Home Sweet Home

I traveled back to Texas on Saturday night. On Friday night I was thoroughly surprised with a surprise graduation party thrown by my relatives. What a night. It was awesome chatting and laughing with family until the wee hours. Thank you so much to everyone who was involved in this endeavor. I love you all!! What a fabulous way to end my 3 week vacation. I miss everyone already! Unfortunately, I left my camera in Connecticut so there will be a lack of posted pictures for a while. Once I get it back, I will try to add pictures from that wicked party! I was thankful that Sunday was father's day because I immediately got to see everyone in my immediate family, including Andrew, Jason, and Emma! All I have planned for the next 2 weeks is going to Austin at some point to sign my teaching contract, preparing for the move in July and teaching in August, and relaxing by the pool. It will definitely not be as exciting as Italy, Greece, or even Connecticut, but I am going to enjoy this stress-free time! It looks like everyone chose Italy on the poll. Both are excellent choices but I would love if some of you left comments as to why you chose it over Greece! There will be a new poll soon!

Connecticut Chapter

So I have been chilling in Connecticut since Saturday night. Our flight out of Athens was delayed 3 hours and I was able to get a later flight out of Philadelphia, but my mom was forced to stay the night and catch the next morning flight to Dallas. Sunday was a very relaxing day at Jacques and Kathy's hanging with Jacques, Kathy, Lisa, and her girls. Monday I hung out with Lisa, Imani, and Sahi all during the day. On Tuesday, I went out to lunch with Lisa and the girls. Then, I went to the pool with Robin, Jacob, Charlie, Maya, and Eve followed by dinner at Paul and Robins. Today I got to hang out by the river with a bunch of little kids so of course I was having a ball. I also got to have dinner with Uncle Pierre, Aunt Jackie, Andre, and Olivia. My schedule for the rest of the week is pretty much full and I am excited for it all. I can't tell you how much fun I have been having hanging out with my little and big cousins. It's great being around family...

Shopping Galore

Feel free to vote on the poll I added to the blog! I was curious! Well, Mom and I played it pretty easy today. We took our time getting ready and just made breakfast at the hotel before they closed shop. Our favorite addition to this Greek breakfast was yogurt with fruit and honey! Yum! Soon after breakfast, we walked to the National Gardens and explored for an hour or two. We were able to catch a view of the changing of the guards by the Parliament. They wear funny clothes and move almost robot-like so it was amusing. We snapped some pictures and we even stepped into a forbidden area without knowing it until we were yelled at by an officer. Next, we stumbled upon the original Olympic arena, which of course Mom loved. After snapping even more pictures, we made our way to the Plaka for a leisurely lunch at a cafe that we bumped into many times upon our multiple journeys searching for the frommer's restaurants. This was the first time that we actually enjoyed sitting for a couple of hours over lunch. We felt like we were actually living the Greek way! They had these fabulous dried black olives that are unlike any other olives I've tasted. Following our long lunch, we continued shopping around the Plaka and our favorite street, Adrianou. We have strolled up and down this street at least 10 times in the past 2 days. Mom even knows how to read it in Greek! It is actually lovely because it is pretty much closed to traffic besides the occasional motorcycle or crazy car, and just filled with all kinds of different shops and cafes. The local shop-keepers can speak so many different languages in order to keep up with the frequent tourists and pretty much everyone knows English. It is amazing to think about how many miles each day we have walked. Mom regrets not bringing her pedometer and I think that would have been a great idea. So far today we have made friends with a couple from Finland and we hope to meet more! It is 6:30 now and we will probably be having dinner on the rooftop restaurant of our hotel to catch the nighttime view of Athens. Upon review of our last experience with the crowded metro, unending stairs, and heavy luggage, I made the decision to pay for a cab to the airport. Thank you Paul and Robin. This is definitely a treat for myself! See you soon!

Back to Athens

First of all, Congratulations Eric!! I'm happy for you! This morning, we started shopping for ourselves and others right after breakfast. It did not take us too long since we basically knew what we wanted to get. We ended up taking a cab to the airport, but still had to lug the bags up the endless flight of stairs at our hotel to get to the street where the cab was already waiting. We met some really nice Aussies who were on the same flight. Meeting other tourists has been so much fun throughout our trip. The flight to Athens was 40 minutes long compared to the 8 hour ferry trip we took to get to Santorini. Thankfully, Mom and I both got our luggage still in good condition. Taking the metro afterwards to get to our next hotel in Athens was absolutely hysterical. We had to switch metro lines and it was when the train was crowded with people from work. Imagine Mom and I lugging our large suitcases along with 2 carry-ons each on a crowded subway. Yikes. Then, when we finally reached our destination, we had to walk up 3 flights of stairs with all our stuff. Needless to say we are both pretty sore and tired from our long day yesterday and our luggage struggles with stairs today. We worked it off by walking for an hour to get to our dinner destination, which actually turned out to be one of the restaurants that we couldn't find the other day. It turns out there were fairly simple directions written in fine print in our Frommer's guide. Yup, we're smart. Dinner and dessert were delicious. Mom thought about taking the metro back to the hotel minus bags, but decided to huff it once again. The walk back only took about 30 minutes! We just had a glass of wine on the roof top bar at our hotel which had a view of the Acropolis and all of Athens all lit up at night. It's now 10:30 pm and we are ready for bed. Tomorrow is our last full day in Athens. We miss Santorini and we miss all of you!

Santorini Boat Tour

Last night's dinner was absolutely marvelous. The drinks were made perfectly, the food was delicious, and the ambiance was romantic, but nice! :) I even managed to find a gelato place here after dinner in honor of Italy. Today we went on a boat tour. The boat that we went on looked like a huge wooden sailboat, but it actually had a motor. Dad, it was gorgeous and I think you would have loved it. We went to the volcano island and walked to the 3 different craters, which pretty much was like climbing a mini mountain (and we had worn flip-flops, haha!). You could smell the sulfur on the rocks. We actually felt the earth that was warmer underground than the earth above it because the tour guide said the lava was actually underground. It was bizarre. After we stopped about 25 meters away from the hot springs by an active volcano. Those who chose to could swim through the very cold 25 meters to get to the "bath water" hot springs. I actually did it and it was well worth it. The boat brought us to the small port of Thirassia for a lingering lunch and Mom and I finally got our gyros. The tour continued to Oia, which is the Santorini town famous for its sunset and blue domes. Instead of walking up the steep and winding pathway up to the village of Oia, Mom and I actually rode donkeys. Man do those donkeys have road rage. They did not want any other donkey to pass them. It was a funny, interesting, and kind of scary ride at times. We had to finish the trek uphill on foot, but the scenery and sunset afterwards made all this well worth it. We found a tucked away restaurant that is famous for its sunset view. We sat for a few hours enjoying drinks and dinner, while watching the breathtaking sight before us. We actually invited 2 ladies from London to join us at our table, which made the conversation flow easily and there was no lack of things to chat about. Now, I cannot wait to go to London! Hehe! Before going back to the hotel, I had to stop and buy new luggage since I discovered mine had been rather marred by its long journey. Time for bed now and then tomorrow afternoon we fly back to Athens.

Santorini, My Love

It is impossible to go anywhere in Santorini that is not beautiful. After breakfast and my previous post this morning, we meandered to the bus stop in Fira. It took about a half hour before a bus was leaving that we wanted to get onto to go to the black sand beach of Piressa. I got a chance to go into the Aegean as well! I could not go farther in than what is shown in the picture because I was afraid my hives on my upper body would become more aggravated. The water was gorgeous and the sand was definitely hot. It was a perfect day for the beach and sun tanning because there was always a breeze going. We had lunch by the beach and thought we ordered Gyros when really we ordered a "gyro portion" so basically they give you way too much meat with the fixings and pita on the side. We took a pretty rockin' boat ride after lunch to another beach, Kamari, on the other side of basically a huge rocky mountain. It was sort of like a roller coaster on water with splashes included. We then took another bus back to Fira, then got on a different one to go to the red sand beach of Akrotiri. One of the pictures is showing me with the red lava rocks behind. We then waited for a long time for the bus to take back to Fira and what are the odds that I actually got bitten by a fire ant! Mom and I are going to get all gussied up for a fancy restaurant along the cliff with yet another lovely view. Hence the title...Santorini, my love.

Ferry to Santorini

Yeah, about that luggage thing. It did not make it there before 5 am. When I checked, they said my luggage was on the way to Santorini. Mom and I woke up at 5:30 am to get ready to catch the metro that would take us to the Athens port. After we checked out of the hotel and went outside, we ran into an interesting taxi driver who cajoled us into sharing his cab with 2 other people on the way to the port, which turned out to save us a lot of time and aggravation! We got seats on the ferry inside at first, but after a few hours we moved outside to enjoy the beautiful ocean scenery all around us. This ferry looked more like a small cruise ship than a ferry. Ticket options for the ferry were business class, airline seats, or economy. We chose the economy and had plenty of comfy seats to choose from. It was an 8 hour excursion, but totally worth it. We took another interesting cab ride (praying for our lives) to our hotel in Fira, Santorini. Apparently my luggage had arrived before I did and was sent back to the Santorini airport...oh the irony. The clerk said the airport was closed or something and not answering the phone until like 6:30. Meanwhile I had broken out into wicked hives all day so Mom and I walked to the pharmacy and different shops along the way. Amazingly enough, benedryl does not exist in Greece. YEA FOR ME! On our way back, we stumbled upon cafes and bars on the cliff that showed a sight too breathtaking to explain. I will include pictures to try to show you all. Before we left for dinner, we were promised by the hotel clerk and the airport personnel that my luggage would be arriving in an hour. You can guess how optimistic we were when we left for dinner at a hole in the wall authentic Greek restaurant. The food was delicious and we met 2 girls who had just graduated as well. My first baklava experience was mind-blowing. My luggage was here after dinner as promised and I had my first excellent night's sleep with earplugs. My hives are regressing now and we are getting ready to head out to see the black and red sand beaches of Santorini. More news to come...

Greece...dundundaaaaaaaa

Well getting to Greece was...a challenge. First of all, the reception dinner was so much fun with all of the tour group having cocktails and chatting together at the hotel in Venice. We all got a copy of the group photo we took in front of the Colosseum and it is gorgeous! One of the young girls actually said she was going to miss me and her parents said I would make a fabulous teacher. I told them I was kind of like the comic relief of the tour, but it was really nice to hear. 5am rolled around pretty early. The flight to Rome went very smoothly. I had an over 2 hour layover in Rome to catch my flight to Greece which was on a different airline. After many gate changes, freak-outs, calls to Dad at 2 something in the morning, calls to Mom at the airport in Greece waiting, I finally managed to get to the right gate and they printed my boarding "card" right there 2 minutes before I boarded. Unfortunately, my luggage did not make it to Athens with me. They were not sure really where it was for over 24 hours. The good news was Mom was ready and waiting to welcome my crying, tired self to Athens. The bad news is I've now been wearing the same clothes for almost 2 full days, and just now got to brush my teeth at 6:00pm on Sunday. The first day after checking into the hotel, Mom and I walked to the Acropolis and had dinner at an outside restaurant with a view of the Acropolis. We turned in early because we were both exhausted, but I did manage to wake up at midnight and walk the 2 flights down just to check and see if my luggage appeared. This morning we had breakfast at the Cecil Hotel and walked to the National Archaeological Museum. We stayed there for a few hours, then walked around Athens looking for these darn restaurants in our Frommer's guide that we are now convinced DO NOT EXIST. Out of sheer hunger, we picked a restaurant next to a cathedral just because we saw it was crowded and thought it would be good. We both had greek salads (YUM) and split yogurt with fruit and honey for dessert. We walked up to the Acropolis through like people's back yards. It was bizarre. Then, we paid for a tour guide to show us the Acropolis, Parthenon, Theatre of Dionysus, and an ancient auditorium where famous people have performed such as Maria Calais, Frank Sinatra, Yanni, and etc. Just standing on the ground where the Apostle Paul preached and where ancient people walked in thousands of years before Christ was too amazing for words. We just found out my luggage has been found and should be here sometime before 5am, which is good since we leave our hotel at 6am. I do not have my camera cord so pictures will have to wait. Next time you hear from us, we will be sunning ourselves in the beautiful sun and scenery of Santorini. Yeah baby.