It's all Greek to us-Oia, Santorini

Day 4, December 24th, Oia

Espresso, sunrise, awesome views-life is good!

Good morning Oia! Oh the views are incredible! Coming in at night time you have no idea what things look like and it's just amazing! We were up pretty early and decided to figure out how to use the espresso make in our cave house and sit outside to watch the sun finish coming up.

This thing should come with instructions 

Cool succulent in our window well

We got a little rain and it was cold, but made it so gorgeous!

Breakfast in the comfort of close proximity, so good!

Then we decided to walk around and try to find something for breakfast....ya.....we didn't know that most of the city would be closed and that Greece in general just doesn't really wake up early. We were lucky enough to find this cozy restaurant open around 9:30 am. It was so tiny! There was an older lady working and the tables were about 2' feet away from the open kitchen. We both had Greek coffee, Jeremy had a vegetable omelet and Kara had a club sandwich. While we were eating a group of older people came in and just kind of stared at us for a bit, later we would find out that they met there every day at 10 am for coffee and a cigarette. The one guy brought in his two dogs who Kara could not resist petting during her meal and saved a few pieces of her bacon for them. She might have been a little homesick for her puppies.

Greek coffee goodness

Club sandwich with extra bacon for the puppies

Veggie omelet for Jeremy

Spending our day reading, watching the water, drinking good wine, and eating all the good food

Kara's buddy for a while, he was so snugly!

Kara bought dog treats for the strays, this little guy was pretty scared.

After breakfast, we wandered down the street and found a little market where we picked up a few groceries since we thought everything would close down even more for Christmas. Then we spent the rest of the day on our balcony reading, eating olives with bread and olive oil, and drinking local wine, a dry white or dry red was very popular with Assyrtiko being the most popular.

Fava Beans

Sorry Jeremy you had to wait to eat so Kara
could take a photo 

Holy Baklava and ice cream, SO SO SO SO SO GOOD!

Seafood rice

For dinner we wandered down to Lotza and had Fava (blended yellow split peas, capers, and lemon), fried calamari, rice with seafood, local wine, and the most AMAZING baklava with ice cream we've ever had.

Day 5, December 25th, Oia

Happy 34th Birthday Kara! We got up and wandered over to Vitrin Creperie (https://www.facebook.com/vitrinoia/). Jeremy had a Double Greek Coffee, medium sugar, Kara had a filtered coffee, and we both had savory crepes. This place was so cozy and our waitress, Christina, was so sweet, we would later get to know her much better.

Coffee makes life better

These were some serious crepes!

This is Ariel, the guard dog that sleeps all day

We decided after breakfast that it would be a good idea to walk down 300 steps to go see Ammoudi Bay. We had seen pictures online (see below) that they would sun dry octopus and had some really good restaurants down there.

Sun drying octopus (not our photo)

The view are pretty awesome from the bay.

Well, after gliding our way down there, we didn't get to see any of that. Everything was closed for the season. We did get to see a kitty down there all by himself sun bathing and then we got to see a few construction workers jamming out to so incredibly loud Greek car music.

Down was the easy part...

It was SO windy, this is one of Kara's favorites of Jeremy.
It looks like he has an octopus on his head :)

Then came the time to go back up.....ya.....coming down was the easy part. When they say 300 stairs, it's kind of a lie, each step has about 6-8 walks in-between the next one and it's SUPER steep! Jeremy is in much better shape than Kara so she made him take his phone and do a time laps of his way up. 

Once Kara made it up the stairs, we walked around together to see some more of the views of the city. We made it to the edge where you could see most of the caldera we were in and a lot more of the houses. There was also a cool little fence that people had put locks and plastic bags onto, guessing it was supposed to mimic the once in France that has gotten too heavy with all the extra weight. 

Oia..you are gorgeous!

Fence with locks and plastic bags tied to it.

Then it was time for more reading, snacking, and drinking wine. We spend the rest of the day on the balcony until it was time for dinner at Alkyona (http://alkyonasunset.com/oiasantorini/). We had fried tomatoes, grilled octopus, fried sardines. After dinner, our amazing waiter brought us some blueberry liquor for Christmas. 

Day 6, December 26th, Oia

Jeremy made breakfast in our cave house: scrambled eggs with feta and kalamata olives, Greek yogurt with fresh mango, bacon, and espresso. Then we both sat on the balcony and continued to read and relax until it was time for lunch. We went back to Vitrin Creperie and sat outside on the covered porch overlooking the sea and had sweet crepes with bananas, chocolate, and ice cream and then sugar, cinnamon, butter, and strawberry ice cream.

Then we walked through the city and noticed that the Atlantis bookshop (https://vimeo.com/83265420) was actually open so we popped in to find a little something for our nephews. This bookshop was AMAZING, it was so cozy and covered in fun quirky things to read and look at. We talked to the clerk there and come to find out, he was from Colorado. We would later see him at the airport back to Athens and find out he was on his way to Nepal to hike to the basecamp of Mount Everest with a buddy. 

Jeremy & Christinia, he was so nervous with
how tall he was next to her. 

Later that day, we worked our way back by the creperie to watch the sunset. It was pretty cloudy and very crowded, but still one of the most gorgeous sunsets. It's very odd in Oia that most of the shops don't open until later in the evening. On our way back to our little house we stopped by a few gift shops, one of which our waitress, Christina, was working at. She's amazing! She deals with annoying tourists all freaking day and was one of the sweetest people we had ever met. When we bought a few gifts to bring home, she gave us both little beads to wear for good luck and asked if we'd be at the creperie the next day for breakfast before we left. She was just the best and Kara had to have a photo of her, she was a little surprised how tall Jeremy was when he stood next to her.

Of feta...you are SO GOOD!!!

We made our way back to Lotza for dinner and had feta cheese wrapped in filo pastry, deep fried, then covered in honey and sesame seeds....wow.....SO GOOD!

Day 7, December 27th, Oia to Athens

The morning started with Vitrin Creperie for breakfast with Christina, she was so excited to see us. After she gave us our meal, she brought us out two blue glass eyes.The "Evil Eye" she said was to give us good luck and protection over evil. She said we needed to put it by our front door or to take it with us.

Timelapse of the donkeys 

Then it was sitting around watching donkeys carry construction supplies up and down the stairs while drinking wine and reading until it was time for our flight back to Athens.

Before leaving we went back to Alkyona for one last meal of fried meatballs and vegetarian moussaka. While we were having lunch, we watch a liter of puppies play in the field next to the restaurant with the owner's son. Of course when we were done with lunch, Kara couldn't resist going over and playing with them.

Hard to see the puppies, but they are there all cute like.

When it came time to get our taxi, we were supposed to meet by the school until our driver came...well he didn't come and he didn't come for forever while we tried to message him and see what was going on. Well, there was a miscommunication and he was waiting at a different location for us before our scheduled meeting time. When we found each other, he was a little upset with us until got in the car and everything was all good. Then he dropped us off at the airport and we tipped him a little better for the mix up and he was SO excited and so thankful. Greece people are so warm and amazing!

Goodbye Oia and our awesome cave house!

Waiting at the closed airport

Such a cute puppy and Obie look alike

When we got our bags all ready to go and headed towards the door of the airport, we noticed lots of people just standing around with their bags....ya.....the airport was CLOSED. Yep, you read that correctly, closed! What the heck??!?! So we stood around waiting for it to open in an hour, which ended up being just fine because there was two little puppies playing close by. Now, if you had to bet whether or not we pet them....you would be losing that bet.....they were ADORABLE and one looked like a baby Obie! We also met up with our Colorado friend from the bookstore and chatted with him while we waited.

Another rough flight back to Athens where we landed around 9:00 pm, we got a taxi that was so hot and smokey (ugh, gag, why would you do that to us old man, why?!?!?) to our hotel next to the train station we would board the next day.

As we were checking in, we both got grabbed from behind by our besties Jess and Trent. They had arrived a few hours before us. They traveled from Oregon to Amsterdam to Athens that day. We were SO excited to see them since it had been about 6 months since we had seen them and we'd been planning this trip for the last few months to meet up. It was really happening, we were really here together! Ahhhhhhh :)

We went to our room, dropped off our things, and then went to their room and shared a glass of the most amazing 2-liter bottle of wine any of us had ever had.....JUST KIDDING.....it was the WORST! It was basically like toilet wine that Trent had bought for a few dollars off a street cart. We actually shared a glass of some they had ordered from room service that was much better before returning to our rooms and sleeping on a stone hard bed. Oh my gosh, this bed was the absolute WORST thing we had ever slept on!

It's all Greek to us-Athens & Kalabaka

Day 8, December 28th, Athens to Kalabaka

Walking through Athens like a
bunch of misfits up to no good
in the rain with our suitcases.

Up pretty early to catch the train to Kalabaka to see Meteora, it was raining pretty good as the four of us hauled our luggage through big puddles of rain with our hoods on and heads down. If it wasn't for the luggage, we would look like we were up to no good. 

We're on a train!

The AWESOME bathroom on the train....I lie.
This was pretty gross :(

Once we reached the station, we grabbed some cheese filled pastries and coffee. On the train, we chatted away in First Class with a woman from Santorini who was headed to Kalabaka to see her boyfriend. We bombarded her with questions along the way since she spoke good English.

Stuffed into a mini elevator to go up one floor. Ya...that was our
only elevator ride, it was the stairs for us!

We arrived at Kalabaka and tried to figure out how to find our hotel, Jess and Jeremy were amazing at getting us around to where we needed to be. Trent and Kara were the slackies in the back looking at the scenery and chatting it up.

Taking a break from Phase 10 to snap a photo of our shenanigans

Our rooms were across the hall from one another so that made it perfect for visiting and hanging out. After we got rid of our bags, it was time to find some dinner, do a little exploring, book our excursions for the next day, and finish the night with some Phase 10 in the hotel.

Day 9, December 29th, Kalabaka

Breakfast down at the hotel and our taxi picked us up for a day of hiking around Meteora. Our tour guide Dimitri was AMAZING! https://www.visitmeteora.travel/en/things-to-do/outdoor-activities/hiking-tour-of-meteora We were dropped off by a steep road that lead us to a hiking trail where we roamed around the countryside while he told us the history of the area and all about the monestaries we would soon see. One story was the:

Local villagers who try to climb up the cliff behind the church of St. George in Kastraki village at Meteora to leave scarves in a cave during the celebrations of St. George name day. The custom of St. George the “Mantilas” it takes place on an old ruined monastery dedicated to Saint that was build inside a cave some 30 meters above the ground. Once every year on 23rd of April, on the name day of the Saint, young boys and girls (that the locals call them “Mantilarades” that come out from the word “mantila” which mean scarf in Greek) climb up the cliff with nothing else but ropes to offer colorful headscarves to honor Saint George. They are doing so believing that “Saint George the Mandilas” will help them to maintain good health throughout the year and of course to have fortunate marriages. The traditional custom is originated in the era of the Turkish Occupation in Greece. In the 17th century, a local Muslim landowner had an accident while he was chopping down some woods so his wife offered her colorful headscarf to the Saint hoping for a miracle. After the passing of only few days the man clearly was getting better and become completely healed.

Jeremy in a tree

Jess in a tree

We love these humans!

The forest was so beautiful with these huge trees covered in moss.

We hiked 5 miles and saw several Monasteries on our tour, our tour guide was so fantastic and full on information! The only Monastery we were able to walk around in was the Grand Meteora, they wouldn't let you take photos of the inside which was a shame because it was so amazing.

Grand Meteora Monastery

While in there, we lit candles for Baby Sabin and Baby Russell (Jess and Trent are hoping to one day adopt another kiddo so there 3-year old son has a sibling to pester). After hiking around, we found some delicious dinner and wandered the city and did a little shopping and finished up playing Phase 10 back at the hotel. 

Day 10, December 30th, Kalabaka to Athens

Another hotel breakfast, packing of the bags, and exploring our last day around Meteora. We took a taxi up to the women's monastery and it was breath taking. We were greeted by a very friendly white lab puppy to really really wanted to love us and nibble on our clothing. Once we were in the monestary, Jess and I put on our little skirts to walk around. Inside it was so beautiful! We first found the church were we lit candles for Baby Sabin and Baby Russell and wondered about. Outside we saw some more feral kitties and a glorious view of Kalambaka.

Women's Monastery with the very friendly puppy

This dog LOVED Jess and would nibble on clothes

Gorgeous views of Kalabaka

This feral kitty was in rough shape, but had super cool multi-colored eyes

This was the women's toilet in the Women's Monastery,
they were super awkward to use but at least this one was clean!

Jess and Jeremy just chatting away, probably talking about running 

Trent and Kara being slackers in the back of the pack

Into the woods to follow this trail back to the Kalabaka

We then made our way up and down the road to the Monastery of Holy Trinity, it was closed for reconstruction, but we found our way on a trail that lead down the Meteora back down to Kalabaka. In town we followed to road to our lunch at Meteora Panorama (http://www.meteoronpanorama.gr/) where we feasted on Greek coffee, wine, Greek salads, grillled fish, beef stew, spagetti with cheese, and rabbit stew.

Closed for construction, you had to watch out below because
they would just throw trash off the side of the mountain.

On our way down to dinner, Trent pointed this
tree out to us. We didn't know what olives looked
liked on the actual tree.

These two feral pups were outside Panorama
where we had lunch, and were Kara's buddies.

Leaving Kalabaka to head to Athens

The train ride back to Athens was slow and very crowded, there were people lined up in the aisles you could hardly make it to the bathroom. There we met traveling single 26 year-old student, Laborg, from the Czech Republic. We bombarded him even worse with all sorts of questions about his country, his culture, his education, and some politics. By the time we got to Athens, we were all besties and saddened by our departure from the train to go on our separate ways.

We had a taxi waiting for us at the train ride to take us to our Athens apartment. Once there it was a little past midnight and we were all starving from not eating much on the train ride over. Kara tried to order some delivery pizza, but it failed because we had no clue where in Athens we were or how to give directions in Greek to our driver. So we all went to bed hungry and excited about having a big breakfast the next day.

Day 11, December 31st, Athens

Our legit two-story HomeAway in Athens

Kara with Cappuccino foam leftovers

One of the most comfortable beds during our vacation was last night, so much better than the two twin beds we slept on in Kalabaka. We got up pretty early to meet our tour guide, Vicki, at a local yogurt bar to start our food tour of Athens and of the Acropolis.

Theatre of Dionysus

Having Vicki as our tour guide was AMAZING, she was so full of knowledge and the sweetest person ever to show us around. We started our tour at the Acropolis where she sat us down and started our story. The first stop was the Theatre of Dionysus (the god of play and wine and the birthplace of Greek tragedy), then to the Odeon of Herodes Atticus-both of these places were AMAZING!

Odeon of Herodes Atticus

Odeon of Herodes Atticus:
It was built in 161 AD by the Athenian magnate Herodes Atticus in memory of his wife, Aspasia Annia Regilla. It was originally a steep-sloped theater with a three-story stone front wall and a wooden roof made of expensive, cedar of Lebanon timber. It was used as a venue for music concerts with a capacity of 5,000. It lasted intact until it was destroyed and turned into a ruin by the Heruli in 267 AD.

Temple of Athena Nike, side view walking up steps

Next, it was the walk up to the Acropolis with the first sights of Propylaea and the Temple of Athena Nike.....WOW......seriously, just WOW! There was marble everywhere and so amazing and huge that it's hard to imagine just how impressive it is.

Temple of Athena Nike, back view by Parthenon

Athena Nike. Built around 420BC, the temple is the earliest fully Ionic temple on the Acropolis. It was a prominent position on a steep bastion at the south west corner of the Acropolis to the right of the entrance, the Propylaea. In contrast to the Acropolis proper, a walled sanctuary entered through the Propylaea, the Victory Sanctuary was open, entered from the Propylaea's southwest wing and from a narrow stair on the north. The sheer walls of its bastion were protected on the north, west, and south by the Nike Parapet, named for its frieze of Nikai celebrating victory and sacrificing to their patroness, Athena Nike.

As you walk through the Propylaea, it's hard to not stop on the stairways and soak in just how amazing the architecture is, but you can't because there are so many tourists trying to make their way in with you.

Old Temple of Athena

After you climb up the walk way, you get a good view of the Parthenon but on the left side of the Parthenon you get a good view of the Old Temple of Athena. Vicki took us straight over to the Old Temple of Athena and told us the story of how Goddess Athena and the God Posiden fought over the land and how Posiden threw down his trident (they actually have holes in the ceiling of the temple to represent) and how Athena sprouted the first olive tree out of handle of the trident. It's really cool to be able to hear the stories and how they built to represent and honor the gods.

On the left: Parthenon On the right: Old Temple of Athena

The views at the Sanctuary of Zeus Polieus, with the Temple of Zeus in the background.
Greece hasn't had snow in 8 years, so it was a really big deal.

Then she took us to the Sanctuary of Zeus Polieus, a walled open-air sanctuary dedicated to Zeus Polieus (city protector) around 500 BC on the Acropolis of Athens, sited to the Erechtheion's east. None of its foundations have been discovered and its trapezoid plan and many entrances have been worked out from rock cuttings on the acropolis. The eastern area of the sanctuary is thought to have housed the oxen for the annual Bouphonia or ox-sacrificing. 

We could see all of Athens and it gave an even better view of the Parthenon.

Vicki, our tour guide, feeding the feral kitties
because they are the "people's responsibility"
and this area would be closed the next day
for New Years and she didn't want them to starve.

Walking over to the Parthenon, it was so amazing....you really don't get a good idea of how big the columns are until your standing under them. Then Vicki started telling us the history of how over time it's been slowly destroyed. There used to be a huge statue of Athena standing in the center, which was destroyed because it was made out of precious metal. Then how the Romans came and destroyed some of the other rooms along with how now most of the decorative parts are in an England museum. She told us how Greece is trying to work with England to get them back to where they belong, even building the attached museum to hold them in, but it's been a very long process and England isn't budging. It's pretty sad to see such an amazing building be torn apart.  

Kara and Jeremy under the Parthenon

These pillars are enormous!

Reconstruction going on, the whiter marble is the newer

After the Acropolis, we started our glutenous food tour down in the city of Athens. We started with Spanakopita

Philo dough being worked with olive oil and stuffed with feta.

We got 4 kinds: meat, chicken, spinach, and a custard

THIS is the place for Spanakopita! SO GOOD

Dried herb shop, we got tea and dried figs (mmmmmm)

Vicki showing us some of the flowers used to make tea.

Rows and rows of different herbs, spices, and dried items.

Next stop was some legit Gyros, we had New Year's dinner here later.

Pause for a group photo #hellotourists

Next stop was a meat shop where we tried slivers of cured meat.
It was SUPER salty and had a very different taste.

Egg shop in the market, they don't refrigerate them
 like we do in the States

Oh ya, just a bin full of live snails just chillin'
waiting to be bought and cooked up

Fresh fruit and vegetable market

Can't remember the name of this, but it was tasty....kind of grainy
and super healthy for you. Ate for breakfast

Fresh octopus,this was Kara's favorite when grilled (mmmm)

Meat Market (the less intense and bloody version)

Mastic ice cream and loukoumades

Jessica, Jeremy, Kara, Trent, and Vicki at the Lesbos (Greek island) market
Greek yogurt, honey, and olive oil...OH MY SO GOOD!

Greece Parliment

Panathenaic Stadium

After a nap and some time out in the city, it was back to the apartment
to watch the fireworks over the Acropolis and to bed around 3:00 AM

Day 12, December 1st, Athens to Rome to London

The morning started off with Snapchatting friends to say Happy New Years, there was a 9 hour time difference, and then the packing of the bags to head home. We grabbed a taxi and headed towards Socrates' Prison, but our taxi driver had other plans for us because he was amazing! We mentioned that we were looking for some place to grab some breakfast, which he said would be hard to do because most of Athens was still in bed. However, he did know of a local place (Takis Bakery) that was open that we could grab some pastries and coffee to take with us while we wandered around the city.

With delicious pastries in our belly and coffee in hand, we wandered up the park to Socrates' Prison. For some reason Kara had it in her head that it would have a bigger "wow factor" when we saw it, however, that was not the case. Although it was super amazing to see, it didn't offer some of the same WOW that previous sight seeing had done. The park that surrounded it offered some amazing views of the Parthenon from afar and was super cool because it was closed so you didn't get to see a lot of the tourists that were packed on the stairs.

Prison of Socrates

 


Walking around, we headed towards the flea market full of local artists and vendors where we did a little bit of shopping. We were able to see the largest Greek telescope, financed by Dimitrios Doris

It is a 5m length refractor telescope with a mirror diameter 40cm. and the recent renovation in 2014 makes it fully functional for comments sky Atticus from the public. It was the largest telescope in Greece until 1959 when he moved to the hill "Koufos" Pendeli the Newall 62.5ek diameter telescope. 

We were walking our way to go see the Temple of Hephaestus, but it was closed for New Years. So we decided it would be a good idea to go back to the town circle and grab some coffee before heading to the airport. We stopped by 360 which had the most amazing views of the Acropolis from the top deck. Then we headed back to our apartment to grab our bags and a taxi and off to the airport.

View of the Acropolis from 360

After waiting for a few hours, we boarded our plane to Rome while Jess and Trent headed to Amsterdam for layovers before heading home. Remember how we said that the flight on RyanAir was one of the worst we had ever been on....ya.....it was beat by the flight from Athens to Rome. Absolutely the WORST airplane flight either of us had ever had in our lives! Somehow the air pressure didn't get done correctly and we were both experiencing issues with our heads, ears, and pressure. It was awful and left us not feeling good after.

Goodbye Athens :(

Kataifi Pastry, tastes like stringy baklava

Rome airport had some amazing food,
this was the last of the good octopus for Kara :(

One of the best balls of mozzarella EVER!!!!

When we boarded Rome to London, we were super worried that it would be just as bad as the one we just got off of, but it wasn't. It was lovely but just made for a really long day of travel. We landed in London about 10 minutes before the customs officer said the office was closing, which made it a pain because we had to fill out some pretty intense questionnaires before they would even see us. Once we finished up with that, we were off to get our taxi to take us to the hotel from some quick shut eye for 11 hours before we had to go back to the airport.

Day 13, December 2nd, London to Salt Lake City

We woke up in Heathrow London Airport, went down and had a somewhat English breakfast of sausage, eggs, potatoes, baked beans, sauteed mushrooms, and coffee. Then we made our way back to the airport to board our 11-hour flight home to Salt Lake City (woohoo!). 

Double decker bus for the win!

Fancy chairs and sleepy Jeremy

Sweetest taxi we've ever been in (Jaguar)

Kara geeking out over the trollys in the airport #HPnerds

11 hours later in Delta Comfort (which was TOTALLY worth it!) and several several movies later, we land in Salt Lake City.

Delta Comfort for the win!

We are exhausted and ready to be home, however, Customs has a different plan in place for us. The computer systems went down and we were stuck in line at Customs for over an hour just waiting and waiting and waiting. Finally, they decided the computer systems weren't going to get their act together so they had us fill out paper forms to get through. After picking up our luggage, we went out to meet Callie to take us home.

Our pets missed us A LOT and needed bedtime snuggles really really bad!