Greek food all of the time so one of his favorite restaurants is an Italian place, Pasta Fresca. We have to go with what the local recommends. Nancy being the rockstar navigator that she's been was able to find it in the maze of buildings. They sat us outside under this giant olive tree. It was awesome! I learned the hard way that olives don't taste good until they've been brined (that was a different trip). But I was still tickled to be sitting under the tree. I think one or two even dropped on our table. 

For some reason we were extra giggly this night. Maybe it was the wine Nancy and Su were drinking. Maybe it was exhaustion. Maybe it was because we were heading home in a couple of days and it was our last night in Mykonos. I just know we were being stupid and laughing about how stupid we were. Usually it's me laughing at Su and Nancy, LOL. 

Something we didn't laugh about was the food. George was a perfect 2 for 2. We had an amazing dinner. We had clams for an appetizer and mushroom ravioli but the show stopper was the seafood platter. This platter is supposed to feed 2, it easily feeds 4 and since we had no idea how huge it was we couldn't finish it. There were 2 kinds of fish, shrimp, squid and octopus. It was a definite food highlight for me. 

Course, just because we couldn't finish our food doesn't mean we didn't order dessert. The desserts were a miss but it extended our lovely meal so we weren't complaining. 

Ok, this next photo will help explain our goofiness. We saw the waiters give other tables a shot of lemoncello when they brought out the bill. They brought us a carafe. Did I mention our waiters were young and cute? Of course they were cute, we were in Greece after all! Christiano was actually from Albania or as Nancy likes to call it, Armenia. I think the lemoncello kept us there an hour longer because we each had 6 or 7 shots of it. It would be rude not to drink it all. As you can tell, the girls drinking the wine were feeling no pain. 

We ended up spending the entire night at the restaurant and it was a blast. We made it back to the bus stop just in time to catch the last bus. Oh funny thing, we stopped into a shop by the bus stop to grab a bottle of water and the cashier came out to chat us up while we were waiting for the bus. He was 16?!?!??! I guess it couldn't hurt for him to try, LOL. 

Lina was up by the time we got back, it could have had something to do with the fact I sent her a text, so while Nancy passed out on the bed, Su and Lina chatted the night away while I curled over in a ball moaning. Turns out, my body does no like lemoncello. Lesson learned. Of course, I would still do it again for a night like that. 

Mykonos!!!

 All week long when we told people we were going to Mykonos, they would ohhh and ahhh. It has a well deserved reputation as a party island. But that is in season, out of season it's not quite so intimidating to us old folks. 

Unfortunately, in order to catch our ferry we had to to leave at 5:25am! Gasp, we've been keeping late hours, and the early mornings are a killer but we had a long ferry ride upon which to catch up on our sleep, thank goodness. So we made the trek, a little lighter since Foris, our landlord, let us keep our suitcases at the apartment, we packed just enough for 2 nights and dragged our butts to the metro and down to the ferry. We had to change lines but it wasn't bad getting there. We were a quiet bunch tho. 

The ferrys are huge. Unfortunately, we had to walk the docks looking for the right pier because of they way they were marked but we finally found it and decided we didn't like the uncomfortable general admission tickets and splurged the extra 5 euro to sit on more comfy seats and promptly went to sleep. For some reason I thought the ferry ride was 4 hours, it was closer to 6. The good news is we were well rested when we landed in Mykonos! 

Our driver Vasili, was waiting for us when we arrived. We weren't sure where to find him so we walked around calling his name. Too bad, we thought George was picking us up so we walked around yelling out George. It was funny when the crew man on the ferry started yelling George with us. Turns out there's an area where all of the van drivers hold up signs of their hotel so George, err, I mean Vasili was easier to find then we expected. Turns out George is the owner of The Paradise View Hotel so while he didn't pick us up at the ferry terminal he was there to greet us and check us in. He also provided us with maps and gave us a layout of the island with recommendations on different beaches for different things as well as restaurant recommendations (very important to me). George was raised on Mykonos so he had answers to any questions that we had. 

After a quick change we headed down to Paradise Beach which is a less then 10 minute walk from our hotel, good news is it was downhill, bad news is the walk back was, you guessed it, not downhill. Paradise Beach is one of the main party beaches in Mykonos but since have a habit of getting everywhere late in the day there were plenty of spots for us to catch a seat. The beaches are all public but it costs 4 euro to rent chairs and another 4 if you want an umbrella. First off tho would be food! I didn't really see anything I wanted on the ferry so we were all hungry! They had a cafe where you can just put your food on a tray, I loved it, we could see what we were getting! I tried the moussaka which is the Greek version of lasagna. I wasn't a big fan but figured it was because I was eating at a beach cafe. The shrimp salad was tasty tho and I couldn't pass up on the beans which I thoroughly enjoyed. Lina and Su had stuffed bell peppers and stuffed tomatoes. Those were delish also. Nancy and I split our food so we could try more. 

We spent about an hour lounging at the beach. I really wanted a water noodle for the water but they didn't sell them so I bought a spare tire instead. It was a tube floatie with the design of a tire, my spare tire! It was great since it let me just float in the water but inflating and deflating it was a pain, luckily I had Nancy there!

After an hour we were ready to head back to our hotel and spend some quality time lounging in the pool The problem was the water was cold but my floatie kept me mostly out of the water. Yay!

We like to take our time getting ready, I think we headed out to dinner a little after 9pm. Just in time to stop by the bar for a quick drink. Ava was working the bar and so sweet. She also pours a strong drink which is a great way to get the party started! There's a bus that will take us into town right outside the hotel which is perfect. 

George took this pic for us while we were waiting. I wish I had looked closer to see it was out of focus but it's still a fun shot. 

Then we started taking our own pics while waiting for the bus. If we have a camera we can always keep ourselves entertained. 

We decided to eat where George recommended. I think it was either Nick's or Nikos, something like that. After walking the maze that was Myonos town (did you know it was built that way to confuse invaders?) and asking a couple of people we finally found it! It was packed but they were able to get us seated right away. For it to be so busy off season, you know it has to be good! 

One of the things I had read was sea urchin was really big in Greece but I hadn't seen it on any menus. So I asked our resident expert George and he was surprised I was asking about it, I guess it's more of a Greek thing then a tourist thing. It took a little while for him to figure out what we were talking about, wish you could have seen Su's charades interpretation of a sea urchin. There are a lot of rules in regards to sea urchin, he says he has to go do different islands if he wants to swim and get his own sea urchin, you can fish for them in Mykonos but we might be able to find it on the menu at Nick's and it was! While this platter is not very appealing looking, when has sea urchin ever looked pretty? Unfortunately, we put a lot of lemon on it (lemon is served with everything!) and sea urchin is so delicate that we tasted more lemon then sea urchin but we were still tickled to get this dish. 

The shrimp risotto was also divine! Ever since Lina came into my life, I have become a risotto aficionado and this was amazing. So creamy and delish! I wanted to lick this plate clean. We also ordered some mussels that were great, I wasn't as thrilled by the green bean. 

After stuffing ourselves we went looking for the bar George said we should check out. Unfortunately, that place was way too busy so we went to the bar next door. The bar sits right on the water so we had the wave lapping at our feet while we gabbed and enjoyed our drinks. Nancy was feeling no pain, she had been enjoying her mixed drinks all night long, LOL. Other then my drink to start the night, I stuck with coke, it makes me just as happy as alcohol with none of the ugly after effects. Once we left that bar we tried to go to the busy bar again but just couldn't do it. We ended up wandering into another bar that had fun music and danced up a storm. Lina bought us a round of shots to keep our feet dancing but after awhile we decided to leave. We were the young ones in that crowd and while I don't want to be the oldest in a bar, I don't want to be the youngest either. Now if they had played Poison, we would have stayed! We couldn't find another bar we liked so we decided to call it a night. I think I got to sleep around 4am. Is it any wonder my body is still out of whack sleeping wise?