Day 8, December 28th, Athens to Kalabaka
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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.
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| We're on a train! |
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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.
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Stuffed into a mini elevator to go up one floor. Ya...that was our
only elevator ride, it was the stairs for us!
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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.
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| 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
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.
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.
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| 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
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| This feral kitty was in rough shape, but had super cool multi-colored eyes |
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This was the women's toilet in the Women's Monastery,
they were super awkward to use but at least this one was clean! |
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| Jess and Jeremy just chatting away, probably talking about running |
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| Trent and Kara being slackers in the back of the pack |
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| 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.
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Closed for construction, you had to watch out below because
they would just throw trash off the side of the mountain. |
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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. |
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These two feral pups were outside Panorama
where we had lunch, and were Kara's buddies. |
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| 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
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| Our legit two-story HomeAway in Athens |
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| 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.
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| 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!
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| On the left: Parthenon On the right: Old Temple of Athena |
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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.
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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.
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| Kara and Jeremy under the Parthenon |
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| These pillars are enormous! |
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| 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
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| Philo dough being worked with olive oil and stuffed with feta. |
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| We got 4 kinds: meat, chicken, spinach, and a custard |
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| THIS is the place for Spanakopita! SO GOOD |
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| Dried herb shop, we got tea and dried figs (mmmmmm) |
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| Vicki showing us some of the flowers used to make tea. |
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| Rows and rows of different herbs, spices, and dried items. |
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| Next stop was some legit Gyros, we had New Year's dinner here later. |
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| Pause for a group photo #hellotourists |
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Next stop was a meat shop where we tried slivers of cured meat.
It was SUPER salty and had a very different taste. |
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Egg shop in the market, they don't refrigerate them
like we do in the States |
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Oh ya, just a bin full of live snails just chillin'
waiting to be bought and cooked up
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| Fresh fruit and vegetable market |
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Can't remember the name of this, but it was tasty....kind of grainy
and super healthy for you. Ate for breakfast |
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| Fresh octopus,this was Kara's favorite when grilled (mmmm) |
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| Meat Market (the less intense and bloody version) |
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| Mastic ice cream and loukoumades |
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Jessica, Jeremy, Kara, Trent, and Vicki at the Lesbos (Greek island) market
Greek yogurt, honey, and olive oil...OH MY SO GOOD! |
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| Greece Parliment |
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| Panathenaic Stadium |
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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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| Goodbye Athens :( |
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| Kataifi Pastry, tastes like stringy baklava |
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Rome airport had some amazing food,
this was the last of the good octopus for Kara :( |
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| 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
11 hours later in Delta Comfort (which was TOTALLY worth it!) and several several movies later, we land in Salt Lake City.
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| 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.
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| Our pets missed us A LOT and needed bedtime snuggles really really bad! |
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