Ελλάδα - GREECE

Oh Greece, you are easily my favorite place in the world. If I could live on a Grecian island, I think my life would be complete. 

Two Wednesdays ago I woke up at 8:15, took the bus at 9:15 to the train station, took the train at 10:04 to the airport, waited in line at the airport for 30 minutes to check in, waited at the airport for two hours, and then flew for three hours and landed at the Athens airport at 6:00 (they're an hour ahead of Germany, so eight hours ahead of Wisconsin). An hour bus ride later, we were in the center of Athens, Syntagma Square, right in front of Parliament. And a ten minute walk later, we finally reached our hostel.

Emily, Kelsey, Kirsten, & Me at the airport

All the traveling was totally worth it though, because we were finally in Greece! Woohoo! Once we were settled in, we decided to walk around a little, and find some delicious food to eat. With a little help from our friend Walter at the front desk, we were able to find Petros, a little restaurant that served gyros. And they were absolutely amazing! Kirsten and I got swindled into buying the "portion meal", instead of the "mini meal" which was four euros cheaper. All we had to show for our extra euros though was some extra meat...We learned quickly after that, that the Greeks will do and say just about anything to get as much money out of you as they can.

The next morning, with more help from Walter, we took the Metro to the pier, bought our ferry tickets, and sailed off to Hydra, an island two hours from Athens. Hydra was absolutely gorgeous! This was easily my favorite day of our vacation. Most of the islands have cars and mopeds, but on this island, the only form of transportation is donkeys! As soon as our boat was docked and we were off, we got swindled in to a donkey ride! It was 10 euros for ten minutes, ouch, but totally worth it. It was definitely a good start to the day. Then we just walked around the island for a couple hours, and bought crepes for lunch.

Nutella and biscuity filling. Yum!

I should also mention "The Cats of Greece." There are so many stray cats in Greece, that they have their own post card. Bahaha! We even ran into a dead cat, unfortunately. I tried taking pictures of all of them, but there were so many I only got a handful. 

To really see all of my pictures, you'll have to check out my facebook album "For you, two euro - Greece." I should also explain the title to my album before I forget. As I mentioned earlier, the Greeks will do just about anything to get your money. All the shop owners (and even the restaurant owners) will stand outside trying to call you into their store. "For you, everything half off" "Come in, don't you want to try." It reminded me of the marketplace part in Aladdin, where the man yells "fresh fish," and everyone is super busy. Anyway, on the island, we went into this store, and it had bracelets, and the lady who owned the shop said right away, "for you, two euro." We continued to joke about this the rest of the trip. Many of the shops didn't have set prices, so, we were probably swindled very much on our trip to Athens. Oh well, at least now I know I'm not any good at bartering.

We also took a little swim on the island. I can't remember the name of the water we were swimming in, but it was off of the Aegean Sea I know. I shouldn't really say swim though. It was more like two seconds in the water to get a picture and hop right out again. It was absolutely freezing! So cold even, that my toes started cramping.

After swimming, we went back to the busier part of the island, but almost all of the shops were closed. I guess in the off season, they don't stay open past one or two in the afternoon. We did not know that at the time, otherwise we would have held off on the swimming. But we decided to just walk around some more and hang out by the port until our boat came.

Beef Jerky

We also ran into the cat above while waiting. We had seen this cat earlier in the day, and Kirsten said it looked like something had gnawed at its tail making it resemble beef jerky. When we were sitting on our bench waiting for our boat, all of a sudden Kirsten just said, "Here comes Beef Jerky." We were confused for a second, but when we looked and saw the cat, we all just started cracking up.

The ferry ride back was quite an experience as well. It was super windy, and the boat was certainly rocking. I went to the bathroom at one point, and I fell into the wall a couple times. I thought for sure I was going to fall into the toilet. Luckily, for me, I did not. I did notice though when we got back, that I had gotten a little color on my shoulders. I will totally take a sunburn in February any day!

Sorry everyone this is so long, there's just so much that happened!

The next morning, we woke up to take a tour around Athens. There was probably about fifteen of us, and it was definitely worth it. Our tour guide George was a little too talkative, but it was good because it gave us an idea of where and what everything was. We passed the Temple of Zeus, the 1896 Olympic Stadium, Parliament, ancient Roman and Greek marketplaces, and then finally the Parthenon.

George in front of the Temple of Zeus

Olympic Stadium

This dog followed us for almost the whole tour. (There's also a ton of stray dogs here.)

Parliament

Roman Marketplace

Greek Marketplace

Ancient theater on the way up to the Parthenon

Parthenon

Parthenon in the background

That night it was pouring, so we ended up just hanging out in the bar/common area of our hostel. It was a ton of fun though because we met some cool Australians, Canadians, Germans, and even some Americans.

The next day was pretty laid back. We just walked around a lot and went to the flea market. I bought some Grecian sandals, ate some more gyros, and then went to the Acropolis Museum. My favorite part about it was that it was built on part of the old city that they uncovered. The floors were glass so you could see right through them. It was very neat. Then that night we went up one of the hills nearby to watch the sunset. It was a bit cloudy, but still beautiful.

After the sunset, we went out to dinner. Lucky for us, we had a hard time making up our minds, so the man trying to get us into his restaurant offered us free ouzo and free dessert! Ouzo is traditional Greek liquor, but to me, it's disgusting because it tastes like black licorice. Yuck.

Chicken & Noodles (It was delicious, but there were too many bones)

Baclava. Yum! Very syrupy and nutty and completely delicious.

The next morning, we slept in a little, and then decided to walk around the National Gardens. From there, we took the Metro to the 2004 Olympic Stadium. We couldn't go inside any of the buildings, but we were able to walk around the area outside. From there, we went to the beach to walk around a little. But it was dark at that point and also raining, so we didn't stay too long. That night, we ended up just hanging out with a few people we met earlier in the trip, danced, and just relaxed. A good ending to a fabulous trip!

I think everyone needs to go to Greece at least once in their life. I will certainly be going back :)