Ancient Athens

I was SO excited to see Athens that I hopped out of bed that morning and dragged Adam with me. Little did I know that Athens would kick my *ss.

We started at the Theater of Dionysos. Having read some of the plays that were performed here in my college Homer - Dante class, I was pretty excited.

Athens

We stayed in the Plaka area of Athens, which according to Sofka is admired by tourists and locals. It's easy to see why. There are cafes lining the streets, little shops, cute hotels...all within walking distance of ancient Athens.

Mykonos

We arrived in Mykonos in the evening and our hotel, the Myconian Imperial, was beautifully lit everywhere with candles. You can't really tell in this pic because of the flash, but those lanterns on the staircase were all glowing. Against the shiny marble floor it was particularly gorgeous.

Gavalas Winery

On our last day in Santorini we were kicking around town before our flight, when we happened to stumble onto this lovely winery.

We got an impromptu tour from the nephew of the owner. The winery has been passed down through the family for 300 years. It was here where we learned the the grapes are grown in the circular pattern because of Santorini's winds. They had an old vine on the wall.


The owner showed up unexpectedly and, though he spoke little English, Adam still managed to engage him in coversation. He showed us a review of his wine in the Washington Post.

A Three Hour Boat Tour

Okay, it was seven hours, but I couldn't get the Gilligan's Island song out of my head.

I'm starting back up where I left off with the pictures, which was in Santorini. We'd seen most of the island and decided to explore the surrounding environs.

Our boat was called "The Albatross." They pack these things full of people and there is no assigned seating...good times.

Vedema

After five fabulous nights at the Santorini Princess, we headed to the Vedema Resort, which is also on Santorini, but it's in a more traditional village where they make the island's wines.

Those are grapes behind me. They grow the vines in circles, so they end up looking like bushes.

out and about

i'm finished with the meds and feeling much better, thankfully. hello sunshine, booze, and nookie...



ouzo is good.

adam demonstrates

that one size does not fit all...

early birds

we are --still-- not on greek time. i keep falling asleep before sunset, but we are up every morning in time to see the sunrise.

check out the beautiful moonlight on water. we're out on the rooftop deck of the santorini princess waiting for the sun to come up. it's blurry, unfortunately. i'm a bad picture taker...



and the money shot... bonus points if you can spot the sarah in this pic.

there are churches --everywhere-- here. we don't have any pictures of them because you can't tell one from the other, and trust me, you know what they look like. anyhoo, i'm on the steps of one that is just up the road from our hotel in this shot.

fira

day three we went to fira--another cliff-side town.

we stopped for breakfast at this place called mama's that advertised the best american breakfast on the island. mama is the owner-operator. when you walk in she yells 'say hello to your mama' in a thick greek accent. she is a complete character--bosses you around, calls you her baby, cracks jokes, and then runs back to the kitchen to make what you ordered. the restaurant is covered in pictures of her with all the tourists who come through. she asked where we were from and swore when we said san jose...turns out her brother runs the greek restaurant in gilroy that everyone raves about. and her sister has a shop by valley fair. she'll be in san jose in november. here we are with mama...

lunch

...in a random beach town. this is where we discovered eggplant salad. it's a beautiful thing.

on the cliffs of faros

we are very high up here...high enough to make our mothers very nervous...

and as you can see from my expression, i'm not exactly calm myself.




hanging on for dear life...

oia

on day two, we walked to oia--8km from our hotel. oia is one of the bigger towns on the island, and it's all built into the cliffs. and, yes, i cut my hair just before we left. i'll be growing it back.

santorini princess

we arrived in greece in the afternoon on thursday--greek time--and promptly passed out. we're actually still not on greek time...i'm blogging at 5 in the morning because we fell asleep too early yet again, missing another sunset.

anyway, here are some shots of our hotel and our room...

we made sure the room was messy so that you wouldn't think we stole this off of the hotel's website --snort--