Monday, October 31, 2011

Greece: The Food

IMG_3676

When I started blogging and tweeting about taking this trip to Greece I received a lot of comments telling me how much I was going to love the food.  Strangely I hadn’t expected that.  My last trip to Europe didn’t leave me feeling very warm and fuzzy about the cuisine.  Of course, that was 10 years ago before I developed taste buds…and of course, none of those countries served me Greek Salad.

Greek_salad_collage

You have never had a tomato until you’ve had a fresh Greek grown tomato.  Trust me.  And if anyone ever serves me a Greek Salad without a SLAB of amazing feta cheese on top of it again, I might cry. 

We seriously had at least one, if not two, Greek Salads every day of our trip.

We also ate a whole lot of tzatziki.  The cucumbers were almost as epic as the tomatoes.  And the olives.  Until we discovered Fava Dip on Santorini…I’m still dreaming about that deliciousness.

Greek_food_collage_2

Breakfasts were almost all included with our hotels (unless we had a godforsaken early ferry that had us out the door before it was served).  They ranged from quite good (Mykonos) to good enough (Athens)…always with coffee, fake OJ, some kind of cheese, some kind of egg, bread, Corn Flakes, and usually the crazy thick yogurt.

Greek_breaky_collage

Aside from the bazillion Euros we spent on bottled water (it actually wasn’t that expensive, we just drank a lot of it) we kept our energy up with sodas and coffee drinks.  Nothing hits the spot at 3pm like a frosty cold can of Coke….seriously…it saved my life (from headaches) at least twice.  And nothing beats lying on the beach than having a Frappe (iced cappuccino) delivered right to your lounge chair.

Greek_bevvies_collage

Of course, we never let a dinner go by without wine…some good, some awful or a frosty cold beer, or whatever other boozy bevvie struck our fancy.

We found some healthy snacks.

IMG_3309IMG_0476

And lots and lots of carbs.  Do you know the Greeks bring you bread with every meal?  Oh, you can say no…but why would you want to?!

IMG_2943Greek_food_collage_1

Gyro pita, pistatsio, roast chicken with lemony potatoes, souvlaki with rice.

Beach pizza.  Holy delicious. 

IMG_0475

Oh pasta!  Risotto.  More pasta!

Greek_food_collage_3

And someone finally fed me eggplant I loved.  Probably because it was stuffed with cheese and other amazingness and cooked in some kind of clay oven I’ll never find anywhere outside of Sifnos.

IMG_4123IMG_4127

Sifnian food spoiled us.  We arrived on a Sunday and were presented with a home cooked chick pea “Sunday Stew” at the restaurant in our hotel.  Best thing we ate on the whole trip…I swear.  Now if only one of us had purchased the required clay pot for cooking this up ourselves…

IMG_4018

Oh, and dessert.  Thank God we didn’t jump on the baklava bandwagon until our last night on Santorini.  If we’d tried it sooner we may very well have eaten it for dinner every night.

Greek_dessert_collage

Instead, we only did that once.  :)

Everyone who told me the food would be amazing….you were right.  We enjoyed every bite of every thing we had on the whole trip.  Greek Salad has been forever ruined for me.  I guess I’ll just have to go back!

Friday, October 28, 2011

Greece: Cats and Dogs

IMG_3877

We already knew we’d meet plenty of cats on our trip through Greece but I was still amazed at the number of them.  Every hotel had a resident kitty (or three), every restaurant had buddies lingering around the tables, and every village had piles of cat food in every corner.

Greek_kitty_collage

Starbucks kitty likes whipped cream.

IMG_0480Greek_kitty_collage_2

Feisty kitteh will steal yer chicken.

IMG_0529Greek_kitty_collage_3

There were also multiple dogs…which we were quite happy to see seemed to be fairly well taken care of.  This guy was super duper friendly and wanted to play on the beach with us all day…

IMG_3559IMG_3874Greek_doggy_collage

Captain Underbite!

IMG_3894

and for something completely random… Zeus’s turtle!

IMG_4510

Thursday, October 27, 2011

Greece: Athens (last day!)

On our final day of touristing around Athens we knew we had to make it count!  We should have worn pedometers and tracked just how far we walked on this vacation.

IMG_4350

The tickets we purchased for entrance into the Acropolis the day before also granted us access to several other historic sites (excellent value for just 12 Euros!).  Most things are relatively close so we started at Hadrian’s Library and worked out way out from there.

Athens, GreeceAthens, GreeceIMG_4365IMG_4366

Thousands of years worth of history just open to the elements for the world to enjoy!  After tracking down the great gyro pitas we enjoyed on our first day in Athens, we then moved on to Roman Agora…built in the 2nd half of the 1st century BC…

IMG_4383

The Tower of Winds…

IMG_4384IMG_4387

Ancient Agora is a sprawling area including a large museum and the most well preserved temple we saw in our travels.  The Temple of Hephaistos…

IMG_4424IMG_4429IMG_4431

Flying Victory (I’m enthralled with the draping and movement!)…

IMG_4415

Inside the church we found Jesus…

IMG_4456IMG_4460

After a minor trek across a few scary main arteries we found Hadrian’s Arch (standing all by itself with modern Athens all around)…

IMG_4469

and finished up with The Temple of Olympian Zeus…

IMG_4487IMG_4492

By the time we arrived here we started to feel a little goofy…  :)

Zeus_collageIMG_4515

We did wander through the National Gardens for quite some time as well but it was certainly off-season at this point so we missed out on what we can only assume is a quite gorgeous park in the Spring and Summer.

For our final night we took the time to dig out our good clothes and I even curled my hair.  We wandered through the windy streets of the Plaka to find our last dinner destination and bid Greece a fond farewell.

IMG_4516

It’s hard to believe we’ve already been back for a month. 

This is the longest vacation I’ve ever been on and it was worth every minute, dollar, uncomfortable ferry ride, and bottle of sunscreen.  Next time I’ll take a bigger beach towel and smaller camera.

Other than that I wouldn’t change a thing.

Where to next? ;)

Wednesday, October 26, 2011

Greece: Athens (Acropolis)

Goodbye Greek islands…

IMG_4158

Hello again Athens!

IMG_4160

The ferry ride from Sifnos to the mainland took FOREVER!  We felt like we’d lost a whole day and by the time we arrived back at our Athens hotel all we wanted was dinner and sleep.  We attempted to find that same fabulous Gyro stand from our first day but starvation got the better of us before we tracked it down. 

First thing the next morning we stepped outside and pointed ourselves up the hill to the Acropolis.

IMG_4167

Thanks to some poor directions we ended up taking a scenic walk through the residential area at the base of the Acropolis.  Along the way we encountered another pair of gals who had also been given the wrong route so we decided to stay together and figure it out.

IMG_4168

Twenty minutes and a set of correct directions later we finally found the entrance!

IMG_4189IMG_4199

It was worth the walk.  :)  Inside those walls lies some pretty amazing architecture and reconstruction. 

IMG_4204

My favourite building by far was the Erechtheum. 

IMG_4210IMG_4217

Of course, the Parthenon is pretty epic as well!

IMG_4223IMG_4230IMG_4248

The view is spectacular and goes on for what seems forever!

IMG_4232IMG_4259IMG_4285IMG_4244

The Odeon of Herodes Atticus is 2000 years old and still used for live concerts today…

IMG_4301

The Theatre of Dionysus is massive and undergoing about 5 years worth of excavation and reconstruction…

IMG_4286IMG_4322IMG_4328

The preserved details are quite amazing.

IMG_4298

After a few hours on the mountain in the scorching sun, we settled in for a lovely lunch then parted ways with our new friends.  Tiffaney and I headed off to the new Acropolis Museum…where many of the original pieces from the Acropolis are on display.  The museum itself is gorgeous, modern and spacious and even without an audio guide we learned so much about what we had just seen (not that I remember anything now!). 

IMG_4340

See…vacations come with education!