We left for Greece at 11:50 PM on Tuesday night, and arrived at 3:30 AM Wednesday morning. A bus from the airport deposited us in the city center, near Plaka. We went to our hostel and dropped off our bags for the day. The plan was to watch the sunrise at the acropolis, but we soon discovered they wouldn't admit us until 8. So, being the cold Americans that we were, we went to McDonalds... :)
On the way to the Acropolis after breakfast. It is on top of a huge hill in the center of the city. We hiked around the north side to see the ancient Cycladic ruins that the Greeks built the acroplis on top of.
Sunrise over Athens.
The Curiatides at the Erecthion at the acropolis! We got free entry to all of the museums and ancient sites because we are EU students... go Czech Republic!
Me in front of the Parthenon... pretty much the pinnacle after taking 3 semesters of history of architecture!
A large group photo at the Parthenon. Of the 9 of us, only 6 went on to the islands. The others had separate iteneraries on the mainland.
The temple of Zeus... not at the acropolis, but very close to our hostel :)
Looking through a temple at the Agora of Athens.
The interior of a Greek orthodox church.
Sunset on the ferry to Santorini. We had our own little cabin with beds and a bathroom, so we saved money by not having to get a hostel that night. We could have taken the high speed ferry, but it was more expensive. Besides, the high speed one on the way back on Sunday was so bouncy... I was nearly sick!
This is a map of Santorin. The island's most impressive feature is its geography. On the inside of the crescent is cliffs high above the bay. On the outside are red, black, and white sand beaches. Our hostel was in Fira. The volcano is the large island in the center of the crescent (Nea Kamini). After the volcano and hot springs, we took our rented car, the "safari vehicle" from the southernmost tip around the outside up to Oia where we ate dinner and watched the sunset. Allegedly it is the most beautiful sunset on earth. I can't argue. Oh, also, I was the driver of the "safari vehicle"... driving in Greece was one of the most scary experiences of my life. :)
Morning on Santorini in Fira. See the Volcano in the middle of the bay in the background?
The cable car ride down to the sailboats taking us out to the volcano.
Me... on a volcano!!!!
Me and Heather riding our burros up the cliff after swimming at the hot springs and hiking the volcano.
A beautiful church on Santorini... almost all of the buildings are white and blue.
Sunset in Oia. Need I say more?
The restaurant we ate dinner at. Matt Damon and Angelina Jolie ate dinner at the same table we did. Also, Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants was filmed there. It was the most fancy dinner I have ever purchased for myself... and I was still sandy from the beach!
The next morning at our hostel. This is the last picture I took on my camera because the shutter broke... now I have to buy a new one, or pay 100 dollars and wait 2 months for it to be fixed. Yes, this trip was expensive.
Around noon on Saturday we headed to Ios, an island about 30 minutes away by high speed ferry. (pronounced ee-os) You can see Santorini on the horizon from Ios. Maybe it was the lack of cars on the island, or just that I wasn't driving any, but Ios was by far my favorite place. It was so quiet. The island is tiny! From Chora to St. Theodoti it is just a 15 minute walk (up and down a huge hill!) It was perfect. The beach we spent most of our time at (St. Theodoti) was a little bay... gorgeous.
We stayed at the number six hostel in the world, called Francesco's, and with a few like this its not hard to guess why.
Welcome to Chora, Ios.
Getting dunked... brrr.. but it was good because once I was all soaked I decided to swim out to a bouy. The water was soo clear that I could see the bottom at the last buoy. I thought it was about 12 feet deep, but after trying to touch the bottom I realized it was closer to 25 feet. Either way, it was beautiful.
Saturday night was our one night of going out in Greece... and I will leave that at that. :) The greek people are incredibly hospitable though. We went there at low season (high seaon starts next week after easter) so everything was cheaper. Also, we were 6 of about 20 tourists on the island all of whom were staying at Francesco's. We had so much fun together! At the beach we played a pick-up game of football... uh I mean soccer. Anyways, it was pretty much one of the most fun times I had the whole trip. Something about just having good times with a bunch of strangers with the sand and the waves... can't beat it.
Me at the beach on Sunday. We couldn't swim because we had to stay clean for the flight and ferry.
Oh man... I almost neglected to mention one of my favorite parts of the trip... the food! Vegetarian gyros, crepes, ouzo, greek salads, sandwiches, stuffed tomatoes... the list goes on and on. The last day we were there we had 3 meals in 7 hours just because it was sooo good and Czech food is so... not Greek. : ) And by the way, gyro is pronounced "yuro" and sounds just like the currency euro. None of this hero, jyro, eero business.
The way home was fairly uneventful. We were all tired and ready to go home, but those of us who went to the islands agree we planned it perfectly, and had just enough time at each place we went! All in all, it was probably one of the best vacations of my life.
Yamas! (Cheers, in Greek)
No comments:
Post a Comment